Examples Of Dark Trees In The Great Gatsby

In this passage from The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick is on a car ride through the city after a lunch with Jordan. The ride turns very personal with both Nick’s commentary and actions.
While in the car, Nick describes them passing a “barrier of dark trees.” A “barrier” is defined as an obstacle preventing access to something one wants or needs. Them having passed such “barrier” suggests they have moved through a certain stage in their relationship; they have passed an obstacle in their romance or within themselves. Such a barrier is described by Nick as being made of “dark trees.” In many folk traditions trees represent life and growth. This traditional meaning paired with a word such as “dark” connoting malevolence or impurity

Not only having passed a “barrier” in their love, Nick insinuates the belief that they have surpassed the need to pretend or “sugar-coat” their less agreeable characteristics. His reverence of their relationship continues as “delicate pale light beam[s] down” while they are in a park. An item being “delicate” references a higher quality due to craftsmanship, but it also references something easily breakable. While Nick could perceive his relationship with Jordan as of such a higher quality, it could also be precariously waiting for a crack to form following the denotation of the “delicate” light that shines upon it. His almost hopeful perception of his romance with her is furthered with the “light” itself. Light represents purity, and in tandem with it “beam[ing]” down as if from Heaven above implies that Nick has placed his summer romance on a pedestal. His sense of superiority continues when he states that he is “unlike” the other men in his life. Being “unlike” something denotes a distinct difference between one and the other. This unlikeness comes in the form of him having “no girl,” referring to a mistress. Such girls for the other men have “disembodied” faces and “float along.” Ghosts and