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

Gatsby is a symbolic figure created by James Gatz; an idea of who he wanted to become to please himself and fill his incompleteness. Freud said the symbolic was an “idea of the self that depends on an idea of the loss of the self because we cannot recognize selfhood unless we compare it to its absence” (Parker. 140). James Gatz’ absences come primarily from his low self-esteem, insecurities, and regression.

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.

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.

Good Morning Mr Peinke and 11A today I will be discussing how F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, uses the techniques of symbolism and characterisation to position readers to view the George and Myrtle Wilson, a married couple living in the Valley of Ashes during the 1920’s. While the 20’s were a great time of optimism, Fitzgerald portrays the much bleaker side of the revelry by focusing on its indulgence, two-facedness, shallow recklessness. While we don’t know a lot about Myrtle and George Wilsons background, through the descriptions given by Nick and other characters the readers have been positioned to view them given their status.

Thinking about the past almost always affect present happiness. Perhaps the wrong memories, and sometimes the right memories with someone have negative effects. Many people experience overthinking. This requires someone to sit around and think about something in their life until they begin to over exaggerate the situation. Coming up with every negative outcome that they can acquire. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, there is almost an opposite thinking coming from the main character, the wealthy Jay Gatsby believes that he should find comfort in the past and hope for it to positively affect the present. Through the text Gatsby is taught using symbolism, that it is foolish to attempt to recover the past because it is impossible for it to lead to present happiness.

     F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, uses symbolism throughout the novel to create the characters and events of the post World War I period. Colors are one way symbolism was used to develop the characters’ personalities and set up events. This is shown by colors like the green at the end of Daisy Buchannan’s dock, the color of Jay Gatsby’s car and how Myrtle and Jordan surrounded themselves by white. Other symbolisms used to set up events are the difference in the people of the West Egg and East Egg and the sign in the “valley of ashes”.

This persistence in following his dream made Gatsby an inspirational character for many people that make the green light their own. For them, it does not only represent Gatsby's dreams, but also their dreams. It showed them that even if your dreams might seem to be impossible, there is always hope (Rimmer). Gatsby’ did not achieve his goals, he believed, and “he made the American Dream his own, and died by it” (kazin 31). Nick leads us to believe that Gatsby is better than the others, because he is just a desperate man trying

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.

“You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans” (Ronald Reagan). You can tell a lot about a person’s character by examining their way of life. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author shows the characteristics of each character through the symbol of their house. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the simplistic and honest nature of Nick’s house to show that he himself is honest and open. He also uses the colors of the Buchanan’s house to symbolize the true Daisy and F. Scott FItzgerald uses the lavish, but empty, Gatsby mansion to show how Gatsby appears to be extravagant on the outside, but empty on the inside.

Throughout “The Great Gatsby”, a highly commended novel,  by F, Scott Fitzgerald, symbols are used various times in order to impart revelations about greater themes. The bright and glowing green light at the end of Daisy's East Egg dock captivates Gatsby. Not only does it symbolize Gatsby's passion to be loved by Daisy, but furthermore it represents society's cravings for wealth which exemplifies the theme of the slow collapse of the american dream throughout the “The Great Gatsby.” The narrator Nick Carraway comes to realize Gatsby's significance with the green light as well as the society's hopes and dreams.

Symbolism can be used for representation in stories or as something that could create a deep effect on a story. The symbols can be objects, characters, animals, colors, etc. A novel that holds much symbolism is Scott G. Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. The central character, Jay Gatsby has been in love with Daisy for a quite long time. While he was at the war, she marries a rude yet, 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 that represents the life in America in the 1920’s and the American dream.

The green light is what Gatsby aspires to meet his entire life, it is his primal destination in life. The only reason Gatsby buys the house is to see the light in Daisy's window across the bay. In chapter 5 when Gatsby tells Daisy how he stares bluntly at the green light, he is aware that he will no longer need to stare it for he has Daisy back now. He wins the reward, which was behind his primal target. His reward is the real thing and he no longer needs its representative and thus the green light begins to fade. Gatsby begins to slowly recognize the reality: no object can replace his ideal that he has created for himself since the yearly age. This shows how no mater how much materialism is acquired by a person, it will never be enough and it will never quite match up to one's illusion, to one's dream.

Happiness can only truly be acquired through the fantastical idea of dreams, and it is well known that money cannot. But in the 1920s, this idea changed as it became into a desire for wealth by whatever means; mistaken that money will bring happiness in one’s life. This conception leads to the end of true morality and turned a person into someone very selfish. F.Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates this notion through the use of a variety of symbols and themes.One of the dominant ideas within this novel is wealth which is supported through the symbol: eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg.The eyes symbolize the loss of spiritual values and growing commercialism in America. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the theme wealth creates a pathway to the corruption of morals is evident through the decisions and thoughts of the Buchanans and Gatsby who are indirectly influenced by the symbol Eye of T.J Eckleburg.