Dust In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes place in the New York and Long island area in 1922. It is written in the view of Nick Carraway as he witnesses the world of the wealthy, an impossible love story, broken hearts, shattered dreams, tragedy, and deceit. Recurring motifs of ash, fire, and dust can be found throughout the entirety of The Great Gatsby. These symbols all represent a different aspect of the book. The dust represents the unfulfilled dreams of Gatsby, the fire and ash represent the social class difference between characters such as the Buchanans and the Wilsons, and the ash and dust also represent the deaths that transpire in The Great Gatsby. The dust serves as a symbol for the end of Gatsby’s dreams. From start to finish,

The fire, portrayed as candlelight mainly, is a symbol for wealth and the ash is a symbol for poverty. When the Buchanans first sit down to dinner with Nick in the very beginning of the book they eat by candlelight. Fitzgerald describes the moment as, “Slenderly, languidly, their hands set lightly on their hips, the two young women preceded us out onto a rosy-colored porch, open toward the sunset, where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind”. This description offers a clear sense of wealth with the addition of the candles on the dinner table; however, shortly after this moment, the candles are put out by Daisy. Fitzgerald writes, “‘Why candles?’ objected Daisy, frowning. She snapped them out with her fingers.” When this moment of brief dramaticness on daisy’s part has passed, Nick says, “Among the broken fragments of the last five minutes at table I remember the candles being lit again…”. Daisy's actions of putting out and then relighting the candles also seems to be an indication of her relationship with Gatsby. She loved him once, but ultimately chose Tom and his money over Gatsby in the