The Art of Symbolism in the Great Gats

1、the art of symbolism in the great gatsby1. introduction f. scott fitzgeralds the great gatsby (1926) is, at first sight, a novel about love, idealism and disillusionment. however, it soon reveals its hidden depths and enigmas. what is the significance of the strange “waste land” between west egg and

2、 new york, where myrtle wilson meets her death, an alien landscape presided over by the eyes of t j eckleburg whose eyes, like gods, “see everything”? and what are we to make of the novels unobtrusive symbolism (the green light, the color of american dollar bills, which burns at the end of daisys do

3、ck, the references to the elements - land, sea and earth - over which gatsby claims mastery, the contrast between “east” and “west”), or its subtle use of the personalized first narrator, the unassuming nick carraway?it is a novel which has intrigued and fascinated readers. clearly, as a self-procla

4、imed “tale of the west”, it is exploring questions about america and what it means to be american. in this sense gatsby is perhaps that legendary opus, the “great american novel”, following in the footsteps of works such as moby dick and huckleberry finn. we will return to this aspect of the novel i

5、n more detail later on. however, we also need to be aware that it is a novel which has much to be say about more abstract questions to do with faith, belief and illusion. although rooted in the “jazz age” which fitzgerald is so often credited with naming, it is also a novel which should be considere

6、d alongside works like the waste land, exploring that “hollowness at the heart of things” which lies just below the surface of modern life. eliot himself remarked that the novel “interested and excited me more than any new novel i have seen, either english or american, for a number of years”. viewed

7、 from more distant perspectives it is possible to see gatsby as an archetypal tragic figure, the epitome of idealism and innocence which strives for order, purpose and meaning in a chaotic and hostile world. in this sense gatsby contains religious and metaphysical dimensions: the young man who shape

8、s a “platonic vision of himself and who endows the worthless figure of daisy with religious essence eventually passes away into nothingness, with few at the funeral to lament the passing of his romantic dream”.2. fitzgerald and the great gatsby2.1 fitzgeralds life and his works.francis scott key fit

9、zgerald was an american author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the jazz age, a term he coined himself. he is widely regarded as one of the greatest american writers of the 20th century. fitzgerald is considered a member of the “lost generation” of the 1920s. he

10、finished four novels, this side of paradise, the beautiful and damned, tender is the night and his most famous, the great gatsby. a fifth, unfinished novel, the love of the last tycoon, was published posthumously.fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along w

11、ith despair and age. he supplemented his income by writing short stories for such magazines as the saturday evening post, colliers weekly, and esquire, and sold his stories and novels to hollywood studios. this whoring, as fitzgerald and, subsequently, hemingway called these sales, was a sore point

12、in the authors friendship. fitzgerald claimed that he would first write his stories in an authentic manner but then put in twists that made them into saleable magazines stories. he was extremely sensitive to the use of symbols and metaphors, hence a language of conciseness and vividness. he based hi

13、s creation on his own life experiences to a large extent: many characters in his works can be found to have archetypes either from himself, or from his lover, his wife, his friends, and even his rivals. this makes his books quite readable, because he himself is a legend with a life rich in glory and

14、 hardships. although he fared very hard in his late days, there surged a fitzgerald revival throughout america and then the world just a few years after his death. the great gatsby, as his third novel published in 1925, is viewed as his finest novel in exposing the widespread social abuses of the ja

15、zz age, the disillusion nature and distortions of the american dream, and the crazy pursuit of people after it.2.2 social and historical context of the great gatsby.the great gatsby first published in 1925, which is set on long islands north shore and in new york city from spring to autumn of 1922.t

16、he novel takes place following the first world war. world war i had left all european belligerents weak and numbed spiritually. america, however, not having involved in the war for long, remained just as forceful as before. american society enjoyed prosperity during the “roaring” 1920s as the econom

17、y soared.at the same time, prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol as mandated by the eighteenth amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers. a lot of groups as well as individuals took the chance to make large profits over the prohibition. after its republishing in 1945 and

18、1953, it quickly found a wide readership and is today widely regarded as a paragon of the great american novel, and a literary classic. the great gatsby has become a standard text in high school and university courses on american literature in countries around the world and is ranked second in the m

19、odern literacys lists of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.during the era, many people thought america was the land of freedom and dreamed an“american dream” which was actually a beautiful mirage. the american dream turned to be a dream of money, and wealth became the symbol of success. in the

20、 process of pursuing their dream, people abandoned a lot of spiritual and social values they treasured in the past and regarded money as the only tool of judging human success. however the gap between the wealthy and the poor was still painfully obvious in society.3. various symbols employed in the

