The Great Gatsby Color Analysis

The “Great Gatsby” uses a wide variety of colors in it’s story. Every single color was put in it’s spot to mean a certain thing, to convey a certain message. That message would change if siad colors were not used. The colors of the “Great Gatsby” are important and change depending on how you view the meaning of certain colors. If two people look at one color they could perceive it as meaning two different things or feel two different emotions. Fitzgerald realizes this and uses it to his advantage in the story. If Fitzgerald did not use the colors in the story the meaning and symbols would change completely. The foreshadowing would be completely gone. In other countries such as Russia and America colors mean different emotions, Fitzgerald uses these different meanings to change the ideas The Great Gatsby.

Fitzgerald uses the color yellow the most, such as Gatsby’s car or Daisy’s dress. Yellow can stand for many different things such as madness, vice, anger, jealousy and happiness. Yellow also means the symbol of money. The yellow in sense of madness and greed can be seen in some of Gatsby’s actions. The way he goes over the top to make Daisy notice him and the parties show he is madly in love with her. In specific countries the meaning of said color changes. In America yellow stands for happiness, but in Russia yellow means jealousy or anger. In other countries such as Germany “Germans associated envy and jealousy with yellow” (Jscource.com). While keeping the separate meanings of the colors in mind you can see the symbols in the book more clearly. It all depends on how you interpret the color yellow to see how the color yellow is important in the “Great Gatsby”. The car is a main symbol that uses the color yellow. The car co...

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...n that something bad is going to happen. That becomes clear when Gatsby’s yellow car stops in the valley of ashes it is those two colors next to each other. Especially because it is Gatsby’s car we know something is going to happen to him.

These specific colors have different meanings depending in how you look at them. It all depends on the norm in a certain country. Every color has it’s own meaning and spot in the story. If Fitzgerald did not use one of the colors the story could have changed completely. The colors were specifically chosen to convey the author's meaning and symbolism. The colors even if one of them had been changed it could give away the ending or changed how the reader saw on of the characters in the book. These few colors foreshadow, show greed, and someone's love. If one of these colors were changed the story’s meaning has definitely changed.