Motifs In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a novel, known as The Great Gatsby. The setting took place in the summer of 1922, in Long Island. In the novel, Fitzgerald uses motifs and symbols throughout the work. Some of the significant motifs are gold, time, pink suits and green light. All of the motifs seems to point toward ‘dreams and illusions versus reality’ and the ‘class statuses differences’ as a themes of the novel.
Gold is associated with the upper class and the real things in the novel. The upper class, such as Daisy, which is Gatsby’s ex-lover and Tom, whom is Daisy’s husband, is represented with the color gold. Fitzgerald uses this color

83) The falling of the clock shows that it is impossible to catch up on the lost time. Another example is Dr. T.J. Eckleburg was similar to a representation of God. At the end of the novel, Fitzgerald tried to inform the readers that even God can’t turned back time. As George Wilson whom is Tom’s lover’s, Myrtle’s husband is speaking to Michaelis, Wilson’s restaurateur about Myrtle’s death; Wilson’s attention was caught on the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, and said that ‘God sees everything.’ The following conversation shows that even if Wilson realizes that God knows everything, God cannot reversed nor stop time; which led to Wilson taking matters into his own hands. The conversation in chapter eight was, “’I spoke to her,’ he muttered, after a long silence. “I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God. I took her to the window.’ — with an effort he got up and walked to the rear window and leaned with his face pressed against it ——‘ and I said ‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!’ Standing

The green light was at the end of Daisy’s dock and Gatsby was caught looking at it many times. The author expresses the green light as Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for a future with Daisy; in addition to his deep love for her. In chapter one, Gatsby is reaching out to the light. The following quote described the expressions that was seen by Nick “…he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock.” (Pg. 33) Later in chapter nine, Nick realized that Gatsby was trying to reach out for Daisy, when he reached out to the green light. Nick expressed his thoughts about the light and Gatsby, “…I thought of Gatsby‘s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy‘s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could barely fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark