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Theme of social class in the great gatsby
Theme of social class in the great gatsby
Social issues in the great gatsby
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The Valley of Ash is a very unique setting unlike the other settings of The Great Gatsby. The Valley of Ash shows a desolated and impoverished land haunted by unpleasant day to day mentality. You could say it is like a buffer zone between East and West egg, perhaps a representation of no man’s land. No man’s land was the land between the Allies and Axis trenches in World War I which had just ended in the narrative of the book. It’s a twilight zone caused by the raging war between the nations, or between West and East egg. Another symbol of the Valley of Ashes is the moral decay hidden by the outer beauty of the Eggs, and conveys that beneath the embellishment of West Egg and the older fashion charm of East Egg lies the same immorality as in the valley. The valley is created by industrial carelessness and is a sorrowful result of capitalism. It is the setting to the only poor characters in the novel. …show more content…
J. Eckleburg’s cynical and divine, glass covered eyes staring upon from the billboard, like the Lord Himself judging each and every soul, makes the eyes troubling to the reader. In this passage, Fitzgerald maintains their mystery, giving the eyes no certain symbolic meaning. The eyes are simply unreadable, “brood on over the solemn dumping ground.” Perhaps the most reasonable reading of the eyes in this point of time is that they represent the eyes of the Lord, staring down at the moral decay of the 1920s.
The moral decay, he observes the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. The lust of Myrtle's affair with Tom, the gluttony of drunk driving, the greed of the Eggs, the sloth of solving these immoralities with the Lord, the wrath of George unto to innocent Gatsby, the envy of George ”When he (George) saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.”, and simply the most noticeable; pride. The Eggs always competing in an attempt to show superiority against each
Fitzgerald describes the eyes of T. J. Eckleburg as if they are big and nobody can miss them. The enormous yellow spectacles let the readers know that Eckleburg has glasses and that his vision is clear. During the time period this novel was written, many people believed that religion was not a big thing, but I agree that God sees everything and he knows everything. Works Cited for: Dilworth, Thomas.
Through these quotes, Fitzgerald believes the American dream is unattainable in the Great Gatsby because some people in the novel had advantages unlike others. A major instance of said inequality would be applied to the citizens who are living in the Valley of Ashes; representing the forgotten poor underclass with lost hopes and dreams who have failed to live up to the American dream or even got a chance to start. Therefore, the Valley of Ashes is a blatant symbol of just how “dead” Fitzgerald really believes the American dream to be, and how he wants the readers to interpret it. Fitzgerald wrote “.ashes take the form of..men who move dimly and are already crumbling through powdery air..immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades.”. Tell’em
The scenery choices for the film matched up well to what was expected from the book, but some choices contrasted greatly. The Valley of Ashes was well portrayed in the film. The Valley is “…a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens…” (Fitzgerald 27). This shows that the Valley of Ashes is not a pleasant place to be in and is looked down upon. In the film, the interpretation on the Valley is spot on. It shows a dirty, sad little town, filled with depressed people. A second scenery choice that is well depicted in the film is the Buchannan’s home. It is described to be very elegant and grand filled with beautiful furniture. Throughout the scenes in the Buchannan’s house, the “grandness” is well represented through the furniture, landscaping and exterior chosen for the house. The exterior of Gatsby’s house does not match up to its description in the book. “The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side…” is how Gatsby’s house is described (Fitz...
In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, based on the actions and morals of people buring the jazz age, many symbols are used. The most important symbol is the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes are a huge builboard in the center of the valley of ashes, it symbolises much more then an advertisment. The eyes of Dr. Eckleburgis a symbol of God watching over all the coruption that is takng place such as: lying, affares, abuse,and iligal activity.
Imagine everyday waking up going to the same old boring job living a meaningless life because it is impossible to achieve the same life as the those living in the upper class. Gray suffocates the surroundings, except for a dingy billboard with blue eyes and yellow spectacles. This is a reality for Myrtle and George Wilson living in the Valley of Ashes because they are the lower class in The Great Gatsby. In this novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he conveys the importance of the colors: gray, blue and yellow in relating the setting and social class in the Valley of Ashes. The description of the Valley of Ashes gray is constantly repeated,“Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up in an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations
Happiness symbolises a form of content, a form of satisfaction that can lead to several types of actions. In the Great Gatsby, happiness is portrayed in unusual forms with different characters, however every single character has some form of a dream in mind. Fitzgerald juxtaposes his influence of T.S. Elliot’s use of Valley of the Ashes showing poverty, decay and lost spiritualism with the rich lifestyle of West Egg as he shows the wealth, parties and liveliness of this Egg. The Egg represents the symbol of birth and life, as well as the fragility of society and mainly the fragility of dreams. Each character in the novel has their own interpretation of the ‘American Dream – the pursuit of happiness’ as they all lack happiness due to the careless nature of American society during the Jazz Age.
