preview

What Does The Road Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays

Symbolism plays a big part in many books. It can mean so many things from big things like birth or death, or smaller things such as love and hate. The Road by Cormac McCarthy, has many symbol in it. One being the title, The Road and fire. These two are major Symbols throughout the book. Symbols play a big part of any story because they leave the reader to wonder why the author used that ad why it is important. Another book that symbolism plays a big part in is The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald, it has hidden messages throughout the books to make the book go into deeper detail without even saying it. Symbols are left by the author to let the reader decide what the symbol means. “Symbols, though, generally don’t work so neatly. The thing …show more content…

I think of The Great Gatsby because this book is packed full of symbols, from eyes on a billboard to water, there is so many.The eyes on the billboard are the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg. These eyes are the symbol of god, and the fact that he is always watching.“But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg,” (Fitzgerald, 23). This is an important symbol because there lots of lies and adualtry going on in the book so it means that god is always watching over and seeing you lie and cheat. This is a big deal because everytime the character would see the billboard they would think about all the bad things they are doing and eventually the lies will be told. Another symbol in the book is the green light. This is a major symbol for the book because it is a symbol of what gatsby wants his life to be. The green light is on the other side of the lake on Daisy’s dock. Gatsby’s goal is for his life to accomplish the american dream. The american dream is a nice house, a wife, and kids, so the perfect …show more content…

We come up with things and decide that it is a symbol for something else. Like in the road the road is a symbol because it has deeper meaning than what the author is telling us. The author does this to make the reader think more in depth while reading. In any book there will be symbolism, you just have to break it down and think about it. In How to read Literature like a Professor Foster talks about how if the reader thinks that the subject is a symbol than it mostly is because you aren't told that it is a symbol you have to get to that conclusion on your own. If one reader thinks that the water symbolizes love but the other one believes it symbolizes hate, it doesn’t mean that one is right it just means that they see the symbol as standing for different things, which is okay because everyone thinks about stuff differently. Foster explains in How to Read Literature like a Professor that is a subject that you think could possibly be a symbol can be pinned down to mean one thing and only one thing than it probably isn’t a symbol, for example if in a book a character goes for a run and then takes a drink of water it doesn't always mean that they are being baptised, it could also just mean that they’re thirsty. But sometimes it does, “So engage that other creative intelligence. Listen to your instincts. Pay attention to what you feel about the text. It probably means something,” (Foster,

Get Access