Allusions In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby has been around for ages; it is a story of a young man in the 1920’s who is thrown into a new world made up of the new and the old rich. He is confused by the way these people act and in the end cannot stay another minute in this strange, insensitive, materialistic world. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many techniques to help the reader understand how Nick Carraway (the narrator) is feeling throughout the story. In the book The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses effective language to make his writing successful. He uses the techniques of imagery and irony to display this message.

The author uses the Valley of Ashes, a small town between the West Egg and New York City, to symbolize the moral and social decay that stems from the desire to become wealthy. The 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 symbolizes a morally stripped place where materialistic and false people can live in harmony. The unfortunate events that occur in the Valley of Ashes, including Gatsby's death, the affair between Tom and Myrtle and Myrtle's accidental death, represent the severe consequences stemming from the failed attempts at achieving the American Dream. As the characters travel through the Valley of Ashes to reach elsewhere, they are forced to belittle themselves to a lower social status, as seen when Tom engages in an affair with Myrtle, a poor-stricken woman, who solely provides another form of comfort. Serving as a symbol of social and moral destruction, the Valley of Ashes also symbolizes the condition in which the poorer American society lived during the 1920s. The description of the Valley of Ashes used through color symbolism, creates a melancholy atmosphere which allows the reader to connect the importance of the "desolate strip of land" to the negative personality changes, reflective of the 1920s, within the characters.

When Nick is describing Gatsby he uses this bold comparison between Gatsby and Jesus Christ to illuminate what Gatsby has created himself to be. Jesus is described to be “faithful to his self-created dream but scornful of the factual truth that finally crushes him and his dream”—an appropriate description of Gatsby. Though the comparison between Gatsby and Jesus is not an important event in The Great Gatsby, it is nonetheless a suggestive comparison, as Gatsby transforms himself into the image that he envisioned for himself as a youngster and remains committed to that idea, despite the obstacles that society presents to the

Another symbol that Fitzgerald uses in The Great Gatsby is the bill board with T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes. “But 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 eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue gigantic-their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.”(Fitzgerald 23-24). Fitzgerald uses T.J. Eckleburg's as a symbol to represent God’s

Jay Gatsby, the title character of the novel is an incredibly wealthy young man, living in a medieval mansion in West Egg on an imaginary area of Long Island. Gatsby has many laudable traits. For example, he is filled with optimism and the ability to transform his dreams into reality. Jay is also extremely faithful to his true love, Daisy Buchanan, even to the point of death. When we first meet Gatsby, he is the aloof host of the fantastically opulent parties thrown every weekend at his mansion. It appears he is surrounded by wondrous luxury and is courted by beautiful women and the rich and powerful men of the time. Jay is also a very admirable character due to his status of wealth and being a hero of War World I, “In the Argonne Forest I took two machine gun detachments so far forward that there was half a mile gap on either side… I was promoted to be a major, and every Allied government gave me a decoration- even Montenegro”. However, Nick who narrates the book views Gatsby as a flawed man who is dishonest, deceitful, a liar, and a dreamer whom is searching for answers in the past, “he talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself, perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy… if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…”

The scriptures from the Bible can be seen in many different pieces of literature, in multiple forms, providing added depth and meaning to a story. The use of religious imagery is highly prevalent and can be identified a number of times in the novel The Great Gatsby by F.Scott FItzgerald.

Fitzgerald uses Nick to lead us to sympathize with Gatsby whom Nick understands and sympathises with.

