Sybolism In Gatsby
...symbolism. Fitzgerald puts symbolism into the heart of the book so strongly that it is said you have to read the book several times to gain any level of understanding. Three themes dominate the text of The Great Gatsby. They are "time" how valuable
it is, appearance, and perspective. Most of the books structure falls neatly into one of these things. In order to understand the book, we have to look at the roles of these three themes. The word "time" appears 450 times in the book either by itself or in a compound word. Fitzgerald obviously wanted to emphasize the importance of time to the overall design of the book. Time is most important to Gatsby's character. Gatsby's relationship with time is a big part to the plot. He wants to erase five years from not only his own life but also Daisy's. Gatsby's response to Nick, telling him that he can repeat the past, is symbolic of the tragic irony that is behind Gatsby's fate. Gatsby says on page 116, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!" Gatsby cannot accept Daisy until she erases the last three years of her life by telling Tom that she never loved him to his face. Gatsby fully believes what he says and thinks (or desperately hopes) that that is true about Daisy. At one part of the story he tells Nick how, as soon as Tom is out of the picture, he and Daisy were going to go to Memphis so they could get married at her white house just like it were five years before hand. In another scene, when Gatsby and Nick go to the Buchanans' for lunch towards the end of the book, Gatsby sees Daisy's and Tom's child for the first time. Nick describes Gatsby's expression as one of genuine surprise and suggests that Gatsby probably never before believed in the girl's existence. Gatsby is so caught up in his dream that he becomes vulnerable to the world's brutal reality.
Fitzgerald creates a time symbolism in the scene when...
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