Fitzgerald's Use Of Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

The impact of the striking settings in the Great Gatsby can overwhelm the reader at first, with its flowery descriptions and cryptic imagery. However, when the settings are fully understood, there is a symbolic meaning Fitzgerald is trying to convey through the settings of the places that are visited within the Great Gatsby. There is a realization when the reader looks deeply into the reality of the 1920s through Fitzgerald’s book. Fitzgerald uses the characterization and symbolism of the settings in the book to convey the theme of how the glitter and glamor of the 1920s overshadows the deeper ugliness that hides itself below the surface. Fitzgerald uses the Valley of Ashes to represent the despair and destruction felt from the extremely

The massive increase in wealth following World War I in America created a new culture of a glamourous and party lifestyle. Although the 1920s seemed like a great era of peace and prosperity from a distance, Fitzgerald shows that it was a time of flaunting hollow wealth and following a culture of carelessness. Gatsby’s mansion is the main focus point of East Egg, being a place where a majority of the story takes place. Nick described it as “ a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden(4).” The main that Fitzgerald was trying to demonstrate through this description was the ultimately hollowness of the mansion itself. Instead of describing original features and things that made the mansion unique, it was described as an imitation, filled with many things that are commonly seen and done before. The mansion was Gatsby’s intention to cover his real goals with his massive amounts of money and glamor. “He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart ” (95). The contrast between the descriptions of fire and life and the “ghostly heart” of Gatsby

Throughout the book, the city has been a point of conflict or it has been used to find out some information about Gatsby or Tom, drawing parallels as they both brought Nick to the city to show Nick something about themselves. When Nick was at the party in the city with Tom and Myrtle, he looked out the window and thought, “At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others—poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner—young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life” (56). Even when Nick is in a place surrounded by people around him, he is feeling an insurmountable loneliness. Although he feels an enchanted-ness and attraction from the city, there is also a barrier between him and the lifestyle that he is experiencing. The city is a place of paradoxes, while Nick is feeling both a push and pull from the attractiveness of the city. This is a result of the culture of loneliness built up by how appealing it became. The more the people who live in the city become attracted to the party-like atmosphere, the more hollow it feels. Since Nick is an observant character, he is able to understand the inherent loneliness of how careless everyone is. The intimate connection between people becomes overshadowed by the party-like lifestyle that is