Connection+to+The+Great+Gatsby

“Solitary Lawn,” the painting by William H. Miller, really embodies F. Scott Fitzgerald’s __The Great Gatsby__ to me. First of all, the painting is a really abstract form of a green lawn. Throughout the entire novel, Gatsby is obsessed with his lawn; it seems to represent a sort of wealth and order to him. It is obviously a very important thing to him, and is used as a contrast to Nick’s wild lawn. However, this painting also seems like a kind of green light to me, much like the one Daisy has on her dock. The green light is what lets Gatsby know that Daisy is there. In a way, this green light is like the American dream to Gatsby, something that he is always looking towards. This idea of green lawns and green lights represent the characters' emphasis on money and status, particularly Daisy's, throughout the book, and this painting reminds me of both of the green symbols in __The Great Gatsby__.

Weege's picture, "Untitled," of men who fixed a basketball game also reminds me of a particular character in The Great Gatsby - Wolfsheim. The men in the photo definitely look like mobsters to me, and that is basically what Wolfsheim was. Gatsby tells Nick that Wolfsheim actually fixed a World Series in one part of the book. The men in this picture really evoke that sense of criminality to me, and definitely don't look like the nicest guys. We know that Wolfsheim was really more interested in his business than his friends when he didn't come to Gatsby's funeral at the end of the book, showing this real side of his character.

Both of these pictures point to characters' greed and want for something more in this book. While Gatsby's intentions seem to be more pure, Wolfsheim's character really points to the extent that characters in this book will go to get what they want (often being money). In a way, these both kind of represent the American dream and the American character, because both Gatsby and Wolfsheim are obsessed with getting more of something, represented by these two pictures.

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