The Great Gatsby is a story that mainly reflects American society through the 1920s. The major topics of The Great Gatsby encompass religion, class and social status, gender roles, and corruption, all deeply rooted in American culture. These themes are depicted by Fitzgerald throughout the novel The main symbol of The Great Gatsby is The Eyes of T. J Eckleburg, The Eyes of God. The eyes are painted on an old advertising billboard overlooking the Valley of Ashes where most characters in The Great Gatsby reside.
The eyes symbolize the lack of morality among American society, especially following The First World War when traditional values were questioned and discarded in favor of material wealth. The ashes represent the aftermath of The First World War, the war that is frequently referenced throughout The Great Gatsby. The American Dream can be seen as a metaphor for rebirth in The Great Gatsby. This metaphor provides hope to Americans during times when traditional values were questioned by many individuals after The First World War.
The American dream also symbolizes religion in several ways; it offers purpose to those who still believe in God and The Great Gatsby is titled The Great Gatsby because the American Dream provides hope to many Americans. The American Dream also offers a sense of happiness for those who pursue it but do not achieve it, just as true love does in The Great Gatsby. The concept of The American Dream is deeply rooted in religion and represents rebirth and renewal.
The title ” The Great Gatsby ” symbolizes the pursuit that many characters have in The Great Gatsby: the pursuit of happiness, represented by The American Dream, which can be described as greatness. However, most characters never reach greatness due to their demise or their own vices such as greed and corruption; they ultimately lose sight of what’s truly important, The American Dream. It is evident that The Great Gatsby is based on The American Dream through the setting, characters and symbolism throughout The Great Gatsby.
The Eyes of T. J Eckleburg symbolize The American Dream, a concept deeply rooted in religion. The pursuit of The American Dream symbolizes happiness but also the lack of morality among many people after The First World War. The eyes can represent a false sense of greatness which most characters never achieve due to their own vices or demise. This may be a reflection of America during the 1920s when material wealth was highly valued over principle values.
The vast majority of the novel takes place within New York where society focused on material wealth rather than principle values; corruption was also depicted through The American Dream during The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is also representative of The American Dream throughout The Great Gatsby, for instance, The Great Gatsby can be seen as a metaphor for The American Dream because The Great Gatsby symbolizes the pursuit that many characters have in The Great Gatsby; the pursuit of happiness which can also be described as greatness.
However, most characters never achieve it due to their own vices or demise; they ultimately lose sight of what’s truly important, The American Dream. It is evident that The American Dream has a prominent role in The Great Gatsby because the novel offers hope to Americans after The First World War when traditional values were questioned by many individuals. The concept of The American Dream is deeply rooted in religion and represents rebirth and renewal.
The Great Gatsby is a classic American novel that has been taught in schools for decades to introduce The Great Gatsby, The American Dream and The Eyes of T. J Eckleburg. The American Dream can be seen as the soul or driving force behind The Great Gatsby because, without The American Dream, many characters would not pursue what they ultimately lose sight of: The American Dream itself. The other themes such as corruption and greed would not exist without The American Dream; all other themes derive from it which demonstrates the important role this idea plays throughout The Great Gatsby.
The novel The Great Gatsby explores this idea through its narrator Nick Carraway and his neighbor Jay Gatsby. The story’s setting in The Roaring Twenties serves as an example of the American Dream with greater emphasis on The Jazz Age, a time when Americans saw great economic growth and hope for the future. The American Dream is explored through Gatsby’s rise to wealth and his relationships with Nick Carraway. Nick Carraway’s description of The Roaring Twenties serve as an apt backdrop of The American Dream.
The book begins with Nick arriving in New York after finishing college; he rents a house across the bay from Jay Gatsby where he will live until he finds housing that meets his standards (Fitzgerald 3). The beginning shows Nick’s idealistic vision of The American Dream principles where any individual can succeed if they work hard enough; it is evident that Nick is anticipating The Roaring Twenties to be a time of great progress as his house lies directly ‘in the heart of the roaring traffic’ (Fitzgerald 3).
The backdrop of The American Dream continues with Nick’s description of The Valley of The Ashes, where the poor and displaced live: Opposite, on the other side of the bay, were factories, “concentrated now in a black cloud that reflected the sunset” (5), which symbolizes that The American Dream is not working for everyone. This reflects Fitzgerald’s view that The Great Gatsby presents The American Dream as an idealistic goal. The readers experience this same sentiment when Nick discovers another neighbor who appears to embody The American Dream; Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who built his wealth through The Roaring Twenties Stock Market and used it to live The American Dream in West Egg.
The Great Gatsby represents The American Dream as an unattainable goal that few can achieve, but many set out to attain. The metaphors and symbols found in The Great Gatsby introduce the reader to Fitzgerald’s view of The American Dream; the most prominent example is the green light. The green light is significant because it symbolizes Daisy, The American Dream, and Jay Gatsby’s ambition (Seiler). This correlation is introduced when Nick first meets Gatsby: “he pointed suddenly at my heart” (Fitzgerald 29) where he placed a physical manifestation of The American Dream, the green light, which is symbolic of Daisy’s love.
The green light continues to symbolize The American Dream when it reappears as Gatsby’s dock where his wealthy guests disembark (Seiler). The symbolism is elaborated upon when the green light shines on The Buchanans’ home later in the novel; this scene represents Daisy’s family as The Great Gatsby’s embodiment of The American Dream through their wealth and status. The Great Gatsby explores The American Dream through Nick Carraway, who serves as a metaphor for The Everyman character common in literature (Fitzgerald 3).
This idealistic figure seeks to better himself with little luck or hope for success until he meets Jay Gatsby, who serves as The American Dream. The novel shows that The American Dream is within reach for very few people, but many will feel the need to aspire to it. The Great Gatsby is a fine example of The American Dream because its characters try time and again only to fail every time; Nick Carraway states this best when he says ‘Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us’ (Fitzgerald 170).
This scene represents The Jazz Age where Americans saw great economic growth and hope for the future; Fitzgerald later wrote about The Great Gatsby reflecting on The Roaring Twenties saying ‘the parties were bigger…and much wilder…’ (Mattson). The Great Gatsby is a reflection of The Roaring Twenties and The American Dream seen through the lens of The Lost Generation. Gatsby’s drive to attain The American Dream reflects Fitzgerald’s belief that The American Dream was something unattainable for most Americans (Mattson).
This is evident when Nick discusses his resentment toward the wealthy who live ‘wherever they chose’ because he ‘had no money and no obscure origin to give him caste’ (Fitzgerald 3). It is also revealed through Nick Carraway, who says ‘[t]he best thing would be to scrap the whole code of society’ (Fitzgerald 269) where The Great Gatsby criticizes American Dream as an idealistic goal that few can achieve, but many seek to. The American Dream is shown through The Great Gatsby where Nick Carraway will play The Everyman who discovers The American Dream for himself.
