preview

Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays
Open Document

The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is set in New York during the 1920’s. The underlying cause for everything that happens in the novel is an idea, an idea towards which everyone strives and dreams of. This idea is none other than the omnipresent notion of the American Dream. Throughout the novel this dream has suffered a decline through the immoral actions of Fitzgerald’s characters. Demonstrated through F. Scott Fitzgerald’s characters in The Great Gatsby, the morals and values of the American people are corrupted when money and power eclipse ones American Dream. With this in mind, F. Scott Fitzgerald incorporates imagery, symbolism, and conflict to convey the theme of the novel. To begin with, throughout The Great …show more content…

First of all, white represents stereotypical façade that every character hides behind. For instance, Jordan Baker hides behind a white symbolic façade. She acts superior to each person around her. Her posture, attitude and even the things she says imply arrogance. When introducing Jordan, Fitzgerald says “She was extended full length at the end of the divan, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little…I was almost surprised into murmuring an apology for having disturbed her coming in (8)”. She portrays a bored and pathetic attitude towards everything. Furthermore, in Chapter 9; Nick describes Gatsby’s ostentatious mansion as a “huge incoherent failure of a house (179)”. Gatsby’s opulent mansion symbolizes the American Dream and the glittering façade that Gatsby created when he reinvented himself. Saying that Gatsby’s house was a failure is Fitzgerald’s way of acknowledging the decline of the American Dream and Gatsby’s failure to attain it; after Gatsby’s façade is torn down by Tom, Daisy abandons him, his dream is shattered, and the entire house of cards tumbles. Lastly, in Chapter 9, Nick brings up Gatsby’s infatuation with the green light, which represents both The American Dream and new land. The green light is Daisy, Gatsby’s American Dream and new land is the American Dream for new settlers, “the greatest of all human dreams (180)”. Symbolism plays a significant role in The Great …show more content…

First of all, in Chapter 7, Gatsby takes the fault for killing Daisy. When talking with Nick, Gatsby says “but course I’ll say I was. You see, when we left New York she was very nervous and she thought it would steady her to drive... (143)”. Gatsby fell head over heels for her, which caused him to lose all rational thought. In addition to taking fault for Daisy, another conflict was in Chapter 9, when Gatsby’s father shows Nick “Hopalong Cassidy (173)”. Hopalong Cassidy is a list Gatsby made as youth which details his goals of self-improvement. He wanted to be what the Buchanan’s were. This in his mind was a model of perfection-fashionable, admired, wealthy New Yorkers. Finally, in Chapter 4, there is another conflict involving Myrtle; “It was a rich cream color, bright and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns (64)”.The reason his car is yellow is to attract Daisy and to display his achievement of wealthy status. However, there is a conflict with this materialistic view of cars. For example, the conflict arises when Myrtle is struck and killed by a car that she believes is being driven by Tom. Tom is her ticket to the American Dream and leaving the Valley of Ashes. However, it is ultimately this desire for her American Dream which kills

Get Access