symbols in the great Gatsby
...rich. Gatsby had a colossal mansion with a swimming pool and a tower "spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy". They were both outsiders from the world of the rich. On the other hand, the Buchanan’s lived across the bay in the East Egg where the old rich, the people who had money all their life and had never worked for it, lived. The Buchanan’s own " a cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay". The difference between the houses and the place they lived symbolizes their social position. The old wealthy, new wealthy and not even wealthy were part of the theme of social status. The "green light" at the end of Daisy's dock is another symbol used by Fitzgerald to express definite possibilities. The green light has true feeling for Gatsby because it represents his hopes and dreams of Daisy Buchanan. At night, Nick sees Gatsby looking at the sea, stretching his arms towards the light and trembling. But for Nick that light was just a solitary green light, it had no meaning. The moment that Daisy becomes his, that green light cease to exist because she has become his and Gatsby feels that he has accomplished his dream. Gatsby states that the green light gives him a warm feeling inside of himself; therefore we can say that the green light also symbolizes Gatsby's life on "go". In the valley of ashes, where the Wilson's lived, represented death because of the saying "ashes to ashes, dust to dust". Everything was covered in ashes. There we can see the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. They were "blue and gigantic, their retinas are one yard high, they look out of no face but instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose". The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg represent God's eyes. When Myrtle went off with Tom, he saw. When Myrtle was killed by Daisy, he saw. When something happened he saw. Gatsby’s car is a symbol for material wealth in America and its distrustfulness, have a function in the plot as well as a more abstract significance, however, the major symbols such as the Valley of Ashes, the green light, and the east and west, are filled with meanings that go beyond the plot, and truly capture Fitzgerald’s theme of this novel; the corruption of the American dream. Green is the color of promise, of hope, renewal, and ultimately the green light symbolically corresponds to the “green beast of a new world.” At the end of the novel, fuses Gatsby’s vision of Daisy with that of a new continent. What ultimately preys on the vision, the goal, is that in America and by Jay Gatsby it can only be attained through the acquisition of material possessions. The car plays a major role that makes a regular appearance in the story. In the American Society the car is always seen as a symbol of status. Gatsby’s car is an embodiment of his wealth. His car is symbolic of many things, among them the “disillusioned, reckless, frenetic spirit of the youthful” owner. His car symbolizes his vulgar materialism and conveys his newborn affluence. Gatsby’s car is “a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns” obviously shows his materialism. Another interesting detail is Gatsby’s car is yellow instead of the standardized black of the era stresses the thought that he is engrossed with the obsession of displaying his material wealth to get the love of Daisy. The Death car is yellow, and in the novel yellow symbolizes money and corruption in the novel. The creamy color of Gatsby’s car also symbolizes decay of corruption; therefore Gatsby’s car is like a bulging piece of fruit that is overripe and has started to rot. Gatsby’s “meticulous attention to detail ... compliments the personage” of himself and the things he possess that symbolize him. Tom Buchanan’s car is also not like all the standardized black cars because he drives “a blue car, a coupe” which is a lot less showy than Ga...