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Yellow In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

676 Words3 Pages

Yellow, does it mean life or death? F. Scott Fitzgerald used fiction in The Great Gatsby to explore the different meanings of what the color yellow could represent. In the beginning of the novel, the audience is led to believe that yellow had the obvious representation of happiness, success, and life. Yet, as the book went on it later came to mean a very different thing; death. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald used the symbolism of the color yellow with the yellow at the first party, the yellow glasses of Doctor T.J. Eckleberg, and Gatsby’s yellow car to develop the themes of in-authenticity and death.

When Nick Carraway attended one of Gatsby's parties for the first time, there were a few yellow objects that represented inauthenticity. Among these were “A pair of stage ‘twins’ - who turned out to be the girls in yellow - did a baby act in costume…”(51). The girls represented people in general. Like some people, the girls were acting like they were innocent when in reality they weren’t. This was the first …show more content…

In the aftermath of Myrtle’s death, Nick recalled that “ the ‘death car’ as the newspapers called it, didn't stop it; came out of the gathering darkness wavered tragically for a moment and then disappeared around the next bend,”(144). Before this, the car had already been set up as a symbol for in-authenticity. It represented Gatsby’s desire to be something that Daisy wanted. The desire to be something that would win her affection. The thing is that it was not who he really was. Almost everything about Gatsby was fabricated or exaggerated to make himself seem better and more worthy of Daisy. Now, this symbol has gotten someone killed. By making the car that hit Myrtle yellow, Fitzgerald shows that if people try to make themselves better or something different than they actually are, nothing good will come of

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