What Does The Color Green Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

Colors do not simply differentiate objects, or to make them stand out from one another. They often emit a tone, a tone that develops as differently as the color spectrum itself. In literature, color symbolism is a strong device that readers can pick up with repetition and ease. By tracing colors in literature, the reader can develop ideas and themes. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many different colors in many different ways to make the imagery stand out and allow the reader to connect concepts in the novel to one another. Fitzgerald attributes the color green to the green light to express Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for Daisy, as well as the color gray to the Valley Of Ashes to show the lack of life and decay of the American dream.

The color green

makes its initial appearance at the end of the first chapter; later on in the novel, it is learned that color green hints at Gatsby’s hopes and dreams to be with Daisy. Gatsby is seen “trembling” and stretching his arms “in a curious way” towards the single green light at Daisy’s dock (Fitzgerald 20-21). Again, this time at the very end of the novel, Fitzgerald makes a comparison by saying that “Gatsby believed in the green light”, calling it an orgiastic future (180). According to Dan Schneider, the green light is a comingling of yellow and blue, that being a comingling of dreams and reality. Gatsby is so busy chasing the blue, that he is blind to the yellow (Schneider). Gatsby longs for his relationship with Daisy to be continued after it was interrupted years before. While he is pursuing the dream he set out for, Gatsby fails to take in the reality of the situation. Daisy is only interested in Tom because her dream is simply to have lots of money. In Tom’s case, he is a lot more financially stable than Gatsby, and this difference directly correlates to Daisy’s decision to choose Tom over Gatsby. Gatsby is unable to move beyond the past, and that is where hopes and dreams, represented by the color green, are foiled. The color green offers opportunities, a chance, and hope for Gatsby in chapter one and it contrasts with the use of the color grey in the Valley of Ashes.
Through describing the setting and George Wilson with the color gray, Fitzgerald makes it apparent that the Valley of Ashes is a lifeless wasteland that houses the decaying American dream.

There are many occurrences in the novel where the setting of the Valley of Ashes is being described as grey. One instance is at the beginning of the second chapter, when Fitzgerald explains that the “desolate area of land” has “ash-gray men” who stir up ash which affect their “obscure operations from your sight” (23). Bloom says that the workers on these dumping grounds have bleak and despondent lives making them ordinary people with horrific, crumbling, and hopeless fates (30). By having everything in the description of the Valley of Ashes be grey, given the lack of any other lively colors, a portrayal of this grotesque land is summed up by the word “lifeless”. The people who inhabit the area may be showing signs of movement or lively behavior, but the movements themselves are very effortless and dull. The grey ashes symbolize unwanted trash. The decaying of the American dream starts here, where people who may not know so are trapped and are unable to gain success and prosper. One character, who owns an automobile shop in the Valley of Ashes, demonstrates just that. After interacting with Tom, Fitzgerald describes that a “white ashen dust veiled [Wilson’s] dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity” (Fitzgerald 26). Seiter insists that Wilson, who is a part of his environment, does not choose it; he only accepts it (92). In addition, Seiter makes a comparison to Wilson’s situation, hinting that Tom and Gatsby plagiarized their respective utopian ideas, while Wilson had no choice but to have no control over it (92). Wilson, who is camouflaged with his surroundings, cannot escape, and is locked into a lifestyle where the American dream was never a

possibility.
When green is used to describe the light at Daisy’s dock, and grey to show how the Valley of Ashes lacks life and the American Dream, the reader can digest Fitzgerald’s use of color to understand more complex ideas about the novel. The colors in The Great Gatsby are as abundant as they are symbolic. Color symbolism is known for being one of the best ways for people of all reading levels to pick up deeper meanings and relate them to each other with certain characteristics.