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Color Imagery in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays

When an artist paints a picture, they use vibrant greens and reds and contrast with dull blues and purples. In literature, the same technique can be used. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work, The Great Gatsby, he gives greater meaning to his characters and their experiences by using color imagery. The Great Gatsby, set in 1920s New York, shows the differences between the life of the prosperous and the impoverished. Fitzgerald uses the colors gold, yellow, green, and white to expand the meaning and purpose of different elements and to express the themes of wealth, society and class, memory, and compassion. To begin with, the most reoccurring color Fitzgerald implements throughout the book is gold. In literature, the use of the color gold usually signifies fortune and prosperity. We often see that Jordan Baker is described with the color gold: “With Jordan’s slender golden arm resting in mine” (43). Again we see it when Nick is with her: “I put my arm around Jordan’s golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner” (79). Fitzgerald stresses the idea that Jordan is well-off and of high societal status by always labeling her with the color gold. The biggest use of gold in The Great Gatsby is with Mr. Jay Gatsby. Everything about him is seen as golden. An example of this is Gatsby’s tie when he gets to see Daisy: “Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in” (84). Fitzgerald wants to show Gatsby and Jordan as prosperous

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