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Great Gatsby Symbolism Analysis

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The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby is a novel of triumph and tragedy. The Great Gatsby is written on the society of the 1920s during the time of Fitzgerald. The novel served as a snapshot on the post-war society known as the Jazz Age. The novel brings insight into the life of people during the 1920s. Fitzgerald uses several different forms of symbolism throughout the book to add meaning and emotion. Fitzgerald employs several devices, including color imagery, symbols, and descriptive tags, throughout the novel. Fitzgerald uses colors as one of the forms of symbolism. One of the colors used is yellow. Yellow symbolises wealth and riches and it symbolises old wealth and new riches. Several characters are represented with the color gold. One …show more content…

Jordan Baker was told that she was reckless and a rotten driver. “You’re a rotten driver,” I protested. “Either you ought to be more careful, or you oughtn’t to drive at all” (Fitzgerald 58). She represents a car well because she was careless, she didn 't care what she did and if she hurt anyone. Jordan and Baker are names of a car company back in the 1900s. This represents her well because her names are car companies. Another character is Owl Eyes. He represents a car because he tells Nick that he had been drunk for a week and moments later crashes his car in front of Gatsby’s house. He is so drunk that when he crashed his car he thought it had just run out of gas. One of Gatsby’s cars is used for murder. Myrtle was hit and was killed by Gatsby 's car outside the garage. Gatsby is then later tracked down by George and is killed because George thought Gatsby had killed Myrtle. Cars also symbolise wealth back in the 1920s. People who thought they were better than others would buy the best looking and expensive cars on the market. Gatsby wants to show off how wealthy he is and uses the car as a symbol of his wealth. There 's an ongoing theme of new money versus old money where Gatsby has been handed his money down from generation and Tom has worked for what he has and was made rich by his own

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