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Essays on symbolism in literature
Importance of symbolism in literature
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The Symbolism of Colors in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby
In books Authors us colors sometimes to represent something. Colors have a way bigger meaning as F. Scott Fitzgerald uses them. The colors I choose were green, white, gold, and grey.
Green represents wealth or hope white mean purity gold means old money and grey represents hopelessness. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the color green in The Great Gatsby in a number of ideas,one of which is hope.”he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way.. He was trembling involuntarily i glanced seaward- and distinguished nothing except a single green light… that might have been at the end of a dock.’Gatsby is staring at the green light for hope to be with daisy again.Gatsby
Fitzgerald makes this very peculiar image of a green light. These scenes of color imagery indicate that the color green is significant in this passage. “… I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world.” Fitzgerald is conveying the image of the conquest of the Dutch in the new world. He states that green was widely seen across the continent meaning trees. The color green is revealed as a light, which Gatsby used to watch at the night to demonstrate his desire and want for Daisy. “I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.” The image of the green light was Gatsby’s desire to reunite with Daisy and it was also a sign of hope that Gatsby had by looking off into the water to see the other
Although these are not the only colors that Fitzgerald uses for symbolism, they are. are the ones that he expresses the most. This book is a very colorful book in the sense that it uses colors to cover so many different aspects of people. lives. & nbsp; Fitzgerald uses the color yellow to symbolize moral decay. On (Page 18) he writes, "The lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf. yellow of her hair. He is talking about Tom and Jordan Baker, and he is suggesting that Tom might be heading for moral decay. In the book there are several things that Tom does that might prove this. First of all Tom is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson. A second thing is that he does not like Gatsby.
Apparently, green is the most prominently used color in the novel. The reason for this may be that green is the color used to describe the main character of the novel, Jay Gatsby. One of the possible meanings of green in this story is envy. Gatsby can be seen as an envious man for a few reasons. For one, he is extremely envious of Tom Buchanan because of the fact that he has the one thing he can’t buy, Daisy. Also, Gatsby is extremely envious of the people that he invites to his house. He knows that he is not old money like the people he invites to his parties. This makes him a man of who, is “Green with envy.”
Green is a major symbol used in The Great Gatsby. This first example of Gatsby reaching out on his dock for the green light symbolises Gatsby trying to reach out for something he cant have; Daisy, old money, Tom’s
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us”(Fitzgerald 171). Whenever Gatsby looks at Daisy’s green light, he thinks of a bright future with his love of his life. The color green symbolizes Gatsby’s desire for a future with Daisy. Green also symbolizes Gatsby’s desire for great wealth. Nick describes Gatsby’s car as a “green leather conservatory” because the interior is green (Fitzgerald 64).
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
The colour grey in the Valley of Ashes symbolizes all of the corruption, while the colour blue represents the reality that is blinded throughout the plot, and green represents all of the jealousy and envy. In the end, the colours have a lot of important significance to the book, just as certain colours may have importance to people. Work Cited for: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2013.
Writers and artists often use color to manipulate the reader into feeling certain emotions; they can make the audience experience pain, joy and sorrow by using a palette of colors in their work. While color is often used to set a mood or create an ambiance, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes it to reveal and develop underlying themes. He cleverly crafts his most popular novel by incorporating colors to reveal the underlying messages in The Great Gatsby, such as the tendencies of the rich, Daisy and Gatsby’s growing relationship and the acts of injustice towards the Wilsons. In the novel, Fitzgerald uses the color white to illustrate the affluent and their carelessness, specifically Daisy and Tom Buchanan. Instead of representing purity and innocence, Fitzgerald uses the color white to illustrate the wealthy when he first introduces Daisy and Jordan as being “.buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon.
We must keep standing up when we fall, and keep trying when we fail. With failure, one seeks to overcome shortcomings by seeking a better future. As time progresses, Fitzgerald explores Jay Gatsby’s long desire for Daisy and emphasizes and his optimism for the future. Fitzgerald uses optimistic diction to express Gatsby’s view on the future when he states, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (180). Gatsby yearns for a future with Daisy, and truly attempts to look for the “green light” in each situation. The color green represents hope and new beginnings. Fitzgerald utilized the color green to serve as a color of optimism and positivity. Gatsby desires and hopes for a love that he cannot get, and still believes he can find a way to achieve his goals. Jay Gatsby greatly anticipates for a brighter “orgastic future.” The usage of “light” symbolizes something that can be reached for, but never possessed. Jay Gatsby gets really close to Daisy, but can never truly reach her, and...
The Great Gatsby is full of symbolism, colors, for example. Throughout the book the author uses them to represent different themes of the novel. Some of these colors are white, yellow, grey, green, pink, red and blue. However, I picked white and green for my commentary because I think these colors have a special meaning different from the others. White is mainly used to describe the character’s innocence, fakeness, and corruption. While green represents Gatsby’s hopes, ambitions, and dreams. In addition, sometimes green symbolizes the jealousy of certain characters.
The color green can signify many things in the every day life, people may think of it as “go” or as something positive. F. Scott Fitzgerald is an author known to use a lot of symbolism in his writings. In his famous novel, “the Great Gatsby”, Fitzgerald uses the color green to represent various things. His use of the color green represents mostly what Gatsby desires most in life, but he also includes it to represent little things that need thinking to figure out.
In The Great Gatsby, the green light is visible to many and always distant. To some, like Tom, it is just a light, but to others, like Gatsby, it is their hopeful future. As Tom said in chapter one, "I glanced seaward-and distinguished nothing except a green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of the dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness"(Gatsby 26). He saw a green light. That is all, just a light that may have been at the end of the dock. When Gatsby vanished, this represented him approaching and trying to attain the green light, which was his future he sought after and believed in. As Marius Bewley agrees, the green light represents his faith, "An image of that green light, symbol of Gatsby's faith, burns across the bay,"(Bewley 24).
In this novel, green is the main colour used to symbolize different things. Placed at the end of Daisy and Tom’s dock and barely visible from Gatsby's lawn, the green light represents Gatsby's hopes, prosperity and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. This is the very first time Gatsby is seen. Every member in the novel wants to achieve an American dream and the green light is symbolic to Gatsby’s. To attain Daisy would be completing his American Dream. The first time the green light is seen in the novel is also the first time Nick sees Gatsby. Fitzgerald writes, “…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
The use of a green light at the end of a landing stage to signal a romantic
Symbolism is important in developing the theme in The Great Gatsby. From start to finish of the novel, Fitzgerald uses colors to show and point out the important ideas. The main one was the green light representing hope. Daisy had a green light at the end of her dock, who lived in East Egg. Gatsby, who would look at the light, lived across the water in West Egg. Gatsby’s green light, was Daisy, “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock,” (Fitzgerald 92). Although Daisy was a married Catholic women, she did see Gatsby until his death. Daisy was described with the color white. White purely means innocence, “They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back after a short flight around the house,” (Fitzgerald 8). Another symbol in the novel was Dr. T.J. Eckleburg ,who represented God/truth. He was a blue billboard in the Valley of Ashes, “The eyes... are blue and gigantic.., They look out of no face, but, instead, from pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose” (Fitzgerald 23). At several points in his poem, Cummings mentions the four seasons almost out of nowhere. In line 3, for example, he breaks from his story about "anyone" to simply say, "spring summer autumn winter" (Cummings 3). Cummings wants to remind us that life actually isn't about progress. It's just a circle that keeps going