Color Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

One would often think of wealth or a high social status. However, it can be closely associated with Autumn leaves which die and decay. Therefore, yellow also symbolizes death and decay. Gatsby buys a yellow car to show Daisy he is wealthy now and that she will not lose her social status if she marries him. One day, Daisy is driving Gatsby’s car back home with him, “The ‘death car’ as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment and then disappeared around the next bend” (Fitzgerald 144). The car was Gatsby’s yellow car that ran over and killed Myrtle Wilson. The author uses the color yellow to foreshadow death nearby. Another day, Gatsby was walking to his pool with a pneumatic mattress in hand, “Once he stopped and shifted it a little and the chauffeur asked him if he needed help, but he shook his head and in a moment disappeared among the yellowing trees” (Fitzgerald 169). This happens right before Gatsby is shot and killed by Mr. George Wilson. The note of yellowing trees foreshadows Gatsby’s death. The color yellow is used in “The Great Gatsby” to symbolize materialism and death. Fitzgerald uses colors to foreshadow events and hint at a larger meaning of an object.

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

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.

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.

Color throughout history has been used to represent a variety of things. From social class to individuality, color has played an important role in identifying people or objects. Color holds a great amount of symbolic value, not only in real world situations but also in novels and visual art. Much like how color in the real world can demonstrate wealth or style, color within The Great Gatsby symbolizes important factors of the text. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses color in association with characters, objects and the world in order to give the text deeper, symbolic meaning.

There are five people that are responsible for Jay Gatsby’s death. One of them is directly to blame, since he pulled the trigger. The other three were involved in the murder. The one who pulled the trigger was George Wilson. He was in pain because of the murder of his wife. He loved her, and he was completely insane with grief. Wilson thought that Gatsby was Myrtles lover. He said, “She ran out to speak to him and he wouldn’t stop” (Fitzgerald 166). This means that Wilson thinks that Myrtle knew the owner of the yellow car. Since Wilson had found out

The color green contradicts itself throughout the novel compared its symbol in reality. Green is usually associated with money(literally) and the sign of life. When Nick first meets Gatsby, later on that night he finds Gatsby on his deck alone looking at a green light, “... distinguished nothing except a single green light”(21). The green light turns out to be the green dock light at Daisy’s house. The light is significant because it symbolizes Gatsby’s hopes and dreams with Daisy which inevitably happens. The false hope is what drives Gatsby to his grave. The idea is then verified later on in chapter five when a Fitzgerald says, “Now it was again a green light on a dock”(93). This shows how Gatsby is describing his love to Daisy when she is at his house for the first time, and she misses their love as well. Myrtle was killed because ran into the road hoping the green looking car was Tom who she was having an affair with. It

“The biggest disease known to mankind is loneliness.” (Author unknown). This quote describes darkness in one’s life when one tries everything in his power to be with someone and it does not work. This is the case in the novel The Great Gatsby when the main character Gatsby falls in love with Daisy, yet she is taken and unavailable but he continues to chase her and only ends up short. In The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald, uses literary elements in the novel is to create the story.

Yellow represents money and greed but it peculiarly represents death as well. The color yellow can be seen at two of the deaths in the book. The yellow Rolls-Royce owned by Gatsby that killed Myrtle, it is discernible that yellow was involved with the death of Myrtle. Another way yellow is shown through death is when Gatsby walked past the yellowing trees that were on the way to his pool before he was killed by George Wilson. “Gatsby shouldered the mattress and headed for the pool. Once he stopped and shifted it a little and the chauffeur asked him if he needed any help, but he shook his head and in a moment disappeared among the yellowing trees.” (Fitzgerald p.169). This shows the color yellow playing a role in death once again. At the parties you can tell that yellow is apparent. The “yellow cocktail music” and the “girls in yellow dresses” are too ways that show that Gatsby tries to fit in with “old money.” Yellow or gold deals with the real money, gold of course, while green would be considered new money. It is also humorous that Daisy which is a yellow flower is also the most impure character in the book.

Dr. Wilson’s eyes were blue, his eyes symbolized his sad, boring life. At the end this turns from symbolising his life to his sadness for the death of his wife. When he kills Gatsby in his pool, Gatsby is surrounded by water which is also blue representing the loneliness he's gone through and for it all to end in one quick moment. Gatsby tried so hard to get Daisy and himself back together, instead he dies before they can official be together. The color blue can be depressing at times, especially in this

PLOT SUMMARY: Chapter seven deals with the consequences of Daisy and Gatsby’s affair. First off, Gatsby no longer throws the parties that he used to because he no longer needs them to impress Daisy. He only threw those lavish parties to get Daisy’s attention. Later at Tom and Daisy’s house, Gatsby sees Daisy’s child that she had with Tom, showing Gatsby that Daisy really did love Tom and the past cannot be erased. Then, they all go to New York, with Tom, Jordan, and Nick riding in Gatsby’s car and Gatsby and Daisy riding in Tom’s car.

     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”.

The color yellow can be connected with the symbolism of greed, desire for wealth, and “old money”. Corruption is also distinctly represented by yellow, but death is also a key to yellows dark symbolism. The color yellow can be seen around a tragic death. The first time this is seen is when Myrtle is killed. She is the mistress of Tom, and is also married to a man named George Wilson. Myrtle was killed by Gatsby’s yellow Rolls Royce, in front of her yellow brick house, and under the yellow spectacled eyes of Dr.

In The Great Gatsby color is an important tool and literary element used by the author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald gives light and color too his novel by giving a wide array of colors too the reader which they can then use to associate with certain characters. Each character has their own color and each color represents a quality or characteristic of that individual. Color is also used to paint a picture of a scene in the book making it easier to visualise parts of the novel. This helps give the novel a lot of depth and emotion and gives it a very unique reading experience.