How Does Fitzgerald Use Color In The Great Gatsby

Is color a better communication method than spoken communication? Color is a powerful means of communication, and ties to religious, cultural, political, and social influence. Color affects the mood, emphasizes the importance of events in a novel, and can also connect with the personalities of characters. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, color symbolism is prominent in the novel and helps understand the text more fully. It develops the characters and shows what defines them. Colors like white, yellow, and green that can affect the atmosphere or traits of different characters. All in all, the instances of colors do more than provide a better description. Fitzgerald uses color symbolism to communicate different aspects of the characters

According to “Color and Cosmos in ‘The Great Gatsby’” the color white “makes more appearances in the novel than any other single color, and something like three of every four are applied to East Egg or characters from East Egg, especially to Daisy” (428). White represents nobleness and purity and is the most notable of all the colors. East Egg, as well as the people who live there, associates with the color white. To demonstrate Fitzgerald writes, “They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after short flight around the house” (8). Daisy and Jordan, who live on East Egg, dress in white, but also the breezy setting creates a flaky persona, similar to a dove, so the reader understands that white represents innocence. These white descriptions help cover up Daisy’s true personality, which is the yellow symbolism. The Buchanans are an upper class who live in East Egg, act nobly, and associate with purity, beauty, and cleanliness. They do not throw hefty parties and so keep the beauty, purity, and cleanliness of themselves and the house. Also, Nick wore a white flannel to Gatsby’s party which shows he leans more toward East Egg with Daisy. Finally, Gatsby wears white when with Daisy for tea. This means that Gatsby wears white to remember his times with Daisy, but also try to get closer to her. Gatsby tries to be more like Daisy, but in the

Gatsby associates with the color yellow, because he tries to fit in with the wealthier people but cannot. Gatsby did not acquire his money legitimately, but rather by bootlegging and tries to act as though he did by throwing extravagant parties. There is also a reason why he lives in West Egg, rather than East Egg. West Egg has more of the yellow symbolism. For example, “The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher” (40). Also, “It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns” (64). Again, this emphasizes the amount of yellow in Gatsby’s life rather than gold. He goes as far as to have a personalized yellow car. Fitzgerald strikes the reader with all these instances so they understand that yellow symbolism represents Gatsby. On the contrary, other people that Nick meets like the Buchanans and Jordan Baker associate with the color gold. Gold represents the authentic money and a presence in the wealthy world, and the Buchanans as well as Jordan Baker have money that they earned. For example, “High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl. . . .” (120).