Great Gatsby Symbolism Essay

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is considered one of the greatest pieces of American literature. The Great Gatsby displays the corruption that occurred during “The Jazz Age”, an era dubbed by Fitzgerald. This was a period in which the American economy was soaring and Prohibition was in place. Set in New York City and Long Island in the 1920s, the novel primarily follows the story of millionaire Jay Gatsby’s chase for the American Dream and his love, Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald incorporated various different underlying themes within the story that revealed the truth behind life in the twenties. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses symbols such as colors, cars and the green light to clarify some of his themes.

Fitzgerald used several different colors to underline his ideas in the novel. First, he uses gold to represent riches and successfulness. An example of this is when Carraway is walking around Gatsby’s party with professional golfer, Jordan Baker’s “slender golden arm resting in [his]” (44). She is also described as having a “…golden shoulder” (77). Second, Fitzgerald uses the color yellow to signify fake gold. For instance, at one of Gatsby’s parties, there are “two girls in twin yellow dresses” (44) that are admiring Baker. The color of their dresses is meant to show that the girls were less glamorous and rich than the golden Jordan. Lastly, white is used to symbolize purity and innocence especially when depicting Daisy Buchanan. When Carraway visits the Buchanan house for the first time in the book, Daisy and Jordan “…were both in white” (8). Also, even the windows at the Buchanan house are “…ajar and gleaming white” (8). Furthermore, Daisy is described as having a “white face” (110) and is said to have had a white c...

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...int across that materialistic people will never achieve the American Dream because they always want more and they are never satisfied with what they have. Undoubtedly, the green light represents the central theme of the book: the American Dream.

In conclusion, Fitzgerald uses symbols such as colors, cars, and the green light to connect everything to the main theme of the story. “The Jazz Age” was a time where the rich were getting richer, and the poor were getting poorer. The original American Dream was to achieve happiness but Fitzgerald saw so much corruption during this time that his view on the American Dream became tainted. Fitzgerald used The Great Gatsby to show that the American Dream became a twisted idea of achieving wealth by whatever means during the 1920s. The Great Gatsby teaches people a great lesson in that money definitely does not buy happiness.