Great Gatsby themes and symbols

The valley of Ashes

- First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley of ashes also symbolizes the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result.

The weather

As in much of Shakespeare's work, the weather in The Great Gatsbyunfailingly matches the emotional and narrative tone of the story. Gatsby and Daisy's reunion begins amid a pouring rain, proving awkward and melancholy; their love reawakens just as the sun begins to come out. Gatsby's climactic confrontation with Tom occurs on the hottest day of the summer, under the scorching sun (like the fatal encounter between Mercutio and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet). Wilson kills Gatsby on the first day of autumn, as Gatsby floats in his pool despite a palpable chill in the air—a symbolic attempt to stop time and restore his relationship with Daisy to the way it was five years before, in 1917.

The Roaring Twenties

Decade of decadence (cultural decline as characterized by excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury) and prosperity US experienced an enormous economic expeansion (easy money and hard drinking- despite the Prohibition) and lavish parties). Fitzgerald portrays the much bleaker side fo the revelry by focusing on its indulgence, hypocrisy, shallow recklessness and its perilous (danger and risk) consequences

The Valley of Ashes

Halfway between NYC and West Egg. An industrial wasteland covered in ash and soot. NYC = "mystery and beauty in the world" West Egg = people who have gotten rich off the roaring economy Valley of ashes - the dismal ruin of the people caught in between

Grey - lifelessness lack of color

If the ash heaps are associated with lifelessness and barrenness, and grey is associated with the ash heaps, anyone described as grey is going to be connected to barren lifelessness. Our main contender is Wilson: "When anyone spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable colorless way" (2.17). Wilson's face is "ashen," and a "white ashen dust" covers his suit (2.17), and his eyes are described as "pale" and "glazed." We're not too surprised when she shows up with a gun at the end of the novel.

identity

Jay Gatz changed his identity and even his named to try to be someone else to get in to the old money crowd and impress Daisy

Green- life, vitality, the future exploration the American dream Daisy

Last one. We're thinking green = plants and trees and stuff, so it must represent life and springtime and other happy events. Right? Well, the most noticeable image is that green light we seem to see over and over. You know, the green light of the "orgastic future" that we stretch our hands towards, etc. etc. (9.149). Right before these famous last lines, Nick also describes the "fresh, green breast of the new world," the new world being this land as Nick imagines it existed hundreds of years before. Green also shows up—we think significantly—as the "long green tickets" that the rich kids of Chicago use as entry to their fabulous parties, the kind of parties where Daisy and Tom meet, and where Gatsby falls in love. So green does represent a kind of hope, but not always a good one. When Nick imagines Gatsby's future without Daisy, he sees "a new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about...like that ashen fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees." Nick struggles to define what the future really means, especially as he faces the new decade before him (the dreaded thirties). Is he driving on toward grey, ashen death through the twilight, or reaching out for a bright, fresh green future across the water?

Friendship

Nick Carraway keeps peoples secrist at one piont in the book he even says that he is the only honest person he knows he is everyones only true honesty person and friend

Past and Future

Nick and Gatsby are both troubled by time. Past haunts Gatsby: spent his life recreating his past with Daisy (believes that money can help-"overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves." Believes that a month in the past with Daisy can compete with the years and experiences she has shared with Tom. The future weighs down on Nick. His fear for the future foreshadows the economic bust that plunged the country into depression (ending the Roaring Twenties). Sees the struggle between old and new money and the end of an eras and the destruction of both types of wealth.

East and West

Nick describes the novel as a "story of the West." The split between the eastern and western regions of the US is mirrored by the divide between East Egg and West Egg.

American Dream

Nick moves back to midwest after small fuernal for Gastby and Kilpsringer asks for his tennis shoes but wont go to fuenal bad person Nick reflects that just as Gatsby's dream of Daisy was corrupted by money and dishonesty, the American dream of happiness and individualism has disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. Though Gatsby's power to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him "great," Nick reflects that the era of dreaming—both Gatsby's dream and the American dream—is over.

The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg

Nick-> haunting waste of the past whcihc lingers on though it is irretrievably vanished (like Dr's medical practice) Gatsby-> "vacant", often stare out, blankly, keeping "vigil" George W-> eyes of God, which can 'see everything'

Class (old money, new money, no money)

Old money: Tom and Daisy Buchanan. They've built up powerful and influential social connections and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility (formal politeness). New money: Gatsby. No social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays of wealth. No money: George and Myrtle Wilson. Gets overlooked - like George Wilson who is forgotten or ignored.

