Use Of Color Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, exposes the corruption and greed of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald is able to captivate readers' attentions through his employment of color symbolism. Fitzgerald portrays important messages in the novel by his symbolic use of colors. Colors play an important role in Fitzgerald’s descriptions of the lives of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway and many of the other characters in the novel. Fitzgerald uses the colors white, yellow, and green to express certain sentiments to the reader, commenting what is going on in the story. Fitzgerald uses the color white to symbolize purity and innocence, while yellow is used to symbolize moral decay, and death. Green is used to represent hope and

Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism and colors in The Great Gatsby is prominent in every chapter of his novel.  To fully understand the meaning of his color use, a reader must recognize the situations in which these colors are used.  Throughout the novel Fitzgerald uses the color green.  Green has many possible interpretations, and its’ use to reveal insight into Gatsby’s character is probably the most meaningful.

Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, lives in a garage in the valley of ashes, with her husband, George Wilson. Described to be gray, the valley of ashes appears to be an area of poverty and moral decay. This could mean that Tom comes to the valley of ashes and because there are no morals, he acts freely with whomever he desires. Nick narrates that the

Colors have a large impact on society. They have the ability to affect people’s moods, appetites, and behaviors. Colors also have the ability to act as symbols. For example, the color white often acts as a symbol of innocence, and the color yellow often represents happiness. Throughout the book The Great Gatsby, multiple colors symbolize different aspects of Jay Gatsby’s life.

Throughout literature, colors are used to represent feelings, emotions and actions of characters. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the color green is used to represent the love story between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. As he grew up and worked for his immense fortune, Gatsby transformed his life into one he felt would impress her the most. Fitzgerald uses the color green to represent Gatsby’s perfect image of Daisy, and the greed that engulfs the couple throughout the entire novel.

There are people who believe themselves to be pure and honest, while on the inside they truly obtain none of those qualities. The color white has always been associated with goodness and innocence; it’s usually the color one would think of when imagining an angel or the heavens. However, Fitzgerald uses this connotation with white in an ironic sense by using it to describe some of the most corrupt and none innocent people in the story. As Daniel J. Schneider states in his article on color symbolism in The Great Gatsby “White traditionally symbolizes purity, and there is no doubt that Fitzgerald wants to underscore the ironic disparity between the ostensible purity of Daisy and Jordan and their actual corruption.” Throughout the entire story, Fitzgerald is

Daisy’s car, clothes, and rooms were white. Though most of the adjectives used to describe Daisy included “white” (for example, “white girlhood”, “white neck”, and “high in a white palace”), she was not always pure, especially towards the end of the novel. This could be symbolic of the fact that even the most virtuous characters in The Great Gatsby were depraved. Examples of white included “They were both in white” (pg. 13), “Our white childhood was passed together there. Our beautiful white.” (pg. 24), and "On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight, and I erased it" (p.

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

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

Color imagery in The Great Gatsby is vital to the books storyline. If there was no color imagery then the reader could not associate a certain person or thing with a color or idea. Fitzgerald uses the color so people can remember the person more than just their name. The use of color imagery greatly impacts the story line.

Daisy Buchanan has a green light at the end of her of dock on the other side of the bay from Jay Gatsby’s house. The green light

The most noticeable colours to come across are green and white. Green colour stands for peace along with Gatsby’s perseverance to marry his love, Daisy. This colour maintained perception of many changes, opinions, and beliefs which Gatsby faced throughout the novel. Green meant dedication and peace, too. Green light also was depicted by at the end of Daisy's dock. F. Scott Fitzgerald used this colour to describe the life of Gatsby as peaceful before he meets Daisy again. After their reunification, they were in Gatsby’s bedroom, looking at the bay. Gatsby looked and pointed out the green light and said “If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay” (92). Then he continued “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock” (92). It was portrayed as a Gatsby’s long-life love to Daisy. He had been looking at the light as well. Later in the book, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote "His dream must have seemed so close that

During the 1920’s, many people would disguise themselves through the identities of someone else. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main characters can be seen “hiding” behind the symbolism of different colors. Color affects the mood, emphasizes the importance of events in a novel, and can also interact with the personalities of the characters. The concept of color symbolism is prominent in the novel. White, yellow, blue, green, and even the color black affect the atmosphere of scenes through association with a specific mood, and also through the actions of the characters.

The colors throughout The Great Gatsby were used as a way to thoroughly paint a picture in the reader's mind. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses colors such as grey, green, white, gold, red, yellow, and blue. He uses colors such as an advantage to make the reader have a better description whilst they read.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel, The Great Gatsby; one of the most thrilling novel in literature, naturally Fitzgerald used various colors to make this literary work extremely visual. The main reason why colors symbolism in The Great Gatsby is highly studied topic is due to the fact that the color white also happens to be a painter. The recurring motif the color white underscores Fitzgerald’s message to the reader that the color “pure” color actually symbolizes something much darker. The color white appeared many times throughout the book.