Color Symbolism In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Colors affect one’s life every day. Colors may emphasize different meanings than people originally put them to. There are many colors that represent emotion and other colors that represent emblems. In this historical fiction novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many characters and objects to serve as patterns. Color symbolism plays an essential role in the novel.

The first color symbol that plays an essential role in the novel is green. In this novel, green symbolizes money and greed. The color green is probably the most recognizable use of color as a symbol in the novel. A character in the novel, named Daisy Buchanan, is wealthy and in the higher social class. She is at one of Gatsby’s parties and discovers her cousin and friend

The color red is “associated with blood, so it is the symbol of violence, danger and rage” (Haibing 42). A horrendous event happened that impacted most of the characters with was the hit and run that killed Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress and George Wilson’s wife. As Tom, Nick, and Jordan arrive at the scene, they see everyone crowding George Wilson’s garage and an ambulance. The three characters advanced forward to see what the commotion is. They see Myrtle on a table covered in a blanket with bruises, cuts, and blood everywhere. After knowing the color of the car that hit Myrtle, “out of envy, Tom instigates his mistress’s husband to kill Gatsby, from which we can see his selfishness and cruelty” (Haibing 42). After George Wilson found out that Gatsby ‘supposedly’ killed Myrtle, he went to Gatsby’s mansion and while Gatsby was swimming, George pulled the trigger and murdered Jay Gatsby or James Gatz. In the pool that Gatsby’s body was in, “The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of a compass, a thin red circle in the water” (Fitzgerald 170). Subsequently, George then committed suicide by shooting himself. White represents “the immaculate and pure beauty. White symbolizes Daisy’s emptiness, superficial, hypocrisy, ignorance, nobleness and purity” (Haibing 41). As Nick is adjusting the new environment, he gets invited to one of Gatsby’s parties by Gatsby himself. As he is at

Grey is a dark and depressing color. Likewise, blue is a sad and melancholy color. First, grey is a symbol because it “indicates the disillusionment of the American Dream and helps us understand the main theme of the novel more easily and vividly” (Haibing 44). The Valley of Ashes is a place near the railroad tracks. In the Valley of Ashes, everything is in the color grey. Nick introduces the reader to the Valley of Ashes as, “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (Fitzgerald 27). As Nick and Tom visit the Valley of Ashes, Nick witnesses, “a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track”, and “ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades” (Fitzgerald 27). In addition, the taxi that takes Myrtle and Tom to their love nest has “grey upholstery” (Fitzgerald 31), and the vendor who sells Myrtle her puppy is described as a “grey old man” (Fitzgerald 31). In the novel, “besides the poor Valley of Ashes is grey, there are many scenes is colored grey in the novel, for example, the living room of Tom’s mistress is filled with grey smoke; the guests in Gatsby’s parties have grey names; the accident which kills Mrs. Wilson happens in the dusk. All these grey scenes symbolize spiritual emptiness,