...Symbolism, in a novel, creates great depth and puts meaning behind otherwise insignificant words or phrases. This depth can be seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby follows a set of characters that reside in Long Island. The book is narrated by one of the characters, Nick Carraway, who has just moved to West Egg. Opposite to West Egg is East Egg, where his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan, reside. His cousin and her husband live luxurious lives and Nick finds himself surrounded by their privileged way of life. In West Egg, Nick lives next to Jay Gatsby, who is in love with Daisy Buchanan and hopes to reconnect. The Great Gatsby contains a considerable amount of symbolism that includes colors, temperature,...
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...The use of Symbolism in The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, who at one time lived next to the main character, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a rich entrepreneur who lives alone in a mansion on West egg. Gatsby is in love with the beautiful Daisy Buchanan who lives across the bay in East Egg with her husband Tom Buchanan. Gatsby had fallen in love with Daisy five years prior to the start of the novel. In his efforts to win over the love of his life Gatsby uses his lavish home to throw elaborate parties in hopes that one day Daisy will attend. One of the key elements in The Great Gatsby is the use of symbolism throughout the novel. The use of symbols can add a level of depth to a novel, as well as help the reader...
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...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...
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...In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism to indicate themes and influence the plot. The valley of ashes, the green light, and the billboard are the three major examples of Fitzgerald’s symbolism. The valley of ashes is a significant symbol used in The Great Gatsby. “About half way between West Egg and New York the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air…” (Fitzgerald 28). It symbolizes the forgotten poor underclass who enable the lifestyle of the wealthy few. The people who work and live in this valley are the factory employees. Their factory production is what’s driving the construction expansion that supplies the residents of West Egg with their wealth. “The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour. There is always a halt there of at least a minute…” (29)....
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...Color Symbolism in “The Great Gatsby” A literary masterpiece such as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, creates a vision of the typical American prosperous lifestyle through color and images. Fitzgerald cleverly uses colors to paint a picture of the privileged and twisted life of Jay Gatsby. In the novel the narrator Nick tells the story of Jay Gatsby, who throws elaborate parties to try to catch the attention of his true love Daisy. Nick also tells of the affairs and the misfortunes between the characters that would eventually led to Gatsby’s death. The prominent colors used in the novel (gold/ yellow, blue, white/ silver) help to create the image of wealth and old money, intricateness, and the multilayered personalities of the...
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...including parties and events. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of how a group of wealthy individuals gets wrapped up in conflicts while trying to convey their wealth to one another. Jay Gatsby, the main character, became wealthy by getting involved in the stock market after the WWI, where he originally fell in love with Daisy. Daisy Buchanan is married to a wealthy man named Tom Buchanan, who later resents Gatsby, leading to his contribution to Gatsby’s death. A whirlwind of events occurs after the reunion of Gatsby and Daisy that is furthered with the symbolic messages created by Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald uses a variety of symbolic messages, including the green light of Daisy’s porch, the valley of ashes, and the East and West Egg, to help with the development of the plot and to give the novel...
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...Clever and captivating, F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ is perhaps the most critically analysed American piece of the past century. Arguably this is because Fitzgerald uses many diverse literary devices to fascinate the reader. Gatsby and Daisy embody the theme of complicated relationships, which Fitzgerald uses to make the reader question the legitimacy of Daisy’s feelings and Gatsby’s persistence in chasing his dream. Fitzgerald involves symbolism in many ways including a green light at the end of Daisy’s dock to symbolise Gatsby’s dream and comment on the greed of the people of the roaring twenties. The American Dream is a theme through which Fitzgerald is able to comment on the moral decay of the Roaring Twenties society. Fitzgerald uses the theme of complicated relationships between characters as a symbol of misjudgement, this is especially evident for Gatsby and his relationship with Daisy. When Gatsby and Daisy began their love, Daisy was a symbol of wealth and the upper class of American society. Circumstantially it was the case that for Gatsby to fulfil his dream he would have to work to once again be worthy of Daisy’s love. It is hard not to question whether during their time apart Gatsby had glorified Daisy and it is uncertain as to whether she was worth it. Gatsby strongly desired the past to be repeated. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow...
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...A novel or story must have a suitable environment in order for the story’s plot to be strong. Foster states, "landscape and architecture and weather...merged as neatly with mood and tone to set a story in motion" (Foster 116). Taking the well-known childhood nursery Jack and Jill, they story begins with Jack and Jill traveling up a hill to initially receive water. During the process, Jack falls down the hill which results in the destruction of his crown. Since the environment contributes to the conflict If the environment were to change into a flat landscape the conflict would not have occurred. Thus, resulting in a weak storyline. Changing the landscape and weather of this nursery will fade the vision, and mood, that the author is trying to emit to the reader. Ultimately, the environment of text builds the...
