Dust in The Great Gatsby Essay - 832 Words

In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald incorporates many different themes, but the most prevalent message is that of the impossibility of the American Dream. Fitzgerald writes of two types of people: those who appear to have the ideal life and those who are still trying to achieve their dreams. Tom and Daisy are two characters who seem to have it all: a nice house, a loving spouse, a beautiful child, and plenty of money (Fitzgerald 6; ch. 1). However, neither of them is happy, and both end up having affairs. Their lovers, Gatsby and Mrs. Wilson, are two examples of characters who are still trying to attain the perfect life. By the end of the novel, the hopes of both Gatsby and Mrs. Wilson have been dashed and they have†¦show more content†¦The other car, the one going toward New York, came to a rest a hundred yards beyond, and its driver hurried back to where Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her dark thick blood with the dust (138; ch. 7). Dust is again used, this time to insinuate the lost dreams of a common woman. Fitzgerald also uses this symbol when he writes of Gatsbys vanquished hopes. Gatsby was a man who had fulfilled most of his dreams. He had a large house, lots of money, and he mingled with the rich and famous, but he still had one thing that he needed to make him happy (50; ch. 3). Gatsby had achieved all that he had for one purpose: to win the woman that he loved, Daisy (79; ch. 4). Gatsby finally had realized his dreams for a short while, when Daisy told him that she loved him (116; ch. 7). However, this perfection didnt last very long. Daisy soon went back to Tom, and Gatsbys visions of his ideal life were destroyed. When Nick visits Gatsbys house after Daisy had gone back to Tom, he noticed that there was an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere (147, ch. 8). This dust was what remained of Gatsbys obliterated fantasies. Fitzgerald foreshadows the end of Gatsbys hopes in the very beginning of the novel also by talking about dust. It is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreamsShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Dust Jacket of The Great Gatsby723 Words   |  3 PagesThe Dust Jacket of The Great Gatsby The dust jacket of The Great Gatsby has an extremely complex yet influential relationship to its text as well as its author. Francis Cugat, the artist of the cover, developed the painting through a series of ten sketches[1]. In each sketch he develops a new element of the painting which indicates the level of complexity in the final work. 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