What Does The Grass Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

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In this passage from The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses various literary techniques, including visual imagery, similes, and the symbolism of white, to characterize Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker, and to contrast their lives and their oppressors. In the first paragraph, Fitzgerald uses visual imagery to depict how the “windows were ajar” and “a breeze blew through the room” in Daisy’s home. The breeze limits Daisy’s freedom, and she leaves the window open in hopes that someone will enter her “fragilely bound” life. In addition, the grass, a form of life, “seemed to grow a little way into the house,” which foreshadows the fact that more people will enter her life, particularly Gatsby. The “fresh grass” juxtaposes with the “gleaming white” windows because white is the color of purity, and once the grass expands more into Daisy’s house, …show more content…
Jordan is “completely motionless” and her chin is raised, “as if she was balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall.” Jordan acts like this because her old money status is “likely to fall” as she is on the fine line of having old money. Additionally, she lives two separate lives; one where she acts like old money, and appears superior to everyone, and one where she is a professional golf player and attends Gatsby’s parties. Therefore, she has to force herself to be more motionless than Daisy. Although Daisy moves more, it is obviously forced and she has a “conscientious expression.” While Jordan’s only oppressor is society, Daisy has two oppressors: society and Tom. Therefore, unlike Jordan, Daisy is unable to live two separate lives, and is “conscientious” as to not reveal her yearning to diverge from the old-money social norms. In the last line of the excerpt, Daisy claims she is “paralyzed” by happiness, to conceal the truth that she is instead paralyzed by discontentment with her

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