Symbolism In The Great Gatsby
The two decades between World War I and World War II were a golden age of American fiction. Fitzgerald, as a member of ¡°the lost generation¡±, publish his The Great Gatsby in 1925 and confirmed his status as a chronicler and poet laureate in the jazz age. He was once credited by T. S. Eliot for ¡°the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James, because Fitzgerald depicted the extolled grandest and most boisterous, reckless and merry-making scene¡± through what he knew or indirectly experienced and discovered the disillusionment that ¡°a generation grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought, all faith in man shaken¡±, what¡¯s more, he depicted the postwar unprecedented boom of material revelry and at the same time presented the disappointment of the postwar generation for America, the concern for the loss of conventional values and ideals, and the regret for the disillusionment of American Dream.The Great Gatsby is well-known as the most mature work of Fitzgerald, whether in thought or in writing techniques. He overcame the precious flaws and applied imagism and symbolism to present moral history of his contemporary times from the view of Nick. The application of symbolism made his work surpa
3. The symbolism of the hero evidently plays a vital role throughout the story.From the legendary life of Gatsby, we can actually find a great deal of Fitzgerald himself in it. Fitzgerald went to university with a relative¡¯s help and become famous and rich, thereby redeeming his primary girlfriend Zelda Sagre. All this made him figure that his dream had come true hence indulged himself in flamboyant life. So to some degree, the relation between Fitzgerald and his lover is what between Gatsby and Daisy. However, what makes difference is Fitzgerald universalized his personal experience and widened his own horizon, successfully building a bridge between individual and society, which came to endow the hero Gatsby a profound symbolic meaning: Gatsby is the epitome and symbol of self-made American Dream and his material success is the prolongation of American Dream; Gatsby also is a vivid symbol of American Idealism. Just as the above-mentioned, the ¡°green light¡± echoing ¡°a fresh and green breast of the new world¡± makes his experiences a metaphor of American experience. The ideal he stuck to could turn to be nothing but a terrible ¡°valley of ashes¡± instead of the oasis in the New Land. The amp lified symbolism entrenched the significance of the great work and show care toward general humanity and society. ladies in white. White is the symbol of purity and in Gatsby¡¯s eyes, Daisy ¡°in white¡± is the pure goddess and his restless puisuit. However, compared with other colors, white has no hue. No color. No content. No essence. These from the main character of Daisy. This symbol of void is with Daisy all the time because she didn¡¯t know ¡°what will we plan?¡± all the day. Daisy belongs to the kind of frequently appearing heroines in Fitzgerald¡¯s works who are ¡°with lovely and appealing appearance, romantic but parasitic and apathetic.¡± And Nick¡¯s opinion about her is that ¡°they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and left other people clean up the mess they had made.¡
Some topics in this essay:
Daisy Jordan,
DreamThe Gatsby,
American Dream,
Gatsby Wilson,
Doctor Eckleburg,
Egg Gatsby¡¯s,
James Fitzgerald,
Dream Nick,
American Idealism,
Gatsby Daisy,
american dream,
symbolic meanings,
yellow color,
rippling fluttering,
jazz age,
west egg,
redeeming primary,
world war,
american fiction,
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Approximate Word count = 1437
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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