The Great Gatsby-

A detailed Summary of The Great Gatsby-

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald,

symbolism adds depth to the story, without introducing confusion.

Fitzgerald's symbols are large, concrete and obvious. Examples of this

symbolism are the valley of ashes, T. J. Eckleburg's huge blue eyes,

and the green light on the Buchanan dock which Jay Gatsby idolizes.

The valley of ashes is "a fantastic farm where ashes grow like

wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take

the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a

transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling

through the powdery air..."(23) The valley represents the moral

disintegration of the roaring twenties by showing the barren wasteland

which contains the byproducts of the pursuit of wealth and the

American dream. "Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an

invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and

immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up

an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from

from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-

been the end of a dock." If Gatsby had lived in the nineties, he

ashes, the eyes of the doctor are also like the eyes of God, though it

the eyes of God at one point. His eyes make Wilson, the husband

the valley. Like God, he is watching over the waste created by the

own business, doing their day-to-day activities, and suddenly get

caught up in an impenetrable mess. This happened to Nick. He was just

for him without his approval or advice, and who basically used him to

eyes. "The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic- their

his advantage. Nick had no way out of this mess, but he did not

reader as symbolism tends to do, but it merely adds depth to the

who was wasted by society; a resident of the spiritless wasteland of

your sight." (23) This shows how one can get caught up all of a sudden

Gatsby. It represents his love for Daisy and his need for a companion,

Approximate Word count = 741
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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