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Elizabeth Weaver

Honors English III

Mrs. Helms

January 3, 2018

Weather Motif

Throughout The Great Gatsby, weather has come to signify a lot about the mood in the

story. Weather is also used to foreshadow the hopes and dreams of the main characters. F. Scott

Fitzgerald uses weather to intensify the mood during certain parts in the book, such as during

Daisy and Gatsby’s reunion, it starts to pour down rain; which symbolizes Gatsby’s feelings.

When Nick leaves Gatsby alone with Daisy, the scene is still unsettling shown by the weather

because said in the book by the narrator, “The rain is still falling, but the darkness had parted to

the West” (88), which could symbolize their awkwardness, but yet enjoyance of each other’s

presence. Soon after, The rain stops, and Gatsby talks about the rain finally stopping to Daisy.

He describes the weather then as “twinkle-bells of sunshine in the room” (91), which now shows

his excitement. Then, he goes on to show Daisy his house describing it by the weather.

Fitzgerald also uses heat especially towards the end of the book to describe how intense a

certain scene gets. Heat seems to be mostly used to portray anger and panic. “The next day was

broiling, almost the last, certainly the warmest, of the Summer” (147) is an example of intense

heat. This happens when Gatsby tells Nick that he fired all of his servants because they were

not trustworthy, and Gatsby did not want them to gossip, especially now about him seeing Daisy.

In chapter eight, the heat starts to cool down, and the author portrays this by setting cooler

weather to the scene. “It was a cold fall day with fire in the room and her cheeks flushed.” (128)
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is an example of the heat balancing in this chapter. This could also show how Daisy and Gatsby

are finally happy together, and things are settling down.

At the end of the book, Gatsby dies, and no one attends his funeral but Owl Eyes;who is

a man that Nick meets in Gatsby’s library, and then very few others. . “The rain poured down

his thick glasses and he took them off and wiped them to the the protecting canvas unrolled from

Gatsby’s grave”(176) , which shows sadness because of the fact that first of all, Owl Eyes is the

only one that has taken care of him, and everyone that attended his parties has used him for fun,

and because he has money. Therefore, in this part of the book, the rain symbolizes sadness,

loneliness, and death.

The weather motif adds significant symbolism to the story as it connects with the feelings

the characters have, and the tension in that particular scene. Throughout the book, rain mainly

symbolizes sadness, and regret. Heat usually symbolizes tension, and something bad might soon

occur. Overall, Fitzgerald implied weather into each scene of the novel by how each character

felt, and the reader could interpret how the next scene would play out based solely on what the

author has given to us in the settings.