Gatsby Analytical Essay One big theme in the Great Gatsby is the weather changing throughout the book. The theme is that the weather changes due to how a character’s relationship changes with another character through the book. The way Fitzgerald uses the motif is to emphasis their current feelings for each other and in a way mimics their situation with other characters as well. The first time Daisy and Gatsby meet, its pouring rain to show that their current feelings for each other is uncomfortable and nerve-wracking, but as soon as Nick comes back inside, it stops raining.
As readers, we encounter many different books with many different storylines, but do we always grasp the allegories, or symbols, that the author uses throughout his text? Granted, some are more obvious than others, but we all can agree that just about every single book we’ve picked up, or will pick up in the future, will have some sort of symbol. In The Great Gatsby, there are a few symbols that F. Scott Fitzgerald uses to underline the main ideas throughout his text, but one in particular stuck out to me, the weather. Not only does Fitzgerald use the rain and the sunshine, but he also uses the seasons, summer and fall, to give his scenes deeper meanings. The weather provides meaning by representing Gatsby’s feelings, the heat between the characters,
Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the weather reflects the mood and serves as a foreshadowing for the events that come later. Fitzgerald makes a point of describing the weather patterns and conditions towards the beginning of the chapter as the weather always has some symbolic meaning. For example, a large storm hits while Gatsby is awaiting his meeting with Daisy. This sets a dark mood that eventually leads to uneasy feelings between Daisy and Gatsby, which eventually wears away. In literature, rain is used to symbolize a cleansing and in the case of Gatsby and Daisy, their uneasy feelings are swept away with the rain.
When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure” (Alice Hoffman). In life and in this novel, weather reflects a character's internal and external actions. On a sunny day, faces are smiling, hearts are light, and life is good, compared to a dark, stormy day when everyone is stuck inside, sad and tired from doing nothing. In the novel this is shown by weather effecting each characters, and setting the tone as the reader follows the novel's course of events.
In the Great Gatsby, Gatsby seemed to be living in the past. Five years ago Jay Gatsby lived as James Gatz. Time is an important message in the great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby wants to go to the back to past in Louisville with Daisy. In order to emphasize Gatsby needs to live in this past where he was happy, Fitzgerald uses lie and opposing views of Nick.
In the novel, “The Great Gatsby”, in chapter 3, Gatsby’s behavior when he would do his parties would be unusual because he would not participate in his own festivities. He would throw the parties for people to enjoy but would not behave like his guests would. He makes it look like if he wants something to happen but it never occurs yet. For example, Gatsby’s odd behavior is shown when he Nick finds him “standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes.” Gatsby does this in a way of illustrating that he might see someone who he has been waiting for long period of time.
Throughout the story, the summer weather influences the mood of love. Nick hosts a tea where Gatsby and Daisy reunite. Initially, the weather is stormy and there is a mood of nervous tension between Gatsby and Daisy, but as the tea progresses the mood lightens: “The sun shone again.[Gatsby] literally glowed”(Fitzgerald 89). The shining sun reflects the moods of Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship. Marking the time of the height of their relationship and beginning to appear when Gatsby and Daisy rekindle their love, the clear weather mirrors the connection.
The overwhelming symbol that runs throughout the story (Beginning with the title) is that of seasons. The story is called Winter dream, Winter is a symbol that indicates Winter is not just a period of inactivity or decay and coldness, it is a time when Dexter feels “ a feeling of profound melancholy” when the story ended, it is essentially winter forever, with the summertime dreams of love gone. Not to mention that During the cold Minnesota winters. When the golf course is frozen over and Dexter can not interact with the upper-class people he likes, so he is just left with his winter dreams. His winter dreams that would form him in the future, His winter dreams that Fitzgerald used to refer To Dexter’s ambitions to the future.
The seasons mentioned in The Great Gatsby are symbolical of the progression of theemotion in the novel. Tom, Daisy, and Nick talk about Jordan, spending lots ofweekends in the summer with Nick. In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, theysay summer is supposed to be passion and love; well Toms and Jordan loved each otherthroughout the book. “ At Gatsby’s parties he had enough colorful lights to make aChristmas tree”. The book How to Read Like a Professor, they talked about how thewinter is supposed to be about anger and hated.
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the changing seasons mirror the rise and fall of hopes and dreams; it's a tragic tale of inevitable disillusionment. The changing seasons hold a lot of symbolic meaning across different cultures and beliefs. Symbolism in the seasons has been persistent throughout literary history, making symbolic connections to paint a bigger picture. Generally, the four seasons —Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter— are often associated with aspects of life and nature. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald implements the symbolism of seasons to highlight each character's desires, mirages, and the deterioration of the American dream; Using the freshness of the spring, the sultry of the summer, and decomposition of fall to represent
From day one of Nick Carraway’s arrival, to the tragic ending of the Gatsby story, the weather continues to play a big part in predicting what’s to come. While reading, the weather might seem to be of little importance, but looking back, it’s hard to miss its meaning. The weather in The Great Gatsby, foreshadows character behaviors and gives insight on certain events and people in the novel. Fitzgerald uses the theme of weather through a combination of temperature and wind, rain storms, and hot summer days all while intertwining it into the character’s lives.
Seasons of the year, the green light, and Nicks clock are all instruments that denote Gatsby’s refusal to accept that he cannot change the past. His focus on the past represents everything Buddha warned of. The present bears a new start and opportunity to change the future. Gatsby could be with Daisy if he had wanted. Gatsby had her, but he didn’t want to be with present Daisy; he wanted to be with the Daisy he knew five years before and as a result, lost
Natural Elements Define Emotions Weather and heat are great metaphors for life-sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, and there’s nothing you can do about it (Pepper Giardino). In the novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, a narrator named Nick Carraway tells the story about his neighbor, Gatsby, who is filled with wealth and love. Nick grows to know Gatsby and is involved with all the incidents that happen during the novel. Throughout the story, there are reoccurring elements and literary devices.
Weather Representing Emotions Normally weather and emotions are not associated, but throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald makes multiple references comparing the feelings of Jay Gatsby to the weather outside. He uses rain to represent the times of sadness or awkward situations. When those moods uplifted the clouds would break, and the sun would shine. Other times he would use heat to represent times of anger, or tension.
Early in the novel, the reader gets the impression that the painting is pervaded by the longing for the youth that one has lost as well as the frightening deficiency of human life. In chapter eight this painting is described as: “the most magical of mirrors.” (Wilde 98). The portrait works
