“Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another.”
This quotation shows, that he was desperately seeking Daisy and threw his parties simply in the hope that she would come to one of them. However, even after Gatsby achieved everything he wanted from his American Dream, he still was not happy – proving that power, materialism and wealth cannot make someone happy if they do not have it for the right reasons, which Gatsby didn’t – he did it for Daisy and after she left him for good, he had nothing to show for his entire life except his wealth which he no longer needed because he had only obtained it for Daisy.
Symbolism plays an important part in ‘The Great Gatsby.’ One main symbol within the book is the green light at the end of the Buchanan’s dock. To Gatsby, the light stood for Daisy and his goal to win her back and gain her love once again – it was a symbol of hope. After Gatsby and Daisy are reunited, a mist guards the green light at the end of the dock and Nick interprets Gatsby’s thoughts:
“Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever…Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” (PAGE100)
This quotation shows that now Gatsby has Daisy, she is not as ideal as he had made her seem. To him, having Daisy diminishes all he has ever done; having his full American Dream is not as perfect in reality as he had imagined. A second symbol within ‘the Great Gatsby’ is the use of names. The use of names within the book effected my enjoyment of the story because it allowed me to see how a high-class society acts. For example, when Tom and Daisy came to one of Gatsby’s parties, Gatsby insisted on showing them around and chose to introduce Tom as “the polo player” to reduce his status and importance. I think Gatsby did this to show Tom he could compete with him to take Daisy and to show Daisy his lifestyle could please her – he was good enough for her now. A second example is when Nick – the Narrator, is describing the guests at one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties:
“Women who never know each other’s names”
This quotation shows that within this higher-class society everyone is a stranger to one another; however, due to reputation and popularity, they are all associated together as one group of ‘friends.’ Lastly, again Nick is narrating the important people at Gatsby’s party;
“Civet, Blackbuck, Beaver”
this quotation confirms that only people who Gatsby sees as important and status building people are invited to his parties – he only wants to be associated with appropriate people for a man of his stature, which I think shows how alone he was in his bid to get Daisy and how much he was willing to sacrifice to get her.
Overall, ‘The Great Gatsby,’ was an intriguing compilation of deceit, lust and love through the development of (QUESTION) in the areas of theme and symbolism. I found (QUESTION) affected my enjoyment of the book (QUESTION) and brought book to an interesting climax.
