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Social and class in the great Gatsby
Social and class in the great Gatsby
Social inequalities in the great gatsby book
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In a time of florid parties and luxurious living styles, it’s hard to imagine that a growing division in economic classes in society is actually exterminating the American Dream for many. The protagonist, Jay Gatsby, is someone who lives an elegant life and has tons of parties, but as the novel continues, his elegance starts to get in the way of what is really important. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the color symbols blue, white, and gold to represent Jay Gatsby and the underlying themes of the class system in society and the fading American Dream. The color blue symbolizes dreams and depression, two things that are constantly inside of Gatsby and explain why he is in the upper class. Next, white symbolizes false purity, and Gatsby has a lot of this because the way he makes his money is through morally corrupt illegal means and he is pursuing a corrupt woman. Finally, gold is there to symbolize wealth as Gatsby vacuously believes that his wealth can get him anything that he wants. By far one of the most used color symbols in the book, the color blue is the reason why Gatsby rose up from poverty, made a fortune, and is after a girl named Daisy …show more content…
Buchanan. For many, dreams are what drive them to become successful in this idea we know as the American Dream, but depression can hold them back. “In his blue gardens men and women came and went” (pg. 41). This explains that Gatsby’s gardens (and himself) always have people coming in and out, none ever staying long which is why the gardens are blue. “Ghostly birds began to sing on blue leaves” (pg. 144). This quote is a reference to when Gatsby has Daisy and no longer has anything to dream about, therefore he is somewhat sad that his American Dream is mostly complete. “The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic--their retinas are one yard high.” (page 23). The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg relate to Gatsby and everyone else in the novel because his blue eyes symbolize the futility of dreams and the American Dream in general. The color blue symbolizes how Gatsby got his ambition, but the color white starts to reveal the corrupt ways in which he made his fortune and got his girl. Since Gatsby is connected to the mafia, where he makes his money illegally, and Daisy, who is morally corrupt, it is fair to say that Gatsby himself is morally corrupt. “It wasn’t until then that I connected this Gatsby with the officer in her white car” (pg. 77). Since Gatsby is in Daisy’s white car, it shows that he is interested in people who display false purity, therefore making him morally corrupt. “Gatsby indicated a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat in state under a white plum tree” (pg. 104). Once again, this shows that Gatsby is interested in Daisy who obviously is meretricious and is surrounded by false purity which once again also makes him corrupt. “That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money — that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it. . . . high in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl. . . .” (pg. 120). This quote shows that Gatsby has accumulated all his money so he can get this girl who is seen as supercilious. False purity defines what Gatsby is after and how he got his money, but gold describes how he shows off his wealth. Gold, which symbolizes wealth, is Gatsby’s way of showing off what he has accomplished.
“...And Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in.” (Pg. 89). This is simply Gatsby showing off his wealth so that Daisy can see what part of the American Dream he has accomplished. “... a hundred pairs of golden slippers shuffled the shining dust” (pg. 144). This quote comes from one of Gatsby’s party scenes and the golden slippers symbolize how wealthy his guests are. “Turkeys bewitched to a dark gold” (pg. 41). This is also in relation to Gatsby’s decadent parties and describes how anyone who goes to his parties will become immersed in wealth like he is. All of Fitzgerald’s color symbols, especially blue and white, lead up to gold, the expression and distribution of Gatsby’s
wealth. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses vast amounts of symbolism, such as the colors blue, white, and gold, to represent Jay Gatsby and the corruption behind the class system and the American Dream. After reading this essay, the reader should now know how the symbols blue, white, and gold all relate to Gatsby and the themes of the American Dream and the class system in American society. The Great Gatsby is considered literature because it contains a complex plot, well-developed characters, and meaningful themes which show us the underlying depravity of human nature. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, contains a lot of symbolism, well developed characters, and themes which are all interconnected with one another.
Class Matters and the Great Gatsby both describe the differences between classes to show how unalike they are. Fitzgerald does this with color symbolism and his characters. He uses several colors as symbols to help him demonstrate the disparity in-between the economic classes. The East Egg homes are described as “white palaces.” The color white stands as a strong symbol of superiority and wealth (Bloom). Fitzgerald describes the valley of ashes as a dull, grey environment. Fitzgerald uses his characters to show the difference in social class. Tom Buchanans is a member of an incredibly wealthy family. Fitzgerald describes Tom as having “two shining arrogant eyes…and a voice full of contempt” (7). Meanwhile, Jay Gatsby, the novel’s protagonist, comes from an incredibly poor family and is described as having an aura of trust and understanding (48). Fitzgerald uses the two contrasting descriptions to show how T...
