The Color Gray In The Great Gatsby

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. The color gray’s most well known connotation is ambiguity. It is used to describe issues in a subject that does not have a set definition. Gray is also represents neutrality, sadness, and lifelessness. In the outset of

Her moral ambiguity begins with her occupation as a professional golfer, which is a male-dominated and in addition to that, her career launched off with a big scandal. At his first Gatsby party, Nick finally recalls where he remembers Jordan from and what she had done. He says, “At her first big golf tournament there was a row that nearly reached the newspapers-- a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round” (Fitzgerald 57). Nick describes her as, “a slender, small-breasted girl with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet” (Fitzgerald 11), so her androgynous physical appearance also connects with the color gray. Another one of her physical features, which are, “her gray sun-strained eyes” (Fitzgerald 11) directly connects her to the color gray in The Great Gatsby.
Another aspect of her life that connects with the color gray is her sexuality. If she is not fraternizing with Daisy, then it is likely she is with Nick.
Colors in The Great Gatsby are used like similes and metaphors are used in other literary works. The color gray plays an important role in the novel because of the perceptions and associations that stem from color psychology. Gray demonstrates the middleground of the society in a novel filled with wealth and excess and it also demonstrates the ambiguity of the character Jordan and how she physically relates