The Great Gatsby
ESSAY QUESTION: One of Fitzgeralds's great strengths lies in the effective way he uses symbolism in his novel to highlight his beliefs and values.The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel about one man's disenchantment with the American dream. In the story we get a glimpse into the life of Jay Gatsby, a man who aspired to achieve a position amongst the American rich to win the heart of his true love, Daisy Fay. Gatsby's downfall was the fact that he was unable to determine that concealed boundary between reality and illusion in his life. The Great Gatsby is a tightly structured, symbolically compressed novel whose predominant images and symbols reinforce the idea that Gatsby's dream exists on borrowed time, and it is through this symbolism that Fitzgerald manages to highlight his own beliefs and values.The rich symbolize the failure of a civilisation and the way of life and this flaw becomes apparent in the characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, quickly became disillusioned with the upper social class after having dinner at their home on the fashionable East Egg Island. Nick is forced unwillingly to observe the violent contrast between their opportunities - which is
Gatsby never discovers how he has been betrayed by the class he has idealised for so long. 182) becomes his Valley of the Ashes. And like Eckleburg, Gatsby also has occasion to brood over the ashes of the past, over the solemn dumping ground of worn out hopes. It is through combining faultless artistry with symbolism, a symbolism that is strengthened by Fitzgerald's own beliefs and values, that Fitzgerald paints a vivid picture of the dream destined to fail because it's basis was an illusion, not reality. It had seemed so close as a star to the moon. In the Buchanans and in Nick's reaction to them, Fitzgerald shows us how completely the American upper class has failed to become an aristocracy. The image of the mansion serves as a key symbol of aspiration, reflecting both Gatsby's success as an American self-made man and the mirage of an identity he has created to win Daisy's love. This first sight that we have of Gatsby, is a ritualistic tableau that literally contains the meaning of the completed book. I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. The most obvious symbol in The Great Gatsby is a waste land called the Valley of Ashes, a dumping ground that lies between East and West Egg and New York city. That Wilson is the demise of Gatsby's drean - and that the dream gives way to ashes - is made clear through descriptive detail. 182)Gatsby's greatness was to have retained a sense of wonder as deep as the sailor's on that first landfall. Symbolically "the green breast of the new world" (p.
Common topics in this essay:
God Gatsby,
Owl Eyes,
Gatsby Daisy,
America Gatsby,
Fay Gatsby's,
Egg Island,
Buchanans Nick's,
Valley Ashes,
Egg York,
Island Nick,
green light,
valley ashes,
beliefs values,
daisy's dock,
light daisy's,
light daisy's dock,
american dream,
green light daisy's,
green light dock,
breast world,
gatsby's dream,
green breast,
love daisy,
green breast world,
own beliefs values,
|
Acceptance Essays
