Literary Devices: Themes and Symbols
There are many themes in The Great Gatsby but here are the main one's that stand out:
- Let the past be the past.
- In the novel Gatsby keeps trying to make things with daisy like they were before when they first met instead of excepting the fact that Daisy has moved on and is set in her life and lifestyle, which is careless. As a result Gatsby has spent most of his life dreaming of Daisy instead of enjoying his wealth and life before it was too late.
- The American Dream is corrupted.
- Majority of the characters in the novel were wealthy and living what was classified as the American dream back in the 1920's but yet they all were unhappy because it wasn't how they thought it was going to be. Daisy hated her marriage, Gatsby had fake friends and wanted Daisy more than anything, and Tom was having an affair.
- The wealthy are careless people.
- The wealthy did whatever they wanted, however they pleased without thinking about the consequences and who would be affected. For example Tom and Daisy both have a open extra marital affairs, they aren't even the least bit careful about and as a result *Spoiler Alert* both their lovers die. Another example is when Jordan Baker is driving she drives as if no one else is on the road and she plays so many mind games, she's a cynical woman.
Symbols
The Weather- The weather is a symbol of how the characters emotions fluctuate from happy to sad
The Valley Of Ashes- Represents how the characters lives are just snowballing into something bad "a big hill of ashes" as you can say, and that they don't know what tragedy is to come until "the smoke clears" from the air.
T.J. Eckleburg- T.J. Eckleburg is a billboard in the valley of ashes. The billboard just has two big eyes on them and they represent the eyes of god, and how he sees everything.
The Green Light Near Daisy's House- The green light is a representation of how close Gatsby is to reaching his dream of meeting Daisy again and hope.