The Great Gatsby Delusion Analysis

Improved Essays
Following a dream and chasing a delusion have an important line between them but if you are incapable of seeing the difference you may end up in a continuous cycle of frustration. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is one of the richest men in West Egg, whose ultimate dream is to reunite with his love from five years ago, Daisy. However in the eyes of the public, she is happily married. In order to get close to her once again, he befriends her cousin Nick, who happens to live right next door. Throughout the novel, one can see all of Gatsby’s attempts to reunite with his true love. Through the use of symbols, Fitzgerald shows that he has the same opinion as Nick: that Gatsby is delusional.

Gatsby dreams of becoming excessively rich by whatever means, for he thinks, it will bring him happiness. When he acquires all his money, he buys a luxurious
…show more content…
One day, after Nick arrives home from Tom and Daisy’s house, he sees Gatsby standing on his dock. Fitzgerald reveals that Gatsby is worshipping the artificial green light at the end of Daisy’s dock as “-he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way…[where there was] nothing except a single green light, minute and far away…” (25). The green light is located directly across the lake from Gatsby to represent his goal for the future of once again reuniting with Daisy. Fitzgerald points out how delusional Gatsby seems to be, reaching out to grab the green light, as if there is a possibility he will ever get a hold of it despite the expanse of water before him. Since Gatsby believes becoming rich is part of his way to come closer to Daisy, Fitzgerald chooses the green color to symbolize money which also represents

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Jay Gatsby, a hopeless romantic, values two things above all others—love (particularly his love for Daisy Buchanon) and money (which is what he plans on using to win Daisy’s heart) (Kersh 1). Fitzgerald uses the color green as a symbol for love and money as well as Gatsby’s ultimate goal—a reawakening that will erase his past and create a future for his relationship with Daisy. Fitzgerald associates green with life and growth (Colour 47), the life of Jay Gatsby and the growth of a love affair with his beloved Daisy Buchanon.…

    • 1312 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (Fitzgerald 24).The green light that Gatsby reaches out to happens to be the light at the end of Daisy's dock. Green is the color of promise and renewal, and symbolizes Gatsby’s dream and hope for the future, to get Daisy back. Unfortunately for Gatsby, his dream eventually disappears , not because…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gatsby associates with this color so much because of the desire for his past lover, Daisy. According to the article, “Uses of symbols and colors in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.” By Maia Samkanashvili, Samkanashvili lists the different symbolic meanings for each color. Green happens to be the symbol for “Hope” (Samkanashvili par. 3). Hope is the most connected with the American Dream, because the American Dream consists of nothing but hope.…

    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Anyhow, on the inside, he is not satisfied because he does not have Daisy. Lastly, the green leather mirrors his wealth because currency is green. The color green also symbolizes new life. Gatsby’s identity is transformed from James Gatz into Jay Gatsby, and he lives a new life with all of the money he has earned. Gatsby yearns for much more than just…

    • 2004 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Deceiving personalities can effectively change the good qualities in a person. The central theme of deception is one of the many themes that can be carefully explored by various literary devices in The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald 's classic novel, the theme of deception will be effectively explored through an in-depth analysis of the utilization of the literary devices, characterization and foreshadowing to reveal the untold stories of the character, Jay Gatsby. This will be proven through the characterization of Jay Gatsby with the false rumours that are told about him and the use of foreshadowing during various conversations acknowledging the mysterious personality of Jay Gatsby.…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The green light emitted by Daisy’s mansion ultimately symbolizes hope and the American Dream for Gatsby. Through the emphasis of color symbolism, the green light ironically suggests that regardless of wealth and power, the aristocratic class continues to suffer from…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The fact that the green light is on Daisy’s dock makes it known that Gatsby is longing for Daisy; the light is the only thing he can make out of her at night, his dream is a mere fantasy still. Nick notes that “Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one”. Gatsby sees the green light as his pursuit of Daisy, so when he and Daisy love each other again, the green light becomes “again a green light on a dock”, because Nick and the reader believe that Gatsby has achieved his goal. “The color green, traditionally associated with youth, vitality, and money, is an excellent one to suggest Daisy” (Savage 307).…

