This story leads you down the path of narrator Nick Carraway’s life after moving to a fictional town in Long Island, New York. He meets a variety of new people who play a dramatic role in his life. Through Nick’s encounters with both people and places, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author, is able to insert multiple symbols. By using symbols such as the green light, the billboard, and the valley of ashes F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to advance his plot and enhance the quality of The Great Gatsby. The green light is one of the first symbols found within the story. One night while he was heading home, Nick spots one of the main characters in the book, Jay Gatsby, mysteriously reaching out toward a green light in the distance. This light was located on the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock across the bay and symbolizes Gatsby’s distant attraction towards her. Daisy, however, was married to Tom Buchanan which puts a strain on Gatsby’s hopes for a future with her. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms out farther…” (Fitzgerald, 193). …show more content…
This valley is located between New York City and the West Egg. It represents the fate of the people who were not as successful as those living in the West and East Egg. It’s miserable terrain provides a visual image of what it was like to be in the shadow of the successful and wealthy members of society. “This is a valley of ashes- a fantastic dark where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who love dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air