The Great Gatsby Symbolism Analysis

In the beginning, Gatsby wanted nothing more than to rekindle his romance with the Daisy he once knew back in Louisville, this was obvious when Nick had discovered that the green light Gatsby would stare at would be Daisy’s dock light, as well as, when he found out they knew each other once before. So, Gatsby

Nick had never met Gatsby before this encounter. Nick arrives home, he sees Gatsby standing on the lawn reaching out toward the water. Gatsby is just staring at the distant green light that might mark the end of a dock on the other side.

In chapter one of the novel The Great Gatsby, the central couple presented are Tom and Daisy Buchanan. These two partners, although different, have similar personalities but also have contrasting differences. Throughout chapter 1, these two portray that wealth is better than everything else, and they both revolve and base their lives on it. Also in this chapter it shows the hardships and difficulties they have in their marriage. They are both never satisfied with what they have, and are always longing for more. During chapter 1 it was apparent that Tom and Daisy had an unstable relationship.

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.

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.

Daisy’s past catches up to her when she meets Gatsby endangering the marriage, according to Tom, of him and

2)The meeting between Gatsby and Daisy is just to see if they felt the same way to me. She came alone and they new about the pictures of that guy. They start holding hands while the pionest is playing a love song and Nick leaves.

The green light is the most significant use of symbolism in The Great Gatsby. The green light represents various aspects of life which include: Hope, unattainable dreams, freedom and the American Dream. In chapter one Nick states “Involuntarily I glanced seaward — and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock" (Fitzgerald 152). The explanation of this quote is Nick seeing Gatsby reaching his arms out towards the green light at the end of the deck which represents that Gatsby is trying to grasp and gets a hold of his hopes and dreams, which is Daisy, but at that moment Gatsby is unsuccessful in doing so. The green light’s meaning is also that a person cannot live their lives in the past, but instead should look ahead towards the future. In chapter 9 Nick also states "I thought of Gatsby‘s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy‘s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could barely fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night" (Fitzgerald 149). For Gatsby, the green light represents his American dream and Daisy. He wanted to continue his life with Daisy by his side, but sadly his dreams were short-lived.

To begin, Gatsby worked as hard as he could to be good enough for Daisy throughout the book. To demonstrate the commitment Gatsby has to find Daisy again, he creates such enormous parties hoping his love would be there. Gatsby invites numerous amounts of people to his festivities, but it is all just a stent to win Daisy over. Specifically, Gatsby conveys this when Jordan exclaims, “I think he expects Daisy to stroll by one day through a party.”() All Gatsby wants is a chance to at least see her; making the end of the book extremely sad because Daisy acts as if she does not know Gatsby. Furthermore, to display the love Gatsby has for Daisy, he begs Nick to tell Daisy to come to his house. He is asking Nick to be the messenger in essence. Therefore,

Gatsby explains how he wants to rekindle his relationship with Daisy and he is desperate to repeat what they once had. He wants it to seem as if the past had not happened and that Daisy never married Tom. If he could go back he would but he cannot so he will do anything and everything it takes to get Daisy back and fulfil the perfect picture he has in his head. This shows Gatsby’s love for Daisy because he is willing to do anything to win her back.

“In his blue gardens men and women came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (Fitzgerald 39). In his character, his relationships, and his gatherings, Jay Gatsby epitomized the illusion of a perfect romance. When Gatsby and Daisy met in 1917, he was searching for money, but ended up profoundly falling in love with her. “[H]e set out for gold and stumbled upon a dream” (Ornstein 37). Only a few weeks after meeting one another, Gatsby had to leave for war, which led to a separation between the two for nearly five years. As “war-torn lovers” Gatsby and Daisy reach the quintessential ideal of archetypical romance. When Gatsby returned from the war, his goal was to rekindle the relationship he once had with Daisy. In order to do this, he believed he would have to work hard to gain new wealth and a new persona. “Jay Gatsby loses his life even though he makes his millions because they are not the kind of safe, respectable money that echoes in Daisy’s lovely voice” (Ornstein 36). Gatsby then meets Daisy’s cousin, Nick Carraway, who helps to reunite the pair. Finally being brought together after years of separation, Gatsby stops throwing the extravagant parties at his home, and “to preserve [Daisy’s] reputation, [he] empties his mansion of lights and servants” (Ornstein 37). Subsequent to their reconciliation, Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, begins to reveal sordid information about Gatsby’s career which causes Daisy to

Gatsby pleaded Daisy to call him to know that Daisy will return with him. This can be another symbol of hope in this story. The Author of The Great Gatsby is now putting all the hope that the character, Mr. Gatsby, has into one last part of the

Assignment 3.2- Jordan is a golfer but she is a dishonest person because Nick knows that she cheated in her first golf tournament.

The biggest plot point of the book can be condensed to Gatsby’s desire to regain Daisy’s love. This can be related to the

To further explain, this scene illustrates how troubled Gatsby is by this reunion with Daisy. This is shown through his overwhelming approach to making sure Nicks house is perfect. As soon as Nick says that Gatsby can come over and that he will help