Discussion Topic
Symbolism of the Ladder in The Great Gatsby
Summary:
In The Great Gatsby, the ladder symbolizes Gatsby's personal pursuit of the American Dream, representing a path to success, peace, and fulfillment. The ladder metaphorically transforms a sidewalk into a vertical ascent, illustrating Gatsby's idealistic vision of achieving wealth and love. However, this vision is flawed, as it combines the pursuit of success with romantic dreams of Daisy. The metaphor suggests the unattainability of the American Dream, hinting at the delusion inherent in Gatsby's quest.
What is the significance of the ladder at the end of chapter 6 in The Great Gatsby?
The significance of the ladder at the end of chapter six with which Gatsby could reach 'a secret place above the trees [...] if he climbed alone,' is that this ladder represents to Gatsby a path to personal peace and a heavenly state.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is indicating that this secret place above the trees is in essence a heaven... or possibly a Garden of Eden to Jay Gatsby. The rest of the line from this part of Chapter 6 continues...
", and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder."
This pap of life, milk of wonder represents eating of spiritual food that results in bliss and a Utopian existence whereby Jay Gatsby loves and is loved. It is an existence where his personal dreams come to full realization.
Gatsby must "climb alone" because this is his personal journey that...
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he must work out. In other words no one else is responsible for his happiness but him; his success regarding love, and in essence, his success regarding all areas of his life are dependent upon him making right decisions.
In one of the most important thematic passages in the novel, the metaphor of the ladder occurs in Chapter 6:
. . . the blocks of the sidewalk really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees--he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder.
Jimmy Gatz dreamed his way out of North Dakota. He ran away at seventeen to find the world he wanted, a place of success and wealth, glamour and excitement, beauty and enchantment. In those years, "his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot" as he searched for the amazing destiny he felt certain was his.
His was a self-absorbed quest, although women played a role in his young life: "[Gatsby] knew [women] early and since they spoiled him he became contemptuous of them." Daisy was the first "nice" girl he would know. He had no intention of falling in love with her.
However, when Gatsby and Daisy walk along the sidewalk one autumn evening, he understands he is at a crossroads in his life. The ladder is a metaphor for finding his life as he had always envisioned it, the life he had always chased. He knew he could find it--if he were alone. Instead, he kisses Daisy, knowing that "his unutterable visions" would be "wed" to "her perishable breath." When they kissed, "the incarnation was complete." At that moment, the physical Daisy became Gatsby's romantic dream. His dream was corrupted; his future and his fate were determined.
In Chapter 6 of The Great Gatsby, what does the imagined sidewalk ladder symbolize?
I take note of the reference in the previous response to the horizontal sidewalk transformed in Gatsby's vision to a vertical ladder. And I cannot help but wonder whether or not Fitzgerald deliberately chose to impose upon Gatsby a vision that showed the falseness and hopelessness of the metaphor, since one cannot climb a sidewalk, Monty Python movies notwithstanding, nor become successful moving only laterally. Fitzgerald could just as easily have provided something upward-climbing, for example, a trellis, to trigger the ladder in Gatsby's mind. But he didn't. And I do think that pretty much every detail in the novel was chosen with mindfulness and intent, which is part of what makes this, arguably, the great American novel. While at this point in the novel Gatsby still believes he can fulfill the American dream, the reader has seen many hints that he will not, and this false metaphor seems to me to be yet another of those hints. The American dream, Fitzgerald is telling us, is as delusional as climbing a sidewalk.
The “ladder” signifies success. Even in the 1920s when Fitzgerald wrote the novel, the American Dream embodied the metaphor of a ladder, which signified possibility: success was available for those willing to make the climb “the ladder of success.” “Ladder” necessarily involves a vertical climb, and so it is interesting Gatsby imaginatively transforms the pattern of a horizontal sidewalk into this vision. Significantly, Daisy helps to create this vision, indicating the ways in which Fitzgerald weaves together the myth of success with the myth of the ideal woman, so that gaining the latter enables gaining the former as well. One does not have full meaning without the other.