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Essays on symbolism in literature
Importance of Symbolism in literature
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The display of colors shows the true meaning of symbolism through a mythological aspect of the novel, The Great Gatsby. Green, white, and yellow are prominent in the novel, representing hope, innocence, and wealth. Although white and yellow add to the detail of symbolism, the color green is most prominent when it comes to the hopeful future Mr. Gatsby entails. Under the impression of Fitzgerald, this distinctive role of colors provides a deeper meaning and a visionary compound towards the readers. “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward-and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 25). This line is just the start of the hope and a dream that one day Gatsby will rejoice with his true love, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby’s dream was to be with Daisy for eternity, hoping to rekindle their past relationship. He hosted parties at his luxurious mansion, hoping she would show up one day. All of his wealth and hard work in the possibility of bringing her back blinded him from the impossibilities. The green light that gave blindness and betrayal to Gatsby resulted in the truth that …show more content…
Nick Carraway often wears white and knows himself to be the most honest person he has ever known. Carraway wore white in attendance at Gatsby’s parties (Yaffe). It also seems to be Daisy’s color in the novel as she wears a white dress to meet Gatsby for the first time. “They were both 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” (Fitzgerald 12). This explains the infatuation that Gatsby is so fond of since Daisy always wore white from five years ago in their past relationship. This color portrays that Daisy is innocent, pure, and beautiful to the readers
"White" can also be related to Tom, who is the perfect example of a racist man. He believes that black people should disappear, and is very concerned about a book he has recently read called The Rise of the Coloured Empire. He believes that white is the superior race. So, black and white are used to show how racism affected people from the high classes at that time. While riding in Gatsby´s car, Nick sees a limousine driven by a white chauffeur and ridden by black passengers, members of the high society. This shows how strongly black people fought to conquer or fulfil their so-called "American Dream", which at that time was even more difficult for black people (former slaves) than for white ones.
When first introduced, Daisy was in a white dress, fluttering because of the breeze that came through the white window. Daisy has been dressing in white since she was a child, she talks about her beautiful “white girlhood” which shows that she had looked pretty and innocent since she was born (Fitzgerald 19). Since Daisy has been rich and white like the color of a daisy since she was a child, she is still the white person she is today. By having Daisy dress “in white” it shows her exterior, but not her gold interior. “Describing Daisy with the color of white… indicates that under the pure and beautiful appearance, Daisy owns a superficial, hollow, cold and selfish heart inside”(Zhang 42).
Upon first impression, one might believe Jay Gatsby is nothing more than a self-satisfied, well-to-do bachelor living in luxury in West Egg. However, as his story unfolds, the reader finds out that he is an industrious man and a hopeless dreamer. The quintessential colors of yellow, green, and blue are used by F. Scott Fitzgerald to describe Gatsby’s characteristics in his magnum opus, The Great Gatsby. Yellow, an incandescent color, stands for his vivacious outward disposition, the shallow people around him, and his seemingly self-indulgent spending habits, for which he has an ulterior motive. Green represents the extreme lifestyle changes Gatsby has made in adulthood and his staunch hopefulness in finding love. Blue is a symbol of the
...at white can become when society becomes too corrupt which is one of the main themes Fitzgerald told throughout the novel. Colors have huge impacts on the story, characters, and the reader’s interpretation of The Great Gatsby. Words can be deceiving, but color allows the readers to always see the true meaning.
To Gatsby, Daisy represents innocence and purity; however, Fitzgerald uses different shades of white to veil her corruption. Daisy is solely described as "dressed in white", she powders her face white, and she mentions her "white girlhood". The millionaire describes this perfect princess figure to be "high in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl." On the other hand, Fitzgerald portrays the way of life in West Egg as a wretched place when "four solemn men dressed in suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken woman in a white evening dress. Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels. Gravely the men turn it at a house - the wrong house. But no one knows the woman's name, and no one cares."
Throughout “The Great Gatsby” novel there are many symbols and representations about various things. These symbols can be many different things. Three of these symbols seem very important and are most prominent. The first is the color yellow, which represents death and/or corruption. This is portrayed mainly through Gatsby’s yellow Rolls Royce, and how it directly kills Myrtle. The second symbol is the Green Light, which represents the American Dream. It is represented that way because once Gatsby has the green light (Daisy), his American Dream will be complete. The example of symbolism is the watchful eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, who sees everything that goes on in the novel. In the end, these various symbols represent many things, and make the book more interesting to read, and have a deeper meaning.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in the 1920s. It is a story told through the eyes of Nick Caraway. Nick tells the story about a tragic love triangle between Nicks cousin Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan who is having an affair with a married woman named Myrtle Wilson. Fitzgerald uses many colors to describe many objects, feelings and emotions; this is called color symbolism. Color symbolism is “the use of symbols to express or represent ideas or qualities in literature, art, etc.” (Merriam-Webster.com). Some of the colors Fitzgerald uses are green, white, and cream/yellow.