21、great gatsbysymbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of french and belgian origin in poetry and other arts. symbolism is the systematic or creative use of arbitrary symbols as abstracted representation of concepts or objects and the distinct relationships in between, as they define both

22、context and the narrower definition of terms.in literature, “symbolism” refers to the use of abstract concepts, as a way to obfuscate any literal interpretation, of to allow for the broader applicability of the prose to meanings beyond what may be literally described. it is symbolism that makes a st

23、ory complete and excellent. in the great gatsby, f. scott fitzgerald cleverly uses symbolism, which depicts the rottenness of the american dream. this thesis probes into the use of symbolism in the novel. the author suggests his feelings or ideas to the readers by using many objects.3.1 color symbol

24、s.3.1.1 white.white represents the beauty, purity and nobility. that is the reason why brides are always wearing white dress during the wedding ceremony in the west. white is a color which appears much time throughout the novel. at first sight, daisy is painted with white by fitzgerald, which attrac

25、ted gatsby deeply. daisy is always dressed in white clothes and her car is also white. she even speaks about her “white childhood”. “from louisville. our white girlhood was passed together there. our beautiful white-” (the great gatsby, 23) this color represents her purity, her innocence, her unpert

26、urbed self. however, under the beautiful appearance, daisy actually has a hollow, grim and selfish heart. white is a kind of color without real color comparing with other colors, so it reveals the emptiness of daisy as well as gatsbys dream. white, which can be interpreted as wealth, cleanliness, in

27、nocence, is associated with shallow, superficial and money grabbing motives. for example, when she is taken into gatsbys home for a tour, she is shown gatsbys beautiful imported shirts daisy begins to cry, saying that these shirts are so beautiful. but what she is really expressing is her envy and j

28、ealousy of gatsbys new riches and all of his elaborate material possessions. it is interesting for us to notice at the end of the story, there is a “drunk woman in white evening dress” being carried somewhere by four solemn men. it can be inferred from the story that this is someone who came back fr

29、om a certain hilarious party, which is also illusory and dream-like. no wonder a lot of houses are painted white too throughout the whole story: daisys home in louisville, the buchanans white palace, the apartment tom rent in new york, etc, they are all tokens of wealth and luxury, but transient and

30、 illusory as well.3.1.2 green.green usually represents spring, hope, and youth. green is also the color of american dollar bills. the green lamp also represents hope. it is much associated with gatsby and his hope in the novel. in society, green lamp represents money and power as wealth rules the li

31、ves of the characters, which is american hope. in the fiction, green has been throughout gatsbys whole life. the color green signifies his hope, faith and belief-all put together into one object: daisy.the image green lamp appeared three times respectively at the crucial points of the development, a

32、nd plays an important role in the process of modeling the protagonist gatsbys character. the green light symbolizes the hope of gatsby, and it is the most significant object in this novel, which stands at the end of the dock of the daisys house. every time when he sees the green lamp, there is a hop

33、e in his heart that he can get the love of daisy. the green light somehow remains an unattainable object for gatsby, because there is an impassable gulf between him and daisy. gatsbys stretches out his arms, in order to embrace what he has long been keeping in his dream-daisy, but she is actually no

34、t there, which makes his action seems “curious”. his action expresses his own feeling to such an extent that an on-looker finds him bizarre and amusing. on the other hand, the green light is “minute and far away”, which means gatsbys longing for daisy is doomed to be so unreachable that it will easi

35、ly fade away some day. the light is so faint and almost invisible that it can never be powerful enough to illustrate gatsby, but it shines all night long, just like his longing for daisy is never quenchable. his action looks like that of a certain pilgrim. in the end of the fiction, nick thought of

36、gatsbys wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of daisys dock. “gatsby believes in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. it eluded us then, but thats no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms fartherand one fine morning-so we

37、 beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” from the failure of gatsby, we can see the essence of the american dream. 3.1.3 yellow.in the novel, yellow is one main symbolic color. it represents the treasure and luxury. daisy and tom buchanans house were decorated with

38、 reflected gold, daisy uses a gold pencil, actually herself is called “the golden girl”, when she lived in her hometown, there were “a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust.” all in all she lived on is a luxurious lifestyle which can only be built on tons of money. ga

39、tsby lives in the same style, if he wants to win back daisy. on the one hand, he has a clear understanding of daisy, for he once told nick that her voice is “full of money”. according to gatsby himself was dressed “in a white flannel suit, silver shirts and gold-colored tie”, everything he wears sig

40、nifies wealth and power; they are either silver or gold. even his bedroom, “where the dresser was garnished with a toilet set of pure dull gold”.the two girls in the party wear “twin yellow dresses”, doctor t. j. eckleburgs spectacles are yellow, the orchestra in the party plays “yellow cocktail mus

