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What Does The House Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

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What Does The House Symbolize In The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby: Symbolism

Symbolism plays a huge role in The Great Gatsby, they help add to the understanding that we get from the novel itself. Fitzgerald uses many symbols throughout the novel such as colors to symbolize a character's inner thoughts and feelings. The symbols are very much tied into the story to make implications more real. Fitzgerald conveys the spectacular lives of the ugly, rich, poor and the desperate through simple colors and objects.
In the middle of the Valley of Ashes hovers a giant billboard of Dr. T.J Eckleburg, with only his eyes showing faintly. The eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg are described as “…blue and gigantic – their retinas are one yard high” and “…dimmed a little by many paintless days under the sun
…show more content…
While on East Egg the houses are fashionable “glittered” with “white palaces.” East Egg people are known as “old money”. They are born into wealth and have never had to work for it. Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom are from old money and live in East Egg. The people in East Egg are well educated usually attending ivy league colleges such as Harvard or Yale. The people that live in West Egg are known as “new money”. These are people who have worked hard, earned their own money, and haven't depended on inheriting money and just worked hard. In East Egg, the people are seen as the wealthy and the elite. In West Egg, they are looked down upon because their money is new and not old money passed down through generations. Jay Gatsby lives in West Egg. He is from new money and his house looks straight across the water to Daisy's. He has always tried to prove that he is worthy of Daisy and he thinks that having this money will show her that. The two cities represent the vastly different lifestyles of Daisy and Jay and how their lifestyles would not clash. “Her voice is full of money…” means that Daisy belongs in East Egg where the people have never known anything else rather than West Egg. Her voice being full of money shows Daisy’s true intentions, her love for materialistic things and her love for money it’s all that she

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