Post World War I, America suggested much promise with financial and social opportunities for anyone willing to take chances for the “American Dream”. However, for some, reaching these dreams or aspirations only deprived of them any real sense of pleasure; their only goal was to get rich fast. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes color symbolism throughout as a notable device to demonstrate thematic and character progression.
It’s no coincidence that when first introduced to the reader in the first scene, Daisy and Jordan, were wearing white. This scene plays an important role because it’s where most of the color symbolism is born. In the same scene, Nick tells us that “the only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. 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”. White is generally is associated with purity, and is purposefully used so early on, to emphasize the irony between the plausible purity of Daisy and Jordan to their actual corruption. However, the color white this early on, is used to represent a sense of buoyancy or floating above. As we progress in the novel, Gatsby mentions that “ the rock of the world was founded securely founded on a fairy's wing”. Daisy and Jordan seemed to take flight into the air because they’re unreal, just as are fairies; and they are in white because as we learn later on, to wear white is to be “ an absolute little dream”, something that is just as false as Daisy and Jordan. The white Daisy embodies is what Gatsby seeks to embrace . However, Gatsby knows that white or pu...
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...ad lay the scalloped ocean and the abounding blessed isles." Gatsby starts his climb towards grandeur when Dan Cody
takes the him to Duluth and purchases for Gatsby "a blue coat, six pairs of white duck
trousers, and a yachting cap." A blue coat is used, because it symbolizes promise and dream Gatsby is trying to achieve.
The color red is most significantly shown when Nick tells us that he "bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities, and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew." Fitzgerald uses the color red alongside with colors such as yellow and white to illustrate a close resemblance between the colors to represent the ugliness of reality.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004.
Gatsby strives to belong in a class where he is truly an outsider looking in. He throws many extravagant partie...
White is a colour which appears many times throughout the novel. At first, it is used to describe Daisy. The first thing Nick mentions when he sees Daisy in East Egg is that she is wearing a white dress. This colour is related to Daisy, it is "her" colour. Daisy´s clothes are always white, her car is white, she even speaks about her "white childhood". This colour represents her purity, her innocence, her unperturbed self.
... the word ‘white’ used many times to depict Daisy such as her car, room, and clothes. Also, many adjectives used to describe her were white. This ‘white’ supposedly refers her innocence. The irony is that she is depicted as a selfish and careless woman through the relationship between two men and her. This could be either that the author wants to emphasize of her guilty or that the author wants us to tell the possibility of changing of personality.
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).
Soon after Gatsby befriended Dan Cody, Cody bought him a blue coat (Fitzgerald 100). Gatsby was his personal assistant, a young, poor man working on a grand yacht. He wore blue when he had meager finances, but as soon as he made his money, he switched to more grandiose colors. The chauffeur wore robin’s-egg blue when he went to invite Nick to Gatsby’s party (Fitzgerald 41). This illustrates that the man is a blue-collar worker; Gatsby is superior to him. Once Gatsby became prosperous, he never wore blue again, suggesting that he would like to negate his previous lower class status. From this characterization, the reader can infer how much pride Gatsby has in his financial state and how utterly he wants to throw off his old identity of destitution. In other ways, blue stood for Gatsby’s dedication to becoming an elite, well-mannered man, his attempt to avoid being discomfited by his social ineptitudes. He buys a party guest an expensive, gas blue evening gown after she negligently rips one of hers at a prior party (Fitzgerald 43). He had no obligation to do so; he just thought it was the polite, correct response to her peccadillo. Gatsby tries in earnest to conform with social norms of the upper crust in fear that someone will denigrate him. In this case, his edification has lead him to believe that it was merely proper etiquette to replace the gown and that it would prevent any pejoratives from coming his way. It is doubtful that Fitzgerald solely wanted to make Gatsby appear generous; he also had to show how eagerly Gatsby endeavored to integrate with high society. Gatsby’s motives can indirectly be linked back to his obsession with Daisy since he works so hard to be elegant in hopes of winning her favor. Nick candidly elaborates on Gatsby’s rise, saying, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (Fitzgerald 180). Nick did
For most people, a certain colour may represent something meaningful to them. While in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many of the colours used in the novel are meant to represent something. The novel’s setting is in East and West Egg, two places in New York. Our narrator, Nick Carraway, lives in the West Egg. Along with living in West Egg is a friend of Nick’s, Jay Gatsby; a character that is in love with Daisy Buchanan. Unfortunately, Daisy is married to Tom. As the plot unravels, the reader notices the connection between certain colours and their importance to the novel. The use of colours within The Great Gatsby symbolizes actual themes, as grey symbolizes corruption, blue symbolizes reality, and green symbolizes jealousy and envy.
