The Great Gatsby: Focus Questions

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

1. Why are we still reading a book written in the 1920's? What gives a book its longevity?

Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism helps create an ambiance of longing. He dominantly uses color to represent and convey specific messages to the reader. These colors are woven so seamlessly into the story that one would not think very much of them. However, they play a large role in shaping the novel. Fitzgerald uses yellow to represent money, and Gatsby’s desire to be included among the elite “old money” social class. His longing is shown through his yellow car and his yellow suit. Although yellow represents a major aspect of the novel, the green light at the end of Daisy’s pier holds the most significance. When Nick says, “Gatsby believed in the green light … ” (Fitzgerald 180), he is referring to Gatsby’s American Dream and how he believed that he would one day be reunited with Daisy. Green expresses the same feelings

A narrator, by definition, is how an author chooses to portray information to readers in their work. An author’s choice, in how to tell a story is ideal to the effect it has on readers. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless classic The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway tells the entire story as a first-person, peripheral narrator. Fitzgerald purposefully chooses Nick as a partially removed character, with very few emotions and personal opinions. By doing so, readers experience the same ambiguity of other character’s thoughts, are carried smoothly throughout the plot, and Nick’s nonjudgmental character lets readers form opinions of their own.

In particular, the color blue symbolizes the disappointment in his life. F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes the color blue to act as a symbol of the disillusioned, lonely lifestyle Jay Gatsby lives. The appearance of the color blue in certain aspects of Gatsby’s life reveals Gatsby’s inner loneliness. In the beginning of the book, Gatsby throws large, extravagant parties at his house in hopes that Daisy will arrive.

Colors can invoke feelings for people. Certain colors are attached to moods. Red can represent anger, green sometimes represents envy and blue can represent calm or even melancholy. Much art, music, and literature is dependent on color to convey the intended mood of the artist. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, a man with wealth, power, and possessions is on a quest for the dream that he will never attain. He cannot have all that he already has plus the true love of Daisy. Fitzgerald creates his own unique motifs surrounding certain colors and uses these colors to emphasize the futility in Gatsby’s quest for this dream. Through the use

After reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I was able to gather a small playlist of songs that can relate to the book. The lyrics in these songs relate to scenes, symbols, and different characters in the book.

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

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.

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,

Throughout the novel, it can be seen that the most common color accompanying with Gatsby is yellow. With this color, the author skillfully implies what kind of outer self Gatsby intends to show before others. Yellow is the color of gold, which symbolizes money, materialism and high social position. First, yellow stands out as the color that represents new money and wealth acquired. According to Fitzgerald, “On week−ends his Rolls−Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains….The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher” (Chapter 3, Page 21). Fitzgerald uses gold, a vivid representation of yellow to symbolize the wealth gained by Gatsby and the immense desire for him to get even more and to show it off to the entire society. In the light of the following events, it is easy to see how Gatsby is blinded by his love for Daisy and therefore money. This evidence shows that he buys a large yellow Rolls Royce to show off his new money. The band at his party plays “yellow cocktail music” to show his fulsome way of living and life. Gatsby chooses the yellow color to decorate himself and his house to show that he has been one member of their class. As Gatsby thinks that Daisy has never loved anyone else any more except

     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”.

Blue represents illusions and bliss, Fitzgerald utilizes it to offer deeper insight regarding the environment and characters. Gatsby threw big parties in hopes that Daisy would come. “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” (Fitzgerald 39) Gatsby’s parties are a place for people to get away from reality. His garden shows the estate he surrounds himself with, the money he uses to have these parties is all an illusion. Gatsby, Nick and Daisy were together and Gatsby began to throw his shirts, “While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher-shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue.” (Fitzgerald 93) One of the shirts that Gatsby has is Indiana blue, and blue usually indicates gloom and unhappiness. Gatsby throws the shirts to prove his wealth, the blue shirt shows the sorrow and imperfections in his life. “The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-.” (Fitzgerald 23) They eyes of T.J. Eckelburg are likened to the eyes of God, making the eyes of God a non-existing dream. Gatsby was surrounded by blue a lot not only was his garden blue, but also, his chauffeurs wear blue and the water that separates his house from Daisy’s is

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, symbolism makes the novel stand out, giving the characters and objects life. Among all the symbols Fitzgerald employs, color, in particular, symbolizes the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters in instances such as Tom’s blue car and the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald uses color as a major device in character development showing the many intangible ideas Fitzgerald adds to the novel. There are five major colors that appear frequently: green, white, yellow, blue, and grey. They make the novel more vivid and profound deepening of the themes of the disillusionment of the American Dream, the hollowness of the upper class, and the moral decay rampant

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