Color Symbolism in The Great Gatsby & nbsp; Colors can symbolize many different things. Artists use colors in their paintings when they want you to see what they are trying to express. Like if an artist is trying to express sorrow or death. he often uses blacks, blues, and. grays. Basically he uses dreary colors. You automatically feel what the artist is trying to express. When the artist uses bright colors you feel warm and you feel happiness. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald is like an artist. He uses colors to symbolize the many different intangible ideas in the book. He uses the color yellow to symbolize moral decay, decadence, and death. Then he uses the color white to symbolize innocence. He also uses the color green to express hope. Fitzgerald's use of the color green the strongest.
The Great Gatsby is full of symbolism. Colours, for example, are used to represent many different things; some even represent a theme of the novel. White, yellow, grey, green are just some of the colours which Fitzgerald uses in a special way, because each of these colours has a special meaning, different from the ones we regularly know or use.
In literature, colors are often purposefully chosen for different characters to represent the character’s personalities. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the colors green, yellow/gold, and gray are used to represent the attributes of the colored person or place.
Upon first impression, one might believe Jay Gatsby is nothing more than a self-satisfied, well-to-do bachelor living in luxury in West Egg. However, as his story unfolds, the reader finds out that he is an industrious man and a hopeless dreamer. The quintessential colors of yellow, green, and blue are used by F. Scott Fitzgerald to describe Gatsby’s characteristics in his magnum opus, The Great Gatsby. Yellow, an incandescent color, stands for his vivacious outward disposition, the shallow people around him, and his seemingly self-indulgent spending habits, for which he has an ulterior motive. Green represents the extreme lifestyle changes Gatsby has made in adulthood and his staunch hopefulness in finding love. Blue is a symbol of the
For most people, a certain colour may represent something meaningful to them. While in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many of the colours used in the novel are meant to represent something. The novel’s setting is in East and West Egg, two places in New York. Our narrator, Nick Carraway, lives in the West Egg. Along with living in West Egg is a friend of Nick’s, Jay Gatsby; a character that is in love with Daisy Buchanan. Unfortunately, Daisy is married to Tom. As the plot unravels, the reader notices the connection between certain colours and their importance to the novel. The use of colours within The Great Gatsby symbolizes actual themes, as grey symbolizes corruption, blue symbolizes reality, and green symbolizes jealousy and envy.
The characters of “The Great Gatsby” were blinded by the materialistic wealth in the flashiness of the 1920’s. Daisy is amazed at how beautiful Gatsby’s shirts are and how many he has. she is so astounded that she starts to crying. “They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.”(Fitzgerald 92). Another way the characters were materialistic is Gatsby’s proclamation that Daisy never loved Tom and the only reason she married Tom was because Gatsby was poor. “She never loved you, do you hear?” he cried. “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved any one except me!” (Fitzgerald 130). This shows that Gatsby knows that Daisy is materialistic but he still wants her and having Daisy in his life will complete his picturesque lifestyle of wealth. It also shows how they only perceive themselves as wealthy or poor but not with depth. While materialism is one of the important themes in “The Great Gatsby” Fitzgerald’s use of colors ,such as green,blue and yellow, g...
F. Scott Fitzgerald used the imagery of colors in his masterpiece The Great Gatsby. The colors are used very frequently as symbols, and the hues create atmosphere in different scenes of the book. White is a clean and fresh color, but the author shows how it can be tainted as well. Next, yellow illustrates the downfall of moral standards of the people of West Egg. Lastly, green, the most dominant color in the book, symbolizes wealth and Gatsby's unattainable dream.
Colors, are something to be determine, not just colors, they mean many things depending on the way people analyze them. Colors are important in life, not only in life but also in books. One book that really describes that is The Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby, colors represent many different things. One of the major colors are yellow and gold. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald describes these colors and associates them with different things. For example, gold represents real wealth and yellow represents fake gold. Fitzgerald associates colors with different things by really describing them in depth. For example, the green light at Daisy’s is just a green light, but Fitzgerald made it so that it would represent much more than that and that is what made The Great Gatsby such a great novel. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald associates yellow and gold in depth with different things. In life people sometimes make bad decisions and do bad things to gain money. Very similar to the novel, where Jay Gatsby gains money from bad ways, while he could have gained it from good ways.