Symbolism is the use of symbols to supply things with a representative meaning or to represent something abstract from an existing object. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, colours are used to symbolize a person’s inner thoughts and feelings. Colours, such as green, white are used to find one's true feelings while others use colours to hide their true persona. Colour symbolism is used to convey a deeper message to the readers and help us understand the characters true colours. The color green in the novel
Fitzgerald also refers to the steps to Gatsby’s house as being white. Even the windows at Daisy’s house are white. “The windows were ajar and gleaming white.” (Pg.13) this tells us that Daisy and Gatsby look innocent from the outside but not from the inside, instead they are corrupted people. This thought is also expressed when Gatsby takes Nick for a ride in his car. When he is stopped by a policeman, Gatsby shows the officer a white card, which symbolizes corruption. When the commissioner sees this, he lets Gatsby go. Nick thought it was a Christmas card sent to him by the officer, but later on we learn that Gatsby had bribed the police officer.
White is usually represented as being a clean or pure color. In The Great Gatsby, it represents false purity. This color is one of the most symbolic because it is placed throughout the entire book. “They were both wearing white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house(Fitzgerald 8).” Jordan and Daisy were meant to look pure and innocent, but are both flawed. “She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile(Fitzgerald 58).” Jordan is sardonic and is very fractious; she is irritable and judges others by looking down on them. Daisy on the other hand, let Gatsby take the fall for Myrtle’s death and he ended up being murdered. “‘Was Daisy driving?’‘Yes,’ he said after a moment(Fitzgerald 143).” Daisy betrayed Gat...
Other than the color green, there are the colors grey, white, yellow, gold, and blue. (Spencer) As previously mentioned, green is important, as it is the color of the light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Grey is mentioned in the Valley of Ashes, because it seems lifeless. White stands for purity. Gatsby wore white when he first met Daisy again after five years; he was trying to cover up his criminal background. Women are also mentioned wearing white on multiple occasions. Yellow stands for corruptness. Gatsby’s car and Eckleburg’s glasses were yellow. Gold is among corruption and greed. Blue stands for illusions, such as the eyes of Eckleburg. The illusion is that someone great is
Gatsby’s dream is to be with Daisy, and since he has accumulated a lot of money, he had his mind set on getting her back. Throughout the novel, Gatsby shows his need to attain The American Dream of love and shows his determination to achieve it. You can tell that Gatsby has a clear vision of what he wants when Nick says, “..he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward-and distinguished nothing except a single green light” (20-21). This green light represents Daisy and being able to have her would be completing Gatsby’s American dream but the light is so far away that it indicates that he could never have
The “Great Gatsby” uses a wide variety of colors in it’s story. Every single color was put in it’s spot to mean a certain thing, to convey a certain message. That message would change if siad colors were not used. The colors of the “Great Gatsby” are important and change depending on how you view the meaning of certain colors. If two people look at one color they could perceive it as meaning two different things or feel two different emotions. Fitzgerald realizes this and uses it to his advantage in the story. If Fitzgerald did not use the colors in the story the meaning and symbols would change completely. The foreshadowing would be completely gone. In other countries such as Russia and America colors mean different emotions, Fitzgerald uses these different meanings to change the ideas The Great Gatsby.
Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. Scribner Paperback Fiction. New York. 1925 p. 21). Gatsby looking at the green light from the far distance represents his eagerness to achieve Daisy even though he cannot because he is so far from her mentally as Daisy’s way of looking at the world is different than Gatsby. As she is a selfish person just like her husband Tom. Another representation of the color green is that for years Gatsby wants to relive the past; however once Daisy’s starts developing feelings for Gatsby the green light on Daisy’s as he says “If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay, you always have a green light that burns all night at the end of the dock” (Fitzgerald p.92). Since he has been away from Daisy for five years, he is blinded by the fact she can be his. Nick tries to warn him by saying "You can't repeat the past."(Fitzgerald p.110). He replies to him by saying "Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why, of course, you can."(Fitzgerald p.110) Gatsby is warned by Nick that he cannot repeat the past, yet Gatsby being in denial refuses the fact, and
It also represents the corruption of his dream in the latter part of the novel. The light on the end of Daisy’s dock is what gatsbys plans on holding after achieving what he believes is her. After being able to show off his immense wealth to her. Daisy begins to be restless as she believes that she has chosen the wrong person to be with even though gatsby was gone for five years. This begins the corruption of the green lights goal. Fitzgerald writes, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” He stayed true to his dream even in the time of its decay. The longer he took to obtain the Dream, subsequently led to it meaning less as the years went on. Gatsby's only goal in life is to impress Daisy, but the time it took him to obtain her was too long causing his dream to fail like many others. Fitzgerald writes, “Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” Nick has seen Gatsby staring into the mist where the only thing there is a green light. The green light is the only object that Gatsby can perceive, therefore that is his only goal. Gatsby can only have one goal that he sees, but when after obtaining this goal he seems to be pity his own