ipl-logo

Gatsby Color Symbolism

1423 Words6 Pages

Color symbolism in The Great Gatsby
Color is all around us. Color has the power to influence our moods negatively of positively. In many cases, color can have a deeper meaning than it originally suggests, and can symbolize a person, place, or mood. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby is a wealthy man who throws giant parties for the sole purpose of meeting the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. His love interest in her is fueled by the support of the narrator of the story, Nick Carraway. Since Nick is Daisy’s cousin, he can make Gatsby and Daisy more accessible to each other by being the middle man. Various colors are used in the novel to illustrate the themes and ideas of the novel. Color symbolism plays an important role through the novel.
In The Great Gatsby, green is one of the most often used symbolic colors. The symbolic meaning of green in this novel is associated with envy. The narrator, Nick Carraway, is outside in the dark watching Mr. Gatsby and looks out towards the sea to see “nothing but a single green light, minute and …show more content…

The author does not simply place a color in a significant area with no deeper meaning. It usually reflects the type of mood and surroundings that certain color is in. The Great Gatsby is dominated in every chapter by the use of different colors in different parts of the Long Island area, with the colors being vibrant and large until they reach a sudden stop at the Valley of Ashes. “The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and, when the drawbridge is up to let the barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as a half an hour” (Fitzgerald 24). This shows a sudden change to a black, gloomy setting. Without these deeper meanings, The Great Gatsby would be a much simpler

Show More
Related
618 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
283 Words | 2 Pages

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Firzgerald, Nick Carraway represents the qualities of the green color. He is curious, calm and collected, intelligent, and describes others meticulously. Nick observes the other characters actions and judges them based off of those in precise ways. Nick also possesses qualities from the blue color because of how everyone confides in him. Nick is the first person that everyone goes to when they need to talk.

Read More
301 Words | 2 Pages

The color green itself lent itself to many uses in The Great Gatsby some uses symbolize hope while others represent the hollowness of the upper class. “Michaelis wasn't even sure of its color--he

Read More
1835 Words | 8 Pages

American dream is what everyone strives for, but as people try to pursue the dream, it starts crumbling down and full of corruptness. In the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a young man name Nick narrated the story for a mysterious character who is wealthy name Gatsby. Every character lives a luxurious life of the American dream, but in reality, there is no American dream as it is not obtainable. Gatsby has a goal to love Daisy, but he is stuck in time where he is proceeding the old Daisy as the current Daisy. Gatsby would look outside out from the dock and see a green light on the Daisy side, which is on the East Egg.

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More
404 Words | 2 Pages

The color symbolism in The Great Gatsby is represented by the colors green, pink, and black. The color green is represented by the light at the end of the dock in The Great Gatsby. “possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of the green light…”(Fitzgerald 93). The green light means a lot to Jay Gatsby it represents what he wants and what he has.

Read More
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.

Read More
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

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More
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).

Read More
1029 Words | 5 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, color symbolism is used to reveal important character traits and create a variety of moods throughout chapters 1-4. Fitzgerald incorporates the color white to demonstrate the virginal purity and initial innocence of some of the characters. He also uses this symbolism of the color white to differentiate between social classes. Fitzgerald then affiliates the colors gray and yellow with the dismal corruption that engulfs the novel. To tie everything together, he develops a pattern of the color green to portray how Gatsby’s world revolves around a greedy, yet romanticized dream, only attainable through money.

Read More
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.

Read More
437 Words | 2 Pages

Fitzgerald uses color to add mod and symbolize different things throughout the novel. The novel uses many different colors to provide imagery for the readers to understand and to live as if they are truly in the novel. The color blue represents Gatsby’s illusions his deeply romantic dreams of unreality. He’ had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.”

Read More

More about Gatsby Color Symbolism

Related Topics

Open Document