The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are perhaps the most important symbol in The Great Gatsby. The eyes can be taken as the eyes of God or even as us, the observers. We are observing the characters in what they do and analyzing them as an example of what is wrong or what is right. In this case, we are observing Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. We are observing their conducts and deciphering whether their actions are wrong or right.
Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, an optometrist, has a larger than life billboard overlooking the Valley of Ashes. The billboard, a painting of two large eyes behind glasses, glares over the abandoned landscape. “That locality was always vaguely disquieting, even in the broad glare of afternoon, and now I turned my head as though I had been warned of something behind. Over the ashheaps the giant eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg kept their vigil but I perceived, after a moment, that other eyes were regarding us with peculiar intensity from less than twenty feet away” (Fitzgerald 132). Nick always felt eerily about the billboard, like they disappointed at what the once beautiful land has turned into. The eyes symbolize those of God looking down upon those who live or pass through the Valley of Ashes; they appear to be casting constant judgement on the people’s actions, such as Tom traveling there to cheat on Daisy, Gatsby and Daisy’s hit and run accident, and the even broader picture, what the working class has to live in, versus the luxurious and wealthy East and West
The Great Gatsby does an excellent job showing the reader the neglect for spiritual values in America, and how Americans believed there was no greater power watching over them. Throughout the 1920’s by using the famous eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. Dr. T.J. Eckleburg was an optometrist in New York. His choice of advertising is strange but extremely symbolic to the theme. In the Valley of ashes, his eyes are painted on a billboard that looks down on everyone. These eyes are constantly watching the people slowly give up their values and beliefs. It’s obvious that the eyes on the billboard are consistently watching the people toss away their values because of how the billboard is designed. Nick describes the sign like this, “The eyes are blue and gigantic- their ...
In conclusion, the setting and geography of The Great Gatsby is an exceptional influence on many things such as characters’ personalities, themes, and foreshadowing. It relates characters to where they live and how they act. East and West Egg, the valley of the ashes, and Nee York City all house different types of people that the main characters in the story represent. The setting, especially the weather foreshadows what will happen that day in the novel. If one regards the locations and conditions they may find out a lot about what a certain character is planning to do or how they are feeling on that particular day. Therefore, the setting and geography dictates many things about the characters such as social status, personality traits, and background, while the weather incorporates a character’s feelings into the setting.
In The Great Gatsby, the Valley of the Ashes illustrate the inequality between its inhabitants and that of West Egg and East Egg, in terms of social standing and income, as well as the hopelessness of poverty resulting from the inability of its inhabitants to rise up the socio-economic ladder. Thus, the valley represents the failure of the Dream that America promises, which is the ideal of equal opportunities for all, associated with the New World.
T.J. Eckleburg. In chapter two of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald describes the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg by writing “But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.” (Fitzgerald 24). The eyes symbolize the loss of spiritual values in America (Einem). The billboard, like the spiritual values of America, is neglected ("This Is”). Fitzgerald continues describing the billboard by writing “But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground” (Fitzgerald 24). God seems to have abandoned America, leaving only Dr. T.J. Eckleburg behind to stare down with his empty eyes on people who have abandoned their spiritual values in the quest to achieve material wealth ("This Is”). Moreover, the eyes also symbolize the corruption of America’s people (Einem). The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg stare down and seem to frown on the main characters as they pass underneath the billboard on their way into New York City where Tom carries on his adulterous affair, where Daisy rushes off to find a few thrills with her lover, Gatsby ("This Is”). The eyes of T.J. Eckleburg and their empty gaze is there at crucial moments and serves as a reminder that God has been replaced by fading signs of American materialism (Bryant). In chapter eight, Wilson goes as far as to compare the
In brief, the world of The Great Gatsby can seem as sordid, loveless, commercial, and dead as the ash heaps presided over by the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. Indeed, this atmosphere is so essential that one of the alternate titles Fitzgerald considered was Among the Ash-Heaps and Millionaires. Fitzgerald using the valley of ashes, illustrates an environment where love has lost its place, which destroys hope for a family; the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg, clearly intended to represent those of God, emphasizes that this lack of love and filial piety in a sin against themselves as well as society and God.
There are many themes that are implemented in the Great Gatsby that Fitzgerald uses as a technique to juxtapose two contrasting topics. During this time of the Roaring Twenties, business and economy was booming, however there’s still a underlying hint of urban corruption and the gap between the rich and poor became greater. Through the technique of juxtaposition, Fitzgerald paints a detailed picture of society in the 1920’s and its cultural clashes. By comparing the characters living in the East and West Egg, Fitzgerald highlights the contrast between morality and corruption in society during the 1920’s. Additionally, his contrasting descriptions of Tom and Daisy’s house in the Valley of Ashes offers a juxtaposition of the rich and poor.
Fitzgerald’s style might be called imagistic. The language used is full of images-concrete verbal pictures. There is water imagery in descriptions of the rain, Long Island Sound, and the swimming pool. There are the Godlike eyes of Dr. Eckleburg and in words such as incarnation, and grail. Abstract images are used as well when there is referred to the artificial world as snobbery, sadness. These images do not only describe the world in which the...