How Does Fitzgerald Present Wealth In The Great Gatsby

Great Gatsby Final essay

“To young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamor in the world”(100). During and shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic world. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbols, colors, and specific imagery to convey the theme of wealth, showing the correlation between class and wealth and how it differs from what most believe to be true.

Fitzgerald uses symbols such as west egg vs. east egg, the green light, different sports, and their cars to show the theme of wealth in The Great Gatsby. When Nick describes where he lives in New York, he explains the appearance of the two different

This is also where Gatsby lived. The other egg was east egg, Nick describes it as “white palaces of fashionable east egg glittered along the water”(5). This is where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live. Daisy is Nick's cousin. The people who live in east egg are the ones who have “new money”, west egg is people who have had the money in their families. The two eggs represent the different types of people that live there, it shows their different social classes and how they fall in society. By putting Tom and Daisy in east egg, Fitzgerald shows that they have the “new money” and Gatsby has the old money. The next symbol that Fitzgerald utilizes in The Great Gatsby is the green light. This green light is mentioned all throughout the novel. In the first chapter, before Gatsby is even introduced, it is mentioned. “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”(20-21). Nick

Many colors are used throughout The Great Gatsby to convey the theme. Some of the colors used were gold, white, and green. The first color, gold, was used to show the old money or the real rich. Fitzgerald uses this symbol of gold when describing Jordan Baker’s arm. He says “Jordan’s slender golden arm resting in mine”(43). He is describing Jordan as gold because she comes from the “old money”. He also uses gold when describing Daisy. “High in the white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl”. Gold always represents the old money. The color white was also used in that quote to show how the palace looked. Fitzgerald uses the color white to emphasize the innocence and purity is deceiving and hides the truth of the rich people. “Daisy and Jordan Lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans”. Their white dresses are showing the purity and innocence of them. Fitzgerald also uses the color green in The Great Gatsby to convey the theme of wealth and class. Fitzgerald uses green to symbolize money and the power it has in society. Money rules the lives of the people in the novel. Gatsby feel that he needs money to get back together with Daisy and to fulfill his American Dream. The color green can also represent hope and the future. The green light on the end of Tom and Daisy’s dock is what Gatsby was staring at, that