Symbolism is a finicky thing. Symbolism is like looking at a painting
and seeing how the direction of the brush strokes depicts the path of
the wind. Often searching for symbolism or noticing its presence
makes a story more complete. Without noticing it one can mistake a
literary masterpiece as “dumb.” A reader can completely miss the
actual point. Careless reading and careless living are both common
events that have happened in literary history. In The Great Gatsby,
F. Scott Fitzgerald cleverly uses symbolism to magnify the points he
made about the aristocracy and its own carelessness in the book. The
symbolism used in the names of the characters, nature, and colors
that exemplified by Fitzgerald adds a required and expected depth.
The names that Fitzgerald used in his novel have certain
significance, and they add more meaning. The character that bears
the title has a name that foreshadows his fate. Jay Gatsby, originally
called Jay Gatz. Gat is a slang term for a pistol. Fitzgerald put this in
to allow us to picture Gatsby as a pistol or with a pistol. In the
conclusion of the novel, Jay Gatsby is shot for owning the car that
killed Myrtle Wilson. Another name is Jordan Baker which signifies
two things in her behavior. Fitzgerald indicated that he gave her first
name after a sporty car, Jordan. Baker, is the name of a conservative
The Essay on The Great Gatsby 44
Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce high for her too, Till she cry Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, From the beginning of time, men have attempted to solve a mystery of which the answer always seems to be just out of their grasp: The Woman. From working, to playing even in simply trying to communicate, the workings of the womans mind have always ...
electric. This is like Jordan’s personality. She plays golf so that
makes her sporty. The conservative part is not necessarily obvious
until we find out that she later chooses a man. She also has a
conversation with Nick where she blames him and herself for not
doing something about the Daisy/Gatsby situation. As well, Daisy’s
name has extreme relevance. Daisies, as flowers are yellow in the
middle and white on the edges. This uses color symbolism, but it also
works with her name. Daisy is yellow in the middle, she is cowardly
and not real. Daisy pretends to be a good mother, but in truth she is
not mindful of her child’s life. This is displayed how Daisy interacts
with her daughter. She tells her daughter that she is there because
“…your mother wanted to show you off” (123.) Daisy does not
inquire of her daughter’s well being, but rather asks her daughter,
“How do you like mother’s friends?… Do you think they’re pretty?”
(123.) She is not truly staying in her marriage to Tom because she is
in love or that she cares for her daughter. This scene demonstrates
that she gives little concern for daughter, and she is fake in thinking
she is a good mother. This further demonstrates Fitzgerald’s
perception about the carelessness of the aristocracy. Daisy’s “center”
is not genuine like Gatsby, it is cowardly. Gatsby has actual books, so
it looks as if he reads. Daisy is not real on the edges. She pretends
to be a nice mother, but in reality she is fake. The white symbolizes
fake as well. She has no concern for others, and she is careless. She
was careless when she was driving and she hit Myrtle. She was
careless after all the confusing events when she went away with Tom.
She and Tom just forgot about their differences and ran away from
the mess they created. This shows that Daisy is not dedicated to
finding the truth and acting real.
The symbolism in colors are used to better describe the scenes
that occur in The Great Gatsby. The green light is all the way across
the lake. It is a single light. This light symbolizes hope and the
The Essay on American Dream Gatsby Daisy Gatsbys
How Far Do You Consider Gatsby To Be The Epitome Of The American Dream And Its Failure The Great Gatsby is a book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is set in the nineteen twenties in the unique narrative style which is that he is writing about a fictional character called Nick Carraway writing a book about a man called Jay Gatsby who he feels was a man who represented everything for which I have ...
woman. Green can also represent fertility. Gatsby buys a house
across the bay, so he can see the Buchanan’s light. This light
symbolizes his only hope and dream. This dream is Daisy. Later
when Gatsby has Daisy the importance of the light diminishes. His
dream fades as the seasons do. As well the ashes symbolize dust.
This dust is accumulated from both the East and West Egg and the
carelessness that corresponds in these areas. When Myrtle dies her
blood is in the ashes which shows that blood which is represents
passion is now in the dirt with everything else. “… Myrtle Wilson, her
life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick,
dark blood with the dust” (145.) This is a result of chasing a yellow
car. Yellow often represents death. Myrtle mistakenly thought that
the yellow was that of Tom, her lover. Another example of
Fitgerald’s use of yellow representing death is the scene just before
Gatsby enters the pool. “…(H)e shook his head and in a moment
disappeared among the yellowing trees” (169.) This shows that he
was about to die, just as the leaves on the tree were. The use of
white is also apparent. Fitzgerald uses white to make certain things
more apparent. Like the phoniness of the people in his stories. Daisy
and Jordan are both powdered white. White often represents
innocence, but this time it represents phoniness, or a phony
innocence. Daisy wants everyone to think that she is quiet and
demure. In truth, she cheats on her brute of a husband, and she does
not care for her child. Daisy does not care for the feelings of Gatsby
and Tom. She later reconciles with her husband, and they leave the
dirt and the ashes. Fitzgerald adds this imagery to the story, because
he is trying to make a point that the aristocracy is not how it appears.
Fitzgerald uses other imagery such as nature and the nature of
people to create more of a symbolistic approach to The Great Gatsby.
The owl eyed man sees that Gatsby is not a fake. He notices that he
has books with actual pages. Many members of the aristocracy in this
The Essay on The Great Gatsby By Fitzgerald 2
... is the ladder dream that Gatsby has about himself and Daisy. This dream represents Gatsby's willingness to turn his ... of his wealthy cousin and neighbor. F. Scott Fitzgerald's story of life in the 1920s is ... self-improvement written in the back of this book reflects Gatsby's struggle to acquire the two ... created by an ambitious doctor just out to make money. The ashes reappear throughout, especially in ...
era had large libraries of fake books. The owl eyed man exclaims,
“It’s a bona fide piece of printed matter… What thoroughness! What
realism! Knew when to stop too– didn’t cut the pages” (50.) Besides
Nick the owl eyed man is the only person to attend Gatsby’s funeral.
This is because he saw something more than he usually sees in his
peers. As well the seasons show the climax of the book and the
resolution. The climax takes place in the summer on a balmy day.
This magnifies the passion and the confusion that occurs. One
example of this, Nick narrates “The… day was broiling, almost the
last” (120.) The center on the heat in the book, which almost makes
the reader examine the tension further. Gatsby dies on autumn when
other things begin to regress further. Leaves die and birds will
migrate. This was done intentionally by Fitzgerald to add a sort of
cycle to the book for it begins in autumn and ends in autumn. It also
makes it as simple as a year, because it sort of makes more of a
statement about the aristocracy. Fitzgerald is making the point of
Nick casually narrating this to make it seem like this could and did
only happen to Gatsby.
In conclusion, Fitzgerald intentionally used these symbols in
nature, names, and colors to better provide a vision of what can be
accomplished in a complete novel. In American literature, symbolism
began with The Scarlet Letter and is still haunting us today like a
shadow. It affects how one looks at their literature of choice.
Without symbolism an entire level of reading is abolished. Thus
symbolism will be condemned to life in an intellectual prison where it
will dwell with English majors and over worked English students.
Luckily, one can still find it in contemporary literature. The fate of
symbolism and the occurrence of it on different levels are apparent
and will live forever.
