Examples Of Onion In The Great Gatsby

Mitch Terrell

Mrs. Kangas

Honors English, Hour 3

3-24-14

The American Dream or an Onion

The American Dream is an endless onion. One will find endless layers of the American dream onion to peel back in order to grasp for an unattainable center. Only tears will be achieved from this endless peeling of the onion 's layers. F. Scott Fitzgerald believed this metaphor to be true and that is evident in his Novel The Great Gatsby and his short story "Winter Dreams." The illusion and the empty promises of the American dream is exploited by Fitzgerald in his Novel and short story by his exemplary use of symbols, his ability to depict greed and corruption within his characters, and his depiction of the balance of hope.

Fitzgerald has an incredible
In The Great Gatsby the green light and valley of ashes both represent the illusion of the American dream in a different way. After Nick Caraway had visited his wealthy cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, he returned to his West Egg house and noticed his neighbor, Gatsby, reaching for something. Nick "glanced seaward - and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been at the end of a dock," (Fitzgerald GG 21). Gatsby is reaching out for this green light because he believes it brings him closer to Daisy. Gatsby thinks that if he could just have Daisy, his quest for the American dream would be complete. Fitzgerald uses symbolism to show the unattainability of the American dream with this "minute" "green light" far in the distance by portraying the American dream as always one step ahead and how there is always one more thing to add to the dream. Later in the novel Tom insists that Nick come with him to the Yale club, but they end up departing from the train at an unknown city to Nick. This unknown city was called "the valley of ashes - [which was] as fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat in ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take
When Tom is visiting Wilsons garage to pick up Myrtle he comments on the scenery. " 'Terrible place, isn 't it, ' said Tom, exchanging a frown with Doctor Eckleburg," (GG 26). Tom 's exchange with Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and the valley of ashes indirectly shows his lack of hope and faith. Gatsby, an extremely hopeful person, would look at the scene of the valley of ashes and think of a way to improve it for a profit, but because Tom was born into money he looks upon Doctor Eckleberg and the valley of ashes without hope and with a "frown." Fitzgerald points out Tom 's lack of hope to provide contrast to Gatsby 's extreme hope and to show that Tom 's lack of hope proves that the American dream is not able to be achieved. The final sentence of Fitzgerald 's novel is stated by Nick. Nick says, "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year receded before us," (GG 180). Gatsby was on Fitzgerald 's extreme side of hope. He had so much hope for the future, the wealth, and the American dream that he ended up losing all of it, including his own life. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby 's extreme ability to hope as a lesson to the reader that too much hope for the American dream will lead to illusion and despair. Fitzgerald shows that