Preview

How Does Fitzgerald Use Symbols In The Great Gatsby

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
629 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does Fitzgerald Use Symbols In The Great Gatsby
Symbols are used in difference ways. To add in meaning of the story or hint at an emotion or attitude towards something without directly stating it. Sometimes they are accessible while other times sometimes they are hostility, regardless, they are used to apparently, the story. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald uses symbolism to create a more illustrative story for the reader.
Gatsby and Daisy have a relationship but separated when Gatsby went to War. When he came to West Egg, he finds that Daisy has married to Tom Buchanan. He became a good friend with Daisy’s cousin Nick and reconnected with her through him. Tom eventually discovers that she was cheating as part of their civil. Gatsby, back in his future, he was in love with Daisy, the affair between Gatsby and his wife and forced her to return to him even though he himself is having an affair. In the
…show more content…
Her marriage to Tom was one of difficult, because he continued to cheat on her. Gatsby, after discovering that he had a knack for making money (legally or illegally; it is never made successfully clear) he returns to New York to try to win Daisy back, posing as a wealthy receiver to get in with her peers. At the end of the story, Daisy and Gatsby accidentally kill Myrtle in a traffic accident, and Daisy left with Tom to try and settle their marriage. Gatsby was shot by Myrtle's husband, who thinks that he killed her on purpose. As the story continue, Nick's feelings for Daisy and Tom remain largely unchanged (complicated, distanced, and some ways assuming). He appreciates Daisy's attraction and despise Tom's ignorance and arrogance. He helps Daisy and facilitates her affair with Gatsby, but also helps Tom to carry on his delay with Myrtle by staying silent about the affair. The friendship between Nick and Gatsby wasn’t real. The two men do appear to have a genuine regard for each other, but

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    While daisy is married, she begins to have a love affair with Gatsby. Which she chooses to carelessly show and not to disregards what others think of it. For example, “as he left the room again she got up, and went over to Gatsby, pulling his face down, kissing him on the mouth” (122). She easily got her husband out of the room, so she could continue to show her affection to Gatsby. She even acted as if she didn’t know her husband at all. When Nick scolded Daisy and told her to not bring Tom. Daisy innocently said, “Who’s tom?”(88).…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Colors are a powerful form of communication used to convey what words cannot. Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism in the form of color is on display in nearly every chapter of The Great Gatsby. To understand his use of color as a symbol, a reader must recognize the situations in which they are used. Fitzgerald applies colors to his characters to hint at their personalities. The colors are intentionally repeated multiple times to establish a significance between them and the characters personality they are used to symbolize. Therefore, to understand each character entirely, colors must be considered. Throughout The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald uses color symbolism to show how people mask their personalities to hide from the truth which results in negative…

