The Influence of Color
Could you ever imagine if The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum didn’t have a yellow brick road or an Emerald City? The colors chosen are significant and give the story a deeper meaning. Three colors that stand out in the beginning, middle and the end of the novel are gray, yellow and green. In the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum’s use of color is symbolic by associating distinct colors with specific settings and characters.
The color gray is referenced in the beginning of the story. Gray is used repetitively to describe the setting in Kansas, their home and it is even used to portray the characters of Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Kansas was not exciting, there were no other homes and not even a tree in sight. “When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side” (Baum 13). Baum describes the farmhouse as “dull and gray as everything else”. Aunt Em’s eyes, cheeks and lips were even depicted as gray. Uncle Henry’s beard and boots were gray and he sat on the door-step looking at the sky that was “grayer than usual” (Baum 14). Gray was also used to show the character’s feelings. Aunt Em was worried and Uncle Henry was tired from working. Life was already “gray”, gloomy and depressing and then the cyclone hit.
The cyclone lifted the home with Dorothy and her dog Toto inside. After the house landed the reader and Dorothy knew that things were going to be quite different. The
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses color imagery in his novel, “The Great Gatsby” to convey themes and influence emotions. The color green is symbolic of Gatsby’s hopes and dreams. White represents Daisy’s pure, yet selfish mind. Lastly, the color yellow foreshadows wealth and decay. Humans unknowingly associate feelings with colors. The idea of color description is used by authors to set the mood or evoke certain emotions in the
The color gray not only suggests a dull quality in the men’s life, but it reflects the idea of blurred moral lines and no direction. The clouds are gray, the smoke in the farmer’s house is gray, and in the dying daylight the monochrome of the ground and sky is gray. The gray smoke in the farmer’s house reflects the men’s disorienting experiences there that lead to further destruction, such as Kenny’s wound that results from confusion over the farmer’s request for Kenny to shoot the dog and the farmer’s specific directions that only bring the men further into the gloom of the night and leave them stranded when Tub forgets the piece of paper in a tavern. The monochromatic gray color of the landscape only further represents the unkind world for these men, leaving them to create the boundaries for themselves.
F. Scott Fitzgerald creatively utilizes colors throughout his novel, The Great Gatsby, not only to provide the reader with a rich visual image of the scene taking place, but also to convey certain symbols within the story. To begin with, one must understand what each color symbolizes. Green symbolizes hope, blue symbolizes illusion, red means violence or love, yellow illustrates wealth or death, white is innocence, and gray or black symbolizes corruption. The reader can see that color symbolism is used to characterize Tom Buchanan. Another character, Daisy Buchanan, is also associated with a few different colors. The usage of colors in The Great Gatsby conveys many ideas―personalities of the characters, foreshadowing, events in the story,
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.
Stories have deeper meaning than what they appear. Life events such as the government, economy, or something happening to an individual can inspire them to express themselves through writing. In the original story of “The Wizard of Oz”, it tells a tale far more than people realize. The story portrays the government during the time period and hidden symbolism within the story and characters.
Colors are very apparent in The Great Gatsby. They often show up as descriptions to many important items throughout the book, and make those items resemble symbols. The color white confuses the reader, and often causes him/her to rethink their logic. It describes false purity and deception within something, which is very apparent in the character Daisy in this novel. The color grey gives the reader a comparison, and that is of humans to machines. Something that is lifeless is described as grey. After that, there is the final color of blue, something that is very dreamy. This is mostly associated with the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg but is also seen in other things as well. The colors white, grey, and blue cause the reader to rethink this whole book, and are associated with the most important symbols, in this novel. It is colors that truly make The Great Gatsby, a marvelous book to read.
The color gray exemplifies the lifelessness of The valley of ashes, an area populated by inhabitants who are unable to pursue the American dream of a wealthy life. Despite all his hard work, George Wilson, a boring man, is powerless in his ability to escape the valley of ashes due to the lack of business at the car garage and unsupportive wife. Due to Wilson’s low social standing, he lives in “... the valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the
The standard color wheel puts blue to the right which correlates with the direction of the East. Yellow is to the left on the color wheel which correlates in same direction as the West. Symbolic associations affect emotions and we're chosen particularly to create direct and indirect perceptions that help create the essence of the story for the audience. The creator of The Wizard of Oz uses the significance of color combined with the significance of symbols to guide the readers attention to details or charactors is used to influence & engage the reader through the journey by influencing perceptions of charactors and psychological associations necessary to follow the plot. Experiencing the yellow brick road & the concept of a rainbow communicates better days ahead, hope & optimism. That hope led Dorothy to become stronger for the difficulties she had to overcome & overall empowered her rather then portraying her as a Daniel in distress. The yellow brick road creates the direction of Dorothy's dreams of a better happy place in contrast to home in dreary dark and white
In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, color symbolism is stronger throughout the entire book. There are multiple colors that allow the book to come together as a whole. There can be many different interpretations or opinions on which colors are important. The color symbolism in The Great Gatsby is represented by the colors green, gold, and black.
Grey is the color that’s everywhere among the valley implies the unfaithful condition of those people who lives there. Under the circumstance of that time, people cannot override these obstacles to be successful; therefore the American Dream is not achievable for them since the poor’ have no opportunities to progress their will. In addition when Tom told Wilson, Gatsby killed his wife in the valley of ashes. “Wilson’s glazed eyes turned out to the ashheaps, where small grey clouds took on fantastic shape and scurried here and there in the faint dawn wind”(Fitzgerald 167). Through Wilson’s grey eyes once it again proves the dilemma people have to go through. Meanwhile Tom in this case represents the corrupted one utilizing Wilson as a tool to go against Gatsby. By applying the color grey it shows the hopeless of the poor and spreading the corruption among people. Furthermore, when Nick and Tom went to Gatsby’s party, they gathered and talk about the surrounding of Gatsby’s mansion. “It was dawn now on Long Island and we went about opening the rest of the windows downstairs, filling the house with grey turning, gold turning light” (Fitzgerald 159). Both two colors gold and grey are being implied. Gold means the wealth, grey in another hand means the depravity that exists among the wealth. Fitzgerald used grey and gold describe Gatsby’s house since he is rich in a way, but he got his money from a unregulated way, which shows among the
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
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an American children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow, originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900. The role of color plays an important role in the story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The colors of blue, black, and green symbolize many important emotions and ideas. The blue represents the Munchkins, the black represents the Wicked Witch of the West, and the green represents the Emerald city.
L. Frank Baum Used colors such as green, blue, and multiple other colors in The Wizard of Oz such the fact that these colors are linked to feelings and other adjectives metaphorically. In many cases the colors associated with objects guide reader to think they are attached to that feeling. Normally the colors have a different distinct feeling, such as red for anger, and luck in different cultures; blue for sorrow or mellow. Firstly, Green - normally representing nature growth and relaxation- in here represents metaphorical mystery and whim, for nobody has ever seen Oz before and each character got a different representation of Oz.
While there are many themes that L. Frank Baum writes about in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that focuses on a young, maturing girl named Dorothy Gale; that is living in a grey world and then suddenly her life is full of color after a cyclone. Throughout the story, Dorothy Gale is reminded that the land of Oz is beautiful and much more interesting that Kansas ever will and it takes her awhile to realize it along her adventurous plan. The two themes that stand out throughout the story is the childhood to maturity that Dorothy progresses in and a twisted way that makes you see the virtue in the story, also known as the disability of it all. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not all just a children's fairytale. Although the land of Oz is depicted as
On the very first page of Oz Baum actually states that his wish was to