The Great Gatsby motifs

Green light - Gatbsy's desires & dreams, American dream

He can't attain them

Reaching out for his dreams that he himself knows he cannot attain - still hopeful/desperate & delusional

His desperate hope to have daisy again

(maybe shorten this quote)

"He stretched out his arms towards the darkwater in a curious way, and, far as i was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward - & distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute & far away, that might have been at the end of a dock"

Green Light - mist represents obstacles that block Gatsby from attaining daisy

"If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay," said Gatsby. "You always have that green light that burns all night at the end of your dock."

Time - delusional belief that he can recreate the past, foreshadows Gatsby's inevitable downfall as he pursues an unattainable dream, stimulates tension/suspense as readers anticipate the consequences of his actions.

'Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!'

Colour - yellow - new money trying to fit in w/gold

Jay gatsby has a yellow car (we learn after Myrtle dies)

"yellow cocktail music"

"It was a yellow car," he said, "big yellow car."

White - pure, innocent, dainty, elegant, angel, femininity, rich- when myrtle wears cream she's trying to be like daisy. Myrtle in brown vs daisy in white shows difference in social status. Daisy is high up & seen as pure & elegant while Myrtle is low & 'unpure' , others look down on her.

"brown figured muslin.." vs

"Our white girlhood was passed together there."

books - repetition of real, surprised they were real - suggests gatsby's persona is not entirely genuine

"Absolutely real--have pages and everything. I thought they'd be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they're absolutely real."

T. J. Eckleburg eyes - symbolise higher power watching over, - stimulates uneasiness, tif

"The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high" "They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles"

Valley of ashes - llusion to purgatory, the in between - melancholy, empathy for people stuck, uneasiness

"About halfway between West Egg and New York" "desolate area of land." This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke."