Commentary on The Great Gatsby Essay

The Great Gatsby:

I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night, and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye. I liked to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter into their lives, and no one would ever know or disapprove. Sometimes, in my mind, I followed them to their apartments on the corners of hidden streets, and they turned and smiled back tat me before they faded through a door into warm darkness. At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in other-poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner-young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scot Fitzgerald employs symbolism in order to emphasize Gatsbys melancholy and depression despite his constant social activities.

The symbolic shadow in the beginning of the passage informs the audience that Gatsby withholds a sign of happiness and relief when surrounding by areas in which he loves. The narrator tells the reader that he like[d] New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night, and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye. Therefore, the character describes the atmosphere as engulfing and surrounding anyone in the moment, sweeping the person off the feet, and carrying the dreamy bodies through most favorable common dreams: peace. This symbolism detects a means of happiness and peace. Although it appears that the thought of being surrounded by people appeals to the character, Gatsbys only reason revolves around his fear of being alone.

However, Fitzgerald mentions through the character in the novel that Sometimes, in my mind, I followed them to their apartments on the corners of hidden streets, and they turned and smiled back at me before they faded through a door into warm darkness. The author demonstrates this symbolic representation with positive and also negative connotations. The character feels that nay sane man, including himself, holds the right type of charm to entertain any woman, and capability of pleasing one as well. As soon as the lady in the clouded imagination of Gatsbys mind turns her head to walk into her home, they (both the character and desired woman of his dreams) could walk into a place in which all dimensions of the household possesses peril, or possibly the woman obtains two faces: one in which she puts on when she walks out with the crowd, causing everyone to believe she contains happiness all the time, and the other being that she senses danger upon return to her home; in other terms, she constantly fears for her life.

Later, the character then introduces to the reader(s) about the idea of a clerk and his/her unhappiness at a particular place at a specific time. While taking another comfortable walk around the neighborhood, one can look up into the enchanted metropolitan twilight. Indeed, the reader believes that anyone willing to jump into the story if possible would love nothing more than to watch the beautiful sunset, but Fitzgerald intend for that to become interpreted as a trick. Deep in the characters heart, he closely analyzes the twilight and beyond the buildings filled with hard working employees and immediately felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in other-poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner-young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life. Alas, Fitzgerald concludes this behavior as a negative symbolic relationship. Clerks tend to appeal to someone as poor and unhappy with themselves, walking around town depressed, isolated, and possibly in denial. As one walks on Fifth Avenue, one sees a beautiful surrounding (environment), but despite all the color and lively hood of it all, there still lies around the feel of depression in the hearts of those who seek happiness anywhere, in someone. Finally, the character himself may pertain to this category, or he could just simply want attention from a group that situate themselves out of the ordinary for not only him, but anyone in the exact position as he.