What Is The Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

In the novel The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald conveys the overall theme using many techniques. The depiction of one of the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, establishes the cost of lust and ambition. Jay is a millionaire who throws lavish parties in his mansion. This is all a ploy to win over Daisy Buchanan, a former romantic interest when Gatsby was in the military. In order to win over Daisy, who married into wealth, he had to invent “just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent”, which Nick Carraway describes as “son of a god” (Fitzgerald). This transformation of Jay Gatsby due to his lust led Jay to completely isolate himself from society. In fact, when he died, no one but Nick and a few staff members
came to his funeral. His American Dream was to win over Daisy, but even with his great ambition, it resulted in a character disenfranchised from society which caused his downfall as a lonely individual.
The Great Gatsby is written through the eyes of Nick Carraway, an aspiring bond salesmans. The point of view is important to establishing the theme of the novel by showing how the perception of Nick changes. Nick was born in Minnesota and moved to New York City to start a career as a bond salesman in city. As Nick explains in the first chapter he is “inclined to reserve all judgments” (Fitzgerald). This important to establish the theme because Nick will not hold bias to any character. Instead, the novel progression gets shown through Nick eyes. Once viewing Gatsby as a charming individual, Nick learns about Gatsby’s greed and corruption. Furthermore, the corruption and the decay of social and moral values is shown through Nick eyes. This is key to establish the theme of the novel. As a person living and growing up with ethical values, Nick moved to New York City in hopes of achieving the American Dream. But the events of The Great Gatsby shows the Nick the horrors of the dream, and how it corrupts people. The point of view for the novel shows the realization of how ambition, lust and the pursuit of the American Dream, leads to the collapse of a person and society.
Like The Day of the Locust, symbolism is relevant in The Great Gatsby to establish the theme of the novel.
Taking place in the Roaring Twenties, many Americans were faced with cynicism and greed due to the pursuit money and fame. They were ambitious to achieve their version of the American Dream, which lead to the decay of social values in the population. Jay Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy is symbolic to this. Gatsby thinks that Daisy is perfect, and tries endlessly to win her over. This includes throwing making a fortune on bootleg alcohol, throwing lavish parties, and convincing her to cheat on her husband. Even after all his efforts his dreamed failed, due to how unworthy Daisy was. This is symbolic to the pursuit of the American Dream which also failed because of the pursuit of money and fame. Symbolism is further used to establish the theme. On the harbor where Daisy lives, a green light shines across the bay. Jay Gatsby repeatedly stares at the light throughout the novel, often confusing Nick. But it became clear that the green light was a beacon for hope for Gatsby. In the middle of the night the only thing visible was the green light that lead to Daisy house; a light that would help lead him to his goal in the dark. As Nick prepared to leave New York, he “thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him...Gatsby believed in the green light...It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther” (Fitzgerald). The green light symbolized not just Gatsby’s dreams, but everyone’s dream. Everybody searches for a light in the dark towards their dreams by moving forwards, but unbeknownst to them, they lost themselves and head backwards not forward summarized by the final line written by F. Scott Fitzgerald de, “we
beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”