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Color Symbolism In The Great Gatsby Essay

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“Color, rather than shape, is more closely related to emotion” (Katz). David Katz, ceramic sculptor from Indiana, said this when discussing the importance of colors. The point that Katz is trying to portray through this quote is while colors could be affiliated with shapes, color should be used more to emblemize emotions. Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the contrast of colors to symbolize the shattering realities behind the dreams.
First of all, the color gray is frequently referenced throughout The Great Gatsby. "But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg" (Fitzgerald 23). The valley of ashes is where gray often is referred to. Fitzgerald used gray to symbolize a dullness and a lack of …show more content…

Shining gold is used to represent wealth and reputation. "Fitzgerald was enabled to make this discovery because he was almost preternaturally aware of the reality that gold lent to the play of appearances that he loved so much” (Wyly 6). Fitzgerald loved to use colors as symbols. He knew what the effect of them had on the mood of the book. Gold was used so often in The Great Gatsby because it represents something so important back in that time; wealth. "With Jordan's slender golden arm resting in mine, we descended the steps and sauntered about the garden." In this quote, a metaphor is being used. Nick describes Jordan's arm as golden, which points to her high reputation, almost as if he has a trophy. As readers continue to read the book, it is realized that Jordan is not a trophy after all. She cheats, lies, and is unremorseful. Since gold represents wealth and reputation, it also symbolizes the corrupt dream of materialism and is not what actually matters. For example, Gatsby has all the wealth a person could possibly want or need, but his real dream that he wants to achieve is

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In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald, uses the imagery of color throughout the book. Social classes, emotional states,and racial slurs, all reflect back on the many different colors that are used throughout the book. The colors are used repeatedly as symbols, and shades to develop the mood and tone In different scenes of the novel. The color white is a symbol of being clean and fresh, on the contrary it could also be very tainted like the color black. Green is the ruling color in the book which represent confidence and hope.

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In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald displays some of the characters in the book being prosperous through the color gold. The color gold symbolizes prosperous, because in The Great Gatsby the color gold serves as wealth and as success. Fitzgerald depicts the color gold as wealth through what the characters in The Great Gatsby have bought, mainly the rich characters in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald writes of Nick describing Gatsby’s food at Gatsby’s party in

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1112 Words | 5 Pages

Countless times, Gatsby is throwing parties and having a multitude of people to embark in them. “At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam “(39). He is quite well known for his parties, which obviously draw a lot of people. Having this correlation to the parties is what really makes Gatsby drawn to the color gold, because he is the “hotspot” for almost everybody’s entertainment. At his parties there is also a significant amount of food, and in fact, even his food is gold.

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Fitzgerald uses as symbols throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby. Metallic colors, like gold, silver, and white, represent wealth and new money.

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813 Words | 4 Pages

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, deploys color symbolism in order to further develop characters and the plot. Fitzgerald’s use of color symbolism within The Great Gatsby not only defines the characters but adds depth to them. The most recognized color within the novel is “the single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (26). In addition to the green light, there are many other colors within the novel that embody characters, objects, and ideas. The most significant and memorable colors, other than green, are white and yellow, both of which are intertwined in Fitzgerald’s fictional world of materialism and scandal.

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1311 Words | 6 Pages

In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, symbolism is very important all throughout it. Not only does he use objects to show symbolism, but he also uses color symbolism to prove the importance of the theme and development of the characteristics in the Great Gatsby. Color symbolism brings out the visual of the story, so readers can picture it in their mind as they are reading. Fitzgerald took the colors to an advanced level by using key colors to help further deepen the meaning of the book and its characters. Although there are many colors in the novel, Fitzgerald uses the colors green, white, and yellow to symbolize Gatsby’s emotions and riches.

