Great Gatsby Symbols Essay, Research Paper
The Great Gatsby is considered a masterpiece full of controversy about the
1920’s life style. Fitzgerald uses symbolism to express in a more detailed way
this life style of carelessness and corruption. These symbols are shown through
out the characters’ actions and thoughts as well as in the setting created by
the author’s imagination to stress a point to be caught by the reader’s
attention. These symbols are used to elaborate the themes in The Great Gatsby.
Social status, one of Fitzgerald’s themes is represented by the separate
settings of the novel. The new rich or "the less fashionable" people
like Gatsby and Nick lived in West Egg. Nick lived in "an eye-sore" of
a house between two mansions letting us know that he was between the rich but he
wasn’t rich. Gatsby had a colossal mansion with a swimming pool and a tower
"spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy". They were both outsiders
from the world of the rich. On the other hand, the Buchanans lived across the
bay in the East Egg where the old rich, the people who had money all their life
and had never worked for it, lived. The Buchanans own " a cheerful red and
white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay". The difference
between the houses and the place they lived symbolizes their social position.
The old wealthy, new w
social status. The "green light" at the end of Daisy’s dock is another
symbol used by Fitzgerald to express definite possibilities. The green light has
true feeling for Gatsby because it represents his hopes and dreams of Daisy
Buchanan. At night, Nick sees Gatsby looking at the sea, stretching his arms
towards the light and trembling. But for Nick that light was just a solitary
green light, it had no meaning. The moment that Daisy becomes his, that green
light cease to exist because she has become his and Gatsby feels that he has
accomplished his dream. Gatsby states that the green light gives him a warm
feeling inside of himself, therefore we can say that the green light also
symbolizes Gatsby’s life on "go". In the valley of ashes, where the
Wilson’s lived, represented death because of the saying "ashes to ashes,
dust to dust". Everything was covered in ashes. There we can see the eyes
of Dr. T.J. Echleburg. They were "blue and gigantic, their retinas are one
yard high, they look out of no face but instead, from a pair of enormous yellow
spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose". The eyes of Dr. T.J.
Echleburg represent God’s eyes. When Myrtle went off with Tom, he saw. When
Myrtle was killed by Daisy, he saw. When something happened he saw. He knew all,
he saw all.