Symbolism is when something represents ideas or qualities larger than itself. Color is everywhere. We encounter colors throughout our everyday existence, look at your clothes, your house, your school, your bedroom, your phone and outside they all have color. Many people think nothing of it, but in literature color can have a deeper meaning beyond the topical. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, in the novel, it uses a lot of color symbolism throughout the book. Every color in this book has a deeper meaning whether you know it or not. The Great Gatsby is about a man named Gatsby who was trying to have a woman named Daisy fall in love with him again, even though she got married in their time apart. Gatsby tried whatever he could to make …show more content…
The first time Nick ever sees Gatsby is when Gatsby is looking across the bay at a green light, “… and distinguished nothing except a single green light” (Fitzgerald 21). This shows the importance of the green light, because it is all you can see and why would Gatsby be looking at a random green light? We later find out that the green light is at the end of Daisy’s dock, “…the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock – that symbol of the orgiastic future, the limitless promise of the dream Gatsby pursues to its inevitably tragic end” (Schneider). This quote tells us what the green light represents, the light was not just a light it was a symbol of the future and the dream of Gatsby. The color green in this book is also a symbol for hope, nature, envy, money, and romantic reunion (Samkanashvili). The importance of the green symbolism is obvious by the end of the novel. By the end of the book you should know what green’s main purpose is, “… the light should by this time be clear: green, as the mixture of yellow and blue, is once again the tragic commingling of dream and reality” (Schneider). Green was not the only important color holding significance beyond itself. Even though green had many meanings dream was the main