Great Gatsby Color Symbolism

After dealing with color representing sadness, it is only appropriate to move onto to the color representing a much harsher emotion, anger. It is no surprise to learn that the color representing rage and fury throughout the novel is red. After Gatsby and Tom get into a verbal fight over where Daisy’s true love lies, Daisy drives on the way home and losing control, kills Mrs. Wilson. Therefore, the “red gas-pumps sat out in pools of light” referred to in the novel relate back to not only her being killed right in front of the gas station, but also Gatsby being shot in the pool at the end of the story. Lastly, representing Gatsby’s inner self is the color gray. The characters in this novel are living in a time where life revolves around these material possessions. This is bound to cause a feeling of emptiness and a lack of morality. However, gray is also used to

This is mainly just the lack of color itself, not necessarily things directly described as gray. The valley of ashes makes people feel depressed and without hope. As blue represents Gatsby’s deepest emotional state, yellow is a color depicting what he chooses to outwardly show the world. Yellow is symbolic of the great riches he possessed and the upper class in general. When The Great Gatsby comes to mind, it is most common that gold, essentially yellow, is the first image of color that pops up. It is symbolic of the money and materialistic lifestyle that the upper class characters of East Egg and Gatsby depict. However, in reality, there is a difference between the gold and yellow representation of the people of East Egg and Jay Gatsby. Daisy is famously referred to as the “golden girl,” she is greedy and obsessed with the idea of a wealthy and luxurious lifestyle. Along with her, is her good friend Jordan Baker, who was occasionally described by Nick as having golden arms or shoulders, as both of these women are from higher-class statuses. Yellow, on the other hand, is used