What Does The Yellow Spectacles Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

Through the description of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s yellow spectacles, Fitzgerald uses the color to highlight George and Myrtle Wilson’s despondent realities of what industrialization to accomplish the American Dream has left behind.

Fitzgerald introduces Doctor T.J. Eckleburg in the valley of ashes, an area where ashes grow grotesquely: “The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic — their irises are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose” (Fitzgerald 23). With the setting being the valley of ashes, an area full of decays, Fitzgerald uses yellow to convey a representation of the failure of the American Dream. The yellow spectacles being

Fitzgerald uses yellow to describe Myrtle’s death scene: “He reached up on tiptoes and peered over a circle of heads into the garage, which was lit only by a yellow light in a swinging wire basket overhead. Then he made a harsh sound in his throat, and with a violent thrusting movement of his powerful arms pushed his way through” (138). The “yellow light” here creates an eerie atmosphere to illuminate the ending of Myrtle after she tried to achieve an unattainable dream of her being able to escape the limitations of her social class. Additionally, according to “Wilson’s incoherent muttering,” a “yellow car” killed Myrtle, it shows how the riches she was aiming for ended up leading to her doom (156-157). There’s also yellow before the death of Gatsby: “Gatsby shouldered the mattress and started for the pool. Once he stopped and shifted it a little, and the chauffeur asked him if he needed help, but he shook his head and in a moment disappeared among the yellowing trees” (161). The “yellowing trees” here symbolized Gatsby’s death since they were losing their vibrant green color and were approchaing the edn of their life cycle. This symbolizes the decline and eventual downfall of Gatsby’s extravagant lifestyle through them “mistaking losses for gains, and committing their hopes and beliefs to symbols that are shallow and inadequate, then the continual references to violated nature deepen our sense of what they have betrayed in themselves” (Westbrook 81), disclosing the impermanence of the American