Symbolism is a very important literary element. It is defined as “a figure of speech that is used when an author wants to create a certain mood or emotion in a work of literature. It is the use of an object, person, situation or word to represent something else, like an idea, in literature” (Thomas, 2015). Symbolism has been used extensively in articles, poems, plays, and books in both American literature as well as British literature and literature of other countries. As opposed to a sign which has a literal meaning and not a lot of room, if any, for interpretation, symbols can have complex and multiple meanings. Many times, the literal meaning of a symbol is silly and many times it is very complicated, and the symbolic meaning will possibly undo or invalidate the literal meaning. Often, many of the very important symbols in various works of literature can have an indefinite number of meanings and much of time, they are usually left up to the interpretation by the readers (http://web.mst.edu/~gdoty/classes/concepts-practices/symbolism.html). In The Great Gatsby, the first use of symbolism is the shirts. These were used by Jay Gatsby to display how wealthy he is or how wealthy he would like to be, or at least how he wants to appear to others. He used them to try to impress Daisy Buchanan. She said, “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such - such beautiful shirts” (Fitzgerald, p. 92). He often had his shirts imported from England, India, and France so he would look richer to Daisy. It shows that he doesn’t know how to spend his money appropriately and that he just buys things (shirts) to impress people instead of buying something practical or something that is necessary for him. He also does it because he thinks that people will think more highly of him; instead, he should be thinking they will like him for himself. Even the colors chosen for his clothing represent different things. Tom Buchanan would wear more conservative colors and styles of clothes which show his classier and “richer” upbringing and background. In contrast, Gatsby would wear flashier or showier colors and styles of clothing. He thinks those kinds of things are impressive to others, but it really shows his poorer background and upbringing (Clemente, 2015). The second symbol that is used is the green light at Daisy’s dock. According to Nick about Gatsby, “I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone – he stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness” (Fitzgerald, p. 21). During this incident, Gatsby is standing on the edge of his own dock, and looking out at and reaching across the water toward the green light at Daisy’s dock. This can also be symbolic of how Gatsby is trying to reach her but she’s far away for him, physically, literally,