Grey In The Great Gatsby

Reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby is similar to looking through a kaleidoscope, both are filled with important meaningful colors. F. Scott Fitzgerald is equally as much an author as he is an artist, with his skillful elegance of painting a story within the bindings of the book. Even though grey is considered a dull unimportant color in society, it is a pivotal and crucial addition to The Great Gatsby. In this story, the color grey, which is associated with poverty and lifelessness, ties everything together.

“About half way between West Egg and New York. . . [lies] a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes” (pg. 27). In this area, ashes prosper as they cover everything in sight with a thick layer of grey. Even the men who abide in this wasteland are made up of the wan lifeless ash. Among the grey disparaged wilderness of ash heaps dwells George B. Wilson. “He was a blond, spiritless man, anemic, and fairly handsome” (pg. 29). Unlike Jay Gatsby, there is nothing spectacular about George’s entrance because there is nothing spectacular about George B. Wilson.

Although George Wilson is a rusty mechanic crafted from lifeless ash, a little hope abides deep within him. ”When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes” (pg. 29). His eyes are filled

167). The same color that was associated with future hope in the beginning of the novel is now accompanying grief and heartache. The days following Myrtle’s death, George Wilson is struck with extreme mourning, even to the point where he becomes deathly ill. F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the thoughts inside Wilson’s mind with the rising of the new morning sun. The sunrise, which commonly symbolizes beginnings, signifies that George Wilson is finished mourning over his dead wife, and his new thoughts and desires are to figure out who ran her