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The Great Gatsby Color Green Analysis

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The American dream is based on hope, which seems to be easily attained, but in reality it is a very daunting and challenging task. In today’s world the American dream is not easy to attain because of all the obstacles that get in the way. F Scott Fitzgerald displays these obstacles through many symbols in his novel The Great Gatsby, written in the 1920’s. The novel was very popular in the time period. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s use of the color green reveals the truth behind the American dream; struggle, disappointment, and failure. Starting off, Fitzgerald uses the color green to show the distance Gatsby is away from his dream and how the green light represents disappointment and failure. In the first chapter of the book Gatsby was reaching toward his hope, “Stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and as far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward, and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” …show more content…

Gatsby experiences all of those emotions in his attempt to be with Daisy and ultimately fails. One example of despair is when George Wilson pieces together his wife's suspicious behavior and discovers she's cheating on him, “In the sunlight his face was green”(Fitzgerald 129). The color green here shows how George Wilson is feeling when he discovers that his wife is cheating, he feels terribly. Another great example of green representing despair is when Myrtle is hit and killed on by a car. When the car was first described it was described by the color green. “He told the first policeman it was light green” (Fitzgerald 144). Again, the color green is involved in a negative situation, a death. Fitzgerald used the color green directly related to helplessness and death, showing that green represents despair and

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