|
Searching for Symbolism -HS 1. The valley of ashes represents a modern world,
which, like a grotesque hell created by the industry of factories and trains and
has polluted America with its waste. The valley symbolizes a world whose
inhabitants are so spiritually lost they, like Myrtle, begin to worship money
and wealth. The frontier promise has been corrupted by the lies of greed and the
emptiness of a dream based on wealth. 2. The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg
represent Fitzgerald’s feeling that God and religion had taken a less
substantial role in comparison with the gods that wield the powers of wealth,
status, and greed. The character has a godly presence associated with him and is
confused by Wilson as such. The billboard represents a God who has been created
by modern society to make money. 3. Green in the story is the color of promise,
of hope, renewal and ultimately the color to which Gatsby will stretch his arms
for. He makes the color the embodiment of his dream for the future; to reunite
with Daisy is that dream.
Through the light he strives for a better world where
the longing in his heart for Daisy is fulfilled. 4. The “owl-eyed” man
represents the truth behind a hidden facade for the purpose of material
superiority, as was the case with Gatsby and the books in the library. He also
symbolized the possibly of world based not on materialism but intellect as he is
the only one out of the partygoers to come to Gatsby’s funeral. 5. Gatsby’s
boyhood schedule tells the determination that Gatsby has had for all things
materialistic but in the end he is destroyed by his materialistic illusions of
Daisy, just as the fresh American frontier was converted into the “valley of
ashes” and the green light becomes nothing but a bulb at the end of Daisy’s
dock. 6. Daisy's character is enhanced by Fitzgerald's use of the color white to
indicate Daisy's freshness and innocence. Fitzgerald evokes two meanings of
white: one is the traditional meaning of purity; the second is the empowerment
of whiteness. Daisy represents both privilege and purity. The use of white helps
to characterize her as the unattainable enchanted princess who becomes incarnate
as Gatsby' s dream. 7. Gatsby’s gold colored tie and silver shirt signify the
attempt that Gatsby made to show tht he was of the old wealth. But the green
apparent in the book contrasts in a significant way. In old times people used
gold as a means for exchange, but as a national currency was established green
money replaced the gold and gold was no longer backed the dollar. So, gold
represents the old money and green represents the new. In the same way, gold
symbolizes Daisy and Tom’s old money and green symbolizes Gatsby’s new money.
One can arrive to the conclusion to say that Gatsby is green and Tom is “gold”.
He wore the gold tie and silver shirt because he wanted to present himself to
Daisy as being a part of the old wealth. 8. Gatsby’s dream is the symbolic
representation of the views that Fitzgerald holds about the genuine American
experience. The corruption of Gatsby’s dream; with materialism as its means and
the illusion of promise as its goal, is the corruption of American Idealism,
which in turn becomes the empty promise. Copyright 2000-95630
|
