preview

Discuss Fitzgerald’s use of symbols within The Great Gatsby.

Good Essays

Discuss Fitzgerald’s use of symbols within The Great Gatsby. Throughout his novel ‘The Great Gatsby’, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism. Symbols are objects, characters, figures or colours used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. The first symbol we see appears at the end of Chapter one. It is a green light, situated at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s East Egg dock and is only just visible from Gatsby’s expansive West Egg back garden. In Chapter one Nick (the narrator) describes his mysterious neighbour stretching “out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way’, this is Gatsby reaching desperately out to the green light, which represents his hopes and dreams for the future (which incidentally, involved Daisy). He …show more content…

In some respects, Daisy is a symbol of the past, which Gatsby wishes to re-capture for his future. To Gatsby she symbolises purity, love, money, his future and he thinks that she is wonderful. However, we know that this is not true and she is none of these things. Fitzgerald is demonstrating that people see what they want to see and not what is actually there. He is showing, by using symbols that humans attach meaning and symbolism to mere objects ourselves and without this attachment they are meaningless. In addition to this, throughout the book, the author does not make it clear what the symbols are or what they represent, he leaves it open so that the reader can make their own assumptions. Right the way through the novel, Fitzgerald uses colour in accordance with the character in focus, the mood of the scene, the status of the person and the overall situation at the time. For example, whenever we see Daisy she is wearing white and this colour represents purity and this is how she is seen by many people, as a serene, angelic figure. Another example is in chapter seven, this chapter is one full of drama and the heated atmosphere that is building is reflected in the frequent use of references to the colour red, “hot!... hot!... hot!...”, the colour of anger, “crimson carpet”. Also, the significant choice of green as the colour of the light (mentioned above). · Eyes of Doctor T. J.

Get Access