Daisy's Use Of Color In The Great Gatsby

The Colorful World of Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby, color is used to represent many things. From character personalities to representations for future occurrences, and even to the way a character truly feels. The magnificent use of color meanings in this book - as well as many other things - has made for a novel that has been taught in classes for centuries. Analysing the meanings of the colors has given readers a new look at the book and it gives them a peek into the world of Gatsby. Some of the color meanings are more hidden, however, every color used in this book is used strategically to convey specific emotions or aspects of a character’s personality.

The color yellow is most often used to portray Gatsby, for example when Nick first goes to Gatsby’s party, there are “two girls in twin yellow dresses” (Fitzgerald 42) who appear, representing Gatsby by telling Nick about him and the mystery behind him. Yellow is often

White is often used to show purity and innocence, which is what you might think when Daisy is first introduced, however, as the book goes on you see that the color white also has a deeper meaning. It also represents a hollow, careless, and colorless side of her personality. Daisy seems to only care for herself and not really the well-being of others which can be seen in her actions with her own daughter, Pammy, as well as how she hit Myrtle with her car even though she had the chance to swerve and continued driving instead of stopping and accepting what the had done. Gatsby says that “Daisy stepped on it. I tried to make her stop, but she couldn’t,” (Fitzgerald 144). Daisy, in some ways, lets Gatsby (the man she “loved”) die for her reckless actions. Daisy is also known as the “golden girl” in which case gold is used to represent her value and also because she has “old money” and it is also said that she is in a “white