What Does The Water Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

Symbolism plays an important role in any novel of literary merit. From objects, to traits, to the way something is portrayed, it can have a whole different meaning. Like death and taxes, there is no escaping color. It is ubiquitous. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald displays a superior use of symbols such as color, light, and heat. Fitzgerald’s superior use of color as a symbol is the focus of this essay.

Symbolism is immensely spread through this novel, as well as an immerse amount of color. For example, the green light gatsby strives for. Gatsby states that the "single green light" on Daisy's dock that Gatsby gazes wistfully at from his own house across the water represents the "unattainable dream," the "dream [that] must

have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (Fitzgerald 12). The green light at the end of Daisy's dock is the symbol of Gatsby's hopes and dreams. It represents everything that haunts and beckons Gatsby. The physical and emotional distance between him and Daisy, the gap between the past and the present, the promises of the future, and the powerful lure of that other green stuff he craves: money. In fact, the color green pops up everywhere in The Great Gatsby. As well as the green light showing future as he strives for as well as even some wealth, there is also colors that symbolize even more characteristics of this so “Great” gatsby.
Gatsby is a very sophisticated with hope for a particular future, yet he is a man with one specific color to describe his cast amounts of wealth.

Gatsby's bright yellow car could be spotted from a mile away showing is great wealth. Nick states in the beginning of the book that “On weekends his rolls- royce became an omnibus bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug meet all trains” (Fitzgerald 39). Cars in The Great Gatsby are status symbols for various characters, but also function as symbols of American society in general. car crashes symbolize ominous signs of socio-economic and moral collapse. The extravagance of Gatsby's yellow car represents his enormous wealth. However, it suggests not the muted elegance of "old money," but instead the lavish, gaudy excess of "new money." Gatsby's car symbolizes his place in society; he has money, but he will never be accepted in Daisy's world of old family names and inherited wealth. The color yellow also is sought out in other things in the story but gatsby's yellow car is truly significance of

wealth.
As well as yellow, another color seems to hold a high stature of sophistication.

Nick describes daisy's beautiful dress in the sense of "[Their inconsequential conversation]... was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of desire" (Fitzgerald 12). The use of white is to portray class, leisure, and haughtiness. The color itself shows purity or being clean in the world, though it also shows selflessness or even the power of sophistication. Such as daisy’s dress as well as her car, both showing the beauty of her as well as her sophisticated personality. The significance and symbolism of an individual color can vary greatly depending on the culture and traditions of a particular person. The color white is beyond one meaning, yet it is the purest of them

all.
The great gatsby is prominent above all, due to its distinction of colors. Colors seem to have a whole different meaning especially through this novel. Colors have the ability to affect any aspect of a novel. Colors in general are just truly amazing wonders. Throughout the book characters, places, and objects are given "life" by colors, especially the more prominent ones. Symbolism can simply be a difference in a color yet it can portray a vast different meaning than ever fathomable.