High Class And Riches In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

In our society today colors have a deeper meaning than just the pigments we see them as. They have varied meanings depending on the culture or circumstance, being anything from emotions to social classes. In The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald utilizes colors to help his readers determine where the main characters stand in their social rankings. High class and riches are a very important concept to the characters in this novel. Four of the main colors that he uses in this novel to portray their own unique meanings are red, blue, and gold. Each of these colors tend to cling to a certain character in The Great Gatsby and follow them throughout the novel, only occasionally blending into another character’s lifestyle.

Fitzgerald utilizes colors such as red, blue, and gold to depict social status and emotion.
Daisy Buchanan, the wife of Tom Buchanan and also known as “the golden girl” (Fitzgerald 120), is typically associated with the striking color gold in The Great Gatsby. Daisy and Tom live in the fashionable East Egg of Long Island, New York. The East egg is associated with “old money” while the West Egg district is associated with “new money”.

Being that Daisy lives on the East side, it is fitting that the color gold is linked to her. This is because gold is considered to be representative of “old money”.
Daisy’s one true passion in life is for money. Her husband, Tom, is unfaithful to her but she stays with him because of his high class and riches. “Daisy can never be separated from her money” (Strong 1), as Rebecca Strong points out that no matter what Daisy will choose money and nothing can separate her from this life style, not even her unfaithful husband. She truly believes that riches are even more important than smarts when she says “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17). Daisy believes that if you are a beautiful women you will be able to make it in life a lot easier and could possibly marry into a rich family. Jay Gatsby, her lover, comes from “new money” but Daisy is not fond of that. As Gatsby goes to meet her, “An hour later the front door opened nervously, and Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in”, Fitzgerald describes the outfit the Gatsby is wearing to this occasion to try and impress her (84).

