Each symbolism show different meanings. Gatsby and Nick were living in West Egg which represents nouveau money while East Egg represents as old money. The main symbols, the valley of ashes, the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, and the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock shows Gatsby’s dream , different wealth classes’ lifeless, and dark, and religious fact that God always is looking
Throughout the novel, the past plays a enormous part in Nick and Gatsby’s lives causing them to have different views on the present and future. Gatsby's past emerges in his romantic need for Daisy and his hope in material objects such as money. While, Nick’s past, grounded in his Midwestern upbringing, allows him to place his hope in those around him rather than in the past relationship than Gatsby treasures. Nick's Midwestern values help to guide him through the novel. For example, Nick’s father tells him that, “all the people in this world haven't had the advantages you’ve had” (1) .
Joe Schwartz August 27, 2012 Jen Ferretter English III Beowulf Heorot and Grendel’s lair are two very different things. In Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf the word choice and figurative language can be used to compare Heorot and Grendel’s lair. Heaney uses lots of similes and personification to tell the story of the two dissimilar places. When Heaney describes Grendel as “fatherless creatures” (l. 1355), he is talking about how he has a hidden past and no recollection of their ancestry. This becomes an important factor throughout the book when the battles take place.
The Easter Islanders could see that the land resources were becoming increasingly scarce but they continued to consume them shamelessly. What’s worse is that they relied on the very source of their predicament, the statues, to deliver their salvation. In Sumer, a conceivably more civilized and organized realm, trade, accounting, and irrigation systems were developed. Greed plagued the land. Kings, lords, great families and priests ruled and all others were slaves who often had fallen victim to human sacrifice.
The Great Gatsby Chapter 2 Unlike the other settings in the book, the valley of ashes is a picture of absolute desolation and poverty. It lacks any sort glamour and lies halfway between West Egg and New York. The valley of ashes symbolizes the moral decay and reality disguised by the ‘fairytale palaces’ of the Eggs. The valley is created by industrial dumping and home to the poor and just basically is everything the ‘American dream’ isn’t. Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s ‘gigantic’ eyes gazing down from their billboard makes the reader wonder what significance they hold in the story.
With affairs scattered throughout, Nick shirking any responsibility to “a girl back west” and the recklessness of “bad drivers”, it is a musing on the apparent disintegration of any moral fibre within society. With many American’s feeling alienated and apathy after the horror of WW1, Fitzgerald’s work certainly captures the reactive spirit of recklessness and frivolity as many felt that they “had been everywhere and done everything”. The lavish parties of Gatsby, which encapsulate so effectively the “caterwauling” and velocity of such fast living, suggest the seductive nature of money, but ultimately the “empty house” and the absence at the final funeral highlights the vacuous nature of such
* The ash heap The ash heap represents the industrial wasteland of the States, at the time, and provides a direct contrast with the lavish lifestyle in which Gatsby and Tom live in. This shows the diversity that was present in society at the time. * The green light This color is used extensively throughout the novel and is used to represent all of Gatsby’s dream, and in particular, the dream of attaining Daisy. Also, the distance between Gatsby and the light is both great, and small, and this is used to highlight how close Gatsby is to Daisy, and yet, he cannot possibly reach her love completely, and this is evident in the end when Daisy simply shows her selfishness. * East versus West Egg There is a distinct difference between the norms of society between East and West Egg, and this shows the contrast of the lives of the major characters in the novel.
Nick, in the novels ending paragraph declares, “Gatsby belived in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning – So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 152-153). This concluding statement from the protagonist sums up the theme of social status as a whole throughout The Great Gatsby. The past cannot alter and a person will never be able to escape their true roots. The 1920s created a divide so deep within social classes that no individual could cross it, no matter how dedicated they remained.
Chanelle Ugalde AP Brit lit Ms. Tanaka October 3, 2013 The Great Gatsby: “The Symbolism of the Green Light” (2009 Prompt) In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows a variety of techniques throughout his book, giving us hints and clues to who Gatsby could really be and why he’s doing what he’s doing. Jay Gatsby is the main character in the book, and had expressed a deep love for another character, who would be Daisy Buchanan. The dilemma was shown that Gatsby and Daisy don’t have a chance of being together because of different social status and past relations. In the beginning of the book, Fitzgerald had mentioned the “Green Light”, but it wasn’t to any large significance until towards the middle and end of the book. Well to Gatsby,
Upon its publication it was burned by farmers and for years after was among the most frequently banned books in America because of its profanity (Stanley 43). The Grapes of Wrath struck such a deep nerve it was deplored on the floors of Congress for its radicalism (Steinbeck). Oklahoma Congressman Lyle Boren went as far as to call it “the black, infernal creation of a twisted, distorted mind” (Stanley 2). Steinbeck's novel also harvested a downbeat response reflected in many book reviews and literary essays. Burton Rascoe of Newsweek called The Grapes of Wrath a “mess of silly propaganda, superficial observation, careless infidelity to the proper use of idiom, tasteless, pornographical, and categorical talk” (Cordyack).