The Great Gatsby is praised for its unique and complex symbolism, being acclaimed as one of the most symbolic novels ever written. From the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock to the general color of the room to a more clichè symbol like the weather, everything that Fitzgerald takes time to write down is relevant to something or some issues in America. However, the greatest symbol in the book may be the man who gives his name to the title, Jay Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores the realities of human nature through his characterization of Jay Gatsby, suggesting towards the cost of being socially adequate among the wealthy, the darker side of one of the best economic times that American history has seen,
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Especially in America, the wealthier individuals are often expected to be happy and expected to have traits that are associated with success but that is often not the case. America loses many celebrities to suicide, successful actors and musicians with all of the money, fame, and admiration to make people wonder what might have been so wrong in their lives to make them so unhappy. To the American people, money appears to be the solution to 99% of all problems and can make the other 1% feel like they do not matter. In the The Great Gatsby, there are both subtle and significant examples of this. Jordan Baker driving in her car after Gatsby’s party shows the reader one of their first blatant glimpses into the moral detachment of the rich. As Baker is driving, Nick advises her, “you ought to be more careful, or you oughtn’t to drive at all,” (Fitzgerald 58). It is not how she is driving that is the problem but that she is conscious of it the entire time and she does not intend on being more careful, even responding with, “it takes two to make an accident,” (Fitzgerald 58). This near-psychopathic level of empathy is frequent, particularly in Tom, Daisy, and Jordan. From Tom’s …show more content…
He fell from the height of his glory to a depth of seven feet under and nobody was left to care. Despite how active Gatsby was in everyone’s lives, nobody bothered to celebrate his, possibly the biggest character difference that lead to him not belong inside of the socioeconomic. Gatsby might just qualify as a man to both be nothing like and learn valuable traits from. While many people may look at Jay Gatsby as nothing but a character in another book, that is exactly what Fitzgerald was trying to
Especially in America, the wealthier individuals are often expected to be happy and expected to have traits that are associated with success but that is often not the case. America loses many celebrities to suicide, successful actors and musicians with all of the money, fame, and admiration to make people wonder what might have been so wrong in their lives to make them so unhappy. To the American people, money appears to be the solution to 99% of all problems and can make the other 1% feel like they do not matter. In the The Great Gatsby, there are both subtle and significant examples of this. Jordan Baker driving in her car after Gatsby’s party shows the reader one of their first blatant glimpses into the moral detachment of the rich. As Baker is driving, Nick advises her, “you ought to be more careful, or you oughtn’t to drive at all,” (Fitzgerald 58). It is not how she is driving that is the problem but that she is conscious of it the entire time and she does not intend on being more careful, even responding with, “it takes two to make an accident,” (Fitzgerald 58). This near-psychopathic level of empathy is frequent, particularly in Tom, Daisy, and Jordan. From Tom’s …show more content…
He fell from the height of his glory to a depth of seven feet under and nobody was left to care. Despite how active Gatsby was in everyone’s lives, nobody bothered to celebrate his, possibly the biggest character difference that lead to him not belong inside of the socioeconomic. Gatsby might just qualify as a man to both be nothing like and learn valuable traits from. While many people may look at Jay Gatsby as nothing but a character in another book, that is exactly what Fitzgerald was trying to