ipl-logo

Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

969 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Uses of symbolism in the great gatsby

Do you ever wonder why certain objects have more value than just their literal meaning? This is due to symbolism which gives certain ideas an underlying and more significant interpretation. Symbolism can be conveyed in many forms such as a red rose being associated with love or water being related with sadness. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald follows the narrative of Nick Carraway who is intrigued by the lifestyle of Gatsby. Throughout The Great Gatsby, symbolism is portrayed flawlessly and is critical to understanding the hidden messages in the novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald provides examples of symbolism in The Great Gatsby with automobiles, colors, and the green light which all represent a deeper meaning in the text as a whole. …show more content…

Scott Fitzgerald’s incorporation of automobiles in The Great Gatsby largely contributes to the understanding of the text. For instance, after looking at Gatsby’s car with admiration, Nick describes it as “I’d seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored in dozen suns” (Fitzgerald, 64). Nick’s description of Gatsby’s car vividly reflects the ideas of Gatsby’s status and power towards everyone. This reveals how Gatsby is open to expressing his achievements of wealth by exposing his car. As a result, cars in The Great Gatsby represent the social class and power of people in society. In another situation, Nick explains how Myrtle was hit by Gatsby’s yellow car by stating “The “death car” as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness,” (Fitzgerald, 137). By saying this, Nick is portraying the reckless nature of Gatsby’s car because it didn’t even stop. The crash could have easily been prevented if the people in Gatsby’s car were responsible. Clearly then, cars in the The Great Gatsby also symbolize the careless lifestyles of the characters. Therefore, the use of automobiles by F. Scott Fitzgerald helps to implement symbolism in The Great

Show More
Related
793 Words | 4 Pages

Sean Martin Mr. Krueger Advanced American Literature 23 April 2015 Cars and driving in Great Gatsby The American Dream involves people and their quest to gain wealth and status. One way to display the wealth is through the stuff you buy. Cars, for example, are a great symbol used to display ones wealth.

Read More
310 Words | 2 Pages

Car Symbolism The Great Gatsby is the story of wealthy Jay Gatsby pursuing his fantasized love, Daisy Buchanan. Cars are seen multiple times throughout the novel and play an important role. In Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, cars represent the careless wealthy people.

Read More
314 Words | 2 Pages

Gatsby’s car is a prominent symbol within the book and is used represent wealth and in some instances death. People from all over New York came to marvel at his Rolls-Royce, gleaming tangible proof of his undying wealth. The car is described as gorgeous and marvelous, which is the effect Gatsby intended to have because he originally purchased it to impress his love, Daisy. The reason why it is so symbolic of wealth is because it was Gatsby’s way of proving to Daisy that he had money and a high social class, just as she desired. He drove it around constantly, as it became an “omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city, between nine in the morning and long past midnight.”

Read More
491 Words | 2 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, tells a story revolving around the life of the wealthy folk. Throughout the book, Fitzgerald describes and involves cars in the plot on several occasions. In The Great Gatsby, cars come to represent the carelessness of the wealthy. The cars’ symbolism first appeared in the novel after Gatsby’s first big party.

Read More
833 Words | 4 Pages

In American Literature, symbolism is used to portray the author's ideas in an indirect, poetic way. Fitzgerald is described as “simultaneously a painter who makes his writing very visual and bright,”(Samkanashvili). The Great Gatsby is just one of the many blank canvases he brought to life with his use of symbolic figures. Fitzgerald’s use of symbols throughout each setting provides a deeper understanding of the overall plot and characters. The first setting in the novel is West Egg.

Read More
165 Words | 1 Pages

The magnificence of his car can be related to the idea that Gatsby reflects himself through his belongings. The “rich cream color” of his car, obviously, symbolizes his wealth and his exaggerated self image. The quote also mentions his car as being a “green leather conservatory.” Green is the color of money, which bolsters the fact of Gatsby’s wealth.

Read More
787 Words | 4 Pages

Did you know that 7% of fatal car accidents are hit - and run accidents, and 30% are due to drunk driving? The Great Gatsby gives an example of both, showing how actions like these have poor consequences. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the motif of vehicles shows how selfishness affects relationships in a negative way. As a result of selfishness, not only vehicles were harmed, but people were as well.

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

The American Idealist Symbols are incorporated frequently throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece The Great Gatsby. Symbols allow an audience to grasp key points in the novel. Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. Fitzgerald uses many symbols throughout the novel to highlight key points, and each symbol is highly effective.

Read More
1005 Words | 5 Pages

Gatsby’s car “was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hatboxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns,” (Fitzgerlad 69). The car is mentioned to be bright with nickel, reflecting Gatsby’s new money status and his flashy display of wealth. The car is also described as having “many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory,” (Fitzgerald 69). The green leather interior, echoes the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock that represents Gatsby’s dream of winning her back. Gatsby uses his car to show off his success and to try to win Daisy’s admiration.

Read More
510 Words | 3 Pages

Symbolism materializes an ideas, emotions, and events in the process creating a deeper meaning. F.Scott Fitzgerald uses important symbolism in his novel The Great Gatsby to give hidden content and deep meanings to the novel. Some of the more important symbols are the green light, the car, and the billboard because they conclude that symbolism play a role in life. The green light is an important symbol which pieces together the essential theme in the novel.

Read More
1607 Words | 7 Pages

Brianna Heet Mrs. Tollett 11 H American Literature 25 April 2024 Beyond the Surface of Symbolism Symbolism can be shown to represent the characteristics of the American Dream, revealing its allure, illusion, and ultimate disillusionment. In The Great Gatsby, by Fitzgerald, there are many interpretations of symbolism throughout the novel. The description of setting, colors, and plot highlight many underlying meanings. The expressive language Fitzgerland uses allows the reader to create symbolic images within the mind. The author uses these illustrations to gather themes of aspirations that are unattainable along with corruption of wealth.

Read More
691 Words | 3 Pages

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.”

Read More
94 Words | 1 Pages

The most important function of the automobile in The Great Gatsby however is what O’Meara writes near the end of her article. “The cultural obsession with commodities allows an ordinary automobile to transcend its functional purpose to become and embodiment of dreams.” (O’Meara) The automobile leads to the downfall of several characters’ American Dreams in the same way which their inessential homes did. The characters substituted their pursuit of happiness for a pursuit of wealth, believing that wealth would satisfy their dreams and lead to happiness, however lives were lost in the process instead.

Read More
809 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout many brilliant works of literature, a common item is placed amongst them: symbols. Symbols are often a key to further understanding a point the author is trying to convey to their readers. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, he utilizes the literary tool of symbols to illustrate a larger picture for his themes and characters within the novel. For example, the color green plays a prominent role in The Great Gatsby throughout the duration of the novel. However, the color has can have various interpretations.

Read More
1196 Words | 5 Pages

In the book, The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald mentioned the automobile repeatedly. This marked that the automobile had already been a significant part of the society at that time. The automobile industry during

Read More

More about Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

Related Topics

Open Document