Color Symbolism In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

540 Words3 Pages

Jenna Rickert
Ms. Banks
Honors English 11
April 24, 2015
Symbolism: White & Green In The Great Gatsby the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses colors to convey deeper more dynamic personalities; thus giving the reader a more complex view of a particular character or theme. Color symbolism helps audiences to understand and comprehend a deeper diverse side to a character. For example, the colors white and green are some of the many symbolic colors in The Great Gatsby and is correlated with, simplicity, youth, envy, and money.
Concurrently the character mainly associated with the color white is Daisy. Most of Daisy’s clothing is white, her vehical prior to marriage was white (now black), and most adjectives describing her are associated with the color white such as when the audience is first introduced to Daisy, “They were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in …show more content…

The color green, and more specifically the green light at the end of Dasiy’s dock, is probably the most vital motif within the novel. It ultimatly represents Gatsby’s dream: a romantic relationship with Daisy. However now in which he desires Daisy he also desires the past. Nearing the end of the story Nick quotes, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. And then one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (180) Concurrently the green light also represents how dreams can ultimalty make or destroy oneself. Gatsby was a man who focused on the future but lived in the past. He attained finacial wealth and social success but failed when it came to his main goal: Daisy’s love. He followed illutions and ignored reality and climatically it destroyed