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...THE GREAT GATSBY The Great Gatsby is a tale of luxury, lust, deceit, and murder. In Long Island, New York, Nick Carraway lives next door to the mysterious Jay Gatsby, the owner of a huge mansion and host of frequent and lavish parties. Although prohibition has made alcohol illegal, Gatsby always has a surplus available at his wild social gatherings. As Nick starts to spend more time with Gatsby, he begins to learn about Gatsby’s past, his strange profession, and his love for Nick’s cousin, Daisy. The story that unfolds truly highlights the scandalous and risky nature of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald had encompassed many literary devices in order to make this novel effective and more appealing. He has used techniques such as imagery, similes and the strongest one is symbolism. Fitzgerald has very smartly constructed his novel. "And only let me leave it in the soap dish when she saw that it was coming to pieces like snow.”(page 76) is an example of simile used in the text. This sentence suggests that Daisy was holding onto that letter until there wasn't really anything left of it. The letter obviously meant a whole lot to her if she took a bath with it. A representative of imagery used in the novel is "Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes.” This sentence paints a picture in our heads of Gatsby feeling cold with his hands in his pockets, while standing in a puddle...
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...The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby gives the readers a visual image of every character’s life by expressing their feelings; the colors are used very often as symbols that depict the person’s character and represents their behavior. The author utilized the colors white, green, red, blue, yellow, and gold. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock is symbolic to the limitless promise of the dream Gatsby pursues. “Gatsby believed in the green light with such intensity that he did not realize his immature dream was unattainable from the start.”(Fitzgerald) Gatsby, was hoping that his American Dream would come true, it was his inspiration, his hope, and, ironically, his death and downfall. he was expecting to get married...
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...break his or her lifespan into the past, present, and future. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, explores the burdens and manipulations of these time segments. Through the utilization of symbolism, characterization, and figurative language, Fitzgerald cultivates the theme that life is a limbo bounded between one’s imminent past and the forever fantasy for an idealistic future. Fitzgerald demonstrates the characters longing to renovate or withdrawal from their vanished yet haunting past, through the use of symbolism. For instance, Gatsby's clumsiness during the reunion with his lost love, Daisy, demonstrates his desire yet, failure to impede time. Fitzgerald writes, "Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of [Gatsby's] head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers, and set it back in place"(86). The clock symbolizes Gatsby's eagerness to regain the past, as he is living in the present. Gatsby is devoted to rekindle the fictitious charisma he left on Daisy, but also desires to camouflage his truthful destitution. Through his vigorous attempt to restore time, Gatsby breaks the clock and demonstrates not only the intractable, but also the inevitable characteristics of the past. Fitzgerald further demonstrates how the characters in the narrative evade the immoralities of their past, but fail to grasp that their action can't be concealed, through the symbolism of The Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. Fitzgerald places this decrepit...
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...F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, demonstrates that Jay Gatsby lives a life of the American Dream gone wrong by lowering his morals with the corrupt nature of greed, Jay only focuses on the past to move forward in his own grand dream for himself, and how Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism during the Roaring Twenties exemplifies theme areas in the novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, the cars represent a form of status. Nick takes taxis while Gatsby drives his custom made, cream-yellow car. According to Dan Seiters, “It is a rich cream color, a combination of the white of the dream and the yellow of money, of reality in a narrow sense,” (1). After Daisy kills Myrtle a bystander talks about the car and says, “It was a yellow car....
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...Conley Howard The Great Gatsby Literary Analysis Notebook Mrs. Marlar/English III Period 6 Howard 1 Literary Element- Symbolism Chapter 1, page 21 Original Quote: “But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unique darkness.”(Fitzgerald 21) Paraphrase with Analysis: Gatsby is being spotted by Nick, the narrator, while he is reaching out across his dock to the green light. (Fitzgerald 21) The green light symbolizes Daisy. Green is also an archetype and the negative associations are death and decay. Green can also foreshadow Gatsby death in the end since he never achieved the “green light” being Daisy who she chose Tom Buchanan in the end. Embedded Quotes in Paraphrase with Analysis: David F. Trask in his book, A Note on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, states that “Gatsby believed in the green light, the future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further ... And one fine morning Alas, all of us! The novel ends on a desperately somber note: So we beat on, boats...
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...F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel The Great Gatsby in 1922. This novel tells the story of Jay Gatsby in Nick Carraway point of view. Fitzgerald used the green light as a symbolism of dreams and hopes to show its significance in the novel. The green light is important in the novel, for it is used as the American Dream for Jay Gatsby. For example, the text states, “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward — and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. k. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.” In these quotes,...
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...explains the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald flawlessly. The Great Gatsby is a complex story that can be read in various ways to reach a deeper meaning of understanding. The book has an abundance of descriptive colors that expand on and support the story. These colors can be interpreted differently from person to person based on experiences and situations. In the novel, author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses them well to capture the characteristics of the story. However, this begs the question of how a factor as minor as color can affect so many aspects of...
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