Great Gatsby Symbolism The “American Dream” is the idea that suggests anyone in the United States can achieve anything through hard work and anyone has the potential to live a happy and successful life. The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald this novel written in the 1920s had many ideas and symbolism that can relate to the modern day. Fitzgerald brought up ideas that are very controversial. The Great Gatsby shows the idea of the “American Dream” as something that is falsely stated that the people in the hard working class will never be successful while people who don’t work hard at all have all the power and money. Throughout the valley of ashes, Fitzgerald portrays the hollowness of the American Dream. The valley of ashes is located …show more content…
in between New York City and West Egg. This is the land that was created by the dumping of industrial areas. I believe Fitzgerald is implying the concept of people trying to build their dreams on the ashes. Also, the name valley gives it a sense of a deep hole that your trying to work up and out off to be one of the successful people. The narrator, Nick, states “This is a valley of ashes--a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” (Gatsby 23). This gives an excellent portrayal of people turning something that is dirty, dull, and depressing into something that will make them proud and make them money. The piles of ashes transform through your eyes. The hard work allows this miserable place to become the american dream. Everyone says all you have to do is work hard in order to accomplish their dreams.
The valley of ashes is filled with the working class people that are diligent and trying their hardest to get out of this “class”. Fitzgerald reveals the hollowness of the American Dream by showing these men that are getting dirty while trying to better themselves are stuck in the working class. Nick also says “Occasionally a line of gray cars crawl along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.” (Gatsby 23). In this quotation Fitzgerald is showing the truth behind the working class. The dreary line of grey cars and the ash-grey men that emerge from these factories. From Nick's perspective and everyone else in the higher classes never understand the troubles that these men go through. Fitzgerald showed this by writing “screens their obscure operations from your sight” the obscure operations is the factory work. The higher class never had to go through the work to get what they have, they were born with it. Fitzgerald made an excellent point about the American Dream that even if you are working as hard as you can your stuck in the lower classes and those who never had to work a day in their life are getting all of the
rewards. Along the lines of the hollowness of the American Dream is the concept that anyone would do anything this includes cheating in order to achieve this. Myrtle running into the street after who she thought was Tom could also be symbolized as someone chasing after money in order to get out of the lower classes. Tom was Myrtles one chance at expelling herself from this working class and the valley of ashes because he is in the higher class. Once Myrtle ran into the street she got hit by the car and ended up dying. This is a great symbolism for most people spend their life chasing after the higher class until the die but they never seem to achieve it. Gatsby said “This woman rushed out at us just as we were passing a car coming the other way. It all happened in a minute, but it seemed to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew.” (Gatsby 143). Myrtle rushed out to the car trying to talk to Tom or in other words have him take her out of the lower class. Fitzgerald’s attitude toward the situation was very mysterious he wanted us to interpret this alternate meaning of the American Dream. It doesn't matter how hard you work or even try to cheat your way out of the lower class, whatever class you are born into is the class you are stuck in. The Valley of Ashes portrayed Fitzgerald's view on the hollowness of the American Dream being successful and even failing. Some of the symbols showing the decline of the American Dream included the actual valley, working class, and the death of Myrtle. Fitzgerald had ideas on the controversial subjects of the American Dream and how it isn't true and doesn’t work that way for the majority of the people.
The American dream is an idea that every American has an equal chance of success. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows us this is not the case. Fitzgerald wrote the character Jay Gatsby as a tragic American hero. Jay Gatsby went from a nobody to a millionaire and most people believe that he had achieved the American dream. However, he did not achieve the American dream because he lost a piece of himself in his pursuit of his supposedly incorruptible dream.
The American Dream states that with hard work people come rich. Fitzgerald questions this value. Gatsby’s story presents the unrealisticness/falsehood of the tradition/original American dream.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests Fitzgerald thinks that the American Dream is based on illusions. Fitzgerald uses an immense amount of symbolization and a variety of literary devices to portray, define, and all in all bring a whole different perspective to the American Dream. Not only does he shed light on the American Dream, but he goes in depth about the people who pursue it and the impact of their pursuit and desire for it. He does this through his depiction of Jay Gatsby and the people in Gatsby’s life.
By exploring the physical site of the valley, followed by the inhabitants of the valley – George and Myrtle, George representing the working class and Myrtle the exception, extending this to the references of the valley to Gatsby’s humble origins, the Valley of the Ashes represents the low social mobility and the failure of the American Dream.
The American Dream is the concept that anyone, no matter who he or she is, can become successful in his or her life through perseverance and hard work. It is commonly perceived as someone who was born and starts out as poor but ambitious, and works hard enough to achieve wealth, prosperity, happiness, and stability. Clearly, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to personify the destruction of the American Dream. Gatsby started out as a poor farming boy, meticulously planning his progression to become a great man.
