Theme Of Imagery In The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby is a story involving Jay Gatsby, a wealthy young man who strives for a beautiful socialite named Daisy Buchanan. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald is known for his eloquent use of language to add meaning beyond the novel’s surface by using imagery to figuratively appeal to his readers’ physical senses. Fitzgerald employs imagery in the form of colors, flowers, and seasons to symbolize the harsh realities of the corrupt unobtainable American dream.
The color green is prevalent when Nick recognizes that it represents Gatsby’s never-ending lust for Daisy Buchanan. In literature, green often positively points in the direction of growth and hope (Parker). Specifically, in The Great Gatsby, green represents Gatsby’s American dream, …show more content…

Daisy’s name is a clear example of Fitzgerald’s usage of flowery imagery. Being fresh and delightful, the image of a daisy is often associated with innocence and purity ("Nature Imagery"). Throughout the novel, the relationship with Gatsby builds on this idea where, at first “she blossomed for him like a flower,”( Fitzgerald, p.). However, later in the novel Daisy completely defies this image through her destructive actions. In the novel, Daisy is immoral in the sense that she unable to love Gatsby due to her inability to compromise her financial security or when she allows Gatsby to take the fall for killing Myrtle. By being a leading factor in Gatsby’s death, she completely destroys the innocence that is represented by her name. Daisies are beautiful flowers, yet they are ephemeral, making them whither, which is a parallel to Daisy’s true corrupt identity (Arrington). Due to the reality of Daisy destructiveness, the flower delineates the skewed view Gatsby had about Daisy was from his false view of the American dream. In addition, Fitzgerald mentions roses because on the surface they represent beauty and love, but beyond the surface there have gruesome thorns. Gatsby “shivered when he found what a grotesque thing a rose was;” ( Fitzgerald, p. ), the rose being his dream to respark his love with Daisy. The rose is aesthetically beautiful, but …show more content…

In literature, late spring and early summer are seasons of renewal, rebirth, the cycle of life beginning again (Marie). This time period reflects the beginning of the novel when Gatsby hopes to attempt to find and develop a relationship with Daisy Buchanan. Consequently, summer denotes the season of love and passion, the peak of the story. This specific season is where Gatsby throws his extravagant parties, regains his love with daisy, and fulfils his dream. The heat of the season is employed to match the events in The Great Gatsby, particularly the climax. Fitzgerald emphasizes on this through the image of the summer weather specifically shown when “Opening the windows admitting only a gust of hot shrubbery”, or when the women on the bus “perspired delicately for a while into her white shirtwaist,” ( Fitzgerald, p. ). During this point in the novel, the story reaches its climax; Daisy, Gatsby, and Tom all are involved in a nasty confrontation. The effects of summer are felt by the characters not only physically but emotionally through the heated emotions and the hot weather ("How Are Seasons Used In Constructing This Novel"). As the argument comes to a close so does summer, leading the novel into autumn, a season characterizing the reaping of life. The usage of the change, invokes a negative tone seen by the death of Jay Gatsby and his

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