In the end, The Great Gatsby is a widely respected book of symbols and themes of deeper meaning. It is a book that on the outside appears as a love tale but on the inside is a rich complex meaningful story. Fitzgerald, the author, has effectively used the symbols and representation of weather to help aid the reader in understanding the deeper complexion of his book. Between Rain, Fog, and Heat any reader of The Great Gatsby can easily identify what the different weather events mean and represent. It proves how Fitzgerald is an effective writer and his stories have more than what meets the eyes.
Gatsby Analytical Essay One big theme in the Great Gatsby is the weather changing throughout the book. The theme is that the weather changes due to how a character’s relationship changes with another character through the book. The way Fitzgerald uses the motif is to emphasis their current feelings for each other and in a way mimics their situation with other characters as well. The first time Daisy and Gatsby meet, its pouring rain to show that their current feelings for each other is uncomfortable and nerve-wracking, but as soon as Nick comes back inside, it stops raining.
A Rhetorical Analysis of how Fitzgerald explains Gatsby’s Impact on the World, Gatsby’s True Nature, and the Concept of Time Gatsby was a great man that was a caring and loving person who had his life taken from him, by Mr. Wilson, as a result of revenge for being a suspect of Mrs. Wilson’s death. Near the end of the story, Nick Carraway was looking back through Long Island, where he, Gatsby, and Daisy lived. He described many aspects of the island, the mood of the people, and the environment. Nick touched on the point of the atmosphere without Gatsby and his dream that was washed away with blood.
“The day agreed upon pouring rain” (Fitzgerald,83) In chapter five, Fitzgerald used rain to symbolize the feeling Jay Gatsby has when he meets Daisy Buchanan again for the first time in five years. Fitzgerald decided to use rain to set the mood because Gatsby was really nervous and all over the place before Daisy arrived at the house. When he does see her again it's almost a sigh of relief.
Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the weather reflects the mood and serves as a foreshadowing for the events that come later. Fitzgerald makes a point of describing the weather patterns and conditions towards the beginning of the chapter as the weather always has some symbolic meaning. For example, a large storm hits while Gatsby is awaiting his meeting with Daisy. This sets a dark mood that eventually leads to uneasy feelings between Daisy and Gatsby, which eventually wears away. In literature, rain is used to symbolize a cleansing and in the case of Gatsby and Daisy, their uneasy feelings are swept away with the rain.
When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure” (Alice Hoffman). In life and in this novel, weather reflects a character's internal and external actions. On a sunny day, faces are smiling, hearts are light, and life is good, compared to a dark, stormy day when everyone is stuck inside, sad and tired from doing nothing. In the novel this is shown by weather effecting each characters, and setting the tone as the reader follows the novel's course of events.
During Chapters 8 and 9, there seems to be a lot of symbolism due to it being the end of the book. Throughout the book we know that Fitzgerald uses seasons and weather to describe the atmosphere of what is happening in the book. Right now, the season of summer is coming to an end, just as Gatsby’s life is. The gardener also comes to empty out the pool, but Gatsby does not want him to so he can get a swim in before it is too late. This can be interpreted as Gatsby not wanting to let go of daisy since he does tell one of his workers to bring the phone down by the pool in hopes that he will get a call from Daisy.
Wallowing in his despair, Gatsby laments at how the consequences of his broken dream-his obsession and fantasy of Daisy-has essentially drained the life out of his world. Fitzgerald’s use of diction and characterization help to illustrate the full devastation of Gatsby’s loss. By describing Gatsby’s hopelessness and his eventual death, Fitzgerald argues that the fundamental nature of dreams, or rather, the object of a dream, can be corruptible, demonizing, and futile. Fitzgerald starts his biography of Gatsby with the assertion that Gatsby’s romantic and joyful sentiments have been perverted by his heart-breaking rejection. By describing Gatsby’s newfound apathy, melancholy, and pessimism, Fitzgerald portrays the fragile corruptibility, and
Weather Representing Emotions Normally weather and emotions are not associated, but throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald makes multiple references comparing the feelings of Jay Gatsby to the weather outside. He uses rain to represent the times of sadness or awkward situations. When those moods uplifted the clouds would break, and the sun would shine. Other times he would use heat to represent times of anger, or tension.
“The day agreed upon was pouring rain” (Fitzgerald 83), and the servants struggled with the lawn and set up; then “the rain cooled...to a damp mist” (Fitzgerald 84) just before the meeting time. Once Nick leaves them alone inside, “...it was pouring” (Fitzgerald 88) again which leads the reader to connect confusion and mystery as Foster states rain can create through atmosphere (Foster 75). However, after Daisy and Gatsby spend some time together, the weather clears again causing the reader to believe the situation cleared and their relationship can progress. Foster states “ violence is [an]...intimate and personal act but also has cultural and social implications;” (Foster 87) one of the strongest pieces of evidence confirming this in The Great Gatsby occurs at Tom and Myrtle’s Party. At the end of the party “Tom...broke her nose;” (Fitzgerald 37) while this appears simple and obsolete, Tom asserts his power over women in general and lack of concern for others
Although the “Roaring 20s” are often portrayed as a fascinating and elegant time, Fitzgerald provides a futile tone through Gatsby’s desperate hopes of retaining Daisy. For example, Fitzgerald exploits the setting wherein Gatsby “...waited and about four o’clock [Daisy] came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light” to underline Gatsby’s wish that Daisy will change her final decision and come back to him (147). This augmented Gatsby’s unsuccessful efforts to try and keep Daisy and her abiding love. In addition, Fitzgerald continues to emphasize Gatsby’s desire to keep the love of his life and fight desperately for her: “He was clutching at some last hope and [Nick] couldn’t bear to shake him free” (148). This
Although this figure, Gatsby, experiences an intensely intimate relationship with Daisy, his emotions reside on the side of extreme obsession rather than genuine affection. Desire plays a pivotal role in the development of the characters in the novel, showing Fitzgerald’s seminal message
The seasons mentioned in The Great Gatsby are symbolic of the progressionof time and emotion in the novel. According to Thomas Foster, author of How toRead Literature Like a Professor, seasons and weather is a way to show readers adiscrete way of what’s happening. On page 132 “From the ballroom beneath,muffled and suffocating chords were drifting up on hot waves of air”. This showsthat things are about to get heated in a few due to the heat explained in the book asdrifting up from bellow. The book is full of romance between people and the love ofone lady that’s causing most of the “heat” this summer.
From day one of Nick Carraway’s arrival, to the tragic ending of the Gatsby story, the weather continues to play a big part in predicting what’s to come. While reading, the weather might seem to be of little importance, but looking back, it’s hard to miss its meaning. The weather in The Great Gatsby, foreshadows character behaviors and gives insight on certain events and people in the novel. Fitzgerald uses the theme of weather through a combination of temperature and wind, rain storms, and hot summer days all while intertwining it into the character’s lives.
F. Scott Fitzgerald develops the symbolism of the weather throughout The Great Gatsby in order to convey the emotions and relationships between the characters which then provides the realism of the connections between the characters. First and foremost, Fitzgerald wrote “The day agreed upon was pouring rain” (Fitzgerald, page 83). Thus, the rain generally symbolizes complication, foreshadows downfall, and elaborates a sense of gloominess.. Therefore, as it rains on the day that Daisy and Gatsby reunite, the reader is able to understand that their forming relationship can soon be complicated. For this reason, the evidence of the rain helps achieve the author's purpose of identifying the realism between Gatsby and Daisy by sampling the rain
