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“I'm a romantic; a sentimental person thinks things will last, a romantic person hopes against hope that they won't.” F. Scott Fitzgerald said this and it is very apparent that he feels this way in The Great Gatsby. In this novel filled with the experiences of a group of supercilious, rich, white people, Fitzgerald shows this with the many symbols he uses throughout the novel. Among the most arresting are the Green Light at the end of the Buchanan’s dock, which Gatsby envies for, the color white, which deceives readers with Daisy’s deceitful beauty, and the Eyes of T.J. Eckleburg, which sees all wrong done by the characters.
“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 we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… and then one fine morning–so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This quote ends Fitzgerald’s novel by coming back to the symbol of the Green Light. After the horrific events that occurred at the end of the novel the meaning of the green light was realized. The green light symbolizes Gatsby’s inability to repeat the past, and the everyone's inability to repeat the past as a whole. The green light also symbolizes other things. When Gatsby is seen reaching out towards the light, the light green light symbolizes Gatsby’s hopefulness that he could repeat the past. Although in the end, Gatsby’s effort to repeat the past was futile.
“They were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house.” One of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most frequent symbols in the novel is the color white. Objects or people...

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...ol me, but you can’t fool God.” This is now brutally obvious that the eyes symbolize the all-seeing and all-fearing God. In turn, they also symbolize the “fact” that you cannot escape God’s gaze. He always sees you.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's symbolism is the most iconic quality of his writing. The Great Gatsby has many symbols, and the Green Light, the color white, and the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are some of the most apparent. The green light with the intangible past, the color white with its deceiving beauty, and the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, judging the character’s every move. F. Scott Fitzgerald's extensive use of symbolism and view on being a “romantic” is shown through these symbols. He is not a hopeful romantic, he thinks that you cannot see the past, everything you think is beautiful is just deceiving you, and that your every move is judged by god.

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