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Ignorance is a very dangerous emotion. Ignorance not only becomes dangerous when people do not think before they act but also when people let themselves be a part of demeaning life situations due to being blind of an entire situation. Blind love is an example of such ignorance; people will do anything for love without thinking, even if it ultimately hurts them. It has been said that sometimes love requires sacrifice, which can be true to an extent. Healthy sacrifice occurs when a person sacrifices their time or maybe goes to a boring event to make their partner happy, which in turn makes them happy.…

    • 1574 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The green light represented the possibility of their relationship and just as Gatsby was captivated by Daisy he was captivated by the light, “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling (p.21).” Fitzgerald uses figurative language to describe how Gatsby’s need for Daisy is a total physical and mental compulsion. When he finally meets up with Daisy again and she puts her arm around him, “it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of the light had now vanished forever… Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one (p.93).”…

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Color plays an important role in the way we perceive society. People relate colors to certain emotions, as an example, one may say that they are “green with envy” or when they are “feeling blue” when they are sad. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author uses color symbolism throughout the story to represent different aspects of each situation. Fitzgerald uses the color green a great deal in the storyline. It represents Gatsby’s dream and hope to live happily with the love of his dreams, Daisy Buchannan.…

    • 1513 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Through negative imagery and diction, Fitzgerald uses the Green Light to symbolize how close Gatsby is to his American Dream and how far away it is. A quote to support the topic sentence is, “I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out The Green Light, he had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must’ve seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it,” (Fitzgerald, 180). The Green Light symbolizes Daisy. This quote relates to the topic sentence because it shows when The Green Light was close he was close to his American Dream but when it was far away he wasn’t close to his American Dream. Fitzgerald is trying to show that how close Gatsby was to his dream but he wasn’t actually even that close to it.…

    • 1466 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald enhances the theme that obsession with the past can blind one to reality and lead to misfortune through Gatsby’s personal relationship with the past. Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy is not as pure as the reader might think. At first glance, it may seem like love, however, Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy is far from it. When Nick states…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The green light situated on Daisy’s East Egg dock symbolizes Gatsby’s intense desire to marry Daisy, which would allow him to identify himself with everything she represents – success, power, “old money”, and the American Dream. However, this fantasy is proven to be unattainable when Nick sees Gatsby for the first time and says, “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way… Involuntarily I glanced seaward–and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away” (Fitzgerald 21). In this quotation, the bay separating Gatsby on West Egg from the light on East Egg reflects the unconquerable social barrier that impedes Gatsby’s upward social mobility, thus making it impossible for him to reach his desired status and obtain Daisy. Moreover, Gatsby believes that the green light and his future with Daisy is close enough to be in arm’s reach, however Nick describes the light as being small and distant, thus displaying Gatsby’s false hope and distorted outlook as a result of his obssessive fixation on achieving Daisy, his American Dream.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (20). The context of this quote shows Gatsby earnestly reaching out toward the green light on Daisy’s’ dock. Gatsby is lost in memory and the scene foreshadows his longing for Daisy, and to reach the “green light”. There are many metaphor in this line, as it foreshadows that he wishes to swim over the lake to reach the past, however as he reaches, he cannot get to it and separate himself from the present. This shows us Gatsby’s struggle between past and present…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The dictionary characterizes madness as "mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it”. Emily Dickinson once composed that “Much Maness is divinest sense- / To a discerning Eye”. This statement raises the question of have writers like Mary Shelley, Peter Shaffer, J.D. Salinger and Zora Neale Hurston exhibited a “discerning eye” in creating some of literature’s most unconventional, seemingly irrational characters or have these writers put forth an alternative statement about eccentricity? In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many readers label Gatsby as mentally ill or a lunatic however Jay Gatsby is far from insane.…

    • 269 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays