What Does The Blue Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

As a reader becomes immersed in a novel, there is a sense of captivation within a fantasy world where characters come to life, vivid images of setting fill the mind, and skin tingles with emotion. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, readers are taken from the poverty stricken times of the 1920s to a world at which point there is a capsulated moment of escape. Fitzgerald’s inclusion of imagery through color helps to exemplify the characteristics and symbols throughout the novel. The use of color in literature can foreshadow an event, personify a feeling, and convey a character’s traits.

Regal, seductive, and murderous, Fitzgerald uses gold to describe old money and the successful. While Nick and Gatsby are waiting outside of the Buchanan’s house to go into the city, Tom is described as a king in his palace and Daisy is his queen,

his “golden girl” (Fitzgerald 162). As it becomes apparent to the two, Daisy’s voice is filled with money, a type of money that is not achievable by anyone. Earlier, Gatsby had arrived at the house in his “yellow car”, although is yellow the same as gold? No, yellow is rather a fake gold, a representation of the fraud that Gatsby is and the new money he is in possession of which is not acceptable to the people of the East Egg.
In literature, there is no sure meaning to the color blue, but Fitzgerald’s uniform use of blue in the novel leads us to believe that blue hints at illusions.

During Gatsby’s transformation from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, Cody buys Gatsby a “blue coat” for his future expeditions, hinting at the fact that Gatsby’s wealth is an illusion (Fitzgerald 136). A more prominent symbol in the book is the “blue” eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg (Fitzgerald 36). Wilson explains to Myrtle how the eyes of God are always watching, but is T.J. a symbol in its self? The initials T.J. have commonly represented the president Thomas Jefferson throughout American History. Jefferson was an agronomist and believed that a nation needed to protect and multiply their resources and if this happened any nation rooted in their agriculture economy could not fail. The valley of ashes is filled with farmland and gardens made of ashes, alluding to how industrialization has taken over and people have moved onto better things. In a sense, this ad foreshadows the market collapse of the 20’s and Jefferson looks over the remains of everything he fought

for.
Fitzgerald’s writing style helped to put the people of the 20’s into the mindset of the characters so that they could escape from everyday realities. Symbols and imagery through color gave a deeper meaning to the novel and with research these symbols become apparent.