Dream or a Fantasy - Great Gatsby Essay
Dream or a Fantasy
Imagine chasing after one dream that you ended up not achieving in the end. Dreams, everyone has them. Sometimes they are fantasies and sometimes they are memories. F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby uses symbols of colors through setting and the characters of the novel to cultivate the dreams of his characters. The roaring 20s, the jazz age, the 1920s, F. Scott Fitzgerald lived and experienced this time. During this time Fitzgerald would later describe as “the greatest, gaudiest spree in history.¨ Throughout this time the American dream went from being about hope to being all about money. The people of the 20s focused on who could throw the biggest parties, make the most money, has the flashest car, and who has the most men or women. While focusing on these attributes the ¨lost generation¨ lost their morals, hope, and pursuit of happiness. In The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the change in American values and how the new American morals has affected their dreams. Fitzgerald uses the symbols of green and blue throughout The Great Gatsby to show that some dreams are only a fantasy.
The use of green in The Green Gatsby symbolize the dreams, hope, and money of the characters in the novel. In the novel, the money Gatsby got and the green light at Daisy’s house symbolizes the lost dreams that Gatsby has. While in the hotel room in New York Tom Buchanan “exposes” how Gatsby got his money to Daisy telling her that “[Gatsby] and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter”(133). After this revelation Daisy “loses” her feelings for Gatsby not appreciating the way he got his money. The irony in this is that Gatsby got all his money just for Daisy. All the green money, fancy parties, and “Fame” was all for Daisy, his dream. Gatsby’s dream was Daisy and the money was supposed to help him with achieving his dream, but in the end what was supposed to help him had ended his dream of being with Daisy. After all Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship is only a short lived fantasy for him.
Furthermore, The first time Nick saw Gatsby he “could have sworn he was trembling” while “he stretched out his arms towards the dark water” curiously Nick look towards what Gatsby was looking at but saw “nothing except a single green light”(21). This “single green light” symbolizes Gatsby’s hopes and dreams(21). Gatsby’s dream is associated with Daisy, her being all that he has been chasing after for five years. As he reaches towards the green light he reaches out to Daisy as the green light is emitting from Daisy’s dock. This green light adds to the fact how Gatsby’s dreams end up only a fantasy as the green light symbolize how “his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” but in the end “it was already behind him”(180). His dream of Daisy, his hope of being finally being together, ended as quick as it started and stayed a fantasy in his mind. Although, these symbols of green money and the light show how some dreams are meant to stay a fantasy there are many other symbols throughout the novel that support this statement.
In addition to the green symbols, blue in the novel emphasizes fantasy, illusions, aspirations, and sadness which reinforce how some dreams are meant to stay a fantasy. While out with Tom, Nick meets his mistress, Myrtle. When first seeing her she was wearing “a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine”(25). Myrtle’s blue dress symbolizes her false dream of wealth and love, which is her “relationship” with Tom. The dark shade of blue symbolize the darkness and immorality of Tom and her affair. Her dream of wealth and love come to an end in the end when she run out her house from her husband, Wilson, towards Gatsby’s car mistaking it for Tom’s car. In the end, she is hit by the car which is ironically driven by Tom’s actually wife, Sadly Myrtle dies in a hit in run by “the other woman”. This shows how her illusion and dream of being with Tom was better off as a fantasy than a reality.
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