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The Color In The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays

YELLOW & Wilson’s Garage: The color yellow is considered to be the unauthentic version of gold. As previously stated, gold is a color of richness and value which is why we it is clearly visible in the Gatsby household. Yellow on the other hand, is quite inferior when compared to the standards of gold. In contrast to Jordan, the golden girl, her admirers are merely, “two girls in twin yellow dresses.” (Fitzgerald.47) They are so unimportant that they aren’t even called by their names. They are simply labeled as, “one of the girls in yellow,” (Fitzgerald.47) even though one, “[plays] the piano,” and the other is, “from a famous chorus.” (Fitzgerald.56) Along these same lines, Wilson’s garage is thought of as lesser than East or West Egg; since …show more content…

While many would connect the color grey with George, the irrelevant individual who never lived up to the standards of the wealthy, we can also make this connection with Gatsby, who happens to be one of the wealthiest. Even Gatsby had, “foul dust [floating] in the wake of his dreams,” (Fitzgerald.4) revealing that although he might seem content on the outside, he is melancholy and gloomy on the inside. Nevertheless, George Wilson can be best identified as grey, boring and insignificant. When Nick first encounters George, “a white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity,” (Fitzgerald.29) showing just how distressed George truly was. He was surrounded by wealthy people living in the luscious lands of West and East Egg, yet he was stuck in the middle, in a wasteland covered in ash and soot known as The Valley of Ashes. The Valley of Ashes represents the forgotten, the, “men who move dimly and [are] already crumbling through the powdery air.” (Fitzgerald.26) Every single piece of grey, “the grey cars…the ash-grey men…the grey land,” (Fitzgerald.26) brought hopelessness and anguish upon those who passed The Valley of Ashes. The Valley stands for pain and destruction as it was the place of death of Myrtle as she, “knelt in the road and mingled her thick, dark blood with the dust.” (Fitzgerald.147) There isn’t a slim chance of happiness in The Valley of Ashes, and there never will be

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