The Great Gatsby takes place in the roaring twenties and follows a young stockholder, Nick Carraway, and his journey moving amongst the fashionable elite. Here, Nick learns the truth about the American Dream whilst examining his peers' ignorant behaviors. One of the characters whose presence caused a ripple effect throughout the entirety of the novel was Gatsby. Through Gatsby’s actions, the reader is able to examine the behaviors of a man who achieved the “American dream” through years of hard work. Although Gatsby’s persistence and naivety are what defines him as “great”, it is also these qualities that led Gatsby to his demise. Through F. Scott Fitzgerald’s emotive symbolism, he’s able to reveal the hardships that come with achieving the “American …show more content…
He makes a remark that is symbolic of said dreams by stating, “... as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams...” (Fitzgerald 180) Here, Fitzgerald uses the settlement of Dutch sailors in colonial America to symbolize new beginnings. He goes on to describe how the trees that once stood were removed in hopes of creating a new foundation of life, similar to Gatsby’s dream with Daisy. By tying the “American Dream” to Gatsby’s dreams, Fitzgerald shows the reader that both dreams are unattainable. Given the fact that the American Dream is nothing more than a fantasy, Fitzgerald shows the reader that Gatsby’s dreams were never bound to come true. Throughout the entirety of “The Great Gatsby”, a green light at the end of a dock is incessantly