Tom Buchanan Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

Superior Essays
The Narrator of the story Nick Carraway represents a mediator in all of the issues that the New Yorkers bring upon themselves. He is an open minded individual that can listen to people and can be trusted which entitles him to trouble and knowledge of things that he shouldn’t know; "Meyer Wolfshiem? No, he 's a gambler." Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: "He 's the man who fixed the World 's Series back in 1919” (Fitzgerald 112) Like this example Nick learns about the money and crimes that go on around Gatsby. Surrounded by characters with poor morality he flaunts wisdom and good morals even though he is described as not a highly regarded person. Through his episodes with Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, and the other haughty characters in the novel …show more content…
One of the unexplained symbols in The Great Gatsby is the billboard display of the absent Doctor T.J. Eckleburg; "The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose" (Fitzgerald 22). It is never explained what the eyes truly mean in the story but Fitzgerald added this symbol to create a sense that the eyes are God’s eyes and that he is watching over the people of New York and their escapades of sin. The eyes are only spoken of twice throughout the novel but serve as a symbol emphasising the disgusting and immoral actions the people of New York do. Like the eyes the weather is also an important symbol in the story and serves as a foreshadowing device. In different ways the weather has been described in certain scenes in the story. A good example of the change in pace of the story correlating with the weather occurs in the rekindling of Gatsby and Daisy; “ ‘Come here quick!’ cried Daisy at the window. The rain was still falling, but the darkness had parted in the west, and there was a pink and golden billow of foamy clouds above the sea.” (Fitzgerald 99). Before this text appears in the novel it was pouring rain and showed no signs of stopping, but once Daisy and Gatsby rekindled their love the …show more content…
Fitzgerald was struggling with personal issues while writing this novel and the issues reflect with the negative mood of the story. I personally enjoyed the story because it was interesting and easy to keep reading. Another reason I enjoyed the story was the messages involving the psychological aspects of men. Fitzgerald uses many literary devices to support the story line and its setting which helps make the story more enticing to read. Most parts of the story I enjoyed except for the ending which made every character excluding Nick seem like an unjust person. This was expected considering the building up of negative attributes attached to the characters, but still disappointing because there is no solidified protagonist. My final impression of the characters was what I was expecting it to be, many things about this story are explained or foreshadowed before they actually appear in the story chronologically. The characters of this story show greatly of the author’s perspective of people. Fitzgerald was depressed and an introvert while writing this story, and he makes every character in some way a bad person, although they are all bad, they are a good fit for his main point of the story and are used well. The moral of the Great Gatsby is a message to readers informing them that no matter how much money and greatness a man can have they

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