... 189 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction in New York Copyright date: 1991 Setting: Around the summer of 1921or 1922 in Long Island and New York City Type of book: Classic novel The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway but he also implies that he is the author. Carraway narrates in both first and third person, ... society that Fitzgerald depicts. The weather in The Great Gatsby dependably matches the emotional and narrative tone of the story. Some symbols are the green light, the valley of ashes, and the eyes of Doctor T.J. Ekleburg. Nick Carraway: The novel's narrator, Nick Carraway...

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• Grade Level: High School

... to their environment. In the novel, the east is used to represent an evil area, much like the Valley of Ashes. The valley fully represents the evil and waste of the eastern United States. The valley is described as, " a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat ,"" (27) demonstrating how the bleakness contrasts with the beautiful fields of wheat in the west. This ... World War I, seemingly because nothing has happened to him. He is devoid of emotion for others, millions of them, who died in the conflict. However, by the middle of the book Nick has developed a true sensitivity and begin...

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... course, as with the majority of most movie adaptations, there were minor and subtle changes in the movie, alongside missing content from the book. One of the biggest differences between the film and the book was the characters of both Daisy and Tom Buchanan. In the novel, Daisy seems to be a more intellectual and well brought up ... lady. Whereas in the movie, she is depicted as the typical, unintelligent blonde. Tom is the All American guy in the book, described as a well built football player with a confident gait. In contrast with the film, he is a scrawny and skinny husband whom Dais...

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... Gatsby The novel The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and is a famous peice of English literature. This book provides an insight for people of a newer generation to see what life was like for wealthy people in the early 1920's. This book is about relationships and different personalities, veiws, or emotions and how they effect each other. I think that the movie ... screen. I think the movie we watched in class does a nice job at capturing the mood of The Great Gatsby. One example of the movie showing the mood described in the book were Gatsby's partys. "Laughter is easier...

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... symbolized cleanliness and purity, but it also showed how white could be contaminated. Yellow represented immorality and corruption. Green, the dominant color in the book, illustrated wealth and Gatsby's unachievable dream. Fitzgerald connected the color white most closely with Daisy. Daisy wore white dresses, powdered her face white, and recalled her "white girlhood" (24). Even ... Daisy's house was furnished in white. White was used in the book to represent cleanliness, innocence, beauty, and wealth. The use of the color white enhanced Daisy's character as an "enchanted princess." Whe...

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... lasting impressions on me in many different ways. The books are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Things They Carried by Tim O"Brien and Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. I happened to read all three of these books in the last few months, and all of them shocked me with their depth, ... realized the role of an observational narrator is so common, which I had never really given thought to before. From then on, the biggest impact the book had on me, is that I pay so much more attention to the narrator and their personal style, and what they see and how they convey their ... people...

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... of a "shiftless and unsuccessful farm people."(104) He also notes that Gatsby "never accepted them as his parents at all." (104) As an ambitious sixteen year old, Gatsby composed a series of plans for his self- improvement at the back cover of a book titled, "Hopalong Cassidy," which Gatsby's father shared with Nick ... him on the yacht to a trip in Barbary Coast and West Indies, where Gatsby gained a window into the life of the wealthy and famous. Nick notes that Cody and his yacht represented to Gatsby, "all the beauty and glamour in the world." (106) Cody was also a heavy drinker and o...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the wealthy and socially connected crowd during that time. In contrast to the modern day woman, the traits shared by the women in Fitzgerald's book are somewhat disturbing, sometimes laughable, but more importantly, are indicative of Fitzgerald's view of what the consequences of achieving the American Dream held ... , declares that Myrtle was "crazy about [George, her husband] for a while" (p. 39). Myrtle Wilson vehemently denies being "crazy in love" with George, but rather, that "[t]he only crazy I was was when I married him" (p. 39). Myrtle explains that George was not the person she t...

