Symbols in Chapter 9:
Pathetic Fallacy/ The Weather
“...the sky had turned dark and I got back to West egg in a drizzle.” (172)
- The weather this chapter is described as very dark, gloomy, and rainy.
- This mimics Nick’s mood in the aftermath of Gatsby’s death. Much like how the heat in chapter 7 was responding to rising tension between Gatsby, Daisy and Tom, this chapter’s weather reflects Nick’s more sad attitude.
- This is significant as it sets the tone, and mood/atmosphere of the chapter while also providing imagery. The scene is infinitely more powerful when the weather matches Nick’s mood, and is far more appropriate for Gatsby’s funeral than—for example—a very sunny day.
Nick's Dreams
“West Egg, especially, still figures in my more fantastic dreams. I see it as a night scene by El Greco: a hundred houses, at once conventional and grotesque, crouching under a sullen, overhanging sky and a lustreless moon. In the foreground four solemn men in dress suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken woman in a white evening dress. Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels. Gravely the men turn in at a house--the wrong house. But no one knows the woman’s name, and no one cares.” (176)
- Significant because of the imagery. The reader can clearly picture the scene with Fitzgerald’s powerful use of imagery and diction.
- Significant because this dream parallels Gatsby’s death with the idea that no one cared.
- Significant because it is an allusion to El Greco. Many people believe that Fitzgerald is referencing the picture
Colour Symbols:
The colour green
“I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailor’s eyes--a fresh green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity of wonder.” (180)
- This quote is significant because of its colour symbolism. The colour green symbolizes a new beginning and hope. As illustrated by the association of the colour green with Gatsby’s hope of winning back Daisy.
- This quote also references the Dutch Sailors and their colonization in 1624-1625. It compares what their feelings must have been when first seeing the “fresh green beast” that was America and the promise it must have held. This comparison mimics Gatsby’s hope in the green light.
The colour blue and darkness
“He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.” (180)
- Nick describes Gatsby
- Blue symbolizes illusions. It was an illusion that Gatsby’s dream (winning Daisy back) was so close he could grasp it (she was only across the dock!), but in reality (dark symbolizes reality) the dream was “already behind him”, unreachable and unattainable.
Gatsby's Mansion
“...incoherent failure of a house.” (179)
- When he was alive, the mansion was the symbol of Gatsby’s success. He achieved the American Dream and used that money to buy a large mansion where he threw elaborate parties in hopes that Daisy would be impressed.
- The mansion was only superficial. Even though Gatsby got wealthy and purchased a house, he was still not content because he did not have Daisy. This could suggest the theme of money doesn't buy happiness. It could also suggest superficiality from another standpoint: Gatsby held countless parties in the house with hundreds of people in attendance--yet, none, besides Nick, were ‘friends’ of Gatsby and none (except Owl-Eyes and Nick), attended his funeral.
- It could also suggest that Gatsby’s mansion represents his dream, and Nick’s description of the mansion being a failure illustrates Gatsby’s failed dreams.
- Failure of Gatsby to fit in
East vs West and the Divide between Gatsby/Nick vs Jordan/Tom/Daisy
- As we learned, the East is associated with the emptiness and decay of morals, while the West is associated with a more moral center.
- In this chapter, the East vs. West symbol is very prevalent. Nick feels ‘done’ with the East and its careless, reckless people, choosing to return back to the West where he feels has more morals.
Several quotes that support this are:
“The East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes’ power of correction.” (176)
“...subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.” (176)
“Even when the East excited me the most, even when I was most keenly aware of its superiority to the bored, sprawling, swollen towns beyond the Ohio, with their interminable inquisitions which spared only the children and the very old--even then it had always for me a quality of distortion.” (176)
- In this chapter, interestingly, Nick further breaks down this East vs. West theme by associating him and Gatsby as one ‘team’. It is Gatsby and Nick vs. Everyone else, namely Jordan, Tom, and Daisy.
- Nick associates him and Gatsby with the West and the others with the East. It’s an us vs. them mentality—him and Gatsby are the more moral ones while Tom, Jordan, and Daisy are the ones corrupted by the East.
“I began to have a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all.” (165)
“I found myself on Gatsby’s side, and alone.” (164)