Theme Of Decay In The Great Gatsby

In an excerpt from his novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald intended to expose the American Dream as an illusion. He accomplished this task by emphasizing the unattainable nature of the dream held by Gatsby throughout the novel. Fitzgerald develops his purpose with the use of juxtaposition in order to contrast Gatsby’s images of life with images of death and decay expressed by the narrator, Nick Carraway, the use of imagery in order to emphasize the death of the American Dream through images of decay, varied syntax in order to emphasize the culmination of Gatsby 's dream that he will never achieve, and metaphor in order to relate Gatsby to Americans in general, all through a tone of decay. One very important aspect to note regarding …show more content…
While Gatsby sees Daisy’s love as an opportunity to reinvent himself, Nick is able to detect the impractical and unattainable nature of Gatsby’s dream. Because Gatsby’s dream is essentially a metaphor for the American Dream, Fitzgerald is virtually saying that the American Dream cannot be achieved. Nick makes use of imagery in order to emphasize the deterioration of Gatsby 's dream. By referring to Daisy as a “white face,” Nick is exposing the reader to images of death and decay. Decay is evident within the tone of the excerpt, as Nick refers to Daisy’s breath as perishable, Gatsby’s visions as unutterable, and the overall nature of Gatsby’s dream as an “elusive rhythm.” All these uses of language relate to the idea that the American Dream is simply unable to be achieved. Daisy’s breath represents the ultimate decay of the dream held by Gatsby and therefore Americans. Gatsby’s dreams are unutterable as there is simply no possible way they can be a reality. Gatsby’s dream is described as an “elusive rhythm” because it can never quite be found by Gatsby; it is simply out of his reach. For these reasons, it can clearly be seen through Nick’s (more specifically, Fitzgerald’s) tone of decay that the American Dream, which is represented by the dream held by Gatsby, is …show more content…
With the use of Gatsby’s dream as a metaphor for the American Dream, he is able to express what Americans at the time were aiming to achieve. Subsequently, he was able to juxtapose their illusions of reinvention with the reality of the matter, which is that these goals were simply unattainable. He makes use of varied syntax in order to emphasize the idea many Americans had at the time: the idea that all their dreams of reinventing themselves may simply be achieved in a single moment. He makes use of imagery as well as a tone of decay in order to deliver this fact to the reader. Fitzgerald uses language and syntax throughout the excerpt in order to make Americans at the time realize that their dreams of reinvention were simply impractical, regardless of whether or not they attempted to complete these goals in the United