|
Hokkaido University Collection of Scholarly and Academic Papers >
Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences / Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences >
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles, etc >
Gatsby's Green Light as a Traffic Signal : F. Scott Fitzgerald's Motive Force
| Title: | Gatsby's Green Light as a Traffic Signal : F. Scott Fitzgerald's Motive Force |
| Authors: | Takeuchi, Yasuhiro Browse this author →KAKEN DB |
| Keywords: | cars | | boats | | trains | | mobility | | The Great Gatsby |
| Issue Date: | 2016 |
| Publisher: | Penn State University Press |
| Journal Title: | F. Scott Fitzgerald review |
| Volume: | 14 |
| Start Page: | 198 |
| End Page: | 214 |
| Publisher DOI: | 10.5325/fscotfitzrevi.14.1.0198 |
| Abstract: | F. Scott Fitzgerald's use of vehicles in The Great Gatsby constitutes more than just a symbolic motif: cars, trains, boats, and other means of transportation structure the plot, providing the narrative with motive force and mobility. Characters are brought together and torn apart through changes to the scenario, when vehicles actually start and stop. The characters' ephemeral relationships start with their riding in the same vehicle, and end-or are brought back to reality-when the vehicle comes to a halt. Within this structure, the novel's central motif, the "green light," acts as a traffic signal, giving Gatsby the go-ahead to move onward to create the short-lived world founded upon his belief in mobility. Appropriately, the appearance of Gatsby's natural father following the final crash, a symbolic accident denoting the end of his dream, indicates what Gatsby had essentially tried to " move" all along: his unchangeable breeding and past. This article taps into the possibility of reevaluating time and breeding-the conventional themes in Fitzgerald's novel-from the perspective of literal vehicle mobility, which provides important structure to Nick's narrative. |
| Type: | article (author version) |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2115/65155 |
| Appears in Collections: | 文学院・文学研究院 (Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences / Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences) > 雑誌発表論文等 (Peer-reviewed Journal Articles, etc)
|
Submitter: 竹内 康浩
|
