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The use of colors as symbols in The Great Gatsby
The use of colors as symbols in The Great Gatsby
The importance of colour in the great gatsby
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In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, uses colors to symbolize a character’s inner thoughts and feelings or an objects deeper meaning. He uses colors to symbolize the many different ideas in the book. The colors are used very often as symbols, and the hues create atmosphere in different scenes of the book. Color symbolism is used to convey a deeper message to the readers and help them understand the characters. The novel shows the major themes through the use and explanation of many different colors. The color white is associated with purity, and innocence. In the novel Nick describes the room in Tom’s house where Daisy and Jordan are introduced. He describes the room as “bright” and the windows as “gleaming white against the grass”. The dresses Jordan and Daisy are wearing are also white. In the first chapter, Daisy and Jordan’s “girlhood” is described as “beautiful and white”. Childhood represents innocence and because the color white is associated with it, white becomes a representation of innocence as well. The affect the color white makes is the impression of a pure, clea...
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.
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).
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.
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."
In The Great Gatsby, colors can really help one understand the novel better. This is because if there is a slight change of color, then there is a big change in context. A color’s meaning isn’t going to be clear and concise, it is for us to find what it means in the context. Colors, are something to be determine, they aren’t just colors, they can mean many things depending on the way people analyze them. This is what makes The Great Gatsby one of the books in American literature.
Symbols and Symbolism in The Great Gatsby - Symbolism and the Truth That Lies Between
F. Scott Fitzgerald is famous for the detail with which he crafted the quintessential American novel, The Great Gatsby. With his well-chosen words, Fitzgerald painted a fantastic portrait of life during the Roaring Twenties in the minds of his readers, a picture rich with color and excitement. Four colors: green, gold, white, and gray played key roles in the symbolic demonstration of ideas and feelings which, woven together seamlessly, made The Great Gatsby a world-renowned work of literary genius.
The Great Gatsby is enhanced by the great number of symbols in the story. The story is revolved around symbols which represent different things. There are three types of symbols color, object, name symbols. Each symbol represents a different kind of situation in the story. The color represents all colors that are involved in the story, each color has its own meaning in the story. Object symbols explain the person himself and his situation in the story. Name symbols give the inner meaning of the person and how the name is related to the character.
When people think of daisy flowers, the colors yellow, green and white come to mind. The yellow in the middle represents corruption, and in the novel Daisy is one of the most corrupt characters. White represents how she was pure and "an enchanted object" on the outside (TCLC 6). Daisy's name truly fits her character, in the way that she comes off sweet, but on the inside is morally sullied. The color green can also represents money. The day Gatsby goes to Nick's to reunite with Daisy, Gatsby sends a gardener over to Nick's house to cut his grass and give him a green house. When Nick sees that "Mr.
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.
There are many colors in this novel and they all stand for something. For example pink stands for innocence, playfulness, tenderness, and having a child-like attitude. This color is seen multiple times in the novel.Tom Buchanan says on page 122, “An Oxford man! Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.” During this chapter Gatsby, a usually punctilious man, acts completely childish. After the day that Tom, Daisy, Nick, Jordan, and Gatsby spent in the hotel room we see a pink glow coming from Daisy’s room. The color pink only seems to apply to Daisy and Gatsby, and that is because their relationship is completely childish. It is immature that they are sneaking around behind Tom’s back even though he is doing the same thing. Daisy does not understand that she is a mother and needs to act like one, because the decisions she makes effect Pammy also. She is so wrapped up in her decadent lifestyle that she does not realize that she is ruining her kids childhood. Gatsby’s dream is to be with Daisy again which is also childish. He is willing to throw away his life to fight for a woman that is already married and has a child. At his funeral we see that he had nobody in his life because nobody shows up, not even Daisy who was supposed to b...
The first color that I am describing is white. I chose this color because it is daisy go to color when accessorizing or wearing any type of clothes. Throughout the book when daisy was around the would usually describe something as white it was either her or the setting but almost always there was white in the area. Using this color so much gave us the readers the idea that she was this innocent pure woman that was so beautiful. Then we got to see the real
According to anonymous, ¨Colors speak louder than words.¨ Colors can allude to things without using any other words. Every color express emotions and states of mind. Having one color in a piece of work can have a multitude of meanings. They are truly the ultimate form of symbolism. Each color portrays different meanings and emotions. F. Scott Fitzgerald carefully choose colors to represent an emotion or idea, indicate social class, and expressed the multiple meanings behind colors.
In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it tells the colors are used to symbolize of every character’s desire. For instance, Fitzgerald expresses the colors, such as the green light from the dock of East Egg that portrays to the main character hopes to attain his dreams. Also, Fitzgerald shows another color which is the blue eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg that represent to God that sees everything. Lastly, Fitzgerald illustrates the color red that symbolizes the love and violence. Therefore, the colors express aspirations, perceptions, and affections that Fitzgerald represent in the novel.
Colors have been used as symbolism for many years. It is easy to remember what each one symbolizes and has a lasting impression on people. These colors and feelings are then remembered throughout daily life, with the color yellow is often connected to happiness and wealth. In the fiction novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses colors to help convey the depth of each character and the truth behind each character. The colors run through the entire novel and often have double or hidden meanings than what it seems. When we are told the meaning to associate with a different color it is sometimes hard to disassociate the exact meaning we already gave it. The colors in the novel don't go against the ideas we have but enhance the background