A Literary Analysis of The Great Gatsby

By: Monica Santaolalla

 The American Dream in the Great Gatsby

● To begin with, the definition of ‘The American Dream’

is “ the ideal that every US citizen should have an
equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity
through hard work, determination, and initiative.” Well
for me I know that in this book it shows that about our
main character Gatsby and how he came to be with
living his American Dream. This topic represents how
determined Gatsby is not only with getting lots of
money but also getting the love of his life back.
Personification “Her husband, among various physical
accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful
ends that ever played football at New Haven — a

of Tom national figure in a way, one of those men who reach

such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that

Buchanan
everything afterward savors of anti-climax. His
family were enormously wealthy — even in college
his freedom with money was a matter for reproach…
he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake
Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own
generation was wealthy enough to do that.”

Tom is clearly the dream of any person looking for

the achievement of the American Dream due to
the fact that he inherited the money coming from
a wealthy family also having one of the
characteristic that differs him from others which
is that he has something that many of the
characters lack which is power, the power that
allows him to have control over others.
The symbolism behind “On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus,
bearing parties to and from the city between nine in
Gatsby's yellow car the morning and long past midnight, while his
station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to
meet all trains..” ( Chapter 3, page 64)

Yellow symbolizes many things in this story, one

of them is wealth. Gatsby wants attention , due to
the color and the size of the car this can be easily
inferred. Also the color yellow, being the closest
one to gold, represents Gatsby. It represents him
because even though he is a wealthy man he in
reality is not like the other rich people who were
born with the money, just like the outside of the
car, Gatsby shows something that hides the
reality of the inside.
 Motif of “It was a strange coincidence,” I said.

Gatsby’s present “But it wasn’t a coincidence at all.”

life
“Why not?”

“Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would

be just across the bay.” (Chapter 4, page 78)

The life that Gatsby is having right now, his

money, his car, the suits, the house and all his
parties are done for the purpose to call the
attention of Daisy and most importantly to
recover a past that will never comeback.
 ““You can’t repeat the past.”

“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously.

The motif behind the “Why of course you can!”
words of Gatsby related He looked around him wildly, as if the past were
to the past lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of
reach of his hand.” (Chapter VI, Page 1)

While everyone is living the present Gatsby is

trying to recover a past that will never come back.
Gatsby, corrupted by the lovely memories of the
past, at this point in the novel is willing to do
whatever he can do to get back the love that Daisy
once had for him five years ago. This belief can
only lead him to tragedy, a tragedy that might
take all what he once wanted.
 “ With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of
waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down

Characterization of Mr. the pool. A small gust of wind that scarcely

corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its
Wilson at the end of the accidental course with its accidental burden. The
touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing
novel like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water. It
was after we started with Gatsby toward the house
that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off
in the grass, and the holocaust was complete.” (
Chapter 8, page 162)

Mr. Wilson symbolizes Gatsby’s end. Gatsby in

the past does everything he can in his possession
to achieve and bring back to his life the reason
why he went in search for the American dream, at
the end this dream in a form of revenge backfired
on him and resulted in everything being
destroyed and killed
 “And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown
world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first
Symbolism of the Green picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.
He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his
light dream must have seemed so close that he could
hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was
already behind him, somewhere back in that vast
obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the
republic rolled on under the night.” (Chapter IX)

The green light always symbolized the hope that

Gatsby had to recover the love that Daisy once
had for him five years ago. The light that always
lights his dark nights, little he knew that his love,
his hope, and all what he fought for was already in
the past, a past that cannot be repeated.
One cannot repeat or
change their own past Gatsby lying dead
in his own pool
surrounded by
yellow falling leafs
 A Final Word...
We as a class read The Great Gatsby to become better readers. We spent a lot
of time at home analyzing the text looking for the deep meaning of the
colors and all the symbols involved. We basically became the FBI trying to
crack the book and finding the real meaning of what it was, which was all so
different then what it actually is. At first everyone thought it was a love
story but then we started learning about the Lost Generation which then all
made sense later on in the book. Reading The Great Gatsby improved my
skills as a reader because now I am more observant of the author's choices
in any other book I read outside of class. I hope as you juniors come to this
book you will enjoy it as much as we did.
Thank you !