What Does The Color Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

It was the 1920s just after the Great War and people were thriving under new business and technological advancements. This time was considered the Jazz age as everyday life seemed to be super accentuated. This newly reborn economic powerhouse allowed James Gatz, a previously poor farm boy to develop his life to achieve a simple goal. The great gatsby highlights the use of color to create non physical meaning towards certain objects. The colors green and yellow represent gatsby's use of wealth to obtain the American Dream. As a consequence the colors blue and pink represent the theme of mortality and effects of the American Dream on society as people never stop innovating.
The color that is most commonly attached to gatsby is yellow. This

color allows for gatsby to influence people’s opinions about him based on the extravagance of his possessions. The color itself can be associated with the color gold which directly represents money. He worked for three years to obtain the materialistic color yellow. The latter part of his life was able to be represented by falsely expensive things like yellow, but they ultimately lead to his death. Gatsby's car is said to be “a rich cream, bright and there in its monstrous length.” This cream color is directly seen as a fake sense of gold. The color gold represents the theme of Old Money, or rich inheritance and the absence of work. It is revealed later in the novel that Gatsby lies about his past and had to work for his money. The inclusion of the rich cream color reveals this as he is just pretending to be the heir to rich parents. His untimely death is caused by the off gold car. The only person that Gatsby is trying to impress, Daisy, is only attracted to money and that is also why she left him before the war. The gold color is supposed to push Gatsby towards his american Dream but it pushes him further away due to his constant strive for Daisy’s love. The color yellow is attached mainly to Gatsby as he tries to convince people falsely of his past to achieve his American Dream.
The American Dream is the basis of prosperity and success for everyone in the United States. Gatsby uses many things to attempt to manipulate his dream to obtain Daisy. Most people see the Dream as success or becoming of higher class, but Gatsby sees it as an opportunity to convince Daisy to love him again because he has money. Gatsby began in life as a normal boy with little money who moved east to obtain his dream. Finding out that he became wealthy after a rough start proves a true rags-to-riches story and the false gold is proven to be for show. Gatsby is willing to give it all up for Daisy. His only goal in life after attempting to end it all in the war is to obtain Daisy’s love. Many others in the novel attempt to use something to obtain their American Dream. Myrtle attempts to use Toms status to get away from the wretched valley of ashes.
The color green directly represents Gatsby's strive for Daisy’s love and his only goal in life.

It also represents the corruption of his dream in the latter part of the novel. The light on the end of Daisy’s dock is what gatsbys plans on holding after achieving what he believes is her. After being able to show off his immense wealth to her. Daisy begins to be restless as she believes that she has chosen the wrong person to be with even though gatsby was gone for five years. This begins the corruption of the green lights goal. Fitzgerald writes, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” He stayed true to his dream even in the time of its decay. The longer he took to obtain the Dream, subsequently led to it meaning less as the years went on. Gatsby's only goal in life is to impress Daisy, but the time it took him to obtain her was too long causing his dream to fail like many others. Fitzgerald writes, “Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” Nick has seen Gatsby staring into the mist where the only thing there is a green light. The green light is the only object that Gatsby can perceive, therefore that is his only goal. Gatsby can only have one goal that he sees, but when after obtaining this goal he seems to be pity his own

beliefs.
The Valley of ashes is placed between New York and West Egg.

It is the dumping ground for the industrial revolution happening to develop many people’s American Dream. The valley of ashes is said to be watched over by a billboard containing the eyes of TJ Eckleburg. They are said to be “blue and gigantic” as they watch over the hard laborers. The color blue can represent a pure or god-like figure. The addition of this figure creates a sense of failure as the eyes can be directly connected to the owl eyed man who watched over Gatsby after he died. Just like Gatsby’s death the Valley of Ashes proves that there is a consequence to abrupt

success.
Fitzgerald uses the color blue subtly to indicate a melancholy nature throughout the novel. Gatsby is alone as he strives for daisy's love and that is shown through his garden. The garden consists of “Blue leaves” and has a “Blue lawn” that set a tone of a sad nature. He then fails to obtain Daisy's love making him even more depressed. The blue color represents that inside this color is just hiding an alternative reality. Fitzgerald writes of the, “blue smoke of brittle leaves.” The “blue smoke” develops a feeling of failure as his internal reality burns away. The “brittle leaves” show that Gatsby was beginning to fall apart even without his own death. The color represents sadness and the American Dream throughout the novel. The depiction of Gatsby throughout the color blue determines that he is always sad in relation to anything in life.
Gatsby developed his life to obtain the goal of being with Daisy forever. This goal came into contact with his immaturity due to making a persona of himself at a young age. James Gatz created Jay Gatsby at the age of seventeen. Everything that Gatsby does comes from the thoughts of a seventeen year old boy. Fitzgerald writes, “An Oxford man!” He was incredulous. “Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.” The description of an Oxford man is said to be noble and intelligent. In this statement Tom is questioning Gatsby’s reliability as a person. Gatsby wearing a pink suit develops the seventeen year old self that he has always used to represent himself. This shows that Gatsby does not believe in growing older with his thoughts and that he will always obtain his goals at his current mental age. The goal of obtaining daisy as a seventeen year old boy is overcome by his reluctant nature towards change.
The Great Gatsby utilizes colors to prove that his whole life was based a simple idea of obtaining Daisy’s love. Gatsby failing led to his untimely death after taking the blame for running over a woman and killing her. The true morals of this story proves that people can never stop innovating but too much success can lead to enormous repercussions.