I need help with the Great Gatsby?

Question

what eight symbols are used in the GREAT GATSBY?
It would be great if there was an explantion!

Answer 1

One symbol is the green light at the end of the Buchanan’s dock. It represents Gatsby’s longing for Daisy and the future that he wants to have with her. According to SparkNotes.com, since this green light is barley visible, it “represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future.” places and objects in The Great Gatsby have meaning only because characters instill them with meaning: the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg best exemplify this idea. In Nick’s mind, the ability to create meaningful symbols constitutes a central component of the American dream, as early Americans invested their new nation with their own ideals and values.



The Green Light

Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter I he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Because Gatsby’s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. In Chapter IX, Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation.

The Valley of Ashes

First introduced in Chapter II, the valley of ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley of ashes also symbolizes the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result.

The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg

The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. They may represent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral wasteland, though the novel never makes this point explicitly. Instead, throughout the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaning because characters instill them with meaning. The connection between the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God exists only in George Wilson’s grief-stricken mind. This lack of concrete significance contributes to the unsettling nature of the image. Thus, the eyes also come to represent the essential meaninglessness of the world and the arbitrariness of the mental process by which people invest objects with meaning. Nick explores these ideas in Chapter VIII, when he imagines Gatsby’s final thoughts as a depressed consideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.

Answer 2

You may get a passing grade on your homework if you generalize about some of the other answers. But, you'll never understand their significance in context unless you read the book.

The novel is set in the 1920's, when families that did not inherit wealth became very wealthy. The lives that Fitzgerald discusses contrast the elegant heartlessness of the "Old Wealth," upper-upper class, with the vulgarity and self-centered culture of the "nouveaux riches" (new rich) or "parvenus" (newcomers to upper-class standing), the lower-upper class.

The symbols are so provacative that you really don't want to miss the experience of reading this classic.

Answer 3

The Great Gatsby is a story about the decadence of the twenties and the futility of trying to recapture lost love.

Answer 4

Green light
Yellow car
Wolfsheim's molar cufflinks
Gatsby's beautiful shirts
Daisy (delicate flower) vs. Myrtle (flashy shrub)
Sidewalk behind Daisy looking like a ladder leading up to the sky

I leave explanations to you.

Answer 5

dont rent the DVD, it's nothing like the book. someone in my class tried to do that and they failed. but that was a few years ago, so i dont remember the symbols... sorry.

Answer 6

Rent the DVD

Answer 7

Let see there's wealth, power, money, fancy cars, big houses, rich people, Butlers and one dead guy.

Answer 8

homework help is one thing, but you're trying to get us to do the work for you. you should have read the book.

Answer 9

sparknotes baby

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