In the 1920s depicted in the novel, however, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East Coast. As Fitzgerald saw it (and as Nick explains in Chapter 9), the American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. Meyer Wolfsheim and GatsbyвЂ™s fortune symbolize the rise of organized crime and bootlegging. The clash between вЂњold moneyвЂќ and вЂњnew moneyвЂќ manifests itself in the novelвЂ™s symbolic geography: East Egg represents the established aristocracy, West Egg the self-made rich.

The various social climbers and ambitious speculators who attend GatsbyвЂ™s parties evidence the greedy scramble for wealth. Nick and Gatsby, both of whom fought in World War I, exhibit the newfound cosmopolitanism and cynicism that resulted from the war. Fitzgerald positions the characters of The Great Gatsby as emblems of these social trends. Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand for bootleg liquor among rich and poor alike. A person from any social background could, potentially, make a fortune, but the American aristocracy-families with old wealth-scorned the newly rich industrialists and speculators. The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music-epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night-resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals.

Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Also, GatsbyвЂ™s garden and clothes were described as blue in the novel.On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. Ex: The ocean between Gatsby and Daisy separating West and East egg was described as a вЂњblue lawnвЂќ. The color blue in the story symbolizes GatsbyвЂ™s dreams and relationships. Ex: Daisy and Jordan both wear white, East Egg has white houses, DaisyвЂ™s Car in Louisville was white, steps up to GatsbyвЂ™s house were white. White symbolizes innocence and femininity in the novel. Ex: The valley of ashes, JordanвЂ™s eyes, and the interior of the taxi, are all described as gray. Gray in the novel symbolizes lifelessness and insignificance. GatsbyвЂ™s blood is also described as red and clear after he had been killed out of rage and revenge. When Tom hit Myrtle on the nose, she begins to cover towels in blood, thus displaying the symbolism of the color red. Ex: Everything in Tom and DaisyвЂ™s house is red foreshadows the pain that they will cause others.

Red in the novel symbolizes passion, death, and rage. Ex: GatsbyвЂ™s car that killed Myrtle was painted yellow. Ex: Daisy is thought of as a fake person in the story, and is described as wearing yellow. The common conception of yellow as a fake version of gold adds to this idea. Yellow in the novel represents falseness and fraud. The seats in GatsbyвЂ™s car are green, representing his vitality and hope. Ex: The green light on the end of DaisyвЂ™s dock symbolized GatsbyвЂ™s love for her. Green symbolizes optimism, hope, and vitality in the novel.

Menacing symbols in the great gatsby