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The Color Red In The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays

Colors are often used in literature as symbols to represent various ideas, qualities and themes. In his book, The Great Gatsby, Scott F. Fitzgerald has used a wide range of colors to represent the major themes of the book and the personalities and possessions of his characters. Fitzgerald has predominantly used the color green and yellow in contrast with gold to highlight the major theme of the difference in classes of Tom and Gatsby, and gray to portray the status of Wilson who is unlike Tom and Gatsby. The author has also frequently used the color white in this book, especially when describing Daisy’s appearance and character. Another important color mentioned by the author is blue which is strongly connected to Gatsby’s false thoughts and …show more content…

Fitzgerald associates this color with the American dollar bills that Gatsby handles. Green is mostly related to the main character Gatsby, in terms of both social status and his hopes. Gatsby sees a green light on Daisy’s dock both at the beginning and end of the novel. This green light in particular, amongst all the other greens, is one of the major symbols in the entire book. Nick mentions toward the end of the book, “a fresh, green breast of the new world”. Both the green light and Nick’s words are instances of Gatsby’s hopes and dreams; his hope of Daisy liking Gatsby and his dream of Daisy going back to him leaving Tom. Green also symbolizes Gatsby’s jealousy towards Tom. Gatsby feels jealous on Tom for two main reasons. One is that Tom is an Old money and belongs to the upper class where he wants to belong and two is that Gatsby’s love Daisy is Tom’s wife. Tom has both what Gatsby greatly desires in life: old money and Daisy, the love of his life. Apart from conveying Gatsby’s character and inner thoughts, green also relates to what Gatsby deals with on the outside, money - the American dollar bills and its power in the society. This is shown in the book through Gatsby’s “green leather conservatory” of his car and the “green lawn” of his big

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