The Great Gatsby- Essay, Research Paper
The Great Gatsby-
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
symbolism adds depth to the story, without introducing confusion.
Fitzgerald’s symbols are large, concrete and obvious. Examples of this
symbolism are the valley of ashes, T. J. Eckleburg’s huge blue eyes,
and the green light on the Buchanan dock which Jay Gatsby idolizes.
The valley of ashes is “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like
wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take
the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a
transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling
through the powdery air…”(23) The valley represents the moral
disintegration of the roaring twenties by showing the barren wasteland
which contains the byproducts of the pursuit of wealth and the
American dream. “Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an
invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and
immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up
an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from
your sight.” (23) This shows how one can get caught up all of a sudden
in a cloud of confusion. They are just walking along, minding their
own business, doing their day-to-day activities, and suddenly get
caught up in an impenetrable mess. This happened to Nick. He was just
minding his own business, and then he met Gatsby, who planned things
for him without his approval or advice, and who basically used him to
his advantage. Nick had no way out of this mess, but he did not
really want one. He was the only person who cared enough to give
Gatsby a proper burial.
Another symbol in this novel is T. J. Eckleburg’s huge blue
eyes. “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.” (23) The eyes of T. J. Eckleburg are said to represent
the eyes of God at one point. His eyes make Wilson, the husband
ofTom’s mistress, kill himself because he thinks that God is actually
looking at him in shame for murdering Gatsby. When in the valley of
ashes, the eyes of the doctor are also like the eyes of God, though it
is not stated. T. J. stands on a hill looking over the occurrences in
the valley. Like God, he is watching over the waste created by the
spiritless society, and then later on his eyes represent God to a man
who was wasted by society; a resident of the spiritless wasteland of
society.
Yet another symbol in The Great Gatsby is the green light on
the end of the Buchanan dock. This light represents hope and dreams to
Gatsby. It represents his love for Daisy and his need for a companion,
or in Nick’s words, “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water
in a curious way….Involuntarily, I glanced seaward- and
distinguished nothing except a single green light…that might have
been the end of a dock.” If Gatsby had lived in the nineties, he
would have a telescope looking directly into Daisy’s bedroom, he would
be considered a stalker, and Daisy would bring up sexual harrassment
suits on him. But, in this time, Daisy did not know, and what Daisy
did not know could not hurt her. “Compared to the great distance that
had separated him from Daisy [the green light] had seemed very near to
her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the
moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted
objects had diminished by one.” When, at last, Gatsby believes that
Daisy is his, he no longer idolizes her, and the green light has no
more symbolic meaning to him. Is like the saying, “You always want
what you can’t have.”
The symbolism in The Great Gatsby is a big part of what makes
the novel so great. It is simply stated, so it does not confuse the
reader as symbolism tends to do, but it merely adds depth to the
story.
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