The Great Gatsby: An Analysis of the Use of Light - Essay Example

?Kazim Rizvi 7 February The Great Gatsby: An Analysis of the Use of Light The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most renowned and well written American novels of all time. A great amount of symbolism and metaphors have been presented in this novel with the use of different kinds of lights; both natural and artificial and these lights have been used to reflect and depict the plight and lives of the wealthy people of New York. The artificial lights have been used to conceal the actual characteristics of the upper class people however; they are exposed when they are confronted by natural sources of light as all their secrets are thrown out in the open. In the book, there has been great speculation about how natural light is provided to all human beings as a gift of God. This light warms people up and helps them tread on the path of hope and courage. For example, in “Up-stairs, in the solemn echoing drive she let four taxicabs drive away before she selected a new one, lavender-colored with gray upholstery, and in this we slid out from the mass of the station into the glowing sunshine. (27)” In this sentence, with the help of Daisy’s character, a very light surrounding has been described, portraying Daisy to be content with life as she chooses a taxi cab of her own choice and they drive out from the dark station into the sunshine. The author means to say that in the natural light of sunshine, the protagonists are at their best; without any hidden secrets from each other. Fitzgerald has also used the weather to describe the people’s moods, as over here, he has used sunshine to depict the happiness and joy within Daisy at the time. Also specified in “Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money.(68)” New York is a city with a lot of hidden secrets in terms of its wealth and people, and thus, as the sunlight flickers upon the city in the sentence, it is said, that during the day the city itself feels a sense of overwhelming joy and there are times when nothing is kept from one another. It makes a constant flicker over the cars, or over a few people here and there, trying to for some time; get them out in the open. The sunlight also affects the moods of the people as it helps them to see a sense of clarity in one another. The characters believe that it is God that is sending out signals and natural light to try and soothe the hearts and souls of those that persist in the city, so that for some time, they are able to climb out of their greed stricken shells and see the world as a happy place. “So I walked away and left him standing there in the moonlight--watching over nothing.” (145) Through the use of this sentence, Fitzgerald has tried his level best to explain how human beings change just as light changes. When a person walks from sunlight into darkness, he reveals his true nature, from being warm and full of hope, to someone who has a lot of anger and pain behind his mask. Over here, Gatsby leaves Tom and walks away from the moonlight, pale and yellow into a better light full of hope. He has tried to control Daisy all his life, but he sees that she was always slipping away from him into Tom’s arms and failed to see the kind of devotion he had put forth to her. Thus, Gatsby feels that it is better to walk away from the darkness or the moonlight, into a better lit place where he can find happiness again, far away from these people. He feels that the moonlight is very cruel and apathetic; it does not help a person think about positivity and creeps upon the blank and negative thoughts in his mind. So as Gatsby discovered more and more about the true reality of the situation with regard to Tom and Daisy, he understood how he was playing with something that could never be his and so even though their appearance was in the beginning very warm and friendly, he came to terms with the fact that he could no longer carry on with such false impressions. A very good example of the same has also been provided in the sentence that reads “He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass (161)”. An excellent portrayal of nature and light as humans has been provided by the author in this sentence. Here, he means to give the readers a clear picture of how deceiving even the most beautiful things in life can be, in the warm and clear sunlight even though they appear to be something else altogether, otherwise. Through this example, he means to put the wealthy people in a better light and make the readers understand their actual motives and appearance. An unfamiliar sky portrays the warm light of sunshine that most Yorkers are not used to receiving or being part of, and once they have been exposed, they have no choice but to be out in the open with their secrets. As the protagonist looks up at the sky, he realizes and shudders at the image of an ugly rose. This is a contradiction because according to nature, roses are said to be the most beautiful flowers and they symbolize love and joy. The raw sunlight reflects the bareness of the situation on the scarce grasses. This means that the sunlight, bright and flickering came down upon the wealthy upper class people without mercy, threatening to expose their very limbs to the rest of the world. “Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets... I saw him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without.” In this sentence as well, the author has given a stark distinguishing point between the upper class society and the people on the streets. He says that people are under the impression that people that are not as well off engage in crimes and bad habits, whereas those that belong to wealthy families are sophisticated and well mannered. However, this is not true, because in the darkness and in the moonlight, the “charm” of the upper class seems to come reflect itself in a shameful and naked manner as their lifestyles are exposed and one can truly see what kind of apathetic lives they are leading. They are hypocrites that show the world only the brighter sides of their lives and conceal their true nature. “The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun.”(40) With the help of this sentence, the author has tried to show the world how most people are very attracted to the wonder and lights in the form of wealth and luxury, however, when they get too close to the brightness of it all, they are threatened by those very lights to be exposed in their raw and true forms to society. The author writes that this entire want of being associated with the wealth and beauty of upper class life is like a dream that soon turns as dark as a nightmare. People are only attracted to artificial lights because they take their natural surroundings for granted. Most people want to see whether the grass actually is greener on the other side or not and for this reason alone, as explained in the story, they venture on to the dark side, forgetting about their morals and values, and bear the heavy mask of being considered as an acceptance by society. However, this is ephemeral and barely lasts for sometime before they either grow tired of it, or come out into the natural light and face the consequences. Like in the book, on page 144, it was written that “She’s locked herself into her room, and if he tries any brutality she’s going to turn the light out and on again.” Over here, the author tries to explain how Daisy grew tired of living in the artificialness of it all. She had locked herself in with Tom and told herself that if was brutal to her, then she would expose him in a natural light, by ‘turning the light out and on again’. She means to say that she could not take Tom’s harshness and was ready to sacrifice herself and tell the world about his true self. Fitzgerald talks about this great American dream that Nick had been chasing for a long time. He talks about how the man wanted to be a part of the wealthy and thus try and be accepted for who he had become with them rather than which he already was. He does feel threatened at times by the light that would expose him in his natural sense. Thus, when the lights would be turned off at last, he would indeed realize the purity and calm that are associated with the actual American dream that he had lost on his journey. "A single green light, minute and faraway, that might have been the end of a dock." With the help of this quote, the author tries to explain how Nick would not give up on hope and happiness and how he was determined to chase it through to the other side. This is where the green light has been introduced to the reader, however in the end; Daisy shows the green light to Gatsby which means that she shows him the path of true happiness that can be achieved by him. She comes close t6o helping him achieve his dream but then he realizes that she is not the one for her because she had given her heart to Tom and thus, he walks away. Thus, this is how the great American dream of fulfilling and achieving all that one wants has been explained in this book as Gatsby was not able to get over how he had wanted his dream to be even though he sees that Daisy fell short of trying to help him achieve it. With the help of the creation of these characters, the author Fitzgerald is able to get through to his readers how this ‘American dream’ consists of illusions of self fulfillment and satisfaction and how each person seeks out to find all this in his lifetime but gets trapped into the artificial lights thrown out by the wealthy and attractive lifestyles. It was this green light that helps Gatsby to follow through the path of achievement, but as he paces along his journey, he realizes he needs new and better motives to be able to achieve the same with greater clarity and a sense of purpose. Read More