The Color Green In The Great Gatsby Essay

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The Death of the American Dream: The Great Gatsby In Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the green dock light represented the death of the American Dream, and the color green represented wealth; sanity was lost trying to live the American Dream. Back in the 1920’s the people were obsessed with the American Dream and everything it represented. The rich wanted to be richer and poor wanted to be rich, they often resulted to the lowest means of making money like gambling, mobs, etc. Fitzgerald used the color green to represent the wealth of the people in the novel. The story took place in New York, and it was divided into West Egg, new money and East Egg, old money. The people in West Egg were the ones who got their money either using honest or dishonest methods. They weren’t born with money, they had to earn it and most of them were immigrants. The West Eggers were also considered of the lower class and spent their money foolishly, therefore the East Eggers looked down on them, “ …Blackbuck who always gathered in a corner and flipped up their noses like goats at whosoever came near” (Fitzgerald 66). The East Eggers, on the other hand, were old money, their wealth had been inherited and passed down from generation to generation. Old money was believed to be …show more content…

The green color was used to describe the level of wealth Gatsby had “he felt the hot green leather of the seat” (Fitzgerald 127). Gatsby also spent a lot money on parties every night just to get the attention of Daisy and let her know that he is now wealthy enough to support her. Gatsby was often seen just walking around the parties, not really enjoying them and he was considered to be new