The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

SYMBOLS

DEFINITION

Any object, person, place, or idea that carries additional meaning to one or more people.

Draw a symbol.Think: Emoticons, public building signs, street signs, international symbols.

Turn to a page in the book between pages 1-59.What descriptions using color do you see?

COLORS

Meaning: conservatism, traditionalism, intelligence, serious, dull, uninteresting

Example in the book: Gray is the color for dreariness. It symbolizes the lack of life and/or spirit. It is the place of no hope, no future. In the book this place is called the valley of ashes where everything is covered in gray dust-even the people. This would not be a place where you would want to be.

GRAY

Meaning: Cleanliness, purity, newness, virginity, peace, innocence, simplicity, sterility, snow, ice, cold

Cultural Connection: White: Innocence. Purity. Fresh. Good. These are some of the meanings of white. Brides wear white (innocence), doctors and nurses (although many wear blue now) wear white (sterility), and heroes tend to wear white or ride off on a “white” horse.

Example from the book: White is the color that has the deeper meaning of false purity or goodness. Daisy and Jordan are always seen in white.

WHITE

Meaning: Durability, reliability, environmental, luxurious, optimism, well-being, nature, calm, relaxation, Spring, safety, honesty, optimism, harmony, freshness

Cultural Connection: Green: Nature. Growth. Money. Fertility. Safety. Green is easy on the eye and can improve vision. It has a calming effect, thus the “green rooms” where guests who are to appear on TV wait and it is often used in psychiatric wards. It’s often associated with good health too.

Example from the book: Green represents so many things in this novel. One thing is that it means is something to hope for, to reach out for, and a hope of new. Like the green light that is at the end of Daisy and Tom’s dock. In the first chapter Gatsby is reaching out for the light. He is reaching out for his hope of Daisy and a life with her It also represents wealth and prosperity. And both of these meanings correlate with each other because in the book, wealth is something to hope for and to reach out for.

GREEN

Meaning: Warmth, love, anger, danger, boldness, excitement, speed, strength, energy, determination, desire, passion, courage

Cultural Connection: Red: Intense. Love. Caution. Beware. Red is a very emotional color. It is supposed to stimulate a faster heart beat and breathing. Red is love. Red clothing gets noticed, as do red cars. Red is a good color to use for accents.

Example from the book: Red represents blood and death in the novel.

RED

Meaning: Attention-grabbing, comfort, liveliness, cowardliness, hunger, optimism, overwhelm, Summer, comfort, intellect, happiness, energy, conflict

Cultural Connection: Cheerful. Attention-grabber. Youth. Fun. Energetic. Yellow is an interesting color. While it’s usually associated with upbeat and optimistic feelings, studies reveal that when a room is painted yellow, tempers are lost more and babies tend to cry more. It is supposed to encourage concentration, thus yellow legal pads, but it’s also a hard color for the human eye to take in so it shouldn’t be overused.

Example from the book: Yellow is in many facets of the book. Yellow in general means corruptness and things that go bad. –Yellow leaves represent decay and corruptness. –The yellow of Gatsby’s car represents corrupt dishonesty and deception.

YELLOW

Meaning/Example from the book: Gold represents wealth, but, more so, the show of wealth.

GOLD

Temperature The more towards the red end of spectrum you go, the hotter it gets. The more towards the blue/purple end of the spectrum you go, the colder it gets.

Weight: Darker and more intense colors seem heavier. Lighter colors seem, unsurprisingly, lighter.

Money: Darker colors, such as burgundy red, tend to show opulence (they are often called 'rich' colors).

Dull shades, such as gray and dark browns indicate poverty.Seasons:

Pastel and light shades are delicate, feminine, springtime. Bright shades of primary colors indicate summer. Earthy shades of brown, yellow and orange speak of nature and the fall. Cool shades of white, black and blue represent winter.

COLORS IN…

Use in retail and business Red : Creates urgency - often used in sales and

impulse sales Green : Easy, calm - used to relax people Blue : Creates trust - used by fi nancial

institutions such as banks. Navy blue : Cheaper - sel l ing to price-sensitive Royal blue : Urgency - sel l ing to impulse buyers Pink : Romantic - sel l ing to women and gir ls Yellow : Grabbing attention - used in displays and

windows. Orange : Energizing - used to push for action, as

in impulse buying Purple : Calm - used in anti-aging products Black : Power - sel l ing luxury, aggressive

products, or to impulse buyers Color can even change what you taste. Customers

who bought 7-Up cans that had their color changed to yel low reported that the drink tasted more lemony.

So what? So use the color in situations where you

are trying to persuade. Use shades of brown and green to relax people and say you are environmentally friendly. Use red to kick people into action. And so on.

McDonald's, apparently, use red and yellow because red=fast and yellow=hunger (hence fast food!).

Remember also that meaning is what we create. It does not exist in the color itself and individual meanings may or may not exist in diff erent cultures and individuals.

