Research Paper on:
Water Imagery in Gatsby

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
material and to emphasize points in the Gatsbys story at which time relationships are ending or beginning. The following examination of several points in this novel where water imagery is  prominent demonstrates how Fitzgerald subtly employs water and rainfall to not only signify a deeper meaning to the circumstances described, but to elicit a heartfelt mood and tone. For  example, it is raining when Gatsby meets Daisy again for the first time in five years at Nick Carraways house. The history of Gatsby and Daisy comes out slowly throughout  the novel. He first met her as a young recruit, about to go overseas to fight World War I. At the time, Gatsby was still Jimmie Gatz, an ordinary middle-class  young man. Daisy was an upper-class debutante. Through her, he glimpses the possibility of another way of life. She becomes an icon for everything in life that seems good. Young  Jimmie Gatz is like a kid with his face pressed up against the candy store window. From that moment on, Daisy becomes a symbol of a different life, representing everything  the young man yearns for. To win Daisy, young Gatz makes him over, adopting a new persona to fit with his mysteriously earned fortune. He becomes Jay Gatsby and  pursues a materialistic dream that is draped in romantic expectation. Nick comes to feel that Gatsbys misplaced idealism and romanticism are so pure that he approaches spiritualism in his devotion.  The principal theme of Gatsby is that the materialism behind American culture is a false god. From the beginning, his pursuit of Daisy is doomed because he is following an  idea, rather than seeing Daisy as a real woman and for who she really is. This thematic content is underscore and emphasized by Fitzgeralds expert use of rain and water