Dream or a Fantasy – Great Gatsby Essay – Essay – paris_montgomery
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Dream or a Fantasy – Great Gatsby Essay
Dream or a Fantasy
Imagine chasing after one dream that you ended up not achieving in the end. Dreams, everyone has them. Sometimes they are fantasies and sometimes they are memories. F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby uses symbols of colors through setting and the characters of the novel to cultivate the dreams of his characters. The roaring 20s, the jazz age, the 1920s, F. Scott Fitzgerald lived and experienced this time. During this time Fitzgerald would later describe as âthe greatest, gaudiest spree in history.¨ Throughout this time the American dream went from being about hope to being all about money. The people of the 20s focused on who could throw the biggest parties, make the most money, has the flashest car, and who has the most men or women. While focusing on these attributes the ¨lost generation¨ lost their morals, hope, and pursuit of happiness. In The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the change in American values and how the new American morals has affected their dreams. Fitzgerald uses the symbols of green and blue throughout The Great Gatsby to show that some dreams are only a fantasy.
The use of green in The Green Gatsby symbolize the dreams, hope, and money of the characters in the novel. In the novel, the money Gatsby got and the green light at Daisyâs house symbolizes the lost dreams that Gatsby has. While in the hotel room in New York Tom Buchanan âexposesâ how Gatsby got his money to Daisy telling her that â[Gatsby] and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counterâ(133). After this revelation Daisy âlosesâ her feelings for Gatsby not appreciating the way he got his money. The irony in this is that Gatsby got all his money just for Daisy. All the green money, fancy parties, and âFameâ was all for Daisy, his dream. Gatsbyâs dream was Daisy and the money was supposed to help him with achieving his dream, but in the end what was supposed to help him had ended his dream of being with Daisy. After all Daisy and Gatsbyâs relationship is only a short lived fantasy for him.
Furthermore, The first time Nick saw Gatsby he âcould have sworn he was tremblingâ while âhe stretched out his arms towards the dark waterâ curiously Nick look towards what Gatsby was looking at but saw ânothing except a single green lightâ(21). This âsingle green lightâ symbolizes Gatsbyâs hopes and dreams(21). Gatsbyâs dream is associated with Daisy, her being all that he has been chasing after for five years. As he reaches towards the green light he reaches out to Daisy as the green light is emitting from Daisyâs dock. This green light adds to the fact how Gatsbyâs dreams end up only a fantasy as the green light symbolize how âhis dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp itâ but in the end âit was already behind himâ(180). His dream of Daisy, his hope of being finally being together, ended as quick as it started and stayed a fantasy in his mind. Although, these symbols of green money and the light show how some dreams are meant to stay a fantasy there are many other symbols throughout the novel that support this statement.
In addition to the green symbols, blue in the novel emphasizes fantasy, illusions, aspirations, and sadness which reinforce how some dreams are meant to stay a fantasy. While out with Tom, Nick meets his mistress, Myrtle. When first seeing her she was wearing âa spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chineâ(25). Myrtleâs blue dress symbolizes her false dream of wealth and love, which is her ârelationshipâ with Tom. The dark shade of blue symbolize the darkness and immorality of Tom and her affair. Her dream of wealth and love come to an end in the end when she run out her house from her husband, Wilson, towards Gatsbyâs car mistaking it for Tomâs car. In the end, she is hit by the car which is ironically driven by Tomâs actually wife, Sadly Myrtle dies in a hit in run by âthe other womanâ. This shows how her illusion and dream of being with Tom was better off as a fantasy than a reality.
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By: paris_montgomery
Submitted: July 18, 2018
Essay Length: 1,226 Words / 5 Pages
Paper type: Essay Views: 406
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