Great Gatsby Research Paper example
?Thesis- symbols Symbolism in The Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby, by Scott Fitzgerold. Symbolism is used to describe the action taking place in the story. It is also used to describe individual character’s emotions and true natures. Symbolism is used to describe a multiple things but doing it in a way that you have to think about it.
In this book most things are symbolized to make it easier to describe them. Colours and some personal belongings were mainly used to describe a characters effect in the book. Things that were not said but described were symbolized.Finally, the separation of the classes was used to show how life in the time the story takes place.
According to Taylor, Douglas the eyes of T. J. Eckleburg will forever watch over the Valley of Ashes.
This represents the eyes of God watching over the poorer part of New York City. The characters throughout the story point out the billboard and reference it when they speak of God watching over their actions and decisions they do. They look up to it for forgiveness when they feel as if they have done something wrong and that God would not approve off.They also look up to it when they pray for someone or something.
Another symbol includes the 2 Eggs, the East Egg and the West. “I lived at West Egg, the – well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is the most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. ” West Egg represents the new rich, or the people who earned it by working hard. It isn’t as fancily decorated as the other, the East Egg. “”Oh, I’ll stay in the East, don’t you worry. ” He said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me, as if he were alert for something more. East Egg represents the old rich, who had money passed down from generations to generation.
These people were full of themselves and do not care for anyone else who are not like them. They do not view the new rich to be of equal status as them, even though they both have a lot of money. The old rich believe that they are cheating in the process of obtaining their money. Another symbol used in the book is a car. “You out to go away” I said.
It’s pretty certain they’ll trace your car. ” (p. 148). In the Great Gatsby or during that time period in general, having a car symbolized your wealth and social status.The mind set was that the fancier the car, the wealthier you were. It also caused you to have a higher social status. In the book, it also symbolizes tragedies and recklessness.
One of the main characters, Daisy, is a reckless person who believes that if there is an accident, it is the other person’s fault. She developed the “It takes 2 to cause an accident. ” view. This recklessness, however, caused a tragic event to occur.
It was when she and Gatsby were heading back home. Myrtle ran out in front of the car thinking it was Tom, her second lover, but Daisy ran over her.This incident caused a chain of events to occur. One of the major ones was Gatsby being killed by Myrtle’s husband, Wilson, because of a misunderstanding that was caused by Tom, Daisy’s husband. Tom who represents power and abuse only cared about himself.
The reason he said that Gatsby killed Myrtle was because he knew that he wouldn’t have to compete with him anymore over Daisy. In the book, the green light represented an American Dream. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. (p. 180) This symbolized Gatsby’s American Dream, which was to get Daisy back and have a family with her.
But his dream was unattainable. At one point, in his opinion, he was so close to winning Daisy over but he blames himself for not being able to do so. It was when Nick invited Daisy for tea with Gatsby being there. Part of the plan, would involve him then inviting her over to his house to show her everything he has worked for and gotten just for her and show her everything he is willing to give to her. She didn’t like it. “ He said immediately. “Of course she did” “She didn’t like it,” he insisted.
“She didn’t have a good time. ” (P. 109) That goes to show that Gatsby feels he has failed but he is not planning on giving up.
The reason for why he threw so many parties was to catch the attention of Daisy. He hoped that one of the days she would wonder in to one of the parties and he’d show her around. However, after he finally managed to get her to see his wealth, he didn’t get the reaction that he had hoped to get. Gatsby’s eyes assure Daisy that she will always gleam “like silver, safe and proud above all the hot struggles of the poor. ” (p. 182) This shows how Gatsby feels about Daisy still. He is willing to always protect her from any harm.
He refuses to give up on her and thinks her reaction was only caused by him failing to create a good impression of what he has become just to be worthy of something to her. At another part in the story, when he tries again to win her over, she betrays him.This makes him only think that she needs more time to think about it and give him an answer when they are alone and without Tom being present. “Don’t do it today” Gatsby answered, he turned to me apologetically. “You know, old sport, I’ve never used that pool all summer? ” (p.
153) Spring symbolizes a new beginning. So Gatsby plans on waiting and trying again to get Daisy. Spring also represents the new beginning, a new state, which is waiting to mess up all over again. The mess that it represents is Gatsby being murdered. It was after we started with the gardener towards the house, that he saw Wilson’s body a little way off the grass and the holocaust was complete” (p.
162) Gatsby represents an American Dream that has gone wrong even though he gave it all he had, and how not all dreams are attainable. It also represents how different people have different dreams. Part of the problem why he was unable to attain his dream was because others had different dreams that the outcomes of them conflicted with each other, therefore, not allowing each other to be achieved.The Great Gatsby has a lot of symbolism that extends the plot even further. Things like the characters emotions and actions, the way the classes interact with each other and symbols that show how a dream can fade. Colours were used to show how a character played a role in this story along with his or her reactions to the other characters.
The separation of the classes was also used to show how the time was very discriminatory between the inherited rich who had their riches past down to them from previous generations and the hard working rich who made all of their money by working, in the time period.Other smaller symbols and colours, which would most likely not be noticed by the average reader, were used show great changes in the novel with most of the main characters and sub-characters. This book involved a single man, Jay Gatz, whose dream was destroyed by those around him. Following by his murder by a man who he had never met for doing a crime he did not commit.
Nick was then alone with his thoughts before he returned to his hometown and the thought occurred to him; why did his dream fail even though it was in his reach?