Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

In life everyone strives to get rich, but is having an abundance of money always good? Sometimes people use money for personal benefits, sometimes it's for the benefit of others, but at times people with money use it to create their social status. In The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the idea of wealth is seen throughout. Jay Gatsby, who lives next door to Nick Carraway; the Narrator of the story, wants to be with his dream girl Daisy. Gatsby is wealthy and throws parties to impress Daisy. Daisy however, is married to another man Tom Buchanan. Throughout the story the people with money use it to create their social status. In The Great Gatsby F.Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism to convey, wealth causes people to assert

The book The Great Gatsby is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it’s a narrative told from the perspective of Nick Carraway. He tells the story of the tragic life of Jay Gatsby and talks about the society of the wealthy people with high social status. He talks about the conflict between the two huge power Tom and Gatsby, due to their similarity in their money and social status, while they compete for dominance and masculinity by fighting over Daisy. Through Nick’s narration and his close relationship with Gatsby, the readers realize that the motive behind everything that Gatsby does is to win back Daisy’s heart to repeat the past, the first time when he fell in love with Daisy.

People in America love to have a great deal of money. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby always wants to have money, and he finally gets it. Gatsby has parties to try to get Daisy to come to his house. Gatsby tell Nick to tell Daisy to come to Nick’s house without her husband. Gatsby finallys shows his big house off to Daisy and thinks he will win her love back again just because he has money. Gatsby’s plan do not work out. Fitzgerald uses symbols in The Great Gatsby to show how things are going wrong in America.

The Great Gatsby is a symbol itself. The Great Gatsby was written to represent the rise and fall of the American Dream. The author places the rich and wealthy lifestyle on a high pedestal while he shows the dramatic consequences of moral and social decay amongst the characters. As each turning point is revealed, the American Dream slowly crumbles in the selfish hands of those who remain ignorant to anything else in the world. The significance of the many symbolic elements in The Great Gatsby plays a role in revealing the underlying themes of the American Dream, the ongoing clash between love and wealth and social and moral destruction.

A symbol can be anything that represents something else in a story or something that has a deep effect on the story. Symbols can be an object, a character, an animal, a color, etc. Being a great writer, Fitzgerald has used symbols in a very effective manner. In Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has been in love with Daisy for a quite long time. While he was at the war, she marries a rude yet a rich guy named Tom Buchanan. Desiring to win her back, Gatsby transmutes himself into a wealthy person. He conducts parties every weekend hoping to see her there. Finally, when she meets him, everything turns out badly. Fitzgerald, in this novel uses various symbols to make it more fascinating and these symbols mainly represents the life in America in the 1920’s and the American dream.

Symbols and Symbolism in The Great Gatsby - Symbolism and the Truth That Lies Between

ideas or concepts. For example, a dove is usually used to represent peace. In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald uses a lot of symbolism to connect the characters with each other or to other objects. Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism helps advance his thematic interest in his novel of The Great Gatsby. In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses various colors, objects, and gestures as symbols to portray the lack of moral and spiritual values of people and the different aspects of society in the 1920's.

In The Great Gatsby, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg is a representation of God, a pure and holy figure, watching the sea of corruption. This is represented through the billboard’s location, high above a monotone land known as the Valley of Ashes. “But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg” (23). Depicted as striking an blue, the eyes embody the idea that God is always watching. Because the eyes are also decorated with a pair of yellow spectacles, this is a representation of God carefully examining the world, since glasses are used to see more clearly.

The Valley of Ashes in it of itself is a separate world from the two Eggs. Described as bleak, grotesque and desolate, it serves as a reality check, that there are people out there less fortunate than the characters form East and West Egg. This is where George and Myrtle Wilson reside and it is also the resting place of the eyes of T.J Eckleburg. In chapter seven, T.J Eckleburg, a pair of eyes on a billboard ad, is described as “watchful vigil” which clearly attaches him with a religious meaning. The religious meaning being the eyes of God, especially pertaining to George Wilson. Each character in The Great Gatsby is guided by their personal ethic and, yet Nick has the final word and his judgment is superior. Since the events are through his eyes there is no objectivity. Although George Wilson invokes God by saying, “God sees everything” and “you can’t fool God” and indicts each character in the novel through the eyes of T.J Eckleburg. Nick is the only other character that besides George to recognize him this. His eyes are also a reminder of guilt, overseeing Tom’s affairs and Myrtle’s death which in turn leads to Gatsby’s death.

In novels, the use of symbols makes the story interesting and essential to the readers. Symbols are messages that the author uses to communicate with the reader for a deeper understanding, although sometimes it can only be discovered if analyzed. Fitzgerald connects the different symbols throughout the novel to pinpoint an elaborate meaning towards the story yet it does indicate a pleasant meaning. A symbol such as “color” or “money” can be less complex than it seems. Whereas a symbol as complicated as the “eye” can mean more than it’s suggested for. Throughout The Great Gatsby symbolism represent color, the existence of eyes and money.

T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes also represent advertising in a world driven by materialistic needs as they are on a giant advertising billboard. The eyes can also be interpreted as the eyes of ‘God’ watching over the underprivileged in the valley of ashes. ‘But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg.’ The eyes are ‘blue and gigantic – their retinas one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose.’ Nick Caraway explains the eyes for a long time as though they were detached from a God before explaining that they were in fact just an image on a billboard. He gives the reader’s mind time to conjure up the image of these enormous gleaming eyes hovering high in the air watching, Fitzgerald gives the ideas that the eyes are really the eyes of God and it becomes more than just a billboard. ‘He was looking at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night. “God sees everything,” repeated Wilson.’ Here Fitzgerald has acknowledged the idea that the eyes represent God, and how God knows everything because he can see it all sitting high up and looking down. Even though there is a significant absence of religion in ‘The Great Gatsby’, God is still there, he’s universal and determined to bring some sort of moral

They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose" (2.2).” Throughout the novel the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are routinely described

Characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby exude great wealth and power, projecting images of nobility, pride and authority. Throughout the novel, this power influences the decisions of the rich and creates a facade that they hide behind. These outward appearances mask the true characters of the wealthy which do not conform with their projected images. Gatsby is the most separated from the image that he projects, his lavish outer appearance hiding his great insecurity about himself and also the corrupt origins of his wealth.

In the story The Great Gatsby written by, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald we are presented with a story of woe. Our protagonist Jay Gatsby has a hard life, a hard life filled with colors. Gatsby is a millionaire living in west egg by the lakeside. Every night Gatsby is paralyzed by a green light from across the lake. This green light means a lot to Gatsby, but what is that?

The reference that the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg ‘watched over the valley of ashes’ is made continuously throughout the novel. Do these intimidating eyes represent the eyes of God or the eyes of someone/something else? What do eyes symbolize?