symbols in the great gatsby chapter 1 and two

Cars were still new and just introduced to the world. During the 1920’s, the car you owned, represented where you stand on the social status. The fact that Gatsby’s car windshields were mirrored and reflective in the sun, represents Gatsby’s own hidden secret identity. That same day, Nick goes on to say that the car is, terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns (Fitzgerald 68). He uses the words swollen, almost as if to describe Gatsby for being as someone who is puffed up and materialistic. He says it in a negative connotation with his word choices. Nick describes Gatsby’s car as this monstrous thing that is very flashy.

Nick looks at Gatsby’s car with admiration and describes it saying it is a ”rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes…” (Fitzgerald 64).īased on Nick’s description of Gatsby’s car, it is clear that Gatsby’s Rolls Royce is meant to be a very showy and very over the top. Gatsby shows up at Nick’s house with his car, telling him they are going to grab some lunch together.

The symbols Fitzgerald uses in his novel are the green light and Gatsby’s flashy, luxurious car to show what really mattered to Gatsby and how it affected him.įitzgerald uses Nick, Gatsby’s friend, to describe Gatsby indirectly by commenting on his car. Jay Gatsby is a rich man who obsesses over materialistic things in life and is trying to win young Daisy’s heart. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbols to portray the kind of person Gatsby is and what would eventually lead to his end.

A symbol is a sound, object, or image that is often used by authors to represent beliefs or ideas that they want the readers to understand.

Symbols in the great gatsby chapter 1 and two