According to some, Jesus was a savior: strong, honest, and selfless. The same can not be said for Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is a rich man from a poor background. In the past Gatsby loved Daisy, but that love was short since gatsby went to go fight in WW1. When he returned he was still in love with Daisy, even though she married someone else. However that did not stop gatsby from trying to win her back. Even though Gatsby was corrupt, dishonest, and selfish, there is a distinct parallel between Jesus and Gatsby. Their commitment to a goal, their personalities, and the way things played out for both men are very similar. F. Scott Fitzgerald showed Gatsby as a Christ-like figure in

When Jesus uttered his final words on Calvary’s cross, he was declaring that all debt had been cleared. Because of his perfect life, he was able to act as the sacrificial lamb for all sin and to buy the freedom of those in debt to God. In his book, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald very intentionally creates Jay Gatsby’s character as a mirror image of Christ. In contrast to his view of the 1920’s, Fitzgerald created Jay Gatsby, a Christ-like figure who shows immense selfless love, is betrayed by his very supporters, and steps over the boundaries of societal norms in order to live for something more significant.

In life everyone strives to get rich, but is having an abundance of money always good? Sometimes people use money for personal benefits, sometimes it's for the benefit of others, but at times people with money use it to create their social status. In The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the idea of wealth is seen throughout. Jay Gatsby, who lives next door to Nick Carraway; the Narrator of the story, wants to be with his dream girl Daisy. Gatsby is wealthy and throws parties to impress Daisy. Daisy however, is married to another man Tom Buchanan. Throughout the story the people with money use it to create their social status. In The Great Gatsby F.Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism to convey, wealth causes people to assert

There are many cases however, that overpower his opinion. The first being the prominent resemblance between Gatsby’s death to Jesus’. Fitzgerald evidently portrays the well known passage of Jesus carrying and struggling with his cross on his own on the way to Golgotha, where he later dies. After Gatsby announces, like Jesus, the account of his death is “God’s Truth”, he depicts Jesus’ crucifixion by showing and describing how Gatsby too struggled when he carried his air mattress to his pool on his own (Christensen 154). Gatsby relates to Christ in another sense when he takes fault for Myrtle’s death and as a result dies for Daisy (Dilworth). Daisy is ultimately responsible for Myrtle’s death even if it was unintentionally.Because it was an accident her action isn’t considered a sin, but her not confessing to it is not only a sin, but also a crime (Dilworth). Carraway asks Gatsby if Daisy was indeed driving, and he replies, “Yes,...but of course I’ll say I was”(Dilworth). Gatsby dies for Daisy’s sins just like Jesus dies for sins that are not his own. Gatsby is most definitely portrayed as a Christ figure.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of a world lost to superficiality and greed. Falsehood and deception are the currency which fuels the characters in the novel. Dwelling in this fallen world, Fitzgerald has placed a fallen god. Gatsby is bathed in descriptions that identify him as the Son of God. Fitzgerald makes a conscious effort to clothe this character with imagery and actions to make him the patron deity of this fallen world, but Gatsby is too much enveloped by his surroundings to save them and is consumed in the attempt. Despite the biblical allusions, strong images and explicit statements identifying Gatsby with Christ, the prevailing tone of the novel prevents him from being a Christ-figure.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, portrays the life of a man who is truly focused on one dream: to reclaim the love of his life. Fitzgerald illustrates the problem of being so single-minded through Gatsby’s ultimate demise. His slow evolution and reveal of the character of Gatsby leads to a devastating climax once his dream fails. Fitzgerald uses extended metaphor and sharp diction to depict Gatsby’s crumbling life in his last moments.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is told from the perspective of one of the main characters, Nick Carraway. Nick tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, who is his neighbor in the West Egg. Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as a man who everyone wants to know and copy but deep down are very envious of him. Gatsby trusts few people and those whom he trusts know his life story. To everyone else, he is a mystery. Everyone seems obsessed with Jay Gatsby. For this reason the novel revolves about rumors of Gatsby rather than the truth.

The book The Great Gatsby is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it’s a narrative told from the perspective of Nick Carraway. He tells the story of the tragic life of Jay Gatsby and talks about the society of the wealthy people with high social status. He talks about the conflict between the two huge power Tom and Gatsby, due to their similarity in their money and social status, while they compete for dominance and masculinity by fighting over Daisy. Through Nick’s narration and his close relationship with Gatsby, the readers realize that the motive behind everything that Gatsby does is to win back Daisy’s heart to repeat the past, the first time when he fell in love with Daisy.