Gatsby's mansion

Represents the grandness and emptiness. Gatsby justifies living in it all alone by filling the house weekly with "celebrated people" Also a symbol of Gatsby's love for Daisy. Gatsby used his "new money" to create a place that he thought rivaled the houses of the "old money" that had taken her away.

The American Dream

Supposed to be that 'hard work can lead one from rags to riches.' People came from Europe seeking wealth and freedom. The novel portrays this shift as a symbol of the American Dream's corruption (no longer a vision of buildign a life; just about getting rich) Gastby symbolizes both the corrupted dream and the original uncorrupted dream. He sees wealth as the solution to his problems yet this is motivated by an incorruptible love for Daisy. Corruption and materiaalsim prevails over hard work, integrity and real love.

The green light and the colour green

Symbol of Gatsby's hopes and dreams; represents everything that haunts and beckons Gatsby: physical and emotional distance; gap between past and present. Connotes money; Long Island sound, George W's haggard tired face is "green" in sunlight; Michaelis describes the car that kills Myrtle W as "light green" when its yellow; Gatsby's perfect lawn. Can be "new", "natural", "innocent", "naive" and "uncorrupted" but also "rotten", "guillible", "nauseous", and "sickly"

Blue Jays illusions - his deeply romantic dreams

Then there's the color blue, which we think represents Gatsby's illusions -- his deeply romantic dreams of unreality. We did notice that the color blue is present around Gatsby more than any other character. His gardens are blue, his chauffeur wears blue, the water separating him from Daisy is his "blue lawn" (9.150), mingled with the "blue smoke of brittle leaves" in his yard. His transformation into Jay Gatsby is sparked by Cody, who buys him, among other things, a "blue coat"—and he sends a woman who comes to his house a "gas blue" dress (3.25). Before you tie this up under one simple label, keep in mind that the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg are also blue, and so is Tom's car. If blue represents illusions and alternatives to reality, maybe that makes the eyes of God into a non-existent dream. As for Tom's car...well, you can field that one.

white innocence

While we're looking at cars, notice that Daisy's car (back before she was married) was white. So are her clothes, the rooms of her house, and about half the adjectives used to describe her (her "white neck," "white girlhood," the king's daughter "high in a white palace"). Everyone likes to say that white in The Great Gatsby means innocence, probably because (1) that's easy to say and (2) everyone else is saying it. But come on - Daisy is hardly the picture of girlish innocence. At the end of the novel, she's described as selfish, careless, and destructive. Does this make the point that even the purest characters in Gatsby have been corrupted? Did Daisy start off all innocent and fall along the way, or was there no such purity to begin with? Or, in some way, does Daisy's decision to remain with Tom allow her to keep her innocence? We'll keep thinking about that one.

Gold vs. Yellow

gold is for the old money as Jordans golden dress Diasy is reffered to as the golden girl But yellow is different. Yellow is fake gold; it's veneer and show rather than substance. We see that with the "yellow cocktail music" at Gatsby's party (1) and the "two girls in twin yellow dresses" who aren't as alluring as the golden Jordan (3.15). Also yellow? Gatsby's car, symbol of his desire—and failure—to enter New York's high society. And if that weren't enough, T. J. Eckleburg's glasses, looking over the wasteland of America, are yellow.

West Egg vs. East Egg

showing the economic wealth gap between new money and old money with no middle class just the valley of ash for the lower class to extremes. The green light

Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg's

the eyes of god looking down on the scum of the earth

The Midwest vs. NYC

the new money isn't the same as old money and the people from the Midwest which is everyone in the story couldn't handle living in the big city. Nick describes the novel as a book about Westerners, a "story of the West." Tom, Daisy, Jordan, Gatsby, and Nick all hail from places other than the East. The romanticized American idea of going West to seek and make one's fortune on the frontier turned on its ear in the 1920's stock boom; now those seeking their fortune headed back East to cash in. But while Gatsbysuggests there was a kind of honor in the hard work of making a fortune and building a life on the frontier, the quest for money in the East is nothing more than that: a hollow quest for money. The split between the eastern and western regions of the United States is mirrored in Gatsby by the divide between East Egg and West Egg: once again the West is the frontier of people making their fortunes, but these "Westerners" are as hollow and corrupt inside as the "Easterners."

Alienation

the old money people alienate the new money people by not associating with them thinking that they are less than them

Gatsby's car

was the vehicle that killed myrtle was yellow for what corrupt money c