How Does Fitzgerald Use Critical Lense In The Great Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author used many different critical lenses and maybe without even knowing it. Fitzgerald used critical lenses such as, the reader response lense, the historical lense, the gender lense, the new criticism lense, and many more. The new criticism connected to the text much more than any other lense. By the author adding many different symbols and themes throughout the novel, Fitzgerald was able to capture the idea of the new criticism lense as the novel progressed. Symbolism is the “artistic imitation or invention that is a method of revealing or suggesting immaterial, ideal, or otherwise intangible truth or states” according to Merriam-Webster. Symbols such as the clock, the weather, and the greenlight were all recurring as the novel progressed. In chapter five, Gatsby knocks over time, sort of trying to turn back time just like how he tries to recreate his past with Daisy. Gatsby is trying to turn back time, to the time which Daisy and him were together and in love. Another symbol that was included in the novel was the weather. Also in chapter five, the weather kept changing. While Daisy was over Gatsby’s house having dinner, “The rain was still falling, but the darkness had parted in

Another way that the American dream is shown in the novel is how Fitzgerald showed the difference between both the West and East Egg. On the East Egg it is old money and on the West Egg it is new money; “I lived at West Egg, the-- well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them” (9). Fitzgerald describes that you have to be born into money in order to be important. In the end, different themes has occurred throughout the novel, but romance and the American dream are the more important