Presley Thomas
Mrs. Tollett
American Literature
26 April 2023
The Use of Symbolism for the Development of Novels
Symbols are present all throughout literature to aid in the development of setting, characterization, and thematic ideas. The literary device is a way authors can illustrate a visual all while telling a story. F. Scott Fitzgerald proves this in his novel, The Great Gatsby, one is able to create a brilliant story through the use of symbolism to aid in the development of characterization, setting, and many thematic ideas. To begin with, Fitzgerald uses the symbol of flowers all throughout the novel, especially when referring to Daisy. The name of a flower representing such purity was ironically given to Daisy. Fitzgerald gives her
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Fitzgerald develops the thematic idea of hope greatly through the use of symbolism, one major symbol being the green light. The green light was the light Gatsby saw on Daisy’s pier and in the novel he gazes at this light several times with high hopes that his relationship with Daisy will come back to life “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (Murphy). This relationship is something he wishes upon, and wants back so desperately. However, there is a great amount of distance between Gatsby and the green light which represents how his dream is already past him and is no longer in reach “He stretched out his arms toward 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 at the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 21). The wish Gatsby has for his relationship with Daisy to come back never comes true, but he does not notice as he is so blindly in love with Daisy. The idea that Gatsby is unable to see that his relationships with others do not have a base of genuine feeling, but rather greed is also something Fitzgerald develops with the symbol, Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes. The idea is Doctor T.J. Eckleburg is able to see almost clearly whenever he has his glasses on, but whenever he is without his glasses he is completely blinded to the world around him “The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose . . . sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away” (Parkinson 46). The objective of being unable to see through the selfish side of people can lead to ending in loneliness, and this is what