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The Color White In The Great Gatsby

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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 …show more content…
It is commonly interlaced with a wide range of influence on the characters. Daisy for example is almost always depicted in white, which gives her an initial appearance of innocence. She uses this “flawlessly” white image of herself as an excuse for her ridiculous actions and as a way to mask her hollow, supercilious, conceited lifestyle: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-- they smashed things up and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together” (Fitzgerald 179). Fitzgerald also uses white when he refers to Gatsby’s front steps, and the windows at the Buchanans. This implies that Gatsby and Daisy may look innocent from the outside, but on the inside their souls are corrupted. This thought of corruption is also expressed when Nick and Gatsby go for a ride in Gatsby’s car. The officer attempts to pull them over, but Gatsby simply flashes the commissioner his white card, and no questions are asked. The color white is used as a strong facade throughout the novel to demonstrate the distorted perception of

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