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... other people clean up the mess they had made." This quote shows the carelessness in the 1920's. A third symbol is the valley of ashes in between West and East Egg. This valley represents the garbage dump where the poor live. It symbolizes the moral and social decline ... poor. I think the book portrayed the Valley of Ashes better than the movie. The movie helped by showing the smoke and ashes, but the book went into detail about the conditions. "This is a valley of ashes where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the forms of ... houses and...

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... colors were used to show the meaning of situations, or the character. The color green played a major role in the story. The main character of the book, Jay Gatsby was represented by the color green. He was a wealthy man, who was deeply in love with Daisy Buchanan. His feelings and the relationship ... between them two was represented by the color green. In the beginning of the book, Gatsby was looking out to the flashing green light. It showed he was searching for daisy. Gatsby and Daisy were separated in their past because Gatsby ... bright and pretty colors. The color grey is describe...

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... that make the novel more intriguing. Three of the most important symbols found several times in the novel are the green light, the valley of ashes and the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan's dock helps build an understanding of the character of ... reminds him that it's only an advertisement. To George these eyes do represent God, but that is not always their true meaning. Later in the book, the eyes also come to represent the meaningless world and the minds of people who make the world meaningless. In Chapter VIII, Nick imagines what Gatsby ......

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... kill Gatsby. This is very hypocritical because at the same time Tom is having an affair with a woman, Myrtle, from the valley of ashes, an industrial wasteland situated between West Egg and New York. There are many symbols that F. Scott Fitzgerald uses in "The Great Gatsby". ... his way of accomplishing them. Another important symbol that F. Scott Fitzgerald uses are the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg, a giant billboard in the valley of ashes. "The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face but, instead, ... from a pair of enormo...

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... of the continuing growth of capitalism in the United States, there became a gigantic difference between those that were rich and those that were poor. The ashes in the Valley act as a symbol of the death of the American Dream. More specifically, they illustrate society and how what was once a pure ... society was the use of the large advertisement of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg. The gigantic blue eyes, without a face, look out at the valley of ashes from behind a pair of yellow eyeglasses. This billboard advertisement that presents its undying presence looming above the ash-heaps, takes on sign...

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• Grade Level: High School

... in relation to what the green light symbolizes This first sight, that we have of Gatsby, is a ritualistic tableau that literally contains the meaning of the completed book" (Bewley 41). A broader definition of the green light's significance is revealed in Chapter 5, as Gatsby and Daisy stand at one of the windows in his ... only a green light at the end of a dock. The most obvious symbol in The Great Gatsby is a waste land called the Valley of Ashes, a dumping ground that lies between East and West Egg and New York City. Symbolically "the green breast of the new world" (Fitzgerald 182) b...

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... person and which it is likely I shall never find again" (179). Evidence of Gatsby's early expectations of himself was discovered by Gatsby's father in a book that had once belonged young James Gatz. He had inscribed in the book his daily schedule: Rise from bed .. 6.00 A.M. Dumbbell exercise and wall scaling 6.15-6.30 Study electricity ..7.15-8.15 Work 8.30-4.30 Baseball and sports ... one who would invent a "needed invention" (181). He recognized the importance of studying and "no more smokeing or chewing" or "wasting time" (181). He even made himself "read one improving book or magazi...

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... , the symbolism begins with two cities, East Egg and West Egg, which are separated by The Valley of Ashes. Fitzgerald uses the cities and valley to represent three distinct classes of wealth. As the book opens, Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, just moved to New York to work in the bond ... the Valley, are hollow; as time progresses, the Valley grows ranker as do the lives of many characters in the novel. Lying in The Valley of Ashes is another dominant symbol in the novel, which is the billboard eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg; they are enormous and always seem to be watching the ......

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... she is able to accept Tom's money and even his brutality, even after he breaks her nose on the party ",tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand."(Fitzgerald 39). Beside the love of her husband, this is not enough; her fortitude to obtain what she wants causes her downfall and in the end even her death. Gatsby's yellow car ... all the characters in the novel. When you are poor like Wilson the only dream you can dream is the American dream. His dream is to leave The Valley of Ashes with Myrtle. ""I've been here too long. I want to get away. My wife and I want to go west.""(Fitzgeral...

