Flashcards
The Great Gatsby - Themes, Motifs and Symbols
Cards in this deck (7)
- 1The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s (Themes)- Symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess
- - 2The Hollowness of the Upper Class (Themes)- West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Egg and its denizens
- Newly rich are vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, lack social graces and taste
- Old aristocracy possesses grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance - 3Geography (Motifs)- Places and settings epitomize the various aspects of the 1920s American society
- East Egg represents the old aristocracy
- West Egg the newly rich
- The valley of ashes the moral and social decay of America
- New York City the uninhibited, amoral quest for money and pleasure
- East is connected to the moral decay and social cynicism of New York
- West (including Midwestern and northern areas such as Minnesota) is connected to more traditional social values and ideals - 4Weather (Motifs)- The weather matches the emotional and narrative tone of the story
- Gatsby and Daisy’s reunion begins amid a pouring rain, proving awkward and melancholy
- Their love reawakens just as the sun begins to come out
- Gatsby’s climactic confrontation with Tom occurs on the hottest day of the summer
- Wilson kills Gatsby on the first day of autumn, as Gatsby floats in his pool despite a palpable chill in the air - 5The Green Light (Symbols)- Represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future
- Gatsby associates it with Daisy; in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal
- "the american dream" - 6The Valley of Ashes (Symbols)- A long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes
- Represents moral and social decay that results from uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as rich indulge with regard for nothing but their own pleasure.
- Symbolises plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result - 7Fitzgerald and Meanings- Instead, throughout the novel, suggests that symbols only have meaning because characters instill them with meaning
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- A-Level English Literature (AS English Literature) Flashcards on The Great Gatsby - Themes, Motifs and Symbols, created by samanthaball.x on 06/05/2015.
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