The Great Gatsby

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The Use of Symbolism in The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is about a man named Gatsby and his struggle to attain the American Dream in 1920’s Long Island. He fights to get his dream woman and to do so, he must first become rich. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really go about it the right way; he takes part in some illegal activities with some quite sinister characters, such as Meyer Wolfshiem. The corruption of Gatsby’s dream and his struggle to attain his dream are shown by F. Scott Fitzgerald through the use of symbolism, such as Gatsby’s car, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, and Gatsby stretching his arms out towards the green light across the bay.
Gatsby has a car that is an important symbol in this novel. Gatsby’s car represents many problems in the society at that time. His car is very elaborate, “It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hatboxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns”(Fitzgerald 68). It symbolizes the irresponsibility of society and the differences between the old rich and the classlessness of the new rich. It is also the car that Gatsby buys to impress Daisy and that hits Myrtle Wilson, eventually leading to Gatsby’s death.
Another symbol in this book is the big billboard with the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg on it:
Above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. The[y]… are blue and gigantic- their retinas are one yard high. They look from no face but, instead from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose(Fitzgerald 27).
This billboard represents the eyes of God looking out over the vast wasteland of moral corruption and dying hope. Some might have even said that since the doctor had long abandoned the area, God might have left, also.
Then, there are a few symbols all combined into one. This is the image of Gatsby with his arms stretched out towards the green light across the bay, which is repeated at the end of the novel, “fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbors mansion…. it was Mr. Gatsby himself…. he stretched out his arms toward….

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