In the novel The Great Gatsby the author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a multitude of literary devices to create the beautifully written piece. Foreshadowing and symbolism are the most important techniques used by him to make the reader have a stronger interpretation of the novel and to allow it to have a greater meaning. One of the key elements that Fitzgerald uses symbolism and foreshadowing for is death. Death is a main occurrence in the novel and Fitzgerald often alludes to it to give his novel a second dimension and allow the reader to become interactive with the reading. Many important characters of objects in the novel are symbols of death and destruction and these use of these symbols help to foreshadow when a death may occur. Thus …show more content…
Whenever Nick has a realization about the weather or the time the reader can make an assumption that a death or an important event will take place. Often Nick forgets the time or the month or the season. Nick even forgets his own birthday but remembers it on the night of Myrtle Wilson’s death. Also, when a remark is made about the weather the reader can pick up the foreshadowing that Fitzgerald is trying to clue us into. On Nick’s birthday, which he forgets, Gatsby, Daisy and Tom have gotten into a large spat and left everything out in the open. When the characters begin to leave their “party” Nick finally remembers it is his birthday. He has a lot of dull thoughts about the age of 30 a believes he is just inching closer to death. In this scene, he says, “So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight,” (Fitzgerald 136). Nick’s consciousness of time and the cooling weather change from the oddly sweltering day is Fitzgerald clueing the reader in that something is about to happen. Fitzgerald uses Nick’s grasp of time and weather and a huge indicator towards death. Stated by a literary critic, “As that earlier summer ended with Gatsby’s departure for the war in the fall, so the summer of Nick’s experience of the East ends with the crisis on the last hot day (the day of mint juleps in the …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald uses literary devices to strengthen his novel The Great Gatsby. The use of symbolism and foreshadowing are huge roles when death is the subject of discussion. Death is symbolized in Gatsby’s car or “the death car”. It is symbolized in the location with the Valley of Ashes. It is also symbolized in the time and weather change. These three things help us to predict death and fully understand the great writing that Fitzgerald has created. Cars, locations, time and weather all influence the events of the story and are wrapped up perfectly in the novel that is The Great Gatsby. Thus concluding that the major element of death is a powerful concept that Fitzgerald wants the reader to see coming and to interpret how death is not just an action, but it is can also be a real object or