What Does The Green Light Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby is full of blatant symbolism designed to give the story deeper meaning through mediums such as color and objects. The most important part about the symbology in the story is how it connects to the many themes displayed within the novel. Symbolistic objects such as The Green Light or The Eyes of T.J. Eckleburg are key elements that connect to themes including dissatisfaction and morality. One key example of symbolism in the novel is The Green Light. The Green Light has an association with Gatsby’s dissatisfaction, a theme that is important when talking about Gatsby’s character. He displays to others in the story, most importantly Nick, that it is futile to attempt to appease his dissatisfaction. He mainly channels this disapproval on Daisy, who was truly Gatsby’s green light. And they are connected in this way, in that after finally meeting Daisy once again, he shows discontentment towards her after he learns that she is not exactly he wanted her to be. Nick explains …show more content…

Eckleburg display god only in the grief-stricken mind of George Wilson, the mysterious eyes display a source of power and that is flagrantly ignored by the upper class. The eyes represent the theme of morality and how is it absent with the characters’ actions. The eyes also represent the meretriciousness of the world the class lives in as well as the people within this class. Gatsby is a character that lives a feigned existence, an existence that is contrary to morality and therefore compares to the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg, which seem to represent the meaningless of the world the characters live in. This feigned, moral-free existence is represented by Nick who explains that “The truth was that Gatsby was of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of god---a phrase which, if it means anything, means just---and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.” (Page

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