Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

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Everything eventually draws to a close, including F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. There are many ways to bring a book to an end and all bore significance. Fitzgerald brings his novel to a striking conclusion with symbolism leaving the reader feeling Nick’s sense of loss and hopelessness. The author powerfully ends his book with symbolism of the concept of the American dream by highlighting Gatsby’s inability to reach his green light in the end. Gatsby made desperate attempts to get back a past love and ended up with nothing to show for it. He was a romantic and refused to understand that the past is the past and things have changed. He was stuck in a place where he had built up an image of the girl he loved and she did nothing…show more content…
The wealth and fame that almost all Americans strive for is not always obtainable. Fitzgerald also shows this when the narrator, Nick Carraway, talks about the abandonment of Gatsby’s mansion after Gatsby’s death. “The grass on his lawn had grown as long as mine,” Nick states; Gatsby had once kept a well-manicured house, he would throw “gleaming, dazzling parties” every weekend. The author expresses how so many people work so hard for their green light, their American dream, and instead end up with a “huge incoherent failure of a house.” Fitzgerald is portraying that when Gatsby was in the middle of achieving his “dream” of the girl he thought it was fantastic. Gatsby held parties that were filled with “music and laughing.” All of that now sits empty, a shadow of what could have been. This is symbolism for achieving tangible things idolized as the ‘American Dream’, such as a big house and grand parties, will not always be actualized. Fitzgerald shows how Gatsby’s “dream must have been so close that…show more content…
Fitzgerald concludes The Great Gatsby with the vision of the island before all the glitz and glam; it was “a fresh, green breast of the new world.” Gatsby brought a new presence and excitable possibility. When Gatsby dies it is almost as if he takes the life of West Egg with him. The author powerfully ends his book with Nick speaking about how the vivaciousness is leaving the island. Nick describes West Egg by saying, “most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights…” This expresses how hard it is on a country when the whole dream it is built on is not always fulfilled. When Gatsby was no longer there it seemed like the excitement and hope was not either. This suggest that America is not always this hopeful land it is envisioned as, but Fitzgerald also states something very powerful, “ It eluded us then, but that’s no matter- to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms father…” The author does not end his book with a complete sense of hopelessness even though everything is fading. He highlights the fact that through trial and turmoil people like Jay Gatsby kept fighting for their dream. Fitzgerald makes sure to end his book with the point that Americans are fighters even if the cause seems very lost. The sense of perseverance makes the reader feel empowered to never give up on their dreams just because one might not succeed. The author strikingly

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