The Color White In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was a novel written on the idea of the
American Dream. This book was published in 1925 during the peak of the Roaring 20s.
This book is based around a man known as Jay Gatsby, and his daft attempt to win
back the heart of his old lover, Daisy Buchanan. Throughout the book, the author uses
the color white to describe people, places, and things. But there is a deeper message
hidden behind the denotation of the word white. White is much more than just a color, it
is used to symbolize purity, innocence, and corruption.
Throughout the book, the author composes the color white as if it is more than just the
literal meaning. Of course many people, when they hear the color white, think of
pureness, light, and

perfection; but in the book, the author uses the word and takes it
past your outlook on pureness.

In Chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby, the author writes,
“She was dressed in white and had a little white roadster” (Fitzgerald 79). When Daisy
was younger she often wore the color white. This displays the innocence that Daisy
used to have as a child. At this point in her life, she was not concerned about wealth
and materialism. In fact she was in love with Gatsby who barely had anything at that
point in his life. In addition to that, Fitzgerald writes, “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” (8). Again, this explains how Daisy stills wears white in her
older years, as if she is trying to hold onto her last shred of innocence. When in fact,
she is the farthest past innocence. In conclusion, the color white is something must
more rooted throughout the book as a symbol of purity.
Secondly, Fitzgerald portrays the hue as a token of innocence, and often times when
people look upon the color white, they think of innocence, but yet again, Fitzgerald
expands the literal explanation into something much deeper. The author evokes the
readers to think of innocence when they hear the word white. In this example, “A

white
ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity…”
(26). This extreme detail and contrasting way of using white, immediately gives off this
idea as the person being described is innocent and pure. George of course is a
innocent character, but this quote shows him in contrast with the ash and dust of the
Valley of Ashes. This symbolizes him at the beginning of the book as being a good man
under all the ash and dust of his life. On top of that, the author writes, “Dressed up in
white flannels I went over to his lawn a little after seven, and wandered around rather ill
at ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn’t know—though here and there was a
face I had noticed on the commuting train” (41-42). This quote was taken from the
beginning of the book when Nick still had his innocence. Nick was dressed in white
while attending Gatsby’s first party, where he ultimately mets Gatsby. Throughout the
book Nick is rarely ever described as wearing white, except before he met Gatsby.
Gatsby changed him and shaped him into the man he turned out to be at the end of the
book, a non-innocent man. Fitzgerald uses this color to show and demonstrate a true
sense of innocence among the characters.