In this story there are a lot of symbols, which is important, I think
The Green Light
Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock
and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents
Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and
in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead
him to his goal. Because Gatsby’s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with
the American dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized
ideal. In Chapter 9, Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out
of the ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation.
The Valley of Ashes
First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of
ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate
land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and
social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich
indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley
of ashes also symbolizes the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live
among the dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result.
The Eyes of Doctor
T. J. Eckleburg
The eyes of Doctor
T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes painted on an old
advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. They may represent God staring down upon and
judging American society as a moral wasteland, though the novel never makes
this point explicitly. Instead, throughout the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that
symbols only have meaning because characters instill them with meaning. The
connection between the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God exists only in
George Wilson’s grief-stricken mind. This lack of concrete significance
contributes to the unsettling nature of the image. Thus, the eyes also come to
represent the essential meaninglessness of the world and the arbitrariness of
the mental process by which people invest objects with meaning. Nick explores
these ideas in Chapter 8, when he imagines Gatsby’s final thoughts as a
depressed consideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.
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