Jacob
Automobile as a motif in Great Gatsby
● (noun) a recurring subject, theme, idea, etc., especially in a literary, artistic, or musical work. ● recent invention of automobile
● most used formed of transport
● Cars in
The Great Gatsby are status symbols for various characters, but also function as symbols of American society in general, so that car crashes are ominous signs of socioeconomic and moral collapse.
● can represent more than simply transportation i.e. social status, character
● Thesis: The automobile is an important aspect of The Great Gatsby due to how
Fitzgerald uses it to explore the themes of social status and recklessness, and the representation of character traits through the automobiles contained in the novel and the connection between character traits and cars. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/motif http://crossrefit.info/textguide/thegreatgatsby/34/2441
Luis
How it reveals theme
● Social Status
○ Gatsby’s Car (West Egg)
■ “It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hatboxes and supperboxes and toolboxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns.” (Ch 4 Pg 64)
■ Shows extravagant lifestyle of the rich
■ Exaggerated in appearance
■ Called a “circus wagon” by Tom
○ Tom’s Car (East Egg)
■ Coupe
■ Traditional
■ Highend
■ Elegant
■ Shows the sophisticated side of the rich, stylish but not exaggerated
● Recklessness
○ shows how characters with enough money to have cars did not have responsibility ■ Owl Eyes
● Having a car does not mean knowing know to drive
● “I know very little about drivingnext to nothing.” (Ch 3 Pg 54) washing his hands of the whole matter
● Drunk and driving
■ Gatsby
● Speeds through the city
● Enough Money to buy car means enough power to do anything
■ Daisy
● Kills Myrtle by running her over
● Knows she was not in a condition to drive
● Flees the accident http://www.brighthubeducation.com/homeworkhelpliterature/39752symbolisminthegreatg atsby/ Pierce
The many different automobiles are representative of their owner’s traits.
Taxi
● Since frequently used the cost runs high
● affluent can only afford to use taxis all the time
○ Ch.2 “she let four taxicabs drive away before she selected a new one, lavendercolored with gray upholstery”
● even though the “common” people can ride taxis, only the rich can travel with them everywhere they go
Train
● Trains represent the common transportation for everyone to use. example in valley of ashes the lower class people and eggers use it
● character: reveals the relationship between tom and myrtle in how they can commonly meet together without class difference as opposed to myrtle being out of place in east or west egg
Gatsby’s car
● Rolls Royce
○ the epitome of luxury cars, the Rolls Royce is THE luxury car. Very expensive even today.
■ reveals gatsby’s character as this affluent gentleman who shows off his wealth. The Rolls Royce represents the Jay Gatsby that
James Gatz has created. In addition to being a luxury car, the rolls royce was far more expensive than other cars going into the thousands ■ Color Yellow: fake gold, representing the fake lifestyle Gatsby was trying to achieve and also represents how he is fake and cannot be with the other east eggers like how his books are well done fake, his car is a well done fake. (books of actual paper and binding, rolls royce car)
