The Great Gatsby :: English Literature

The Great Gatsby Look closely at the details presented, the snatches of dialogue, and Nick’s comments, in order to explain how Fitzgerald renders this episode in both positive and negative ways. The two-page extract from the Great Gatsby has various themes, motives and symbolism running at its roots. This essay will attempt at deciphering these symbols and clearly expressing their true meaning, as well as the course they help to create in Fitzgerald rendering this episode in both positive and negative ways. Gatsby’s house is compared several times to that of a feudal lord, and his imported clothes, antiques, and luxuries all display nostalgia for the lifestyle of a British aristocrat. Though Nick and Daisy are amazed and dazzled by Gatsby’s splendid possessions, a number of things in Nick’s narrative suggest that something is not right about this transplantation of an aristocrat’s lifestyle into a democratic America. Nick creates, through visual imagery an imaginary representation of Gatsby’s house in his readers. He expresses the beauty embedded in the gardens, â€Å"the sparkling odour of jonquils and the frothy odour of hawton†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (88) the various eras and architectural designs, â€Å"Marie Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration Salons† (88) and lastly the different themes captured by these rooms, â€Å"through period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender† (88). The point it seems Nick tries to convey is the ridiculousness found within the very structure of Gatsby’s house. Gatsby’s ‘limited’ upbringing clearly represents his inability to string things together, which would make his house classy and reserved. Instead Gatsby combines things of different eras, expressing not his incapability of decorating but rather an attempt in reflecting his wealth through a brash and gaudy structure. Furthermore it is fairly important to consider that out of all the rooms, magnificently decorated and filled with materialism, Gatsby’s room, the one in which the most time was to be spent, was the least ‘polluted’ by materialism. â€Å"His bedroom was the simplest room of all†. (88) There also seems to be a sense of not belonging for Gatsby by the introduction of Mr. Klipspringer, suggesting that everything that Gatsby has created serves only one purpose: Daisy. It is fundamental that Mr. Klipspringer’s presence, as well as Nick’s expectations of hidden guests, â€Å"I felt that there were guests concealed behind every couch and table† (88), suggests that the very nature of his home, his very establishment is to house extravagant and careless parties, in which the magnitude of his status and wealth may be exaggerated, in the belief that Daisy may eventually realize his new status and fulfill his lifelong endeavor. Thus far Fitzgerald, through Nick, the only man to pertain to any morals, has created the idea of an unbalanced environment.