Symbolism is a finicky thing. Symbolism is like looking at a painting

and seeing how the direction of the brush strokes depicts the path of

the wind. Often searching for symbolism or noticing its presence

makes a story more complete. Without noticing it one can mistake a

literary masterpiece as "dumb." A reader can completely miss the

actual point. Careless reading and careless living are both common

events that have happened in literary history. In The Great Gatsby,

F. Scott Fitzgerald cleverly uses symbolism to magnify the points he

made about the aristocracy and its own carelessness in the book. The

symbolism used in the names of the characters, nature, and colors

that exemplified by Fitzgerald adds a required and expected depth.

The names that Fitzgerald used in his novel have certain

significance, and they add more meaning. The character that bears

the title has a name that foreshadows his fate. Jay Gatsby, originally

called Jay Gatz. Gat is a slang term for a pistol. Fitzgerald put this in

to allow us to picture Gatsby as a pistol or with a pistol. In the

conclusion of the novel, Jay Gatsby is shot for owning the car that

killed Myrtle Wilson. Another name is Jordan Baker which signifies

two things in her behavior. Fitzgerald indicated that he gave her first

name after a sporty car, Jordan. Baker, is the name of a conservative

electric. This is like Jordan's personality. She plays golf so that

makes her sporty. The conservative part is not necessarily obvious

until we find out that she later chooses a man. She also has a

conversation with Nick where she blames him and herself for not

doing something about the Daisy/Gatsby situation. As well, Daisy's

name has extreme relevance. Daisies, as flowers are yellow in the

middle and white on the edges. This uses color symbolism, but it also

works with her name. Daisy is yellow in the middle, she is cowardly

and not real. Daisy pretends to be a good mother, but in truth she is

not mindful of her child's life. This is displayed how Daisy interacts

with her daughter. She tells her daughter that she is there because

"...your mother wanted to show you off" (123.) Daisy does not

inquire of her daughter's well being, but rather asks her daughter,

"How do you like mother's friends?... Do you think they're pretty?"

(123.) She is not truly staying in her marriage to Tom because she is

in love or that she cares for her daughter. This scene demonstrates

that she gives little concern for daughter, and she is fake in thinking

she is a good mother. This further demonstrates Fitzgerald's

perception about the carelessness of the aristocracy. Daisy's "center"

is not genuine like Gatsby, it is cowardly. Gatsby has actual books, so

it looks as if he reads. Daisy is not real on the edges. She pretends

to be a nice mother, but in reality she is fake. The white symbolizes

fake as well. She has no concern for others, and she is careless. She

was careless when she was driving and she hit Myrtle. She was

careless after all the confusing events when she went away with Tom.

She and Tom just forgot about their differences and ran away from

the mess they created. This shows that Daisy is not dedicated to

finding the truth and acting real.

The symbolism in colors are used to better describe the scenes

that occur in The Great Gatsby. The green light is all the way across

the lake. It is a single light. This light symbolizes hope and the

woman. Green can also represent fertility. Gatsby buys a house

across the bay, so he can see the Buchanan's light. This light

symbolizes his only hope and dream. This dream is Daisy. Later

when Gatsby has Daisy the importance of the light diminishes. His

dream fades as the seasons do. As well the ashes symbolize dust.

This dust is accumulated from both the East and West Egg and the

carelessness that corresponds in these areas. When Myrtle dies her

blood is in the ashes which shows that blood which is represents

passion is now in the dirt with everything else. "... Myrtle Wilson, her

life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick,

dark blood with the dust" (145.) This is a result of chasing a yellow

car. Yellow often represents death. Myrtle mistakenly thought that

the yellow was that of Tom, her lover. Another example of

Fitgerald's use of yellow representing death is the scene just before

Gatsby enters the pool. "...(H)e shook his head and in a moment

disappeared among the yellowing trees" (169.) This shows that he

was about to die, just as the leaves on the tree were. The use of

white is also apparent. Fitzgerald uses white to make certain things

more apparent. Like the phoniness of the people in his stories. Daisy

and Jordan are both powdered white. White often represents

innocence, but this time it represents phoniness, or a phony

innocence. Daisy wants everyone to think that she is quiet and

demure. In truth, she cheats on her brute of a husband, and she does

not care for her child. Daisy does not care for the feelings of Gatsby

and Tom. She later reconciles with her husband, and they leave the

dirt and the ashes. Fitzgerald adds this imagery to the story, because

he is trying to make a point that the aristocracy is not how it appears.

Fitzgerald uses other imagery such as nature and the nature of

people to create more of a symbolistic approach to The Great Gatsby.

The owl eyed man sees that Gatsby is not a fake. He notices that he

has books with actual pages. Many members of the aristocracy in this

era had large libraries of fake books. The owl eyed man exclaims,

"It's a bona fide piece of printed matter... What thoroughness! What

realism! Knew when to stop too-- didn't cut the pages" (50.) Besides

Nick the owl eyed man is the only person to attend Gatsby's funeral.

This is because he saw something more than he usually sees in his

peers. As well the seasons show the climax of the book and the

resolution. The climax takes place in the summer on a balmy day.

This magnifies the passion and the confusion that occurs. One

example of this, Nick narrates "The... day was broiling, almost the

last" (120.) The center on the heat in the book, which almost makes

the reader examine the tension further. Gatsby dies on autumn when

other things begin to regress further. Leaves die and birds will

migrate. This was done intentionally by Fitzgerald to add a sort of

cycle to the book for it begins in autumn and ends in autumn. It also

makes it as simple as a year, because it sort of makes more of a

statement about the aristocracy. Fitzgerald is making the point of

Nick casually narrating this to make it seem like this could and did

only happen to Gatsby.

In conclusion, Fitzgerald intentionally used these symbols in

nature, names, and colors to better provide a vision of what can be

accomplished in a complete novel. In American literature, symbolism

began with The Scarlet Letter and is still haunting us today like a

shadow. It affects how one looks at their literature of choice.

Without symbolism an entire level of reading is abolished. Thus

symbolism will be condemned to life in an intellectual prison where it

will dwell with English majors and over worked English students.

Luckily, one can still find it in contemporary literature. The fate of

symbolism and the occurrence of it on different levels are apparent

and will live forever.