Men who set their future goals based off past experiences, will end up destroying those dreams by themselves. “Through Gatsby, Fitzgerald attempts to correct Americans’ misconceptions about the American dream” (Dilworth 119). The Great Gatsby was written during the “Jazz Age” and prohibition era. Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota and died on December 21, 1940 in Hollywood, California. He attended Princeton University in 1913 and in November 1917, with graduation looking unlikely, he decided to accept a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He later went on to marry Zelda Sayre and had a daughter named Frances Scott Fitzgerald (born in 1921). In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald demonstrates …show more content…
One example of this is when Nick Carraway found out about Tom Buchanan's affair with another woman and was stuck with the dilemma of whether to tell Daisy or not. Another example of internal conflict is how Gatsby has an unhealthy obsession with the past and is desperately trying to repeat the past with Daisy. Gatsby will change anything in his life in order to impress Daisy and make him more attractive to her. With Gatsby being too focused on Daisy and asking too much of her, Nick decides to give Gatsby a taste of reality and says, “You can’t repeat the past” (Fitzgerald 110). This quote instantly backfired when Gatsby said shortly after, “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before” (Fitzgerald 110). He truly believes that the past can be repeated and he will be able to make things just like they were before when it was just him and Daisy and there was nothing that could change his …show more content…
The main example of symbolism that is very important in the story is the green light. The green light represents Gatsby’s hope and dreams for his future with Daisy. Gatsby’s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. Another symbol that I found in the story was the valley of ashes which represents the moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. Another symbol that related to the valley of ashes is the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. The eyes may represent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral wasteland, though the novel never makes this point explicitly. A symbol that many people may not have found is the air mattress that Gatsby was laying on in the pool near the end of the story. “The ironically cushy, ‘pneumatic mattress’ symbolizes the inflated, airy, or spiritual romanticism which gets Gatsby killed” (128) (Dilworth 119). This romanticism is what keeps him awake at night and keeps Daisy’s secret about her accidentally killing Myrtle