Scott Fitzgerald's Use Of Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

The story of Gatsby is told using many different forms of symbolism and other literary devices. And it all starts with Jay Gatsby who throws huge parties on the east egg of New York’s Long Island where he is the new money and no one knows who he is, but we find out he just wants to get the girl from his dreams, Daisy Buchanan, and spends the whole book trying to get her back. It’s all told in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. How does Fitzgerald use symbols to represent different literary devices in the Great Gatsby. First, we have to ask what is symbolism, according to a study.com article symbolism is “a figure of speech that is used when an author wants to create a certain mood or emotion in a work of literature.” Symbolism can

T.J. Eckleburg in the valley of ashes, and the eyes are just a billboard between east egg and west egg. When Fitzgerald says, “‘Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night. “God sees everything,” repeated Wilson.’” (Fitzgerald 124), this quote shows that the eyes are always watching no matter what you think. The eyes symbolize the loss of spiritual values in America. The billboard was erected to promote the business of an optometrist in Queensborough, the eyes symbolize the growing commercialism of America, life in America is all about making money, a lot of money as evidenced by the wealth of people like Tom Buchanan, a man’s success is measured in terms of how much money he is worth, not on what kind of person he may be morally. The billboard, like the spiritual values of America, is neglected, “But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.” The old-fashioned values of America, which Nick Carraway returns to reconnect with in the Midwest are completely absent from the East, God seems to have abandoned America, leaving only Dr. T.J. Eckleburg behind to stare down with his empty eyes on people who have abandoned their spiritual values in the quest to achieve material wealth. Scott F. Fitzgerald uses symbolism in the The Great Gatsby to add a deeper layer of understanding to the book and to explain the themes more in depth, like the constant theme of the American dream throughout the book. But overall the symbolism really helps this book become the great book it has become and will remain to