Michael Piniella
English 1011
Professor Brosh
23, September 2017
Color Symbolism in The Great Gatsby
Symbolism is arguable one of the most important literary devices in all of literature. Not only is it used to help explain key plot points in a story, but it is also used to highlight certain aspects in a story you might not have noticed originally. In the novel The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism through color to express mood, different characters, and a variety of themes though the story. Colors like white, yellow, and blue each have their own meanings to be explored by not only the readers of the paper, but the readers of the book.
The color white traditionally is a symbol of purity in most cultures around the world. Women dress in white during a wedding ceremony because of this color symbolism. However in The Great Gatsby the symbol white appears to have a similar meaning, but the color’s true implications are not what it seems. In the article “Color-Symbolism in The Great Gatsby”, the author Daniel J. Schneider says “ The white Daisy embodies the vision which Gatsby (who, like Lord Jim, usually wears white suits) seek to embrace-but which Nick, who discovers the corrup admixture of dream and reality…”(Schnider .p146) Characters in The Great Gatsby like Daisy, are synonymous with the color white and are implicated to be pure and incorruptible. The point Schneider makes is that Daisy is not as innocent as she seems. The color white truly
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses color imagery in his novel, “The Great Gatsby” to convey themes and influence emotions. The color green is symbolic of Gatsby’s hopes and dreams. White represents Daisy’s pure, yet selfish mind. Lastly, the color yellow foreshadows wealth and decay. Humans unknowingly associate feelings with colors. The idea of color description is used by authors to set the mood or evoke certain emotions in the
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, exposes the corruption and greed of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald is able to captivate readers' attentions through his employment of color symbolism. Fitzgerald portrays important messages in the novel by his symbolic use of colors. Colors play an important role in Fitzgerald’s descriptions of the lives of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway and many of the other characters in the novel. Fitzgerald uses the colors white, yellow, and green to express certain sentiments to the reader, commenting what is going on in the story. Fitzgerald uses the color white to symbolize purity and innocence, while yellow is used to symbolize moral decay, and death. Green is used to represent hope and
Colors have a large impact on society. They have the ability to affect people’s moods, appetites, and behaviors. Colors also have the ability to act as symbols. For example, the color white often acts as a symbol of innocence, and the color yellow often represents happiness. Throughout the book The Great Gatsby, multiple colors symbolize different aspects of Jay Gatsby’s life.
When F. Scott Fitzgerald was writing The Great Gatsby, he was not only working as a writer, he was an artist painting a piece through his words. While making the lives of fictional characters come to life for the reader, one of the main tools he used to do this was by using the symbolism of colors. Nick Carraway, the main character, befriends many of the wealthiest and corrupt people of Long Island, while exposing them for what they truly are in the journeys he endures with them. His extravagant use of colors to illustrate scenes and characters helps us determine the symbolism behind them, and how they’re used to expose the true personalities of the characters.
The author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, reveals the issues of money, happiness, and the unattainable which separated the privileged and unprivileged. Fitzgerald hints to the reader numerous times of the issues of money and how it can ultimately affect a character's life. The main character of The Great Gatsby, demonstrate the struggle of the 20s and how somethings can be within arms reach but cannot be grasped. All throughout the novel, Jay Gatsby, struggles to keep, Daisy Buchanan, the woman he loves, happy enough. Due to the separation of money, Gatsby is identified as a man of “new money”, this makes it hard for Gatsby to achieve his dream of reuniting with Daisy. The color green is used to show Gatsby’s dream and how he struggles to obtain the unobtainable. He hints poverty and hopelessness through the color gray. The author presents the color white in order to expose the true nature of Daisy Buchanan and the privileges of living in the west egg. Fitzgerald uses colors to symbolize the inequality between social classes of the 1920s, ultimately proving that money does not guarantee happiness.
Daisy’s car, clothes, and rooms were white. Though most of the adjectives used to describe Daisy included “white” (for example, “white girlhood”, “white neck”, and “high in a white palace”), she was not always pure, especially towards the end of the novel. This could be symbolic of the fact that even the most virtuous characters in The Great Gatsby were depraved. Examples of white included “They were both in white” (pg. 13), “Our white childhood was passed together there. Our beautiful white.” (pg. 24), and "On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight, and I erased it" (p.
Color throughout history has been used to represent a variety of things. From social class to individuality, color has played an important role in identifying people or objects. Color holds a great amount of symbolic value, not only in real world situations but also in novels and visual art. Much like how color in the real world can demonstrate wealth or style, color within The Great Gatsby symbolizes important factors of the text. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses color in association with characters, objects and the world in order to give the text deeper, symbolic meaning.
In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, colors are one of the most important details in the book. Throughout the story Fitzgerald cleverly uses colors in order to focus on specific themes and characters. He wrote this book in a way where one can read it for pleasure, and where one could analyze it and truly appreciate the work that he has put into this book. Every color has a specific meaning which correlates with each of the characters. Specifically, gold represents wealth, high class, selfishness, and relationships; while white represents honesty, purity, innocence, and a symbol for surrendering.
In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, color symbolism is stronger throughout the entire book. There are multiple colors that allow the book to come together as a whole. There can be many different interpretations or opinions on which colors are important. The color symbolism in The Great Gatsby is represented by the colors green, gold, and black.
Colors are an essential part of the world around us. They can convey messages, expressing that which words do not. Gentle blue tones can calm a person and bright yellows can lift the spirits. If an artist is trying to express sorrow or death he often uses blacks blues, and grays basically he uses dreary colors. Without one word, a driver approaching a red traffic light knows to stop. Colors are representative of many things. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses color symbolism throughout as a major device in thematic and character development. He uses colors to symbolize the many different intangible ideas in the book. Throughout the book characters, places, and objects are given "life" by colors, especially the more
F. Scott Fitzgerald creatively utilizes colors throughout his novel, The Great Gatsby, not only to provide the reader with a rich visual image of the scene taking place, but also to convey certain symbols within the story. To begin with, one must understand what each color symbolizes. Green symbolizes hope, blue symbolizes illusion, red means violence or love, yellow illustrates wealth or death, white is innocence, and gray or black symbolizes corruption. The reader can see that color symbolism is used to characterize Tom Buchanan. Another character, Daisy Buchanan, is also associated with a few different colors. The usage of colors in The Great Gatsby conveys many ideas―personalities of the characters, foreshadowing, events in the story,
Color express mood and stresses importance of events in a novel. In the Great Gatsby, the symbolism of color is a crucial one. Yellow, white, and green all affect the mood of this novel. Showing how the colors describe the person or thing both physically, and emotionally.
One of the main colors in The Great Gatsby is white. White represents the innocence and purity in the book. Daisy and Jordan are first introduced wearing white. It makes you think that the ladies’ are pure from the start of the book. Later on it is realized that neither one of the girls is all that pure. They are obviously not pure since they both are not so innocent. In the book is says Jordan cheats in her golf
"Never has symbolism played such a crucial part in the very foundation of a novel as it does in Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby." Harold Bloom has written about this book. The author used several types of symbolism in The Great Gatsby. The colours are probably the easiest to be recognized and guessed what they symbolized. According to the definition “symbolism” is "the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships."
During the 1920’s, many people would disguise themselves through the identities of someone else. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main characters can be seen “hiding” behind the symbolism of different colors. Color affects the mood, emphasizes the importance of events in a novel, and can also interact with the personalities of the characters. The concept of color symbolism is prominent in the novel. White, yellow, blue, green, and even the color black affect the atmosphere of scenes through association with a specific mood, and also through the actions of the characters.