What Does The Color Green Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

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The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald contains recurring, contrasting symbols throughout the course of the story. The United States says that people can achieve whatever their hearts desire, as long as they live their lives trying to succeed. Symbols including contradicting colors—green and red—, the contrast between Nick and Gatsby, and Gatsby’s personal aspirations, prove that the American Dream is nothing but a corrupting illusion in a world full of hopeful people. In Gatsby, the color green represents the surface view of the American Dream, but within that exterior lies the true color: red. Green represents countless things throughout the novel; money being one of the most important. According to Scheider, money is the “crass materialism” which leads to the …show more content…

He continues to keep hope for his dream to come true, doing more every day in order to achieve it. Nick words it as, “a romantic readiness, such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again,” expanding on the fact that Gatsby is so sure in his dream (to get Daisy’s love), that his steadiness is a once in a lifetime sight (Fitzgerald 4). However, in the following sentence, Nick pronounces, “Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby.that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.” Nick is telling readers that dreams can come true while still causing life to tumble towards the end. Gatsby’s dream technically came true, even though it led to his demise. When Gatsby is killed, the “enchanted universe is exposed as a world of wholesale corruption and predatory violence” (Schneider 1). The enchanted universe was formed through a fairytale love story, and when that veil was torn by Gatsby’s death, the ugly, corrupt world hiding behind it came into

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