Another symbol used in the novel is colors. The first was the green. light. The light is a light. The light was only a light, however to Gatsby it became his dream.
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."
Jay Gatsby, a mysterious, young and very wealthy man, fatally chases an impossible dream. Gatsby attempts to rekindle an old relationship and has confidence in repeating the past. Gatsby claims that he is going to “fix everything just the way it was before” (Fitzgerald 117). In a a conversation with Nick, Gatsby discusses how the past can be repeated and how he wants the relationship that he once had with Daisy (Fitzgerald 116). Secondly, Gatsby attempts to exemplify his wealth through fancy cars and stylish clothing. Gatsby shows his clothing to Daisy and informs her that he has a “man in England” who buys his clothes every season (Fitzgerald 97). Illustrating his wealth, Gatsby drives a Rolls Royce that “was a rich cream color, bright with nickel” (Fitzgerald 68). Although Gatsby’s foolish quest of the American dream exemplifies a respectable aspiration, it ends in a tragic death that goes virtually unnoticed. A sharp contrast to the parties , the funeral was sparingly attended and “nobody came” (Fitzgerald 182). Following the ...
... relationship and Gatsby’s clothes symbolize his wealth and extravagance. The rain starts at the beginning of tea with Daisy, “The day agreed upon was pouring rain” (83), and is mentioned again later on, “Once more it was pouring…” (88). This symbol is significant to the story because it shows the strain of Daisy and Gatsby’s newfound relationship. Gatsby’s clothes were first described by Nick, “An hour later… Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in” (84), and later when Daisy finds all of Gatsby’s beautiful shirts, “He took out a pile of shirts… shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel… covered the table in many-colored disarray” (92). This symbol is significant to the story because it shows Gatsby’s wealth and how Daisy is reacting to the fact that Gatsby has enough money to own all of this beautiful clothing.
People say money makes our world go round. This famous saying applies to Fitzgerald's piece of literature in many aspects. It seems that there were many colors that represented this desire and need for the characters. When Gatsby shows up at Nick Carraway's house to reunite with Daisy, he comes in wearing "white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold tie." (Fitzgerald 89). The colors gold and silver both represent money. Gatsby intentially wears colors that show he has gained and earned enough money to impress Daisy. As Daisy and Gatsby get closer, he takes her upstairs to his closet where there he shows her his collection of real English shirts. Daisy is floored but such a sight that "It makes me sad because I've never seen such-beautiful shirts " (Fitzgerald 98). When Daisy cried at the sight of the shirts, it symbolized her superficial- ness, as well as her materialistic life. Gatsby's shirts were real and authentic and Daisy was amazed and speechless at the thought of how much they must be worth. This need of Gatsby's to impress became a "sickness that drives young men to think that riches can obliterate the past and capture the hearts of the girls of their dreams" (Dictionary of Literary Biography 7). Throughout the entire novel Daisy is continuously seeking money and wealth.
In the book The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a vast amount of colors to represent characters in the book. For instance, Gatsby is one of, if not, the main character in the book. Every single color in the book has to do with Gatsby. The three main colors in this book or most used colors are red, yellow, and black. These three colors seem to have the most meaning. When it comes to Gatsby, these colors represent him in many ways.
The color white appeared many times throughout the book. It is used in the first chapter by Nick when he sees Daisy and Jordan in East Egg. “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.” (Pg. 8) In this passage, white is used to describe Daisy’s and Jordan’s innocence and purity. However, in page 24 the real characteristics of Daisy are revealed, “Our white girlhood was passed together there our beautiful white”, this tells us that when Daisy was younger she was innocent, but now she has changed.
The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Seen through the eyes of main character Nick Carraway, it tells the story of a wealthy man, Jay Gatsby, who isn’t all he seems. As the story goes on, the reader learns more and more about Gatsby, as well as meeting other characters along the way. Among these characters are Tom and Daisy Buchanan. These characters are pivotal in advancing the story, as are their cars, more specifically the colors of the cars, or the green light at the end of the dock. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the symbolism of colors is expressed through the characters, the cars they drive, and the green light at the end of the dock
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald employs the use of characters, themes, and symbolism to convey the idea of the American Dream and its corruption through the aspects of wealth, family, and status. In regards to wealth and success, Fitzgerald makes clear the growing corruption of the American Dream by using Gatsby himself as a symbol for the corrupted dream throughout the text. In addition, when portraying the family the characters in Great Gatsby are used to expose the corruption growing in the family system present in the novel. Finally, the American longing for status as a citizen is gravely overshot when Gatsby surrounds his life with walls of lies in order to fulfill his desires for an impure dream. F. Scot. Fitzgerald, through his use of symbols, characters, and theme, displays for the reader a tale that provides a commentary on the American dream and more importantly on its corruption.