FREE ESSAY ON SYMBOLISM IN THE GREAT GATSBY

SYMBOLISM IN THE GREAT GATSBY

Cary L. Pannell
Eng. 206
Mrs. Sanders
20 May 1997
Symbolism in The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel about one man's disenchantment with
the American dream. In the story we get a glimpse into the life of Jay Gatsby, a man who
aspired to achieve a position among the American rich to win the heart of his true love,
Daisy Fay. Gatsby's downfall was in the fact that he was unable to determine that
concealed boundary between reality and illusion in his life. The Great Gatsby is a
tightly structured, symbolically compressed novel whose predominant images and symbols
reinforce the idea that Gatsby's dream exists on borrowed time.
Fitzgerald perfectly understood the inadequacy of Gatsby's romantic view of wealth. At a
young age he met and fell in love with Ginevra King, a Chicago girl who enjoyed the
wealth and social position to which Fitzgerald was always drawn. After being rejected by
Ginevra because of his lower social standing, Fitzgerald came away with a sense of social
inadequacy, a deep hurt, and a longing for the girl beyond attainment. This
disappointment grew into distrust and envy of the American rich and their lifestyle.
These personal feelings are expressed in Gatsby. The rich symbolize the failure of a
civilization and the way of life and this flaw becomes apparent in the characters of Tom
and Daisy Buchanan. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, quickly became
disillusioned with the upper social class after having dinner at their home on the
fashionable East Egg Island. Nick is forced unwillingly to observe the violent contrast
between their opportunities- what is implied by the gracious surface of their existence-
and the seamy underside which is it's reality (Way 93). In the Buchanans, and in Nick's
reaction to them, Fitzgerald shows us how completely the American upper class has failed
to become an aristocracy. The Buchanans represent cowardice, corruption, and the demise
of Gatsby's dream Gatsby, unlike Fitzgerald himself, never discovers how he has been
betrayed by the class he has idealized for so long. For Gatsby, the failure of the rich
has disastrous consequences.
Gatsby's desire to achieve his dream leads him to West Egg Island. He purchased a mansion
across the bay from Daisy's home. There is a green light at the end of Daisy's dock that
is visible at night from the windows and lawn of Gatsby's house. This green light is one
of the central symbols of the novel. In chapter one, Nick observes Gatsby in the dark as
he looks longingly across the bay with arms stretched outward toward the green light. It
becomes apparent, as the story progresses that the whole being of Gatsby exists only in
relation to what the green light symbolizes This first sight, that we have of Gatsby, is
a ritualistic tableau that literally contains the meaning of the completed book (Bewley
41). A broader definition of the green light's significance is revealed in Chapter 5, as
Gatsby and Daisy stand at one of the windows in his mansion.
If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay, said Gatsby. You always
have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.
Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said.
Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had vanished
forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it has seemed
very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed so close as a star to the moon. Now
it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects has diminished by
one (Fitzgerald 94).
Gatsby had believed in the green light, it made his dream seem attainable. Upon meeting
Daisy again, after a five-year separation, Gatsby discovers that sometimes attaining a
desired object can bring a sense of loss rather than fulfillment. It is when Gatsby makes
this discovery that the green light is no longer the central image of a great dream, but
only a green light at the end of a dock.
The most obvious symbol in The Great Gatsby is a waste land called the Valley of Ashes, a
dumping ground that lies between East and West Egg and New York City. Symbolically the
green breast of the new world (Fitzgerald 182) becomes this Valley of Ashes. As the
illusions of youth give way to the disillusionment of the thirties, so green hopes give
way to the dust of disappointment. Certainly Gatsby's dreams turn to ashes; and it is
dramatically appropriate that the custodian of the Valley of Ashes, George Wilson, should
be Gatsby's murderer. That Wilson is the demise of Gatsby's dream- and that the dream
gives way to ashes- is made clear through descriptive detail. Over the desolate area,
known as the Valley of Ashes, brood the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg. Gatsby is a kind of
T. J. Eckleburg; he has created a god like image of himself, but the image is doomed- the
dream will turn to dust- and like Eckleburg, Gatsby also has occasion to brood over the
ashes of the past, over the solemn dumping ground of worn out hopes (Lehan 121). The
death of Gatsby comes ironically from George Wilson's total misunderstanding of the world
from which the Buchanans and Myrtle come. The eyes of Dr. Eckleburg, brooding over the
Valley of Ashes, become what is left of the Son of God Gatsby has imagined himself to
be.
As the novel closes, the experience of Gatsby and his broken dream become the focus of
that historic dream for which he stands. In the final thoughts of the novel, Fitzgerald
would like the reader to see a much broader picture of the theme- a vision of America as
the continent of lost innocence and lost illusions. He compares Gatsby's experience to
that of the Dutch Sailors who first came to Long Island and had an unspoiled continent
before them. As Nick lies on the beach in front of Gatsby's home, his last night in the
East, he contemplates this thought,
I became aware of the old island that flowered once for Dutch sailor's eyes - a fresh
green breast of the new world. It's vanished trees, the trees that had made way for
Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human
dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence
of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor
desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his
capacity for wonder. I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green
light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream
must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was
already behind him (Fitzgerald 182).
Gatsby's greatness was to have retained a sense of wonder as deep as the sailor's on that
first landfall. Gatsby's tragedy was to have had, not a continent to wonder at, but only
a green light at the end of Daisy's Dock and the triviality of Daisy herself. The
evolution of such triviality was Gatsby's particular tragedy and the tragedy of America.
Gatsby fades into the past forever to take his place with the Dutch sailors who had
chosen their moment in time so much more happily than he.
By the close of the novel, Fitzgerald has completely convinced the reader that Gatsby's
capacity for illusion is touching and heroic, despite the worthlessness of the objects of
his dreams. It is through combining faultless artistry with symbolism that Fitzgerald
paints a vivid picture of the dream destined to fail because it's basis was illusion. not
reality
The Great Gatsby
Cary L. Pannell
Eng. 206
Rough draft of Final