Colors can be a symbol that many people overlook. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses color imagery to describe the characters. Nick's neighbor, Jay Gatsby, is a mysterious man that lived in the past. Gatsby and Daisy have always loved each other, but Daisy also loves her brutal husband Tom. In a twist of events three people die and some you never hear from again. The Main character, Gatsby, is described using various colors including gold, pink, and blue.
Gatsby has some real gold belongings that do symbolize wealth; his gold ties and gold toilet show his wealth (Fitzgerald 85, 93). Gatsby uses his yellow music and his yellow car to distract people into thinking that they are something that they are not. The yellow cocktail music makes laughter easier and easier at Gatsby’s parties (Fitzgerald 44). The way the music makes that happen shows that it is a distraction tactic used by Gatsby and is used to make the party seem more appealing. When the twins in yellow dresses did a baby act, Gatsby brought out more champagne (Fitzgerald 51).
The Great Gatsby is full of symbolism, colors, for example. Throughout the book the author uses them to represent different themes of the novel. Some of these colors are white, yellow, grey, green, pink, red and blue. However, I picked white and green for my commentary because I think these colors have a special meaning different from the others. White is mainly used to describe the character’s innocence, fakeness, and corruption. While green represents Gatsby’s hopes, ambitions, and dreams. In addition, sometimes green symbolizes the jealousy of certain characters.
Gatsby strives to wear the “gold hat,” a color associated with abundance and success to gain the affection of Daisy, who is a vanity worshipper (D’Invillier). Aware of Daisy’s “excite[ment]” for materialistic possessions, Gatsby throws “gleaming, dazzling parties,” for five years straight in hopes of her appearance (Fitzgerald 67,114). Strategically wearing the “gold hat,” upon reunion with Daisy, Gatsby shows Daisy his “enormous,” “well looking” house (Fitzgerald 93). The house, conveniently located across the bay facing Daisy’s house, is laced with expensive, cherished decor that Gatsby revalued “according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes” (Fitzgerald, 59). Wholly absorbed by Daisy and her interest in his regal home, it is evident Gatsby solely values materials on it’s ability to “move” Daisy closer to him (D’Invillier). Similar, to the tour of his house, Gatsby’s display of his “beautiful shirts,” were intentional to romance her (Fitzgerald 59). Gatsby’s wealth, proving to be overwhelming as Daisy cries for “n...
Among all the colour that have metition in the novel. The symbolic meaning of yellow colour has significantly shows the materialistic values and selfishness of a person.The yellow colour has appeared many times in the novel,for example “ The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.” The yellow symbolizes as fake wealth and personal desire. In the novel, the colour “yellow” shows a lot while descripting Gatsby’s property and participant of Gatsby’s party, for instant his car, tie and clothes. Although, yellow colour seems alike to gold colour and it might symbolize as wealth, in theory those two colours are not the same colour. In addition, yellow is a replacement of gold, Gatsby hides his unrealistic wealth by using yellow instat of gold. Gatsby have a desire of wealth in order to engage Daizy, but his desire lead him get into drug dealing and violation of laws. Through the symbolism of the yellow colour, Fitzgerald shows the greed and desire of Gatsby. In additional, Gatsby’s corruptions make up his wealth and fake knowledges and lead to end that Winton killed him. On the other hand, people desire to acquire abundance of money and states through the violation of laws and dishonesty, finally lead to encroachment the American Dream and despair in the
Robert Frost once said, “Nothing gold can stay”. This idea was clearly elucidated in F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, a novel focused on Jay Gatsby, a famous wealthy young man with his never-changing love for Daisy Buchanan. Set in the 1920s, the thought of moving west continued to prosper as many Americans hoped to gain wealth and secure an opportunity to set their own path to greatness. Yet, many struggled with achieving their American Dreams and constantly wished for a time when America could revert back to its truest beauty. Gatsby is portrayed as a character who is fixated on his seventeen year old dream to marry the prize of his life. However, Fitzgerald challenges this and instead proves his view of the reality of America through