Gold is typically connected with high class and is usually used to portray people associated with the East Egg. Since Daisy is a member of this high social class, and has been her whole life, it is only fitting that Gatsby aims to impress her by wearing this colored tie. This is an illusion simply because Gatsby is not associated with “old money” at all being that he comes from “new money”. Also, at his parties the turkeys are “bewitched to a dark gold” (40). Gatsby knows that Daisy is fond of gold and what is represents so he tries to portray an essence of high class at his parties in hopes to someday join the ranks of those in the East Egg that are typically associated with the color gold. As Daisy is admiring Gatsby’s estate, “With enchanting murmurs Daisy admired his aspect or that of the feudal silhouette against the sky, admired the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils and the frothy odor of hawthorn and plums blossoms and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate”, she incorporates the color gold in her description (90). It is already clear that Gatsby’s parties are not able to achieve the pure gold of East Egg, but the mention of pale gold shows that through Gatsby’s efforts he is able to reach some form of gold. Although this is not true gold, it is a faint hope that one day he will be able to attain true high class status. As Harold Bloom states “it is important...notice Daisy’s symbolic alliance with money” (Bloom 2). She even carries around a “little gold pencil” with her (Fitzgerald 100). She truly loves what the color gold means and is constantly surrounded by its essence. She believes that money and status is the most important thing in life, even over intelligence.
As Fitzgerald portrays “old money” as the color gold, he represents “new money” with the color blue. Jay Gatsby, the title character, is a mysterious man with few friends but much money. Although Gatsby has all of these riches, he lives in the West Egg district of New York because his money is “new” instead of old. Since the color blue represents “new money” it is only fitting that Jay Gatsby is associated greatly with the color blue in this novel. While blue is typically associated with “new money” it can also be used to depict emotions, such as hope, or aspirations that fit with not only Gatsby, but also with Mr. Wilson and Daisy.
The color blue first begins to live up to its association with hope when Mr. Wilson’s eyes are being described, “He was a blond, spiritless man, anemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes” (Fitzgerald 25). This quote describing Mr. Wilson’s blue eyes portrays his hope at the prospect of Tom’s business. Although shortly later his dream becomes merely an illusion when he finds out that Tom is never going to sell his car. Fitzgerald begins to associate the color blue with Gatsby when he visits Tom’s mansion on the fashionable East Egg. When they go outside Gatsby starts to describe one of the sails boats: “slowly the white wing of the boat moved against the cool blue limit of the sky” (119). Although Gatsby has great riches, he will never fully be satisfied because he simply comes from new money and will never be able to enter the old money social class. The beautiful white wings on this sailboat typically represent wealth, while the cool blue of the sky is linked to Gatsby’s ambitions. The sailboat associated with wealth and old money is tiny in comparison to the vast blue sky that is Gatsby’s aspiration to enter the old money social class. Although the blue sky is overwhelming to the tiny sailboat, it sticks out like a sore thumb in all of the blue almost as a constant reminder to Gatsby that he will never achieve his aspirations. As Daniel Burt states “ Gatsby’s fate shared with all Americans, tantalizingly close to grasping our greatest desires but forever frustrated by the current reality” (Burt 1). Burt is only strongly adding to the point that like almost every American, Gatsby is dreaming of a desire that he will spend forever frustrated with not be able to achieve it.
Blue is quite commonly associated with the emotion sadness in today’s culture. This use of blue begins to shine through when Gatsby’s elaborate shirts are being described, “While we admired he bought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher - shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue” (Fitzgerald 92). Gatsby likes to create the illusion that his life is filled with wealth and careless ease, although this is not what it entails at all. These elaborate and extravagant shirts that Gatsby uses to keep up the illusion are described as having hints of blue shining through. This portrays that entwined in Gatsby's seemingly fabulous life, there are hints of sadness and imperfections. Daisy and the color blue begin to intertwine through music: “All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the Beale Street Blues” (151). Fitzgerald’s use of blue in this quotation helps the overarching association with sadness and the color blue. Here, the sadness that the color is representing connects to Daisy’s hope for being able to be reunited with Jay Gatsby after the war has ended. Although Daisy comes to realize that she can no longer wait for Gatsby to return from war which leads to many different relationships that ultimately, in turn, lead to a broken marriage with Tom Buchanan.
Gatsby is known for his elaborate parties which were attended by many, which he used a chauffeur to hand out the invitations: “A chauffeur in a uniform of robin’s egg blue crossed my lawn early that Saturday morning” (Fitzgerald 41). Nick is describing the man that came to his house on Saturday to drop off his invitation to one of Gatsby’s great parties. While Gatsby uses the chauffeur to state is wealth, him being dressed in blue only allows Gatsby’s true form to shine though. As Nick describes the scene, “In his blue gardens men and girls came”, the readers are able to build an image of Gatsby’s estate (39). In this quote Nick has decided to attend Gatsby’s infamous party, as he approaches he describes Gatsby’s gardens as blue which portrays Gatsby himself, and his estate as “new money”. The parties themselves represent the illusion of a grand lifestyle and high social class that Gatsby tries to portray.
Tom Buchanan, who is married to Daisy Buchanan, has a hard mouth and very dominant behavior. He is an extremely strong-willed person and can be quite cruel at times. Being that Tom comes from a long line of relatives that are very rich, he is born into the world of high class and old riches. All of these factors combined together help build Tom’s strong association with the color of red in The Great Gatsby.
The color red is typically used to portray emotions such as anger in people’s everyday lives. It can often be interchanged with ruby, blood, crimson and rose. Fitzgerald utilizes red to depict not only strong emotions, but also powerful ruling classes. One of the very first moments that Fitzgerald portrays Tom Buchanan’s extreme emotions is when he hits Myrtle Wilson, whom is his mistress, in the face: “Then there were bloody towels upon the bathroom floor, and women’s voices scolding, and high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain” (Fitzgerald 41). Myrtle is taunting Tom by repeatedly saying Daisy’s name. Although this may be annoying and she did not stop even after he asked her too, Tom had no write to hit her for her actions. This portrays his more cruel side that is unable to control his intense emotions.
Although red is most commonly associated with intense emotions, it can also be connected with high social class. Being that Tom comes from “old money”, he lives in the East Egg district in a rather large mansion. When Nick visits Tom’s mansion on the East Egg side, he describes it very beautifully, “Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red and white colonial mansion” (6). Nick uses the color red to describe the extravagant mansion that Tom is able to live in. His large house is one of the many factors that shows the strong power and social class that he holds and that is why Fitzgerald used to color red in its description, to prove his high social ranking.
In our society today, colors have a significantly deeper meaning than the superficial pigments that come to mind at the first thought of any color. Colors can have a wide variety of meanings in daily life as well. For example, pink is connected to breast cancer, white with surrender, and even all of the colors combined to create the rainbow can be associated with gay pride. These colors were able to be connected to their own meaning in daily life, just as Fitzgerald connects the colors he uses in his novel to their own meanings. He is able to show the readers each individual character’s emotions and social class through the use of red, blue, and gold. These colors in The Great Gatsby are able to make their own connection to a meaning, just as pink, white, and rainbow did in our society today. By matching each individual color to significant meanings, Fitzgerald is able to depict social class and emotion in a unique way.