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Gatsby Color Symbolism

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Color symbolism in The Great Gatsby
Color is all around us. Color has the power to influence our moods negatively of positively. In many cases, color can have a deeper meaning than it originally suggests, and can symbolize a person, place, or mood. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby is a wealthy man who throws giant parties for the sole purpose of meeting the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. His love interest in her is fueled by the support of the narrator of the story, Nick Carraway. Since Nick is Daisy’s cousin, he can make Gatsby and Daisy more accessible to each other by being the middle man. Various colors are used in the novel to illustrate the themes and ideas of the novel. Color symbolism plays an important role through the novel.
In The Great Gatsby, green is one of the most often used symbolic colors. The symbolic meaning of green in this novel is associated with envy. The narrator, Nick Carraway, is outside in the dark watching Mr. Gatsby and looks out towards the sea to see “nothing but a single green light, minute and …show more content…

The author does not simply place a color in a significant area with no deeper meaning. It usually reflects the type of mood and surroundings that certain color is in. The Great Gatsby is dominated in every chapter by the use of different colors in different parts of the Long Island area, with the colors being vibrant and large until they reach a sudden stop at the Valley of Ashes. “The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and, when the drawbridge is up to let the barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as a half an hour” (Fitzgerald 24). This shows a sudden change to a black, gloomy setting. Without these deeper meanings, The Great Gatsby would be a much simpler

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