Significance of Automobilies in the Great Gatsby

Automobiles play a big role in Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. Automobiles symbolize various things. First of all, they represent wealth and social class. At the beginning of the novel, Nick sees a lot of cars in front of Gatsby’s house when he throws a party. Since only rich and upper class people were invited to the party and everyone didn’t have an automobile, this shows us the automobile is a luxury. Secondly, they represent freedom. Automobiles allow characters to go to where ever, and whenever, they want. Finally, in some cases they represent carelessness and danger which is result of said carelessness. For example, while Nick and Jordan were driving, Nick describes Jordan as a “rotten driver”. That doesn’t go only for Jordan, since the society as a whole doesn’t care about the consequences of their acts, such as drunk driving. For example, at one point in the novel, we can observe one of the guests trying to drive his car while it is missing a wheel. He had no clue what he was doing due to his drunkenness.

Automobiles can also show character’s character. For example, Gatsby drives a yellow Rolls-Royce which has all of the newest gadgets (according to Tom it is a “Circus wagon”). Since Rolls-Royce is an icon of the British upper class, he drives one to convince everyone that he is from England.

Gatsby’s automobile plays an important role in his life, and even gets killed because of it. In chapter seven, Daisy runs over Myrtle with Gatsby’s yellow automobile. Michaelis, who has a restaurant next to Wilson’s garage, witnessed the accident but was not able to make out who was the driver [Daisy]. Gatsby, who was in the car at the time, is willing to take the blame to protect Daisy. When Michaelis tells what he saw to Nick, Jordan and Tom, even Nick thinks that the one who hit Myrtle was Gatsby. Then, Tom tells Wilson that Gatsby is the one who hits his wife (we find this out in chapter nine). The next day, Wilson goes to Gatsby’s house...