Analyse the symbolism of colour in The Great Gatsby.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “the Great Gatsby” he uses many literary devices. One of the most obvious is colour, and in this essay
I will explore how Fitzgerald uses colours like white, green and yellow to help convey 1920’s America and Gatsby’s struggle for Daisy
Buchanan.
White features most strongly in the novel and becomes a way for people to hide behind false facades. In “The Great Gatsby” white symbolises royalty innocence and purity and can also be seen to represent the way the wealthy falsely themselves. On the surface, the white symbolises their innocence and purity, like when Nick first meets Jordan and
Daisy in “flowing white dresses.” Daisy’s name is also
…show more content…
Of all the characters,
Gatsby himself fits best into this category; Gatsby lives in a green house surrounded by a green lawn.
This colour light becomes his hopes in the novel. Barely visible from his west egg dock is the green light that marks out Daisy’s on East
Egg. He reaches towards this in the darkness as the guiding light to his dream. Daisy also forms a key part of Gatsby’s American Dream so the colour green is also associated with this idealism. This reaching for the light also shows how Gatsby wishes to repeat the past. In chapter nine Nick describes the Green light to how America must have looked to early settlers.
Yellow symbolises a desire for wealth and it also represents the old money of East Egg. Much like Daisy Buchanan the old money are false and misguided. Gatsby though is also bad beneath his character, showing that this also applies to the noveau riche people, as they to are yellow inside. His gained his fortune through the drugs trade and crime, meaning there is nothing innocent about his fortune. This goes against the American Dream, as according to this money should be a reward for honesty and success.
The valley of ashes is associated with a grey and gloomy colour. This thin strip of land between west Egg and New York City is a long strip of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes, representing the moral and social decay that results from uninhibited pursuits of
Throughout The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals more and more rumors about Gatsby and what he has done. However, this all just speculation, as nobody knows the real truth behind Gatsby. Therefore, Gatsby is best represented by the color black. Grok describes black as “the color of mystery, of things not yet revealed.” There is definitely a mystery surrounding Gatsby regarding his past.. His party-goers tend to be the ones that concoct and spread these rumors: “‘he killed a man once’… ‘it’s more that he was a German spy during the war’” (44). Gatsby is generally a reclusive character; he tends not to tell others much about his personal life. The party-goers (generally rich) speculate about how he has the money entertain all of these
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, exposes the corruption and greed of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald is able to captivate readers' attentions through his employment of color symbolism. Fitzgerald portrays important messages in the novel by his symbolic use of colors. Colors play an important role in Fitzgerald’s descriptions of the lives of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway and many of the other characters in the novel. Fitzgerald uses the colors white, yellow, and green to express certain sentiments to the reader, commenting what is going on in the story. Fitzgerald uses the color white to symbolize purity and innocence, while yellow is used to symbolize moral decay, and death. Green is used to represent hope and
Colors have a large impact on society. They have the ability to affect people’s moods, appetites, and behaviors. Colors also have the ability to act as symbols. For example, the color white often acts as a symbol of innocence, and the color yellow often represents happiness. Throughout the book The Great Gatsby, multiple colors symbolize different aspects of Jay Gatsby’s life.
The Great Gatsby is a symbol itself. The Great Gatsby was written to represent the rise and fall of the American Dream. The author places the rich and wealthy lifestyle on a high pedestal while he shows the dramatic consequences of moral and social decay amongst the characters. As each turning point is revealed, the American Dream slowly crumbles in the selfish hands of those who remain ignorant to anything else in the world. The significance of the many symbolic elements in The Great Gatsby plays a role in revealing the underlying themes of the American Dream, the ongoing clash between love and wealth and social and moral destruction.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has deeper information hidden by colors all over the book. Each color has its own significant meaning and connects to the story in some way. From nearly all the colors on the rainbow to the color grey, there is a connection between these buried meanings behind all of the colors. Green is the most important color throughout the book because of special meanings and roles it plays on all of the characters. The color green relates to wealth and success on almost all of the characters. Gatsby is the one who brings this color to life and connects with it to show how it takes part in this story.
