Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

Who is Gatsby? The character that gives his name to one of the myths created by the novel of the twentieth century? Jay Gatsby is a mystery, the man who literally created his own character and has mounted huge parties in his house to conquer (again) the dazzling Daisy Buchanan, who once loved him. The truth is that no one knows where he came from. “The mystery of this corrupt but also pathetic and forgivable man is seen as an attribute of something larger.” (Birkerts 126) Throughout the novel, we find ourselves living in the beginnings of the Jazz Age, in the happy “roaring twenties” in New York, time of fun and excitement, dancing and alcohol. Gatsby lives in a fabulous house in fictional West Egg, Long Island; and in his dances we find hundreds of creatures who do not need to be invited. The door is open, and the most enigmatic attraction of the show is the owner of the house, a millionaire who may be a murderer or a spy, nephew of the Emperor of Germany or the devil’s cousin,

war hero in the service of his country, or just a gangster, a boy with nothing that wants to accomplish the great American Dream. We look at him with the eyes of the narrator, Nick Carraway, who claims to be an honest man and to have learned not to judge anyone.
The American Dream is the one thing that everyone wants, but what is the definition of American Dream? In President Bill Clinton’s words: “If you work hard and play by the rules you should be given a chance to go as far as your God-given ability will take you.” (Schudson 566) This statement is probably the best description of what the American Dream is, and it says that people have to “play by the rules” to accomplish it. In the summer of 1922, a year in which financial speculation, corruption and businesses that are confused with mob’s activities, are incredibly common and it seems that there are only parties with dancing and drinking to calm these matters. In this scenario we find Jay Gatsby, a tragic hero that destroys himself as he approaches his dream: the conquest of a woman that he left to go to World War I. The undeniable truth is that he wants to fulfill an inaccessible desire: to recover and repeat the past, the time when he conquered Daisy Buchanan. After a while, Gatsby confesses to Nick Carraway his true origins: how he was born in an extremely poor family, and how he always aspired to “greatness.” Gatsby describes how after he met Dan Cody, attended to Oxford, and went to serve his country; he met Meyer Wolfsheim, and joined him in “the business.” This is just a way to say that he got involved with the mob with the illegal alcohol business, and how he became extremely wealthy by corrupting the great American Dream. We can see Gatsby’s cynicism when he talks to Nick: “"Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he's a gambler." Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: "He's the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919." "Fixed the World's Series?" I repeated. […] "Why isn't he in jail?" "They can't get him, old sport. He's a smart man."” (Fitzgerald 73) and it is fair to say that Gatsby doesn’t even have a sense of what is right and wrong, because this dialogue proves that he thought that doing criminal acts without being caught is a sign of intelligence, and not corruption. Even after accomplishing his “dream” we see how he creates the idea that he did all that to satisfy another childish dream, to become “worthy” of the love of a girl he met five years ago, and he thinks he loves. We see how Gatsby, irremediably, wants to repeat the past, but this story’s outcome proves to us that the past cannot be repeated, it can only be remembered.
From a superficial point of view, The Great Gatsby is the story of a frustrated love between a man and a woman.

Although it can be considered as “the great American novel,” the main theme of the novel covers a much darker and less romantic area. The Great Gatsby is a novel full of symbolism about the United States’ cultural expression in the 1920s, and in particular, on the decay of the American Dream in a time of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. Fitzgerald portrays the “roaring twenties” as a time of devalued social and moral values, as evidenced by the cynicism, greed and the pursuit of pleasure from the member of the “Lost Generation.” The irresponsible desire that led to those decadent parties and the frenetic jazz music, which are represented by those opulent receptions Gatsby offers every Saturday night; it ultimately led to the corruption of the American Dream, to the extent that this unstoppable desire for money and passion depraved one of the ultimate American

values.
By analyzing President Clinton’s depiction of the true American Dream, we clearly see how Fitzgerald represents its corruption with the cravings that the members of “The Lost Generation” had after they returned from World War I; and with Gatsby’s self-creation from an extremely poor boy to an extremely wealthy man by the use of “hard work.” At the end of The Great Gatsby we ask ourselves: did he truly accomplish the American Dream or did he use a corrupted version of it to accomplish a far more selfish desire? The answer is yes, he truly used a depraved version of the great American Dream to accomplish a fool’s desire. We can see that he didn’t think about what Daisy wanted, he naturally assumed that she still loved him after five years, but this doesn’t wipe out his most despicable sin: the depravation of the American Dream.