Summer Solstice In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, he reveals the fundamentals of the American Dream, which includes America as a new Eden, a place of opportunity and optimism, and a place where personal triumph flourished. The novel depicts the narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with enigmatic millionaire Jay Gatsby, and Gatsby's fixation to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan, set in East and West Egg of 1920s New York. The vegetation myth is the cycle of the seasons; the Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Fall Equinox, and the Winter Solstice. Fitzgerald manipulates the symbolism of the seasons in the vegetation myth and their corresponding colors, to show the unattainable American Dream and the materialism and

He visits Gatsby’s home for a final time and notices a distinct difference in the house’s exterior. “On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight, and I erased it” (179-180). Gatsby’s white steps leading up to his home symbolize the Winter Solstice, which is the ending of renewal in the Vegetation myth. The white steps represent the façade of innocence that the societal elite show the world. The steps show Gatsby’s pure intentions and the way he wanted to impress Daisy with his successful American Dream. However, the explicit word written across the steps shows the disillusionment of his dream, due to the corruption behind his criminal desire to gain status and wealth. The steps show the disguise of “pure beauty,” covering up the underlying corruption and moral decay of the upper class, that of which is never to resurface, thus relating to the dormant Winter Solstice. The word that was written by a party guest, represents the debauchery of the wealthy elite and their corrupt realities. Like Daisy’s pearls, the white steps are a disguise of the superficiality of the supposed elite upper class. Gatsby’s unrealistic dream of having a life with Daisy, was an unreachable and superficial desire and his ultimate downfall, thus reflecting the disillusioned American Dream. Fitzgerald uses the white steps to show the end of the

At the end of Daisy’s dock is a green light, that of which is yearned for, across the bay by Gatsby. At Gatsby’s house, Nick watches Gatsby as he stares at the light. “Involuntarily I glanced seaward- and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (21). The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock represents Gatsby’s hope and his growing desire for Daisy, his wanting to become a better man and renew himself. The green light is a symbol of Gatsby’s desire for a life with Daisy, and his ambition to better himself and achieve his American dream, thus exhibiting a sense of growth, vitality, and renewal, as conveyed in the Spring Equinox. Gatsby’s American dream is the single-minded goal of winning back Daisy's heart, and to build a life with