“The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour,” (23) In The Great Gatsby, between the East Egg and the West Egg, lay the valley of ashes. Though not literally consisting of ashes, the area gets its nickname because of the industrialization of the area as well as the smog from the smokestacks decorating nearby factories that thickens the air. The valley of ashes is an effective symbol of the uselessness of succeeding in achieving The American Dream.
The concept of one’s journey to reach the so called "American Dream" has served as the central theme for many novels. However, in the novel The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays the American Dream as so opulent it is unrealistic and unreachable. The American Dream is originally about obtaining happiness, but by the 1920's, this dream has become twisted into a desire for fame and fortune by whatever means; mistaken that wealth will bring happiness. Fitzgerald illustrates that the more people reach toward the idealistic American dream, the more they lose sight of what makes them happy, which sends the message that the American dream is unattainable. The continuos yearning for extravagance and wealthy lifestyles has become detrimental to Gatsby and many other characters in the novel as they continue to remain incorrigible in an era of decayed social and moral values, pursuing an empty life of pleasure instead of seeking happiness.
Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, location is a critical motif. The contrasts between East and West, East Egg and West Egg, and the two Eggs and New York serve important thematic roles and provide the backdrops for the main conflict. Yet, there needs to be a middle ground between each of these sites, a buffer zone, as it were; there is the great distance that separates East from West; there is the bay that separates East Egg from West Egg; and, there is the Valley of Ashes that separates Long Island from New York. The last of these is probably the most striking. Yet, the traditional literal interpretation does not serve Fitzgerald's theme as well as a more figurative one would--the "Valley of Ashes" is not literally a valley of ashes, but is rather a figurative description of the middle-class values and suburbia that clash with those of New York as well as East and West Egg.
The American Dream had always been based on the idea that each person no matter who he or she is can become successful in life by his or her hard work. The dream also brought about the idea of a self-reliant man, a hard worker, making a successful living for him or herself. The Great Gatsby is about what happened to the American Dream in the 1920s, a time period when the many people with newfound wealth and the need to flaunt it had corrupted the dream. The pursuit of the American Dream is the one motivation for accomplishing one's goals, however when combined with wealth the dream becomes nothing more than selfishness.
“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. The American Dream, a long-standing ideal, embodies the hope that one can achieve financial success, political power, and everlasting love through dedication and hard work. During the Roaring 20s, people in America put up facades to mask who they truly were. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald conveys that the American Dream is simply an illusion, that is idealist and unreal.
“A single green light Minute and far away, That might have been the end of the dock. ”(Fitzgerald)The novel Great Gatsby takes place during the 1920's right around after the 1st World War. It’s about a young man named Nick, from the east he moved to the west to start out in the bonds business and along the way meets Jay Gatsby. In the novel Great Gatsby F.Scott Fitzgerald uses many symbols throughout the novel to highlight key ideas.
If you were to think about your American dream you might think like some others would. extreme wealth, no stress, living where you always wanted too. Well, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, you are observing many different versions of the American dream. Jay Gatsby a very rich man looking for love, Tom and Daisy married but not happy ever after with affairs left and right. All trying to find their American dream, their happiness.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel with underlying themes of social class, wealth, and the rise and fall of the American Dream. Fitzgerald conveys these themes +through symbolism. One of the symbols used in The Great Gatsby to represent the American Dream is the Valley of Ashes. The Valley of Ashes is located between West Egg and New York City and is described as a dreary, gray, and depressing home to the lower class, such as the Wilson family. The people inhabiting The Valley of Ashes are hopeless people who struggle through poverty while those who inhabit West Egg live luxurious lifestyles. The inhabitants of The Valley of Ashes are victims of the American Dream and of the wealthy that used them to pursue their own desires. The Valley of Ashes symbolizes the failure of the American Dream and the moral and social decay inflicted by the desire of wealth.
The American Dream is a well sought after thing, which leads many. to go over the limits to achieve it, even in just having the opportunity to be wealthy. The Great Gatsby notifies the decayed moral values and unnecessary materialism brought about by the American Dream. However, it proves.
The American dream was a vision shared by the American people who desired their land to be improved and wealthier for every individual, with the opportunity for everyone in accordance to achievement. The dream is based on every individual working hard to become successful with an abundance of money, a nice house, two children and a high-quality job. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the American dream symbolizes being free to come and go with the river, not to have restrictions, and to take pleasure in the wide-open Western edge. The dream’s beauty and liberty is depicted as a requirement for Huck, and for Jim who is a slave. The book shows that the American dream consequently turns out to be a celebration of freedom, for physical organization and rules, and also chauvinism of the Southern society in the slavery period. However, The Great Gatsby, which was written by Fitzgerald, is a figurative meditation on the 1920s breakdown of American dreams, in a period of unparalleled wealth and material surplus. Fitzgerald depicts the 1920s as a period of rotten moral and social value that is shown through America’s sarcasm, gluttony, and empty chase of enjoyment.