The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, symbolism adds depth to the story, without introducing confusion. Fitzgeralds symbols are large, concrete and obvious. Examples of this symbolism are the valley of ashes, T. J. Eckleburgs 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 your sight.” (23) This shows how one can get caught
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