Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

The American dream is defined as; a happy way of living that is thought of by many Americans as something that can be achieved by anyone in the U.S. especially by working hard and becoming successful. The first novel I read this year was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, it is about a fictional town during the summer of 1922, where a man named Gatsby fell into a forbidden romance with a married woman. Of Mice and Men is a John Steinbeck novella about two migration workers who move from farm to farm during the Great Depression in search for money so they can own a farm. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about a young girl growing up in a racist town during the Great Depression. Although To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and

The use of symbolism also makes the story so much more intriguing, “He stretched out his arms towards 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 away, that might have been the end of a dock” (pg22 Lee). This shows that the Green light is representing the American dream because Gatsby is reaching out for this far off light as though reaching out for the American Dream. Gatsby reaching for the green light is showing that he is unsatisfied with where his life is, so he desires to reach for his ideal American dream. The novel shows Gatsby achieving the American dream through backbreaking work, when Nick says “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of god and he must be about his father's business the service of a vast vulgar and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a 17 year old boy would be likely to invent and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (pg ). This tells us that Gatsby had achieved the American dream from an early age because he now has everything he has ever wanted. To emphasise my point To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men are not as similar to the

From beginning to end Lennie is constantly thinking and asking george about their American dream which they are striving for throughout the story. An example is, “George, how long’s it gonna be till we get that little place an’ live on the fatta lan’ -an’ rabbits?” (pg 27). This shows exactly what they want, which is to own land and work for themselves. To own a house or own land with a farm was one of the main elements in the American dream during the Great Depression, and to be self employed was even more rare and showed more success in a person. Earlier in the novella George has a different American dream that he doesn't talk about much but still shares it with Lennie, ¨For two bits I shove out of here. If we can get jus’ a few dollars in the poke we´ll shove off and go up the American River and pan gold. We can make maybe a couple of dollars a day there, and we might hit a pocket” (pg 16). This shows the American dream during this time period seeing that oodles of people were headed south to pan for gold hoping to get rich but only few and far struck the wealth. George and Lennie’s American dream was to own land and to work for themselves instead of on others farms for other