    • 123 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tom being prosperous, Myrtle felt as if because she is with him that he elevates her to high class. She felt better with Tom because he was important, therefore, with George she felt miserable. Myrtle’s American dream was to become a wealthy man’s trophy wife. For this reason, she has a strong desire for a powerful man to take care of her. Having to allow her money hungry mind to take over, she allows Tom to beat her. Able to play a wealthy woman’s rule being involved with Tom, she began to act like a snob. Later in the novel, George finds out that she is in an affair, but not with whom. In effect, he gets angry and locks her in their apartment over the garage he owns. Working sickly, George tries to make enough money to move out west to get her away from the city. Not respecting her husband’s decision, she tells him “Beat me! Throw me down and beat me you dirty little coward!” (144). She wants him to be aggressive and powerful like Tom, but he refuses. After having a heated discussion with George, she breaks out the apartment and rushes outside. Having seen Tom driving Gatsby’s yellow car earlier, she sees it coming and dashes out on the road towards it. Not being her lover, Gatsby turns the wheel in Daisy’s hands, and tries to swerve out of the way. Tragically being foolish, Myrtle runs in front of the car and gets hit. The blow from the car to her body ended her life. Not only did her death upset both George and Tom, but it also ended Gatsby’s life. After mourning over his wife, George went to Gatsby’s mansion and shot him in his swimming pool, and then took his own life. In the final analysis, because of her selfishness and greedy needs, she not only caused her own death, but also causes the death of an innocent…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gatsby used his wealth to throw parties so he could try to get Daisy’s attention and impress her. He did end up impressing her. However, because Daisy was married to her husband Tom she could not be with Gatsby. Tom found out about Daisy’s affair and confronted Gatsby. Gatsby insisted that Daisy never loved Tom but Daisy could not deny her love for her husband. It showed that Gatsby was extremely naive to believe that Daisy would love him to a certain extent as to say that she never loved her own husband. Gatsby believed that he could easily win her back simply by showing up with his wealth, but he was wrong.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism is big part of F. Scott Fitzgerald work in his most successful romance, The Great Gatsby. Symbolism happens when symbolic meaning is attributed to objects, figures or characters. Throughout the novel Fitzgerald utilizes many symbols such as characters, places and colors. His use of symbolism ads meaning to a certain object, character or place.…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nick admires his motivation and drive to get Daisy back. Nick also likes Gatsby’s unwavering devotion towards Daisy, including taking the blame for Myrtle's death. Nick believes in Gatsby and wants him to get Daisy back. Even when Nick first gets invited to his party, Nick respects Gatsby unlike most of the other partygoers. Nick found out that the only reason Gatsby kept having these parties was for him to be able to meet Daisy. Nick realized the amount of work Gatsby was going through to win Daisy back. Nick is the only character that realizes Gatsby’s actual…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Daisy hits and kills Myrtle with Gatsby’s car. Mr. Willson, Myrtles husband, devastated and heart broken kills Gatsby thinking he was the one responsible for his wife death. Tom and Daisy then skip town without telling anyone where they are going, while Nick desperately tries to get people to Gatsby’s funeral. Only a few people come and it is at this point that Nick realizes how truly empty Gatsby’s life was.…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    with perceptible reluctance”(132). Daisy admitted this reluctantly because she had created an illusion of the perfect life with Tom, but it was just a lie. With time she had convinced herself that this lie was the truth. That was until Gatsby came into the picture and temporarily altered the way that she viewed her life with Tom. Daisy was faced with the choice of being with Tom or Gatsby. Daisy’s decision between the two men became much clearer once she realized that Gatsby would be killed in the process of covering up her crime. Nick said, “I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him, called her instinctively and without hesitation. But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them”(164). Daisy knew that she had committed a serious crime and Gatsby would take the fall since he was wrapped around her finger. Daisy did what she did best and retreated back to her money and reckless lifestyle, ultimately choosing Tom. Daisy’s future is set in stone when she chooses to return to Tom and his…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In The Great Gatsby, by Scott Fitzgerold. Symbolism is used to describe the action taking place in the story. It is also used to describe individual character’s emotions and true natures. Symbolism is used to describe a multiple things but doing it in a way that you have to think about it. In this book most things are symbolized to make it easier to describe them. Colours and some personal belongings were mainly used to describe a characters effect in the book. Things that were not said but described were symbolized. Finally, the separation of the classes was used to show how life in the time the story takes place.…

    • 1332 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    "A symbol, in the broad sense, is an image, an incident, or an item in a work that takes on a significance other than its evident objective meaning" (Lathbury 171). Symbolism assists a reader in understanding the true meaning of an object or event. It makes it easier for the author to create a tone that is easy to understand. Color is the clearest form of symbolism. Specific colors represent specific emotions or feelings. For example, red would show anger or violence whereas yellow would represent happiness. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, color symbolized joy, hopefulness and wealth that overshadows the hardships of life.…

    • 1495 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is clear to see from the beginning of the novel when Nick Carraway walks into the Buchanans when the entire house is decked in various shades of reds. Nick describes walking into their house as if, “Inside the crimson room bloomed with light,” (Fitzgerald 22). Tom and Daisy are two very passionate and quite eccentric characters, but they are not the only two. It seems anyone who seems to come into relations with two instantly have a life full of lovely drama. Gatsby was almost predestined to, one day, hit his downfall the day he met Daisy. The first one to fall in love is the one who fails. Gatsby loved Daisy, or at least he really thought he did. It was this love that would eventually bring him his demise, his death.…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Symbols play a huge part in The Great Gatsby. They add to the understanding we have of the novel and reveal the underlying themes of the American Dream. As each symbol is revealed, the American Dream slowly starts to crumble before their eyes. The author of the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, uses these symbols throughout the book to highlight key ideas and show the ongoing clash between love, wealth and moral destruction.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the book “The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald finds different ways to incorporate symbolism that ties into the different characters and their different relationships with one another. The symbolism that he creates really shows how the american dream is never really possible.…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gatsby doesnt want to accept this so he tries convincing her that she does love him while Tom is in the room with them. Tom gets mad but doesnt take it out on him there. Ultimately, Gatsby and Daisy were driving home together, while Tom and Nick were driving in another car, and while driving back home, Daisy ran over and killed Myrtle. Myrtle's husband asks Tom who it was and he said it was Gatsby, however we later find out it was Daisy that killed her. Myrtle's husband doesnt know this and for revenge, he kills Gatsby, and then himself. This leads to the point that "only fools fall in love"" because it ended in the death of Gatsby.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Colors of Gatsby

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the novel The Great Gatsby there are many forms of symbolism that are well used. Symbolism can be interpreted in many different ways. Authors use symbols to try and get the reader to connect and think more about what they are reading. Symbolism is a very good technique when writing because it helps make a book more interesting and adds depth. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses symbolism to help the book be more intriguing and thought provoking.…

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays