Symbols In The Great Gatsby

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.

One of the first symbols Fitzgerald use is The Valley of Ashes “This is a valley of ashe’s a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take farms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally with transcendent effort of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 23). The Valley of Ashes is described in such great detail because it shows how beauty can be destroyed by greed. “Fitzgerald’s valley of ashes has been frequently compared to Eliot’s “Waste Land,” but the difference are more instructive than the similarities. Eliot’s waste and land is not, in terms of its imagery and mythology specifically Christian”(Elmore 433). The Valley of Ashes is a dead land that has a board over it that looks as if it is the eyes of God that sees all things.

The Valley of Ashes is halfway between West Egg of Long Island and New York City. When one comes upon the Valley of Ashes, it is not what they see, but what they do not see: sunshine, colors, or a settling feeling. The Valley of Ashes is nothing but a dull location, filled with unsatisfied farmers, unsuccessful gardens, billowing smoke, and mounds of ashes that are prominent below the gray skies. Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, describes the Valley of Ashes as “...a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 23). Fitzgerald describes this location as unpleasant for those who enter and it is seen as a vulnerable place due to the billboard of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg looking upon the location at all times. This descriptive quote foreshadows that something bad will occur in this area during the novel.

Everything has consequences. Either positive or negative every microscopic event has an effect on the one yet to come. Jay Gatsby is a man of wealth and power, he is the man that men crave to be. A man that makes women lavish over him. How he got the this status is a different story, the gritty kind of story. His story was unnatural for the time of the roaring twenties.  He was beautiful, his house luxurious, his garden luscious, none of it was natural. More unreal then anything but never real. The palace has too many secrets, too mysterious, never real with anybody. Gatsby is living a dream. The American Dream, the unrealistic standard where everybody has the things they want, but not the thing they desire the most. So people live a constant lie that they are fine, and consequently its not real.  To be real is to be raw and to be raw is to be vulnerable to the outside world. Nature is the most vulnerable piece of life there is, when it’s not forced to be something it’s not.   The The Great Gatsby exemplifies the symbolism organic material to display the natural beauty of characters or inanimate objects which tear down the superficial walls of forced actions that Fitzgerald ultimately parades through the course of the book.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his use of symbols and imagery throughout The Great Gatsby to illustrate his many ideas and themes. The green light is a symbol that seems to pervade the novel, taking on many meanings. The image of the green light is presented in Chapter 1, as Gatsby extended his arms to the “single green light” at Daisy’s dock as if it were some sort of religious icon. Jordan also confirms this sense of idolization when she says that “Gatsby bought [his] house so that Daisy would be just across the bay,” suggesting his obsessive devotion to Daisy (77). As shown in Chapter 9, the green light can also be interpreted as a symbol of growth. Near the end of the novel, Fitzgerald illustrates Daisy’s dock transforming into the

The Valley of Ashes is one of the most important symbols in The Great Gatsby. Literally, it is a waste dump, or industrial area. It isn’t truly made of ashes, but seems to be because of all gray smoke that clouds it. The grayness is due to the factories that are nearby, since their smokestacks leave ash everywhere. It is located next to the train tracks and the road that is in between the East and West Egg, in Queens.It is also located next to a small river, where products from factories are shipped to their designated location, as described in chapter 2. The desolation the valley radiates symbolizes the failure it represents. Figuratively, The Valley of Ashes is shown as a place of helplessness, a result of the grand desire for wealth, a pursuit that only leads to more failure and hopelessness. It reflects the overarching theme of the book: the decline of the American Dream because of the corruption associated with it. This

Authors use symbols and motifs to tie in the theme and give depth and meaning to their literature. In The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald, he uses many different symbols and motifs. Symbols that Fitzgerald uses in The Great Gatsby are the green light on Daisy Buchanan’s dock, the valley of ashes, and the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. Motifs that Fitzgerald uses are the colors yellow and gold, the geography, and the weather. The most important motif in The Great Gatsby is the colors yellow and gold because it represents the theme of the corruption of the American Dream in the 1920’s and represents the negative reality of the world, such as the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleberg and Gatsby’s car, rather than the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.

