When Gatsby attempts to assert that he is equal to Tom Buchanan at the end of the film, Tom insists that that is not the case, that class is about more than simply the amount of money one has. At the end, his wealth does not help him achieve his dreams, and only becomes a quality that implicates him as a fraud, less respectable than the unethical Tom Buchanan. Gatsby, a poor boy who goes through various experiences to ascend the social ladder and make a lot of money very quickly, represents the average American who pursues the "American Dream." While his means of acquiring his wealth are shady and corrupt, Gatsby is the film's stand-in for the American "self-made man." Gatsby's wealth is acquired by illegal means, as he goes from poor to rich through selling bootleg alcohol. The idea of the "American Dream" is that anyone who works hard in America can accrue wealth and therefore be successful and achieve their dreams. Writing becomes a central motif in the story, in that it provides Tom with a way out of his mental ailments, and also becomes a way for him to reconcile the ways that he feels both "within and without." By writing, he is able to have more of a perspective on the events of his life, rather than being haunted by the images of them. From the moment he starts writing, his words are projected across the screen and we read his writing as he writes it from his room in the sanatarium. Tom becomes well by writing down the events of his life in the form of a manuscript. Additionally, at the sanatarium, the doctor's prescription for Tom's various troubles is to write down what happened to him. When he arrives in West Egg and surveys his small cottage, he narrates that he had dreamed of being a writer at Yale, but "gave all that up." When he first visits Tom at the Buchanan estate, Tom calls him "Shakespeare" and continually introduces Tom to people as a writer. Writing (Motif)įrom the start, Nick Carraway is characterized as a reluctant writer. The green light represents this quality in Gatsby, his search for the unattainable, his dogged and starry-eyed ambition. Daisy tells Gatsby that he wants too much, and Nick marvels at Gatsby's almost delusional sense of hopefulness. The green light, both distant and close, pulsing on and off, symbolizes Gatsby's desire to change his entire narrative, to reinvent his biography, to relive the past, so as to create an idealized and impossible future. As the film goes on and Gatsby's romantic dreams fall farther and farther out of reach, we see that the green light symbolizes an even deeper desire in Gatsby to attain the unattainable. Both visible and out-of-reach, the green light represents the distance between the two lovers, both emotionally and physically. He can see her dock, and he knows she is there, just across the harbor. As it is positioned directly across the harbor from his mansion, Gatsby looks at it longingly as a symbol for his desire to be reunited with the woman he loves. At the beginning, the green light represents Gatsby's desire to win back Daisy. The green light is perhaps the most important symbol to Gatsby throughout the film. Similarly, Gatsby is very wealthy, but his wealth does not actually raise his class status in relation to the solid old money of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Therefore, the shirts represent the complicated nature of Gatsby's power and influence while they are expensive, they are also showy and not as classy as a more "respectable" color choice. The showy colors of his shirts betray him as "new money," which diminishes his power. While they are extremely well-made shirts, they are also brightly colored, which represents the fact that Gatsby is still an outsider in the world of the upper classes. Their colors, however, complicate them as symbols. The expense and value of the shirts symbolize just how far Gatsby has ascended in the world of material wealth. Gatsby announces their materials as he throws them down, proud of his success. Daisy marvels at the fact the shirts are extremely well-made, their materials are incredible to the touch. In addition to the over-the-top qualities of his palatial mansion, the shirts in his bedroom that he throws down to Daisy represent his immense wealth, in all its ostentation and excess. As a result, his wealth is what is considered "new money," because it is not old and inherited family wealth. As we learn later in the film, Gatsby has gained his wealth by buying up drugstores and bootlegging alcohol, an illegal offense at the time.
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