Imagery In The Great Gatsby

Two American writers have paved their way in literature with their captivating outlooks on the societies of their time. F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of “The Great Gatsby” and e.e. cummings , author of “anyone lived in a pretty how town” convey similar themes of carelessness and love through the use of imagery, symbolism, and motifs. Both selections reveal that the intense love between people can create carelessness for the world surrounding them.

Fitzgerald's, “The Great Gatsby” is known for his use of color imagery to help convey a message. Some examples of color imagery are distinguished with green, white, gold, blue, yellow, and red. In the book, green depicts hope. One of the major uses of green imagery is to show the hope that Gatsby

In “The Great Gatsby” some examples of symbolism are Gatsby’s house, the owl eyed man, DR. T.J. Eckleburg, and the clock. One of the moments in which Gatsby’s house was mentioned was, “only wind in the trees which blew the wires and made the light go off and on again as if the house had winked into the darkness… he turned his eyes toward it absently. I have been glancing into some of the rooms.”(Fitzgerald 88) The use of personification in the quote is used to symbolize Gatsby’s thoughts or emotions. The house is being personified as winking. This leads the reader to think the house may be alive in a way. The flickering on and off of lights shows Gatsby’s changing and manically racing thoughts. When gatsby makes the excuse of the lights being on he says he was looking into the rooms. This represents him looking into the “rooms” of his mind and all his memories of Daisy. Another use of symbolism is the owl eyed man, “I’ve been drunk for about a week now and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.” (Fitzgerald 48) The owl eyed man can represent wisdom. Him wanting to sit in a library to sober up and examine the books symbolizes his realization to his drunkenness and the carelessness of the roaring 20’s party life. Also when the book states him, “...muttering that if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse.” (Fitzgerald 46) He shows his awareness of Gatsby’s measures to craft an impressive life to attract his love, Daisy. Later on in the chapter owl eyed man gets in a car wreck with another mysterious figure, “a pale dangling individual stepped out of the wreck” (Fitzgerald 54) In the car crash at first it seems as though the owl eyed man is the driver but then the second person is distinguished as the one driving. The real driver can represent the alcohol that controls him. The real driver is described as pale and ghastly. In the crash they run into a ditch and lose