Untitled Essay, Research Paper
Sybolism in the Great Gastby
By: Twyla Lomen
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is rich in symbolism, which is
portrayed on several different levels in a variety of ways. One of the
most important qualities of symbolism within this novel, is the way in
which it is so fully integrated into the plot and structure. Some of the
symbols are used mostly as tools for characterization such as
Wolfsheim’s cuff links, Gatsby’s huge library of uncut books, and
Tom’s repeated gesture of physically pushing other people around.
Other symbols such as Gatsby’s car, symbolizing material wealth in
America and its destructfulness, have a function in the plot as well as
a more abstract significance. However, the major symbols such as
the valley of ashes, the green light, and the east and west, are filled
with meanings that go beyond the plot, and truly capture Fitzgerald’s
theme of this novel; the corruption of the American dream.
The corruptive effect of wealth is shown by the conflict between
the established rich, represented by the East Eggers, and the newly
rich, represented by the West Eggers. West Egg is the home of the
nouveaux riche, of Gatsby and those like him who have made huge
fortunes, but lack the traditions associated with inherited wealth and
are therefore vulgar. The East Eggers, represented by the Buchanans
have the traditions and lack vulgarity, but they have been corrupted
by the purposelessness and the empty futures their money has
provided. The downfall of the American promise is also symbolized
by the reversal of east and west. When the settlers came to the “New
World” (America) to escape persecution and the corruption of their
countries, they traveled from east to west. However, since the ideal
has been corrupted, people travel from west to east attracted by the
wealth and a materialistic life, masking the true emptiness of their
goal of happiness. Daisy, Tom, Nick, Jordan, and Gatsby all wer
westerners, and by moving east, they moved from a world of values
to a moral vacuum, represented by the “valley of ashes.”
The valley of ashes represent a modern world, which is like a
grotesque hell created by modern industry. Factories and trains,
produced in the manufacture of wealth, has polluted America with its
wastes. It is a physical desert that symbolizes the spiritual desolation,
that a society based on money creates. Overlooking the valley, are
the sightless eyes of T.J. Ecklburg, an advertisement on a billboard in
which a character actually confuses as God. It represents a God who
has been created by modern society to make money. It represents a
God who no longer sees nor cares. The whole valley symbolizes a
world whose inhabitants are so spiritually lost, that they worship
money and wealth. The promise of happiness, hope, and freedom
that America gave its first settlers, has been corrupted by the lies of
greed, and the emptiness of a dream based on wealth.
Green is the color of promise,of hope, renewal, and ultimately
the green light to which Gatsby stretches out his arms. The green
light symbolically corresponds to the “green breast of a new world,”
and at the end fuses Gatsby’s vision of Daisy with that of the
explorers who had discovered the promise of a new continent. What
ultimately preys on the vision, the goal, is that in America and by
Gatsby it can only be attained through the acquisition of material
possessions.
Gatsby is a symbol for the whole American experience. The
corruption of his dream, by using materialism as its means and the
illusion of youth and beauty as its goal, is the corruption of American
idealism, which in turn becomes the empty promise. In the end
Gatsby is destroyed by his illusions of Daisy, just as the fresh
landscape of America has been converted into a depressing “valley of
ashes,” and the sacred green light becomes nothing but a bulb
burning at the end of Daisy’s dock.