Ian C. Glover Ms. Sorensen 2/28/13 P2
Layered Shirts of Mr. Gatsby
There are several themes in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and I think one of the more moving and heartfelt themes attaches the symbol of Gatsby’s many layered shirts to the theme of layers of his heart exposed like a raw nerve to Daisy, hiding, and his different personalities. I believe Fitzgerald is telling us that underneath all the layers in one’s heart and ego, if shred it all and you’ve left with the raw reflection of yourself. So first of all, Gatsby heart is exposed like a raw nerve around Daisy through the symbolism of the shirts. It is because of Gatsby’s desire to relive the past with Daisy that he shows her all the shirts. Layer by layer he is peeling off his protection to show how much wound and raw truth there is underneath the glamorous conspicuous consumption. “He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them one by one before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel which lost their folds as they fen and covered the table in many colored disarray” (Fitzgerald 97). Fitzgerald tells us through this passage that through Gatsby’s shirts the layers of the lies and the charm of ego diminish, because they are all being revealed at once. The shirts also represent that Gatsby is hiding and that is why there are so many layers. When you don’t want people to hit yourself then you put layers and layers around yourself to create a blockade so nothing can ever penetrate it. “Suddenly with astrained sound Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. ‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the think folds. ‘It makes mes sad because I’ve never seen – such beautiful shirts before’” (Fitzgerald 98). This quote is significant to hiding because for the first time Daisy is really seeing Gatsby and his beauty and who he really is, as opposed to the egocentric mystery man that he presents through burying his past underneath the layers of clothing he wears. Fitzgerald is making the statement that it is beautiful to show your true self and you should never be afraid to be real instead of hide. His different personalities are represented through the colors of the shirts that he wears. Gatsby has so many different emotions that he attaches his heart to certain colors and certain shirts, depending if he is closer to his destiny or farther away from it. “While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher – shirts with stripes and scrolls and plains in coral and apple green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue” (Fitzgerald 97-98). These are all colors of emotion and
essentially the shirts are just those layers being stripped away and exposed so he can gain his love with Daisy back. Fitzgerald is telling us that with these layers and different personalities bury your true self from both the world and yourself and you should take them off as soon as possible or you might officially lose yourself into a lie that you built upon to protect yourself from the truth. So in closing, in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald uses symbolism like the shirts to emphasize an important message – both for Daisy and the reader – that you are left with the raw reflection of yourself when you pull back the layers of mystery and deception. It is a positive thing and it is inspirational to essentially become myself and not force myself to be someone else than the beauty that I already am.