Imagery, Patterns and Symbolism in the Great Gatsby and Brideshead Revisited

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F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" uses imagery to convey various divides between different characters, and repeated symbols to show the significance of certain points in the novel and create the "intricate" patterns that Fitzgerald mentioned in his comment. Many of these instances of imagery and symbolism are also comparable to "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh, which also has imagery and symbolism which accomplishes similar aims. In The Great Gatsby, extravagant imagery is used to show the divide between Gatsby who has new money that he has earned, and the Buchanans who have old money that they have inherited. Gatsby's parties are portrayed early in the novel as a spectacular event. This is done through the descriptions of items at the party such as the salads with their "harlequin designs" which imply that the party is like a circus - a show or some sort of act. Later in the book it becomes clear that there is actually a motive behind the parties and they are indeed for show; they exist to show off Gatsby's wealth in the hope that it Daisy will attend one of his parties so that they may re-create their relationship from five years ago. This is where Gatsby is shown to be different from the Buchanans with their old money because he is trying to copy people like them in every way - even going as far as spending hours studying "poise and how to attain it" - but he fails at emulating them because of the sheer excessiveness of his parties which contrast with other gatherings that the Buchanans hold. Whilst Gatsby hosts parties with "a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low and high drums", the Buchanans events are understated dinner parties, held on a "rosy-coloured porch where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind". The Buchanans have a similar amount of money to Gatsby and yet
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