He dreams to be recognized as one of the upper-class people, but is frequently looked down by people like Tom Buchanan and the Sloanes who was born noble and is accustomed to live a luxurious life. Tragic events in The Great Gatsby are intensified and emphasized through the use of the image of water.Order custom essay Conflicts in the Great Gatsbyįrom Nick’s perspective, Gatsby might have made vast fortune by illegal means and is capable of behaving like an aristocrat, he is still not respected as the ‘old money’ from East Egg Gatsby’s mansion, his shimmering parties, fancy clothes and cars, cannot erase his past as a low-born farmer’s son after all. Water is either used before a tragic event to foreshadow it, or it is used during a tragic event to further present the sadness of the event. While water is necessary for life and is usually looked upon as a good thing, it is depicted as a dark and gloomy matter. There is a prodigious amount of symbols in The Great Gatsby. Even though rain is a natural occurrence, in the novel, it foreshadows tragic events. This further depicts the sadness and gloominess of Gatsby’s death.įurthermore, it sums up all of the tragic events that led up to Gatsby’s death. During Gatsby’s burial, the “procession of three cars reached the cemetery and stopped in a thick drizzle beside the gate” (174). The rain is no longer foreshadowing a sad event, but it symbolizes the tragic events that have already occurred. The drizzle symbolizes something gloomy, which is Gatsby’s death. At the time that Gatsby was buried, Nick notes that “the sky had turned dark and got back to West Egg in a drizzle” (172). Rain is portrayed here not to foreshadow something tragic at the tea, but something tragic in the long run. Gatsby is nervous about the tea because it is raining. When Gatsby planned on meeting with Daisy, “the day agreed upon was pouring rain” (83). Being depicted as gloomy throughout the entire book, rain is only depicted during melancholy parts of the novel. When there is rain being depicted in the novel, something tragic happens to the characters. Even though tragic things happen when bodies of water are depicted, tragic things can also happen when it is raining. Gatsby moving towards water foreshadows a tragic event that is about to beset him. Gatsby is depicted as going towards a body of water, which is a pool. Lastly, “Gatsby shouldered the mattress and started for the pool” (161). It also demonstrates more foreshadowing of tragic events between Gatsby and Daisy. Staring into Nick’s eyes, Gatsby lucidly reveals that he is heavyhearted.
Another example is when Gatsby “was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into eyes” (86).
Furthermore, it foreshadows many bad events in general because the two are physically separated by the body of water. This depicts and foreshadows bad relations between Gatsby and Daisy. For example, the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock “glittered across the water” (5). Bodies of water appear in different sizes, yet they all still foreshadow a tragic event. When a body of water is depicted in the novel, something dreadful is foreshadowed. Fitzgerald also utilizes water details and imagery to both mirror and foreshadow tragic events in The Great Gatsby. Others show things like how Daisy and Tom are old money while Gatsby is new money. Scott Fitzgerald uses many symbols in The Great Gatsby to show the reader what live was like in the early 1900s.
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