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.
The color white is associated with purity and innocence. Gatsby and Nick, the main male characters in the story, can be affiliated with this
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When Gatsby was stopped by the police for speeding, he got out of it by “taking a white card from his wallet, and waving it before the man’s eyes” (Fitzgerald 68). This here shows how innocent Gatsby can be, just by using something white. When we turn our focus to Nick, we see that he believes that he himself in the most honest person he knows, and how he is usually dressed in white to symbolize his innocence. An important event in the novel is when Nick goes to Gatsby’s party for the first time, “Dressed up in white flannels, I went over to his lawn a little after seven” (Fitzgerald 47). Nick dressing in white symbolizes how he is immaculate, unlike the others at the party who could be labeled as corrupt. “White traditionally symbolizes purity, and there is no doubt that Fitzgerald wants to underscore the ironic disparity between the purity of the characters, and their actual corruption” (Schneider 146). The color yellow can be connected with the symbolism of greed, desire for wealth, and “old money”. Corruption is also distinctly represented by yellow, but death is also a key to yellows dark symbolism. The color yellow can be seen around a tragic death. The first time this is seen is when Myrtle is killed. She is the mistress of Tom, and is also married to a man named George Wilson. Myrtle was killed by Gatsby’s yellow Rolls Royce, in front of her yellow brick house, and under the yellow spectacled eyes of Dr.
Colors can tell someone an abundance of information on a topic because of the color’s warmth or the object it is most commonly seen in. Fitzgerald uses colors to further explain the meaning behind the symbols in his novel, “The Great Gatsby”. The novel is set in the 1920s in which the new rich came about. In Fitzgerald’s novel, the new rich, the old rich, and the working class socialize and create chaos; further explaining the thought that different social classes should not interact. The author Fitzgerald uses green to symbolize hope, white to depict innocence, and yellow to detect materialism and decay. Throughout his novel, “The Great Gatsby”, Fitzgerald’s use of color imagery conveys a theme.
Individuals perpetuate false personas to such an extent that they are convinced into a state of false consciousness of reaching the American dream, ultimately, this facade leads them to their downfall, exposing repressed reality from idealistic lies. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes symbols to describe the hollow nature of each character’s deceitful persona, which comes to show the ultimate theme of downfall through the individual’s perception of the American dream. The use of gold as a mask for the colour yellow represents authentic wealth versus fake wealth, further developed though Jay Gatsby’s pursuance of the American dream. The colour white known for is purity and simplicity is denoted by Daisy Buchanan, a character who represses the reality in which she lives, insinuated by her change in surroundings. Furthermore, the character of Myrtle Wilson, showcases her greed for wealth and her need of a rich-husband as an American dream, symbolized by the surrounding colour of grey, a representation of her veneer-rich persona.
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
Costume/hair/make up - In this scene, Gatsby is dressed in a white suit with a gold/yellow tie. The white symbolizes purity; however, he is not pure at all. Gatsby is trying to come across as pure, when really, he is not. The gold/yellow color of his tie represents money, riches and snobbery, all of which are accurate representations of Gatsby. He also uses a walking stick to make him appear more posh and proper. This makes the Gatsby's presence even more dramatic. Nick appears dressed in a green jacket symbolizing the American Dream and the ability to stay true to yourself. Nick is the only character who remains grounded and committed to himself throughout the story.
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.
Crime, romance, tragedy. These qualities put together have the ability to make a fascinating book, but when taking a close look, one can find that there is more to it than that. In The Great Gatsby, colors and their connotations add another level of understanding to the book by symbolizing different social classes while creating imagery and adding to the reader's understanding of a dream. Most every color can be categorized through its connotations to the social classes they represent, mainly the old rich, new rich, and lower class. Everyday objects can all hold a deeper meaning when looking at something as simple as the color.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has deeper information hidden by colors all over the book. Each color has its own significant meaning and connects to the story in some way. From nearly all the colors on the rainbow to the color grey, there is a connection between these buried meanings behind all of the colors. Green is the most important color throughout the book because of special meanings and roles it plays on all of the characters. The color green relates to wealth and success on almost all of the characters. Gatsby is the one who brings this color to life and connects with it to show how it takes part in this story.
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.
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.
YELLOW & Wilson’s Garage: The color yellow is considered to be the unauthentic version of gold. As previously stated, gold is a color of richness and value which is why we it is clearly visible in the Gatsby household. Yellow on the other hand, is quite inferior when compared to the standards of gold. In contrast to Jordan, the golden girl, her admirers are merely, “two girls in twin yellow dresses.” (Fitzgerald.47) They are so unimportant that they aren’t even called by their names. They are simply labeled as, “one of the girls in yellow,” (Fitzgerald.47) even though one, “[plays] the piano,” and the other is, “from a famous chorus.” (Fitzgerald.56) Along these same lines, Wilson’s garage is thought of as lesser than East or West Egg; since
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
Color imagery in The Great Gatsby is vital to the books storyline. If there was no color imagery then the reader could not associate a certain person or thing with a color or idea. Fitzgerald uses the color so people can remember the person more than just their name. The use of color imagery greatly impacts the story line.
America in the 1920s was characterized by wealth and prosperity as the American economy soared in the light of what Fitzgerald called “the Jazz Age.” This era was characterized by flamboyant women and extravagant scenery while new money flowed through the country. The 1920s is said to be one of the most exciting and prosperous eras in history prior to The Great Depression. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, showed the strive of the American people to acquire wealth and social status in order to be deemed successful. The story is told through the eyes of a man named Nick Carraway, who found himself rather infatuated with the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby, who was Nick's neighbor and friend. Throughout the book, we find that Gatsby is in love with Nick’s cousin, Daisy Buchanan, who is married to Tom Buchanan, a wealthy yet unfaithful man. Tom has an affair with a poor and desperate woman named Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the Valley of Ashes with her husband George Wilson. These characters encounter many struggles and mysterious confrontations as the book goes on, and some find themselves so desperate for wealth and fortune it takes over their lives. In this book, each character is symbolized by a certain color that describes their social class and moral values. Color symbolism is one of the most important features of this book because it truly helps us get to know and understand each character and their worth. Some of the most important colors shown in this