Decay And The Past In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

In, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows his mastery of literary elements through themes in the book. A few prominent themes in this book would be: decay and the past. This theme is shown through symbolism and characterization, along with character development, throughout the book. Decay and the past in this book are represented extremely well through symbolism. A huge symbol in this book is the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg watching over the valley of ashes. The sign is an old advertisement for eye care that watches over the workers. The sign is old and falling apart and the valley is barren from the ashes and fires that are always happening there. The eyes overlook the Wilson’s garage, and have overseen the decay and end of Myrtle Wilson.

For the most part, the characters are wealthy people living in gorgeous homes on Long Island. While their lives may look happy and lavish, their lives are actually more on the miserable side. The first sign of decay is when Tom and Daisy’s relationship began to fall apart when Tom cheated on Daisy after they had married and still cheated on her with Myrtle Wilson. The past is represented best through Gatsby. Throughout the book he has a strong belief that he can recreate the past and win Daisy back, so they can continue where they started. However, Gatsby cannot re-live his past life with Daisy in it. He moves into a giant mansion across the bay from Daisy and seems to be obsessed with the green light at the end of her dock. He later buys her a ring with a green stone, just like the color of the light at the end of her dock. Gatsby tends to act childish throughout the majority of the book and he is highly contained within his own world and thoughts. When he was with Daisy later in the book when they were reunited, he had acted like nothing had changed in her life since he went away to the war. Her life had drastically changed within those years; she was married, had a child and was living her life not knowing he was so close. Gatsby’s character began to decay due to the fact that he seemed to dwell on the past and could not form a new future for