Contradictions In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

American society has been backwards for years on end but in the 1920s these contradictions stuck out like a sore thumb. In the story “The Great Gatsby” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it took place in the 1920s where many contradictions were present in society. Gatsby was a very rich man that owned a house in West egg where people with “new money” reside and the love of his life Daisy Buchanan lived across the body of water in east egg where people with “old money” resided. In the story “The Great Gatbsy” they do a great job using imagery such as the Valley of Ashes and they use symbolism such as TJ Eckleberg and the green light to represent the contradiction of wealth in the 1920s. When looking at how imagery represents contradictions in

This green light represents Gatsby’s hopes to be with Daisy once again. Gatbsy lives across a big body of water from Daisy and her husband Tom’s house Gatbsy was once with Daisy 5 years prior to them finally meeting again. Now Gatsby was always in love with Daisy but she moved on and got with Tom and his “old money”. So this green light showed Gatsby’s hope to being together with Daisy once again: “...he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light” (Fitzgerald 33). This shows that Gatsby was not happy with his life because he would be looking at this green light quite frequently and it was always hoping he could live his life with Daisy. Now Gatsby could buy whatever he wants whenever he wanted but this didn’t matter because what he wanted was Daisy and he couldn’t get her because she was in love with Tom. So in conclusion Gatsby wasn’t happy with the life he had because he was missing a piece of his ideal life he was missing Daisy, so his wealth didn’t matter to him because he wanted to be with the love of his life and he had hopes he would