Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors
used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The Green Light
Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely
visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents
Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with
Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as
a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Because Gatsby’s quest
for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the green
light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. In Chapter 9,
Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the
ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation.
The Valley of Ashes
First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of ashes between
West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate
land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the
moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit
of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing
but their own pleasure. The valley of ashes also symbolizes the
plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty
ashes and lose their vitality as a result.
The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg
The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading,
bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the
valley of ashes. They may represent God staring down upon and judging
American society as a moral wasteland, though the novel never makes
this point explicitly. Instead, throughout the novel, Fitzgerald
suggests that symbols only have meaning because characters instill
them with meaning. The connection between the eyes of
Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God exists only in George Wilson’s grief-stricken mind.
This lack of concrete significance contributes to the unsettling
nature of the image. Thus, the eyes also come to represent the essential
meaninglessness of the world and the arbitrariness of the mental
process by which people invest objects with meaning. Nick explores
these ideas in Chapter 8, when he imagines Gatsby’s final thoughts
as a depressed consideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.
