Significance Of Nature In The Great Gatsby

All the characters in The Great Gatsby have almost a non-existent relationship with nature. When one thinks of the colour green, they usually associate it with nature or the environment. For Gatsby, however, this is a symbol of his dream to have Daisy. When Tom and Daisy run away from East Egg, Gatsby realizes that “the colossal significance of the light has vanished forever.” He attaches all of his dreams, hopes and goals to this green light so much, that when it is suddenly gone, he is bewildered as to how he should react. Also, the word colossal illustrates how Gatsby thinks everything should be big, which is a part of following the American Dream. In that era, which is the setting for this novel, cars were the things to have and parties …show more content…
The word fresh means original, not stale or decayed. Before Gatsby builds his house on that piece of land, it was pure, and free of greed, lust, violence, lies and excess which now mar the site. Evidently, Gatsby has no qualms about exchanging nature for material goods, as long as it impresses Daisy. For example, his house is so excessively large and extravagant that many trees were sacrificed for its construction. Nick critiques how humans have taken over the natural beauty of the landscape and replaced it with buildings for the sake of superficiality.Ironically enough this phenomenon not only occurs in the external environment but also in the lives of the characters in the novel. Gatsby changes almost every facet of his personality to conform to man-created ideals of class and wealth rather than relying on his natural personality to win over Daisy.These examples show how there is no value of nature for the characters in The Great …show more content…
The name of God is not mentioned that much. When George Wilson tells his wife that she cannot fool God, He sees and judges all, she still does not admit to having an extramarital affair with Tom, indirectly resulting in Gatsby’s death. Furthermore, the most blatant act of immorality is when Daisy runs over Myrtle without even stopping. All the people are so busy living for the moment that they have lost touch with any sort of morality, and end up breaking laws, cheating, and even killing, which goes against religion. For example, the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust are well represented but their theological counterparts: faith, hope, love, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance are mostly absent in the novel. The only religion the society chases is the American Dream especially Gatsby. He changes his religion, personality, name and background following the American Dream and to chase Daisy. “Jay Gatsby…sprang from his platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God – a phrase which means anything means just that – and he must be about His Father’s Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty…and to this conception he was faithful to the end.” The irony of Gatsby being “a son of God” is that he is not the Son of God, Jesus is, and he behaves in the exact opposite manner. Jesus taught people to