White is one of the clearest examples of deceiver in the novel because of its role in covering up and blurring the truth. Tom also displays the color white, not through clothes, but through his behavior. Tom is a raging racists clearly shown when he says, “if we don’t look out for the white races we will be utterly submerged”(P.13). Tom associates the color white with superiority and dominance not only in regards to race, but also in regards to money. His pride and privileged as a rich white man blinds him from reality and progression in America. He does not accept the possibility for anyone other than people like him to be successful and dominant in America.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is told by Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor. Nick is an upper class American bond trader who moves to New York from the West. There, he meets his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is odd, but very wealthy. Nick becomes involved in Gatsby’s plan to rekindle a lost love between himself and Daisy Buchanan, who happens to be Nick’s cousin. Throughout this novel, color is used to symbolize numerous things.
Colors are an essential part of the world around us. They can convey messages, expressing that which words do not. Gentle blue tones can calm a person and bright yellows can lift the spirits. If an artist is trying to express sorrow or death he often uses blacks blues, and grays basically he uses dreary colors. Without one word, a driver approaching a red traffic light knows to stop. Colors are representative of many things. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses color symbolism throughout as a major device in thematic and character development. He uses colors to symbolize the many different intangible ideas in the book. Throughout the book characters, places, and objects are given "life" by colors, especially the more
Color imagery in The Great Gatsby is vital to the books storyline. If there was no color imagery then the reader could not associate a certain person or thing with a color or idea. Fitzgerald uses the color so people can remember the person more than just their name. The use of color imagery greatly impacts the story line.
The color white is oftentimes unanimously associated with purity, hope, and innocence. However, in the Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the color has the deeper meaning of false purity over goodness. With the taboo characteristics that Fitzgerald's white carries, the reader is led to a false sense of security throughout the course of the novel; just how far was this rebel of a writer willing to go to break down borders? It is later found out that the symbol of white very much plays into the ironic theme of illusion versus reality. The characters in the novel are not the only ones dumbfounded at the confusion of life; things are not in the norm anymore, and Fitzgerald's new use of the color white
F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, uses symbolism throughout the novel to create the characters and events of the post World War I period. Colors are one way symbolism was used to develop the characters’ personalities and set up events. This is shown by colors like the green at the end of Daisy Buchannan’s dock, the color of Jay Gatsby’s car and how Myrtle and Jordan surrounded themselves by white. Other symbolisms used to set up events are the difference in the people of the West Egg and East Egg and the sign in the “valley of ashes”.
WHITE: The color white, more often than not, is considered to be a color meaning goodness, purity, and innocence. This definition holds true in the beginning portion of The Great Gatsby, however, as we approach the end, it changes drastically. Our first confrontation with the color white is when Nick first encounters Daisy, he realizes that everything she possesses is white; she lives, “high in a white palace,” (Fitzgerald.128) with, “the windows...gleaming white,” (Fitzgerald.10) she even wore a white dress. At this point in the novel, the color white is used when defining honesty and sincerity, reason being that Daisy is first portrayed as an innocent person who is faithful to her husband, well that is, until she learns of Gatsby. After this occurrence, we see the color white stray away from its
ideas or concepts. For example, a dove is usually used to represent peace. In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald uses a lot of symbolism to connect the characters with each other or to other objects. Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism helps advance his thematic interest in his novel of The Great Gatsby. In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses various colors, objects, and gestures as symbols to portray the lack of moral and spiritual values of people and the different aspects of society in the 1920's.
During the 1920’s, many people would disguise themselves through the identities of someone else. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main characters can be seen “hiding” behind the symbolism of different colors. Color affects the mood, emphasizes the importance of events in a novel, and can also interact with the personalities of the characters. The concept of color symbolism is prominent in the novel. White, yellow, blue, green, and even the color black affect the atmosphere of scenes through association with a specific mood, and also through the actions of the characters.
Secrets, lies, and deception are what wind through this classic. In The Great Gatsby, it starts with knowing one thing and then learning about another that contradicts the first. With the mystery behind every action and the roles all the symbols play, The Great Gatsby can teach a lot to a reader. The most that is taught comes from two great symbols, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg and Owl Eyes.