What Does The Color Gold Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

“High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl”(Fitzgerald 120) The colors in the Great Gatsby have a lot of symbolism to them throughout the whole novel. Like the color white used in that quotation, it portrays a sense of innocence in the novel and also portrays class. Innocence is used in this quotation because it creates a sense that the palace is like a fortification for Daisy, by keeping her far away from the commoners that are below her. The class is illustrated in the quotation because of the virtue that is associated with the castle that Daisy is living in. Daisy relates to the color white because she is pure and innocent just like the color white but towards the end of the novel it shows the color white can be deceiving

and shows the truth about Daisy and all her wealthy peers. Just like the color white and many other colors in the story it shows what significance each color has in the story itself. The Great Gatsby has many colors like white, gold, yellow, which creates imagery throughout the whole novel.

A color that is very significant to characters and the novel is gold.

The color gold represents to many people as wealth,riches, and extravagance, in “The Great Gatsby” that’s exactly what it represents in the story many people in the novel see gold as being rich and being extremely valuable. Daisy Buchanan gets described as “the golden girl” (Fitzgerald 120) a lot during the novel because she’s that person that everyone wants to be, all the girls look up to her, she’s filled with wealth and is very successful. That’s exactly why Fitzgerald was always calling her a “golden girl” because she portrays exactly what people think of the color gold. Daisy represents “old money” in “The Great Gatsby” which means that ”Families have fortunes dating from the 19th century or before, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility.”("Class (Old Money, New Money, No Money) Theme Analysis”). This shows that Daisy’s money isn’t fake and that she has had a successful life, the color gold really helps depict the kind of person Daisy is throughout the whole

novel.

The color yellow gets used a lot to describe many characters in “The Great Gatsby”.

A quote in which uses the color yellow is “Two girls in yellow dresses” (Fitzgerald 42) in this quote Nick was describing two girls in yellow dresses, he was describing the girls as not as alluring as Jordan. The color yellow in “The Great Gatsby” is used as fake gold in the novel people use it for “Veneer and show rather than substance”. With these girl’s dresses described as being yellow, it shows that “People and objects described as this color use their counterfeit facade to hide their true identity”. By wearing the color yellow the girls hope to look rich and hide their true selves by wearing yellow. They try to fit in with the rich people like Daisy and Tom, the color yellow can be seen as deceiving. Another example of the color yellow being used in the book is the quote “It was a yellow car,” he said, “big yellow car. New.” (Fitzgerald 139). Gatsby tries to strive to be gold but is actually yellow, he tries to fit in with people that have “old money” but he actually has “new money”. Gatsby buys this yellow coupe to give people the illusion he has money that his family has inherited but he actually made his fortunes during the 1920s. Although he tried to make the impression he had “old money” with his coupe it didn’t fool anyone, Gatsby did not have old wealth. Gatsby’s yellow car also can be seen as representing evil, many people were referring to the car as “the death car”(Fitzgerald

137) since it ran over Myrtle Wilson. In many cases, the color yellow is seen as being hope, happiness, enlightenment positivity, but in “The Great Gatsby” the color represents death, greed, luxurious, and also as being deceiving.

The Great Gatsby has many colors like white, gold, yellow, which creates imagery throughout the whole novel. Janeen Koconis once said, “I think color is important. The subject matter expresses the message, the imagery… expresses the message, the text expresses the message -- but so does the color.” (“Great-Quotes.com”). In “The Great Gatsby” color is very significant for the whole story because it helps readers paint the picture of what’s going and also helps you understand the deeper meaning of why they include color, it might represent something like riches,evil,innocence just like the colors white, gold, and yellow did for the story. I think the author included color in the novel because they wanted readers to think in more depth about the characters, places, and ideas that were happening in the story. Color symbolism creates something memorable for readers by attaching an emotional state or event, and or character. The color symbolism really helped me understand the story more, and created it more memorable for me. By reading a book it really helps people understand more about the color significance and why it is used so often in books, color really helps bring a story to life, which is what “The Great Gatsby” did for me