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... the "new money". He depicts one of the many people of the 1920's who grew suddenly rich, usually through illegal means. The newly emerging middle class is represented by the book's narrator, Nick Carraway. Not too rich and not too poor, he lived comfortably. It is through his eyes and ears that we form our opinions of the other characters. Those ... 's dream and presiding over the harrowing spectacle of Gatsby's funeral, Nick realizes that the fast life on the East Coast is a cover for the moral emptiness that the valley of ashes symbolizes. Having gained the maturity that this insight t...

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... the novel helps support the differences of social class and the four main locations used by Fitzgerald; The East Egg, The West Egg, The Valley of Ashes, and New York City. In The Great Gatsby "geographical locations separate social classes" (Hoggart 204). Hoggart explains how different geographical areas have ... men" (Mulford). Myrtle and George Wilson both live in a rundown garage. Myrtle Wilson tries to desperately improve her life and get out of the ashes. This is a place that you can never leave or recover from. The Valley also represents doom and death. For instance Myrtle fell vi...

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... west egg, the west egg being "new money" and the east egg representing the established "old money." One other representation of this in the book is Gatsby's unrequited love for Daisy. His dream is ruined by the differences in social status regardless of his attempt to acquire enough money to impress ... endlessly to salvage a dream from his past but did not succeed, the same problem many others were facing during this time period as well. Throughout this book Fitzgerald uses an immense amount of pathetic fallacy. Gatsby and Daisy's reunion takes place in the middle of a storm and just as...

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... it .5:00-6:00 " Study needed inventions .7:00-9:00 " GENERAL RESOLVES No wasting time at Shafters or (indecipherable name) No more smoking or chewing Bath every other day Read one improving book or magazine per week Save $5.00 $3.00 per week Be better to parents" (174). Hopalong Cassidy is a typically romantic American figure of heroism and adventure. Gatsby's program for self-improvement ... written in the back of this book reflects Gatsby's struggle to acquire the two basic qualities of the American Hero: hard-working ambition and a robust desire for adventure. Gatsby's change from Ja...

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... paints a vivid portrait of a land ruined by greed and wastefulness. In the novel the reader is introduced to the "Valley of Ashes." The "Valley of Ashes" is a desolate land created by the dumping of the industrial waste. Fitzgerald uses the " Valley of Ashes" to portray, the corruptiveness of wealth, it leads to a life of materialism and purposeless spending and ends in, the ugliness ... . The people of this dismal place are as used and drained up as the land surrounding them. Every aspect of the valley is decreased , the people who live amongst the ashes are slightly less human and the ...

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In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the settings of East and West eggs, The Valley of Ashes, and New York City to assist the actions of the main characters. The East Egg is more of the upscale region of the setting. People that ... them."(9) Lavery 2 Halfway between West Egg and New York City sprawls a deserted plain; a gray valley called The Valley of Ashes. The Valley of Ashes is a symbol of absolute unhappiness and poverty. George Wilson owns a garage in the Valley of Ashes. He is a glum, poor man. His life matches perfectly with where he lives. He's life practically ends when he...

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... . The Eyes of Dr. Eckleburg watch over this original sin. These eyes, like the eyes of God or any other higher power, watch over the sins of the Valley of Ashes. "God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing God sees everything." (167) And like God, Dr. Eckleburg's eyes watch over all the sins that occur in ... the dark vile, sinful Valley of Ashes. Soon after Wilson talks about God like this Doctor T.J. Eckleburg's eyes " just emerged pale and enormous from the dissolving night." (167) This appearance of Dr. Eckleburg's eyes after a statement about ... , they serve as ...

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... was not already so. Gatsby has created an illusion of what Daisy must be to fulfil his desires and aspirations, and as Fitzgerald commented when writing the book, the exaggerations and comforting illusions of the novel make it what it is. "That's the whole burden of this novel -the loss of those illusions that ... am going to look at is that of the eyes of T. J. Eckleburg. George Wilson compares them to the eyes of God looking down over the Valley of the Ashes. "His eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground." This is giving t...

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• Grade Level: High School