I will be composing an essay on The Great Gatsby tracing the hope and capacity thereof among the characters, and the emotional response to disillusionment. Naturally, the most prominent symbolic elements to discuss include Gatsby’s enchantment with the green light and what it marks, as well as the desolation of the valley of ashes and its god,
Dr. T.J. Ekleburg. Scenes that come to mid in order to illustrate the emotional writhing and thrashing of Gatsby’s obsession and the struggle to prevent the inevitable include the night Gatsby is observed reaching out to the green light, as well as the tranquility and final reckoning of Gatsby’s last moments in the garden, and the bodies that are empty and discarded, like ashes marking where a fire once was.
Bridger,
ReplyDeleteA good post--one that shows some insight into the larger meaning of the novel; however, I worry that you may need to narrow your focus a bit. EITHER the green light (and the accompanying color scheme throughout the novel) OR T.J. and the whole God/Christ pattern would provide sufficient material for a short, focused exegesis of a single weave of the larger pattern of the novel. In short, you need to make a choice. Let me know if you want to talk about this outside of class in the next day or two. Or check out some of the comments I've made on other posts. Either way, I look forward to reading your essay!