Great Gasby

Symbols of the Great Gatsby

In the Great Gatsby there are many symbols used throughout the book that relate to different topics. The Green light symbolizes Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy. While that represents the quest for the American dream. The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are painted on a billboard staring down onto the town. This could represent God watching us and seeing all that we do. The location of the East and West age is the division between social classes. Sometimes symbols in books can be hard to grasp a hold of, some throughout this book are hard to understand what they are talking about. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many symbols throughout the book that correspond with real life ideas and concepts.

The Green Light is used as a symbol of American’s hopes, dreams, and quest for things that they want. It is situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and Is barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg dock. At the end of Ch.1 Nick says that he see’s Gatsby staring and reaching his hand out toward this Green light. This represents Gatsby’s hope’s and dreams for the future. Throughout the book he is chasing Daisy, the only thing he cares about, trying to get her to be with him. This goes hand in hand and symbolizes the American Dream. Americans are always pushing and pursing money, riches, and it can not always be accomplished. Gatsby spends most of his life just trying to please Daisy, and make up lies about his lifestyles just that she might accept him. He finally realizes in the end that he can not accomplish and get what he wants, and this just kills him inside. The small green light embodies the hopes of mankind, which, like Gatsby's, often outstrip the potential of reality. People are always trying to get better things and live a better lifestyle. Once they get something that they want, they want something more. This and Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy are parallel to each other.

Throughout the book the eyes of Doctor T.J. Echleburg are portrayed as watching and seeing all the scandals that are going on between the characters. The eyes are painted on a billboard that overlook the valley of ashes. They have a weird sense of eeriness in them. When Nick describes them, he makes them sound very dark, and they “brood” over the area. This could most likely symbolize God, and that he is always watching over us, seeing what we do. In the book it refers back to the eyes many times, watching over as the characters are doing certain things. Fitzgerald chose these huge, flat, empty eyes to symbolize a dead God staring blindly out at the moral decay of humanity and the meaningless