The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby there are many things that represent various ideas, moods, and symbols. Many of these symbols and representations are things that are simple such as a color or a road-sign. An example is the color yellow, throughout the story this represents death and/or corruption. This symbol is portrayed through several events in the novel. Another example of symbolism in the novel is the Green Light, which represents Gatsby’s dream, as well as the American Dream. This is also shown throughout the story through events and things. The final example is the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleberg, which represents God’s all-seeing eyes. These are just a handful of the many examples of symbolism and representation in the Great Gatsby.

While the color yellow may seem like a cheerful, happy color in most cases, in the novel it represents quite the opposite: death and corruption. This is represented very clearly through one symbol which is Gatsby’s Rolls Royce, which is yellow. After Gatsby and Tom disagree at the hotel, Daisy and Gatsby are driving back in his yellow car, on the way they accidentally hit and kill Myrtle. Because of Myrtle’s death Wilson became very distressed and extreme, which is what led to his and Gatsby’s death. This was all caused by Gatsby’s yellow Rolls Royce, which obviously represents death, because the yellow car killed Myrtle, directly. It also indirectly killed Gatsby and Wilson. In the novel there is an example of how this happens on page 137: “The ‘death car’ as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment, and then disappeared around the next bend.” This is describing the scene when Myrtle is hit and killed by Gatsby’s car. ...

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...it is a constant symbol that shows that he sees everything.

Throughout “The Great Gatsby” novel there are many symbols and representations about various things. These symbols can be many different things. Three of these symbols seem very important and are most prominent. The first is the color yellow, which represents death and/or corruption. This is portrayed mainly through Gatsby’s yellow Rolls Royce, and how it directly kills Myrtle. The second symbol is the Green Light, which represents the American Dream. It is represented that way because once Gatsby has the green light (Daisy), his American Dream will be complete. The example of symbolism is the watchful eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, who sees everything that goes on in the novel. In the end, these various symbols represent many things, and make the book more interesting to read, and have a deeper meaning.

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