APPLICATION

LOCATIONS

The East and West eggs are where they live, and there is always drama going on. An egg is white on the outside, and yellow on the inside. So on both sides of the spectrum there is deception everywhere. An egg symbolizes a false show of purity on the outside, but rotten and corrupt on the inside.

There is always constant bickering between the eggs because the west eggers are rowdy and don’t know how to handle themselves amongst the continually wealthy people.

EGGS

Facade; imitation

‘a colossal affair by any standard – it was a factual imitation of

some Hotel de Ville in Normandy’, ‘spanking new‘ with a 'thin beard of raw ivy’ to make it seem venerable (page

5)Real books in the library: Has Gatsby ever read them? The books add to the fraudulence

or represent Gatsby.

GATSBY’S MANSION

Wealth; Corruption

The Buchanan’s place is “a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion,

overlooking the bay. The lawn started a the beach and ran toward the front door

for a quarter of a mile [. . .] the front was broken by a line of French windows,

glowing now with reflected gold [. . .]” (page 6).

East Egg; Old Money

BUCHANAN HOUSE

THE VALLEY OF ASHES

The valley of ashes can also be seen as more

commentary on the American Dream.

The America of The Great

Gatsby is ashen,

decaying, and

barren. It is also,

based on the action that goes down in

the valley of the ashes,

devoid of morality

and compassion. Myrtle

Wilson lives by the ash heaps, and so there

resides Tom’s

infidelity. George Wilson lives by the ash

heaps, so we can place

there both anger and

envy.

It’s the only place where all the

characters’

stories cross.

A symbol of a

callous, careless society

and of its underlyin

g despair.

It is a huge

dumping ground

of a industrial society totally

absorbed in

materialism.

(Parkinson, 18)

Tastelessness and pretentiousnessImplies the value Tom gives to Myrtle

NYC APARTMENT

Myrt

le’s

Purc

hase

sN

ew

$

The east egg represents old money that has been passed down from generation to generation.

EAST EGG

The west egg represents new money that the people who live inside there have earned.

WEST EGG

CHARACTERS & OBJECTS

The romantic heritage of some flowers is relatively

easy to trace. For instance, myrtle was sacred to

Aphrodite, the mythological Greek goddess of love. In the floral pattern of meaning, it is

no surprise, that the flower myrtle symbolizes love.Myrtle, Tom’s

mistress, epitomizes the idea of a shrub that supports life, vitality.

Because she is full of life, and

makes spontaneous

decisions.

MYRTLE

Daisies represent purity, loyal love and are

symbol of innocence. It also can symbolize new

beginnings.

The flowers are also a symbol of death and at

one time they were placed on the graves of

children.

Daisy embodies a fragile flower, because she is a fragile person who can’t make up her

own mind.

DAISY

Nick is someone who stands to the side. He has his own opinion, but he doesn’t always express it. However he was one of the main people who connected Gatsby to Daisy, which turned out to be a really bad thing. He was like the un-innocent bystander.

NICK

A LIAR,

Power, control, and supremist

TOM

Gatsby represents the result of a

dream deferred. He overestimated what it would be like with Daisy, so much that she could never in

all her life live up to his expectations. The more that the hope did not come alive, the more he dreamed, and that

made it all the worse for him and

Daisy.

GATSBY

First, there’s the owl bit; owls are a symbol of wisdom, but can also be an omen of death. Then there’s the glasses bit; a man with large eyes and spectacles would be expected to be more perceptive than those around him.

He is the one sobering up in the library, who discovers the books are real, and gets in a car accident after the party, but isn’t the one driving.

OWL EYES

“Looking with blind eyes through

the smoke”

Reference to the moral blindness pervading the novel; there is no place for the helpless

(Parkinson, 63)

Passive figure, victim of chance and of the whims

of careless people = Myrtle Wilson’s status

and role (Parkinson, 63)

THE AIREDALE (DOG)

Materialism; objects of wealthThe colors characterize Gatsby’s emotions (Parkinson,

47)

GATSBY’S SHIRTS

Spring represents a new beginning, a clean slate to mess up all over again.

The story starts, Spring 1922.Gatsby, Nick, and George are all hoping for

something

SPRING

The season of summer is hot, and it represents the heat and boiling point of the story and or conflict.

SUMMER

Status symbol & new freedom (page 14)Tom’s car aids him in committing adultery

CARS

The “clock” time of reality contrasts with the romantic possibilities

Gatsby seems to push time backwards when it falls from the mantel.

(Parkinson, 49)

CLOCK

There is he billboard with T.J. Eckelburg. The billboard is right over the valley of ashes. The billboard consists of really big eyes and even bigger spectacles. There is a plethora of meanings behind this billboard:

There is the meaning that he watches over everything that goes on around in the valley.

