The Great Gatsby Symbolism Analysis

2574 Words11 Pages
Jun Woo Hwang
Mr. Gray
American Literature
31 May, 2015

Uses of Symbols in The Great Gatsby

Generally thought of as Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s most excellent work, The Great Gatsby is a story of thwarted love between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. The novel was a twentieth century bestseller and there are some components that have made the story one of the greatest works of fiction. One of the works that had made the novel remarkable was the use of symbolisms. Symbolism is the use of words to represent something with a meaning or an object. Not only in The Great Gatsby, but also, there are countless other books where authors frequently used symbols to refine their masterpieces. In novels, the use of symbols plays an important role, making the story interesting and essential to the readers. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) certainly used symbols for thousands of different objects to convey a stronger message to the readers and to give readers deeper insight into the characters and the background. The four main symbols that were used in the story were the colors, East Egg and West Egg and The Ashes of Valley, The Green Light, and The Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which represent what the author wanted to illustrate to the readers. The symbols help readers to acknowledge and understand the concepts and the mood being expressed through the story. The uses of symbols by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby, reveals to the readers the significance of symbolism which