The 1920s were a time of big dreams, moral decline, and hardships in America . The Roaring Twenties were a different time altogether with its bootleggers and speakeasies, women becoming more independent, the poor becoming poorer, but through all this was The American Dream keeping the hope afloat. F. Scott Fitzgerald captured this era in his book, The Great Gatsby. Through his many symbols he illustrates the hopes, the forgotten God, and the oppressed Americans of the Twenties. The symbols in The Great Gatsby help convey several different themes, from wealth to loss of morals, to poverty.

First, the valley of ashes represents the moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth. This is because the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure, the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes and are abused by it. Then this Valley is left to the outside world because of its status and no one cares about what goes on there unless it direct affects the rich or if that person lives there. This place is watched by Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes which is a later symbol but both are intertwined due to how close the two are and due to meaning given to the eyes by some of the novels characters. Then in other critical essays the valley has been said as, ““This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat … and ash-gray men swarm. …” Here, instead of God observing the actions of the humans involved in the impending tragedy, an occultist’s giant advertisement looks down and ‘broods on

The valley of ashes is described as “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23). The valley of ashes represents all of the dreams that died in the city and were never lived out, almost a valley of regrets. “Men move dimly” (23) because they have nothing left to live for, because all of their dreams are dead, just like the ashes. The gray cars go by and stir up a cloud of hope, and the ash-men pick up “their leaden spades” (23) and carry out their “obscure operations” (23), trying to relive their dreams to get a second chance. Gatsby lost Daisy when he was very young, and that crushed

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbols to represent the moralizing themes in The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is about the narrator, Nick Carraway, who moves to New York for new beginnings. While there, he gets caught up with this demoralizing set of rich folks. Among those rich folks are Jay Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker. Gatsby seeks help from Nick to help him reconnect with his long lost love, Daisy. This request from Gatsby leads to the next few months being filled with lies, drama, and eventually death. The symbols that F. Scott Fitzgerald use in The Great Gatsby are the build board with the eyes by Dr. TJ. Eckleburg, the green light, and Daisy’s child.

Many different symbols can be found in The Great Gatsby, but the symbol I chose to examine is the green light. Located at the end of East Eggs dock a green light can be seen from the shores of West egg. This green light, to Gatsby, symbolizes his hopes and desires to one day reconnect with his love Daisy. The first interaction seen with this green light and Gatsby is at the very end of chapter 1, “—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling” (20). It can be inferred that the trembling may be him crying. The trembling and outstretched arms show how much he longs for Daisy, his dream is to be with her. Later in the book we find how deeply his obsession

The Great Gatsby is one of the most read pieces of literature throughout the current modern Western world. High school kids all across the globe must learn and read it as part of their curriculum. One of the aspects that makes this novel so notable is that Fitzgerald, at no point in the story, needs to convey to his audience the theme of his novel directly. The main points of his novel are brought out by the powerful symbols he infuses in the book. Not only does he use them to convey his theme, but also ties them in to the rest of the story. Every aspect of this book is affected by the presence of one of his symbols. Through the use of the green light, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, and the Valley of the Ashes as symbols,

The author F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the idea of symbolism throughout the novel by reinforcing characters and events to connect to each other with the climax, by using various colors objects and symbols to interpret to the main idea in the novel of great Gatsby. One for example he used was the green light, the valley of ashes, and the eyes of Tj. Ekleburg to exemplify the main focal point of these highlighted key ideas to portray there embedded interpretation that are incorporated in the story.

The Great Gatsby is filled with symbols and symbolism, which try to convey Fitzgerald's ideas to the reader. The symbols are uniquely involved in the plot of the story, which makes their implications more real. There are three major symbols that serve very important significance in the symbolism of the novel. They are "the valley of the ashes," the reality that represents the corruption in the world, the green light of Daisy's lap that Gatsby sees across the bay and lastly, the symbolism of the East Egg and West Egg or more important the east and the west of the country.