Also, his glasses have yellow rims which symbolize corruptness in two different ways. (1) That all he sees is corruptness, and,(2) he sees through the eyes of someone who is corrupt.

The empty face represents the hollowness of people and their materialistic values.

The empty face also represents an empty, unresponding, and dead God.

THE EYES OF T.J. ECKELBURG

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:sites

:

My college experience Ticket out of class Assignment Video

JUNIOR JUMPSTART

GROUP DISCUSSION: Answer the following questions:1. Why does Fitzgerald list all of Gatsby's party guests? (p. 61-63)2. What could Gatsby’s car be a symbol of? (Think of its description, how

he drives it, what he gets away with) (p. 60, 68, 69)3. What 2 things does Gatsby always carry? 4. Describe Mr. Wolfshiem (3 things)5. What role does Meyer Wolfsheim play in the novel? Why is there so

much focus on his nose and what does this tell you about Fitzgerald's politics? (68-73)

6. What does Jordan's story of Daisy's marriage reveal about Daisy? (p 74-78)

7. What did Tom give Daisy the day before their wedding?8. What made Daisy reconsider marrying Tom?9. Why did Gatsby want Daisy to see his house? (p. 79)  

SYMBOLS REVIEW (AFTER READING THE GREAT

GATSBY)HTTP:/ /WWW.LITCHARTS.COM/LIT/THE-GREAT-GATSBY/DOWNLOAD

The green light at the end of Daisy's dock is the symbol of Gatsby's hopes and dreams. It represents everything that haunts and beckons Gatsby: the physical and emotional distance between him and Daisy, the gap between the past and the present, the promises of the future, and the powerful lure of that other green stuff he craves—money. In fact, the color green pops up everywhere in The Great Gatsby. Long Island sound is "green"; George Wilson's haggard tired face is "green" in the sunlight; Michaelis describes the car that kills Myrtle Wilson as "light green" (though it's yellow); Gatsby's perfect lawn is green; and the New World that Nick imagines Dutch explorers fi rst stumbling upon is a "fresh, green breast." The symbolism of green throughout the novel is as variable and contradictory as the many definitions of "green" and the many uses of money—"new," "natural," "innocent," "naive,“ and "uncorrupted"; but also "rotten," "gullible," "nauseous," and "sickly."

THE GREEN LIGHT AND THE COLOR GREEN

THE EYES OF DOCTOR T. J. ECKLEBURG

The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg on the billboard overlooking the Valley of Ashes represent many things at once: to Nick they seem to symbolize the haunting waste of the past, which lingers on though it is irretrievably vanished, much like Dr. Eckleburg's medical practice. The eyes can also be linked to Gatsby, whose own eyes, once described as "vacant," often stare out, blankly keeping "vigil" (a word Fitzgerald applies to both Dr. Eckleburg's eyes and Gatsby's) over Long Island sound and the green light. To George Wilson, Dr. Eckleburg's eyes are the eyes of God, which he says see everything.

THE VALLEY OF ASHESAn area ha l fway between New York C i ty and West Egg , the Va l ley o f Ashes i san indust r ia l waste land covered in ash and soot . I f New York C i ty representsa l l the "mystery and beauty in the wor ld , " and West Egg represents the peop lewho have got ten r ich off the roar ing economy o f the Roar ing Twent ies , theVa l ley o f Ashes s tands fo r the d ismal ru in o f the peop le caught in between .

EAST AND WESTNick descr ibes the nove l as a book about Westerners , a "s to ry o f the West . "Tom, Da isy , Jo rdan , Gatsby , and N ick a l l ha i l f rom p laces o ther than the Eas t .The romant ic i zed Amer ican idea o f go ing West to seek and make one 'sfo r tune on the f ront ier tu rned on i t s ear in the 1920 's s tock boom; now thoseseek ing the i r fo r tune headed back East to cash in . But wh i le Gatsby suggeststhere was a k ind o f honor in the hard work o f mak ing a fo r tune and bu i ld ing al i fe on the f ront ier , the quest fo r money in the Eas t i s noth ing more than that : aho l low quest fo r money. The sp l i t between the eas tern and western reg ions o fthe Un i ted S tates i s mi rrored in Gatsby by the d iv ide between Eas t Egg andWest Egg: once aga in the West i s the f ront ier o f peop le mak ing the i r fo r tunes ,but these "Westerners" a re as ho l low and corrupt ins ide as the "Eas terners . "

GATSBY'S MANSIONGatsby 's mans ion symbol i zes two broader themes o f the nove l . Fi r s t , i trepresents the grandness and empt iness o f the 1920s boom: Gatsby jus t ifi esl iv ing in i t a l l a lone by fi l l ing the house week ly w i th "ce lebrated peop le . "Second , the house i s the phys ica l symbo l o f Gatsby 's love fo r Da isy. Gatsbyused h is "new money" to c reate a p lace that he thought r iva led the houses o fthe "o ld money" that had taken her away.

LOCATIONS