...In the novel The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses colors not only literally but also figuratively. The use of color imagery gives the characters more depth, and it also gives readers a deeper understanding of the characters. For example, Fitzgerald often associates the color green with Jay Gatsby. The color green has various cultural connotations that fit ideally with Gatsby’s jealousy, wealth, and hope, along with the sense of safety with which he is able to provide Daisy. Commonly colors are linked to feelings, and green is often given the label of jealousy and envy. This negative connotation of the color green ties in fittingly with Gatsby’s feelings throughout the novel. One does not have to look far to see that Gatsby is jealous of Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband. During their second encounter, Gatsby tells Tom that he knows his wife, “almost aggressively” (108). He is clearly jealous of their marriage and wishes to make it obvious that he has already established a relationship with Daisy....
Words: 621 - Pages: 3
...Color Symbolism in “The Great Gatsby” Color symbolism in the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald has a variety of colors. Some of the colors in the book symbolize more than others. These colors include green, white, yellow, blue, grey, and silver. Each of these colors have a huge role in The Great Gatsby. They all symbolize something important and have their own meaning in the novel. Throughout the entire novel Fitzgerald uses the color green a lot. Green has many different interpretations in the novel. One of the most essential meanings of green in the novel is envy. Gatsby is known as a very envious and jealous person. Once upon a time Gatsby and the love of his life, Daisy, were both deeply in love. Daisy is now married to another man named Tom. He spends all his time and effort trying to get Daisy back and getting her attention. Also, one might say that Gatsby is jealous of the riches around him. He is believed to be “green with...
Words: 520 - Pages: 3
...explains the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald flawlessly. The Great Gatsby is a complex story that can be read in various ways to reach a deeper meaning of understanding. The book has an abundance of descriptive colors that expand on and support the story. These colors can be interpreted differently from person to person based on experiences and situations. In the novel, author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses them well to capture the characteristics of the story. However, this begs the question of how a factor as minor as color can affect so many aspects of...
Words: 1409 - Pages: 6
...The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby gives the readers a visual image of every character’s life by expressing their feelings; the colors are used very often as symbols that depict the person’s character and represents their behavior. The author utilized the colors white, green, red, blue, yellow, and gold. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock is symbolic to the limitless promise of the dream Gatsby pursues. “Gatsby believed in the green light with such intensity that he did not realize his immature dream was unattainable from the start.”(Fitzgerald) Gatsby, was hoping that his American Dream would come true, it was his inspiration, his hope, and, ironically, his death and downfall. he was expecting to get married...
Words: 1674 - Pages: 7
...Role of Colors in “The Great Gatsby” In the novel, “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald uses colors to symbolize the characters throughout the novel. The novel applies many color symbols throughout the story, that each plays a specific role. Some of the major colors used in “The Great Gatsby” include green, white, red, yellow, blue, and grey. The color white is closely associated with Daisy, while the color green are tied in with Gatsby’s character. In each character in the novel, there are certain colors that correspond with their personalities and characteristics. In the novel, “The Great Gatsby,” the character Daisy is closely associated with the color white. Fitzgerald uses white in order to symbolize Daisy’s purity. From the very beginning of the novel when Nick goes over to Tom and Daisy’s house, Nick finds Daisy sitting on the couch wearing a white dress. He states , “They were both [Jordan and Daisy] in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house.” page 8. From this moment forward, Daisy is recognized as an angel on...
Words: 491 - Pages: 2
...Symbolism, in a novel, creates great depth and puts meaning behind otherwise insignificant words or phrases. This depth can be seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby follows a set of characters that reside in Long Island. The book is narrated by one of the characters, Nick Carraway, who has just moved to West Egg. Opposite to West Egg is East Egg, where his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan, reside. His cousin and her husband live luxurious lives and Nick finds himself surrounded by their privileged way of life. In West Egg, Nick lives next to Jay Gatsby, who is in love with Daisy Buchanan and hopes to reconnect. The Great Gatsby contains a considerable amount of symbolism that includes colors, temperature,...
Words: 307 - Pages: 2
...Color Symbolism Rough Draft Throughout life a person experiences and sees many different colors. All colors send a hidden message to a person. The message can be based on that person’s emotion or what they just simply think the color’s message is. “Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions”, this was said by Pablo Picasso. What he means by this is that colors can and will have a very big effect on your emotions and actions. Looking at certain colors can change your whole mood very quickly whether it’s great or awful. Some dark colors could cause you to be sad, angry, or gloomy. But when a person looks at bright, beautiful colors it can make them very happy, friendly and social. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby,...
Words: 1226 - Pages: 5
...Colors are used to describe objects look like in the book the author is using colors to describe feelings and objects. the author does a great job with this and use the colors really well . The author use the color but to represent blood on the carpet before Gatsby got shot and killed . Gatsby stood in the center of the crimson carpet and gazed around with fascinated eyes. Daisy watched him and left her sweet exciting laugh ; Daisy watched him and left her sweet exciting laughing; A tiny gust of powder rose from her bosom into the air. in the end of the book red represents Gatsby's blood when Myrtle’s husband shoots him in the back. in the end of the book red represents Gatsby's blood when Myrtle’s husband shoots him in the back. in conclusion the color red is used when blood is mentioned in the book “The Great Gatsby”...
