Symbolism_in_the_Novrl'the_Great_Gatsby'

In general, symbolism is used to bring out the deeper emotions and their resemblance of the characters or things, or the objects. Symbolism is one of the main imagery which is used by Fitzgerald in his novel, “The Great Gatsby”, which enhances the reader’s understanding of the novel. Symbolism has contributed in bringing out the main themes of the novel, such as, moral decay, social status, corrupt nature and wealth. Color imagery is the main aspect of symbolism used in the novel. Color symbolism is used in the novel to represent character’s inner feelings and nature and also the significance of the places or objects. Grey color represents lifelessness and bleakness. It shows the lack of spirit, dullness and boredom. This can be related to the major place used as a symbol of degradation of moral values in the novel, that is, the “valley of ashes”. Valley of ashes resembles desolation, poverty, moral decay, something dark and lifeless and eludes emptiness. The large ash heaps corresponds to grey color, which stands for destruction and death. Also, valley of ashes don’t have high social standards, compared to the other three places which are mentioned in the novel, as it is small filthy, dumping ground for industrial waste. This place is complete contrast to East egg and West egg. But in order to get to New York, the characters from East Egg and West Egg have to betake themselves to this lower status. Nick remarks for Daisy, “Her voice is full of money………” Money can be related to color yellow. Yellow represents prosperity. But in the novel, Fitzgerald uses yellow color as a symbol of moral decay and corruptness. According to this, we can say that, Daisy being portrayed as pure, fragile and loving character is also corrupted and morally tainted. We come to know about this at the end of the novel, when both Tom and Daisy live the place after Gatsby’s death. “Gatsby believed in the green light”, this line implies Gatsby’s hopes and desires that he thinks will come true. In the first chapter, Gatsby looks at the green light which is at the end of Daisy’s dock. The green light represents Gatsby’s longing to win daisy back. Green color also represents wealth and the American dream. These two meanings can be correlated to each other. Gatsby was hoping for wealth in order to get daisy back in his life, which he never achieved. The advertisement on “eyes of T.J Eckelburg” symbolizes materialism and the corrupted American dream. The line, “God sees everything” by George Wilson indicates that he believed in god and true judgment. We can relate this to the advertisement in the valley of ashes. Those ‘huge and blue gigantic eyes of T.J Eckelburg’, resembles eyes of god, who is looking over the downfall of the morals and ethics. We can even link this to our narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway. This is because Nick is the only one who knows really what is happening around, while other characters are simply influenced by everyday life and are not able to judge things from their own perspective. And we as readers look at the novel, from Nick’s point of view. The color yellow and gold brings out one of the most important themes in the novel that ‘money leads to destruction’. Gold represents wealth and yellow is the color of corruptness and destruction. As it was Gatsby’s yellow car which led to the death of Myrtle Wilson. And I think that color yellow is one of the main reasons of destruction of Gatsby. Gatsby wanted to fit in the aristocratic world of East egg people. This shows that he was running away from reality just in need for a chance to win Daisy and get her back in his life. Even the specs of Doctor T.J Eckelburg, looking over the wasteland, are yellow, which shows the deeper meaning that the eyes are watching over the destruction of moral values or loose of mortality of Jazz age and reflect the corruptness and crime in people’s mind. The color red usually stands for love and sacrifice, but in the novel it’s used to represent blood and death, as the bloody death of Myrtle Wilson. One of the most important themes of the novel is the social standard, which divides the characters and makes them different from each other. The class symbolizes the rank of the characters and their personality in the novel. East Egg and West egg are used as a symbol to represent this theme. According to novel, the East egg people are aristocratic people, who have gained wealth from their ancestors. The people, who live on east egg such as Tom, Daisy and Jordan, are conservative. These people are well-refined, have a good taste of living and they don’t show off their wealth. West egg people are the one who have become rich recently, after First World War. They are also called as ‘nauveau riche’, these people are considered very radical in thinking, unconservative, bad taste and they show off their new wealth as Gatsby does by throwing parties, every Saturday. They wear gaudy clothes as we see Gatsby wearing mostly extravagant and lustful clothes, which shows that he is resident of West egg. East egg people are said to be heartless and callous, whereas on the other hand West egg people are one with sentiments. This also tells us about the nature of the characters as well. East egg and West egg are also divided by a physical barrier; they are separated by a channel of stream. The physical barrier that is being created between these two completely different worlds symbolizes the barrier that keeps the people of these two places apart from one another and from what they want or their future desires. In conclusion, symbolism plays a major role in revealing characters true intensions, thoughts and emotions.