Essay Cars in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby

In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, symbols are an important and integral part of what makes it a great novel. Though there are numerous and different aspects that could be explored, a repeated and often mentioned aspect are the revolutionary vehicles. Cars in the 1920s were a symbol of status and privilege as they were becoming increasingly affordable. Though most people could own a car due to Ford releasing the Model T, the colored vehicles usually a sign of wealth and status. Fitzgerald often uses the car as a symbol of death, or a journey to a destructive event, rarely is the car portrayed in a positive manner. I think that in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald is trying to connect automobiles and vehicles to the idea of consumerism. And by†¦show more content†¦Another interesting detail is Gatsby’s car is yellow instead of the standardized black of the era stresses the thought that he is engrossed with the obsession of displaying his material wealth to get the lov e of Daisy. The Death car is yellow, and in the novel yellow symbolizes money and corruption in the novel. The creamy color of Gatsby’s car also symbolizes decay of corruption; therefore Gatsby’s car is like a bulging piece of fruit that is overripe and has started to rot. To each character cars had a different meaning. For Tom, who has numerous cars uses them as a reminder of the past, the cars a symbol of how consumerist and materialistic he is. He believes that maybe if he had enough things, enough cars, he will be happy. Gatsby has an excessive car, a symbol of trying to attain what Tom has, however never being able to really reach that status. Nick has no car, Nick really represents Fitzgerald’s own opinion on the era. Fitzgerald presents us with two possibilities of the future. The people with cars end up being miserable and lost and Nick. Myrtle is killed by a car, another symbol of how materialism can consume someone. Myrtle wanted what she couldn’t have, a lavish life without work. In conclusion, Fitzgerald’s attitude towards consumerism and materialism is brought to light by his portrayal of vehicles in The Great Gatsby. As if Fitzgerald could tell the future, our society as it is today is mostly drivenShow MoreRelatedViews of Entitlement in the Great Gatsby1596 Words   |  7 PagesThe Great Gatsby as Fitzgerald’s explanation of an American Reality which contradicts the American Dream That was always my experience—a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boys school; a poor boy in a rich mans club at Princeton.... However, I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works.   —F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters, ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York: Scribners, 1994. pg. 352. The Great Gatsby, by F. ScottRead More gattom Importance of the Automobile in The Great Gatsby Essay1522 Words   |  7 Pagesthe Automobile in The Great Gatsby    F. 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