Words: 409 - Pages: 2
...American dream? Fitzgerald uses personification and the colors: green, red, white, yellow, blue, grey, and purple to symbolize the truth and principles within and about the American dream. The colors mentioned the most and used to enforce a greater meaning in the Great Gatsby are: green, yellow, red, blue, grey and white. Each color is a crucial detail in the book relating to intentions and foreboding. Throughout the history of literature colors have been used as motif. *add quote about color motifs in literature* Red commonly means power, danger, passion and love. Yellow is associated...
Words: 960 - Pages: 4
...give something more significance in a story, and add an extra layer of meaning that wasn’t there before. In “The Great Gatsby” symbolism is used to give a deeper meaning to the story, and by analyzing it the reader can better understand the message it is portraying. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism throughout “The Great Gatsby” in a variety of unique ways to express his feelings about 1920’s America. Between West Egg and the city lies The Valley of Ashes, a place symbolised in “The Great Gatsby”, as grey, and dreary. By using...
Words: 1324 - Pages: 6
...The American Dream F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote “The Great Gatsby” symbolizing a few different topics. Many people who read the book gather different perspectives on what the it is symbolizing. When I read “The Great Gatsby” I gathered the impression that Fitzgerald was trying to symbolize the American Dream which was a very common dream during this time period. The American Dream meant that life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. Even though The Great Gatsby is a superlative fiction novel that symbolizes many different qualities of the life, the American Dream is symbolized the most through color representation, physical attributes, and the personalities of the...
Words: 939 - Pages: 4
...cases nowadays, the color of gold or yellow is highly regarded as a “wealthy” or “proper” color. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, the author uses symbolism to show how gold is symbolic of richness and wealth, and in turn, corruption and death, with clothing/setting choice, Myrtle’s house, and Mr. Gatsby’s car. According to John Green, when Gatsby talks about his first meeting with Daisy, it is apparent that Gatsby is more in love with her mansion than Daisy herself. Green also points out the not-so-obvious fact that when Daisy and Gatsby finally meet again, everything is yellow. Gatsby’s suit, Daisy’s buttons, Gatsby’s Windows, and even the flowers outside Gatsby’s mansion. In this situation, the color gold is shown with a positive connotation. Gatsby is happy to have Daisy again, and he finally has plenty of money. However, there are negative connotations involved with this color as well. At the beginning of the novel, the readers are quickly informed that Tom Buchannon is having an affair. And who would want to cheat on Daisy, the “Golden Girl?” (Fitzgerald 120). Later on in the novel we meet Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress. This woman is an obvious sign of corruption. We learn that she and Tom have an apartment together in New York, and that they have been seeing each other for a long time. Fitzgerald reveals a simple and easy-to-miss fact, that the Wilson home was a “small block of yellow brick” (Fitzgerald 28). This associates the color with Myrtle herself...
Words: 596 - Pages: 3
...enforce the symbols in a novel. The Great Gatsby tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a man who lives his life around the one desire: to be with the love of his life Daisy. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald employs a wide array of different colors to symbolize Gatby's desires, the innocence and moral decay of wealthy people, and the limitations of social class. The color green appears prominent throughout the whole novel and underlines Gatsby's quest for a future with Daisy. Nick Carraway, the protagonist, observes Gatsby standing at his dock and says, “Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been at the end of a dock.”(16). The reader later finds out this green light belongs to the Buchanan's dock and Gatsby's reaching out for the light indicates his lust to be with Daisy. The green light also represents Daisy and advises him to “go” towards her. Fitzgerald describes the light as “the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (171). The light directly connects to the hope Gatsby has. Gatsby finally meets Daisy again and Nick describes the change he sees in Gatsby's mindset, “Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of the light had now vanished forever.” (60) Gatsby and Daisy are having an affair and because of this the light does not have a deep meaning to him anymore. It now symbolizes the end of his desires. The green light had a huge significance in Gatsby's...
Words: 359 - Pages: 2
...Colors are a quintessential aspect to life; they often express emotions, feelings, or provide deeper substance to characters that words are unable to do. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the observant narrator Nick Carraway moves out east to New York’s bright West Egg, in hopes of pursuing a fresh start with his new career in the bond business. Nick becomes utterly mystified by his new neighbor, the one and only Jay Gatsby, whose entire life revolves around his longing for something he cannot have, Daisy Buchanan. As Nick begins to acquaint himself more with East and West Egg, and the people who live there he learns how deceiving the glamorous lifestyles are truly that wealthy Americans appear to be living. In every chapter Fitzgerald uses colors as prominent symbols and thematic...
Words: 950 - Pages: 4
...stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue,” (Fitzgerald 92). The theme of colors is present throughout the entire novel The Great Gatsby. Although some colors are more prominent than others, all are equally important in displaying qualities of each character. Each color represents a distinct feeling for the duration of the book. Some are very obvious in what feeling they are trying to express, while others are more abstract, but significant nonetheless. Colors are the best way to exhibit an overall feel for a character or time frame. As a rule of thumb, white usually...
Words: 1075 - Pages: 5
