Why Is Cover Art Important In The Great Gatsby

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People say pictures paint a thousand words, and they are right. Great artists all throughout history have expressed stories and lessons learned throughout their lives in one single painting. These paintings do not have to be in a large art gallery or be by the most sought after artists, as many of these artworks are right before your eyes. These works are on books everywhere expressed in what is known as cover art. Cover art is not simply to make a book look more appealing as many people may think, but one underlying purpose is to give insight into the story and deeper meaning of a novel. This type of story-telling cover art is present on front of one of the most iconic novels in modern history, The Great Gatsby. The cover art of The Great Gatsby truly is representative of symbolism hidden within the…show more content…
The features shown by the figure on the cover are the ideal features of a woman from this time period. In the novel, Daisy tries to be the perfect woman and always carries herself as this idealist figure. The figure on the cover of the novel is only a rough outline with features missing. This is true of Daisy’s true personality, as she does not truly know where she stands. This is exemplified in her being in love with Gatsby, but already being married to Tom. The tear present under the left eye of the figure represents the many challenges Daisy has faced in life and in her relationships. She doesn’t really know what she wants and cannot be confident in her decisions as a “faithful” wife. She is even described as being “…a beautiful, little fool (Fitzgerald 17).” Within the eyes of the figure on the cover is a woman. Most likely this represents Tom’s affair with Myrtle and how Daisy knows about it. Rather than do anything about this relationship, Daisy just stands and watches the affair unfold showing her incompleteness even more so. The unfinished figure as a whole represents Daisy’s general feelings toward her
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