Symbolism in the Great Gatsby Free Essay Example

Many flock to the United States in an attempt to chase the American Dream while those already there struggle to achieve the so-called dream. The American Dream is the idea of someone working (legally) until they individually reach success or simply working from the bottom to the top. This concept is severely flawed as within The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald uses Jay Gatsby, the green light, and Gatsby’s parties to symbolize flaws and corruption in the American Dream as well as through the concepts of new and old money.

The first symbol in The Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald uses to reveal flaws in the American Dream is the character Jay Gatsby himself. Fitzgerald clearly uses Gatsby as a key character to represent the flaws and essential corruption of the American Dream. Fitzgerald clearly crafted Jay Gatsby to pursue the American Dream and to reveal flaws along the way. He had Gatsby go from rags to riches and it is the way that he did it and what he went through that shows how flawed the American Dream is. Gatsby is this representation because his love for Daisy drove him to become successful. Though he has always had this goal “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby…he was faithful to the end” (Fitzgerald 92), his love for Daisy pushed him to go from rags to riches; “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 75). Gatsby also comes from a poor background “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people” (Fitzgerald 91), and he achieves the American Dream in a way, he does so in a very flawed manner. Following the lies and myths about Gatsby accumulating his wealth from his dead relatives (“My family all died and I came into a great deal of money” (Fitzgerald 66), the truth is revealed and it turns out that Gatsby accumulated his wealth through illegal bonds(“Young Parke’s in trouble…They picked him up when he handed the bonds over the counter…Mr. Gatsby’s dead”(Fitzgerald 143) and through bootlegging (“I found out what your ‘drug stores’ were…”What about it?” said Gatsby” (Fitzgerald 118-119) during the prohibition. The fact that Gatsby worked his way up illegally and because of where his money came from, he is the ultimate representation of corruption of the American Dream. Fitzgerald best represents this with all of the details given about the nature of Gatsby’s money. Fitzgerald made him accumulate his money this way for a reason; to challenge the American Dream. Gatsby also ends up dying as well without achieving his own version of his dream which was to get Daisy back and relive the past with her as it had been before. Fitzgerald uses the character Gatsby to show that even with ”achieving” the American Dream (financially), happiness is not guaranteed which is a major flaw because the supposed key to achieving the American Dream is to live a life in happiness.

Fitzgerald also shows his portrayal of flaws in the American Dream through the green light located at the end of Daisy’s dock (In chapter 5 Gatsby reunites with Daisy and says this: “If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your house across the bay”…”you always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock” (Fitzgerald 87)). The green light essentially serves as a piece of Gatsby’s dream which is to acquire Daisy’s love and relive the past as it once was. The green light is the hope for him to achieve it in the fullness of time. Even in the beginning, at the end of chapter 1, Fitzgerald begins to symbolize the significance of the green light. “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could see he was trembling…distinguished nothing except a green light”; the “trembling” part meaning that clearly Gatsby is reaching out to something he cannot reach and the green light itself serving as Gatsby’s longing for reuniting with Daisy, reliving the past with her and Gatsby’s hope for the upcoming future. Fitzgerald foreshadows what is to come by having Gatsby stretch his arms to the light that he cannot reach, meaning that Gatsby’s version of the American Dream is unattainable for him. Readers can clearly see that with the way Fitzgerald selectively details the green light. Fitzgerald also shows the significance of the green light in chapter 5 where the light is said to have lost its significance. “Now it was again the green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one”; meaning that since Gatsby had reunited with Daisy, the light loses its meaning attached to it because the light symbolizes the hope for Gatsby being with Daisy again. Fitzgerald hints and directly points to the significance of the green light for readers which clarifies the true meaning of the light which is evidently Gatsby’s hope for reuniting with Daisy. The actual light itself is more evidence of Fitzgerald showing the American Dream is flawed as Gatsby simply could not achieve his ultimate goal.

Along with Gatsby himself and the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, Fitzgerald also uses Gatsby’s parties as a symbol. Gatsby’s parties symbolize his loneliness and how even though he is surrounded by people, he is still alone. The loneliness part being because he is without Daisy as he throws these parties in hope that Daisy might show up at one of them. “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties some night…but she never did” (Fitzgerald 76). In the beginning of The Great Gatsby, readers are not introduced to him (Gatsby) right away but rather his parties instead as he threw parties every other weekend. “On weekends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city” (Fitzgerald 47). Additionally, as mentioned before Gatsby throws his parties because of his loneliness and this is where the concepts of new and old money come into play. Gatsby has new money meaning that his wealth was newly accumulated and that he “worked” for his money rather than many others in the story like Tom and Daisy that have old money or inherited wealth. The American Dream is the idea of having equal opportunity of success but clearly that is gone against in The Great Gatsby. Gatsby’s parties are essentially a display of his new found wealth. They are said to be extravagant and are so.