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How Does Fitzgerald Present Religion In The Great Gatsby

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The first way Fitzgerald depicts religion being replaced by wealth in The Great Gatsby, is through the worship of the billboard of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. In the Bible, God is a grand and perfect being that watches over and protects mankind from harm. He is seen as kind and loving by those who follow Him. Even though the billboard is depicted gloriously as a God would be, it is not gracious towards those to who look to it, unlike the God in the Bible. This consumeristic billboard of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg watches over the dirtiest, poorest place in the book, the valley of ashes. Constantly seeing the corrupted, hypocritical characters as they pass through without a care or thought for the people living in the valley, this is a sign of their …show more content…

The color green can represent many different things. In The Great Gatsby, similar to the Bible green is a symbol of money and new life. It is a representative of the Christian life that finds comfort in Christ, much like Gatsby’s worship of comfort in wealth. It is now the summer of 1922, and Nick has just bought a home next to the great mysterious Jay Gatsby. After Nick gets home from a dinner with Tom and Daisy, he gets to see Gatsby for the first time and he is reaching out his arms out over the water towards a green light. Nick sees Gatsby as “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (26). The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock is one of the most important symbols in the novel. The light is symbolic of Gatsby’s American Dream; his pursuit of wealth in order to change the past for Daisy. The green light gave Gatsby something to reach for and worship instead of religion. Unfortunately, by choosing to place money and his own interests above everything else including religion, it led to heartbreak and even death. After seeing Daisy for the first time in many years, Gatsby has now invited her over to his

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