41、ic”, jordons arm is gold, and gatsbys car is yellowit seems that this society is full of yellow, echoing the sound of the money.fitzgerald said that, “in jazz age, money is the tool to become successful”. for money, people cheat each other, abandon their morality and belief. above all throughout the

42、 whole age, money counts most. yellow is the most glorious color in jazz age. the tragedy of gatsby lies in the gold lie. he believes that as long as he owns money, he will get what he wants. 3.1.4 blue.blue representing tranquillest, sullenness, and illusion, is used by fitzgerald as the symbol of

43、dream. in the novel, when gatsby is young, he is a man of complete integrity. the captain trusted him completely, and bought him a blue naval uniform. in the book, the blue and gigantic eyes of doctor t. j. eckleburg“brood on over the solemn dumping ground”. this symbolizes the unfortunate and adumb

44、rates the disaster. myrtle wilson is dressed in blue skirt. gatsbys garden is blue, lawn is blue, and a chauffeurs dressed in a uniform of robins-egg blue, etc. the blue lawn is also an important part in gatsbys life. “he had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close

45、 that he could hardly fail to grasp it. he did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.”3.2 locale symbol.the choice of the locale must be in accordance with the background of the

46、history and the society, which shows the figures inner character. then it is helpful to model the figure and represent the theme. in the great gatsby, the author has a special inventive mind on the choice of the localethe early culture in america originated from the east colony. after the independen

47、ce war, though america has separated from the britain in politics, the thought, culture and ideology remains some parts. the east is eager to be associated with the european culture, thus forming the refined conservatism. with the development of the west regions, because of no history burden, the we

48、st shows more passion, energy, and aggressiveness. thus the east and the west respectively represent the tradition and modernity, conservation and innovativeness. the author was dedicated to showing the fierce idea confrontation, so he transformed the two region concept to “west egg” and “east egg”

49、in the novel. tom and daisy live in east egg. they are rich, elegant ostensibly, but greedy and cruel actually. gatsby lives in west egg. he is poor, but passionate and eager to be successful. the choice of the locale makes the novel profound and long lasting. 3.3 object symbol.3.3.1 the valley of a

50、shes.in the great gatsby, the author depicts “a valley of ashes”, which vividly shows a smog bound, grey and lifeless “trash valley”: “this is a valley of ashes-a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys

51、 and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey man who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” the characters of this land are ashes and dust.the valley of ashes represents a modern world, which is like a grotesque hell created by modern industry. factorie

52、s and train produced in the manufacture of wealth has polluted symbolizes the spiritual desolation, that a society based on money creates. it symbolizes, after world war i, that peoples values have undergone severely changes and even distorted. they put emphasis on money and lead a hollow and desper

53、ate life. in such a world, the aggressive gatsby and the selfish, guileful tom and daisy intrude into each others life. though gatsby has certain control over his destiny, gatsby is destroyed by uncritically following his fantasies. he has dreamed of riches as a means of achieving the golden vision

54、of love and life with his old sweetheart, daisy. in the eyes of caraway the promises of life and his capacity for hope and innocent wonder make him a moral angel compared to the buchanan, the respectable corrupters of the american dream. the first time when nick set his foot on the valley of ashes,

55、is before national day, which can also show the authors deep thinking about the countrys policy. it indicates that the tragedy of gatsby is also the tragedy of the era.3.3.2 the eyes of doctor t. j. eckleburg.another profound symbol is the eyes of doctor t. j. eckleburg painted on a billboard. it re

56、presents a god who has been created by modern society to make money. it represents a god who no longer sees nor cares. “the eyes of doctor t. j. eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retinas are yard high. they look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass o

57、ver a nonexistent nose. ” the board is set up in the e valley of ashes to gather and broaden business for an oculist. the author uses the detail to drop a hint that: even the eyes that symbolize the god are covered by the yellow uproariousness and money. in the era that materialism is prevalent, eve

58、n god have to be affected.in the novel, tom and gatsby have a fierce argument in the restaurant, and daisy is faced with two choices: whether devoice with tom or reunite with gatsby. under the contradictory mood, daisy sticks to driving by herself, and she collides myrtle wilson to death. at this ti

59、me, the eyes of doctor t. j. eckleburg appear again, the symbolic meaning is more clear-cut. it may be a little preposterous to compare the eyes to that of god, but it acts like a charm as a symbol.3.4 character symbol.in the great gatsby, the author describes two meaningful symbolic figures-gatsby and daisy, who are two main characters related with the american dream. 3.4.1 gatsby.gatsby is portrayed as the follower of the a