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497 Words | 2 Pages

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald exhausts numerous colors throughout the novel to demonstrate different aspects of the changing times. He associates colors like yellow, white, blue and gray with certain characters as well as specific topics in the novel. The color gray is associated with the character Jordan Baker as well as with the topics of moral and sexual ambiguity. Fitzgerald also demonstrates the use of color psychology in The Great Gatsby, thus causing the audience to acknowledge perceptions of those colors.

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854 Words | 4 Pages

The color of white symbolizes corruption as in the example of Gatsby showing the policeman a white card to not get in trouble. The color of yellow symbolizing wealth as represented with Gatsby’s luxurious car which shows how wealthy he is. And, the color green symbolizes the future as it symbolizes the future and dream because of Gatsby’s wanted dream/future he wanted with Daisy as the green light is at her house. So in conclusion, the symbolism of color in the book is a major part of the novel and there are many other colors in the novel that have symbolism like gray, silver or gold, but these colors stood out the most in The Great

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1850 Words | 8 Pages

Item 2: Color Chart: In the book “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, colors have been used to represent the character’s unapparent and underlying thoughts, feelings, status and class. Through the motif of colors, Fitzgerald depicts the feelings of the character as he refers to a specific color while describing each one of them. The colors make a deep impact on the readers as they contain a profound meaning throughout the novel. There are around five main colors in the novel appearing frequently: white, yellow, green, blue and grey, which help the novel look more gaudy and idealistic.

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1133 Words | 5 Pages

The whole Valley of Ashes is very dull and lacks color, unlike New York City or the two eggs where Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and the Buchanan’s live. Tom Buchanan takes Nick to meet his girlfriend in the valley and he seems to describe everything as having a bland gray tone, including the people and cars. “Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and

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1268 Words | 6 Pages

In everyday life and works of literature, color can symbolizes a wide variety of emotions from moods to political views. When someone is feeling upset one often says “I’m feeling blue” or when someone is mad their face turns red giving that color the association with anger. Political status even uses color to represent each party, one is usually either a blue Democrat or red Republican. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby color plays a significant role throughout the story symbolizing emotions and social rankings. Colors such as green representing hope and money, grey portraying hopelessness, discontent, and low social class, and yellow exemplifies destruction and desire.

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1206 Words | 5 Pages

One of the most profound uses of color in the novel is the relationship between gold and yellow representing a divide in wealth between the new and the old. The author bestows the color gold upon the community of East Egg and Daisy, who is the embodiment of this wealth. Fitzgerald uses this imagery when he writes, “Her voice was full of money…high in a white palace, the king's daughter, the golden girl...” Daisy is described as the ‘golden girl’ as she represents the high-class status that Gatsby so desires. However, for all of the extravagance of the West Egg lifestyle, Gatsby is only ever able to achieve an imitation of wealth in the color yellow, symbolically represented by his car.

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1148 Words | 5 Pages

Gatsby’s life is filled with various colors which signify the messages Fitzgerald is trying to convey. Color symbolism plays an important role through the novel, The Great Gatsby. In the novel, the color green detonates Gatsby’s hopes and dreams, but in other characters it represents envy, jealously, and money. When Nick returns home from his cousins house, he spotted Gatsby outside on his dock: “—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way…I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing but a green light, that might have been at the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 21).

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1081 Words | 5 Pages

The color grey often symbolizes dull and lifeless characteristics or a state of depression. During the 1920s people in the working class were described as “grey” as they chased their goals they could never achieve. The Great Gatsby is a story of people who try to gain and reach success in a world where social classes vary significantly. In his novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the color grey in both characters and settings to portray the disillusionment of the American Dream through his characters' corrupt ambitions and amoral behavior.

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507 Words | 3 Pages

People believe being wealthy means having everything, which then is believed to make people happy. It really leads to a draining and corroding life. Yellow is said to be the color of depravity, representing acts like death, but is also is similar to the wealthy color gold. Yellow is an artificial representation of wealth and a portrayal of corruption and death in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby. Gold is used to describe wealth, while yellow is a flawed gold.

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