Theme Of Diction In The Great Gatsby

Heather Kletzky

Dr. Bankirer

10th Grade American Literature

15 February 2023

The Value of Symbolism and Diction in The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby acts as a time capsule of the 1920s, perfectly demonstrating the wilful romantic ways of the elitist class of America. The story follows Jay Gatsby, a charismatic and mysterious entrepreneur obsessed with the past that defines his future. Fitzgerald communicates this aspect of identity defined by the past using symbols furthered by unique diction. Gatsby is known for his stalker-like tendencies for a past lover, Daisy Buchanan, of whom he has dictated his life for the past five years. Daisy is wealthy, sophisticated, and glamorously feminine. This femininity of Daisy

J. Eckleburg, a billboard located in the valley of ashes. The notion that our past actions watch us, lurking in the shadows manifests proudly in the eyes of Eckleburg. At the turn of the century with the domination of Industrialization, consumerism began to dominate American culture. Sarah Pruitt writes in regard to this new culture saying, “With the arrival of new goods and technologies came a new consumer culture driven by marketing and advertising, which Fitzgerald took care to include, and implicitly criticize, in The Great Gatsby.” (Pruitt) The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg represents how economic cheating and actions of our past watch us as we try to make our way into the future. Later in the book, George Wilson, a man whose wife was just murdered, says in regard to Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, “God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!” (Fitzgerald 159) Gatsby eventually loses Daisy to his illegal business adventures of the past. Gatsby had been able to hide his questionable income from everything, but God knew and revenge took its part. Our past watches us, creeping behind to seize opportunities away from

This, however, leads to an unfillable void of longing. This is represented through one of the most famous literary symbols of all time, the green light. The green light sits across the bay from Gatsby’s house on Buchanan's dock representing all that Gatsby cannot achieve. He dreams of fulfilling the American dream, and to be with Daisy. Miriam Webster defines the American Dream 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.” Gatsby got lost in that push and forgot that his desires had long since been fulfilled. “And as I sat there, brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come such a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. But what he did not know was that it was already behind him, somewhere in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.” (Fitzgerald 180) This quote teaches that satisfaction can never be reached because goals keep being