Daisy's Use Of Religious Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

Claire Dove

Mr. Clark

ENG 153

21 February 2023

The Spiritual Lense of The Great Gatsby

Every Sunday Church services are held to worship the Lord. This little piece of the day gives hope to those who wish to better themselves. Although, God is not the only thing that is being worshiped on a day to day basis. What is worship? This is the act of devoting yourself to something or someone. To some people, worshiping something could be an addiction to social media. It could be a certain person, alcohol, drugs, or many other daily occurrences. When I think of worshiping I normally think of God, however it could be just about anything that you’re passionate about. In The Great Gatsby, the characters care about many other things that do not fulfill

To Gatsby, Daisy is like a holy angel sent from the heavens. She is his idol that he prays to every night. Instead of physically praying to her, he stands at the end of the dock staring into the depths of the water at her green light across the lake. Gatsby’s love for Daisy quickly becomes an obsession. She is his holy grail. One night, Nick was looking outside the window when he noticed a figure on the end of the dock. This figure reaches his arms out towards the glistening water. That so-called figure is actually Jay Gatsby, silently observing the love of his life Daisy. Nick shares with us that, “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 21). In a lot of religions, people pray to their Gods that they worship before a meal. Instead of this, Gatsby watches towards Daisy’s home every night as part of his

The feeling she has for Tom doesn’t end very well on her behalf. Both Tom and Myrtle are married to other people, but they still choose to cheat with each other. Even though this is a very bad thing to do; they still choose to partake in it until Myrtle’s husband finds out about these little shenanigans. Later in the book, Myrtle thinks that Tom is driving a yellow vehicle. She desperately wants to get out of her house, so she hurdles her way towards the road. It all happens so fast, and she gets hit by “Tom's car”. This incident causes Myrtle’s demise. One quote from the book says, “A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting — before he could move from his door the business was over”(Fitzgerald 137). Myrtle cares about the affair she has with Tom a little too much, but he just cares about the power he has over women. Deep inside, he doesn’t care about anyone but