White Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

The color white is one of the many symbols used throughout “The Great Gatsby”. It symbolizes both the purity and innocence of something. It has been used in society and in the novel “The Great Gatsby.” It has also put more meaning into the readers’ experience. The color white has shown a great significance in society and within the novel which helps make the experience for the readers more meaningful.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses the colors green, red, and white throughout the novel to show symbolism that relates to the theme of the novel, the American Dream. The use of the colors are significant because each color symbolizes something different.

Gold and money, a light in the dark, or a warning on the road; the color yellow has many diverse meanings in society and these are just a few. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald colors represent several aspects of the characters as they are swept through rollicking emotions powered by the mystery shrouding the enigmatic Jay Gatsby in the height of the Roaring Twenties. Yellow gives insight into Gatsby’s character, who he wants to be, who he is in truth, and who others think he is.

The green light was the one thing which kept him going to achieve his dream- Daisy, as if it was a “yes” symbol for Gatsby. Gatsby in chapter six says, “I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before," he said, nodding determinedly. She'll see.” (Fitzgerald 110). On the other hand, green light also symbolizes money and how Gatsby had to use money to achieve his dream-Daisy. Gatsby’s car as described by Nick, is cream-colored and as Nick says, “Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory, we started to town.” (Fitzgerald 64). Gatsby’s car is green in remembrance of Daisy. As Gatsby realizes that Daisy left him because he was poor, he starts to earn money in order to impress Daisy and get her back, his car is one of the few examples of

The color grey often symbolizes dull and lifeless characteristics or a state of depression. During the 1920s people in the working class were described as “grey” as they chased their goals they could never achieve. The Great Gatsby is a story of people who try to gain and reach success in a world where social classes vary significantly. In his novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the color grey in both characters and settings to portray the disillusionment of the American Dream through his characters' corrupt ambitions and amoral behavior.

Fitzgerald was an introvert and intelligent man who never graduated college. Instead he took the path of becoming a lieutenant during World War I. He later fell in love with a girl named Zelda Sayre. Zelda was no ordinary girl, but a drama queen with an enormous desire toward wealth and leisurely partying. To win Zelda’s heart he needed to become wealthy. He decided to publish his first book which ended up being successful. He became wealthy and attracted Zelda toward him. Fitzgerald gets overjoyed and reckless with his wealth by drinking and having parties. He felt like he had achieved the goal of the American Dream, which was the ultimate accomplishment in that time period. His reckless behavior arose many bad events that occurred in his

In The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, one of the characters is “stuck in the past”. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is constantly longing for a past relationship he had with a woman named Daisy, who moved on from Gatsby and married another man when Gatsby left for the war. Gatsby’s view of the past is used to develop a major theme of the novel: the moral decay of society.

In everyday life and works of literature, color can symbolizes a wide variety of emotions from moods to political views. When someone is feeling upset one often says “I’m feeling blue” or when someone is mad their face turns red giving that color the association with anger. Political status even uses color to represent each party, one is usually either a blue Democrat or red Republican. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby color plays a significant role throughout the story symbolizing emotions and social rankings. Colors such as green representing hope and money, grey portraying hopelessness, discontent, and low social class, and yellow exemplifies destruction and desire.

As mentioned earlier, the color green is one of the most recognized colors symbolically. The color green symbolizes future, or the American dream, and is most associated with Gatsby himself. This is what Gatsby is pursuing throughout the novel until he tragically perishes, his dream never becoming a reality. The reader first meets Gatsby in chapter one, when he is described as looking toward the green light, “stretch[ing] out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way… trembling” (25). As to why his behavior is so

White is associated with innocence and purity. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald describes Daisy with the word white to represent her innocence and girlhood many times. When we first meet Daisy, she is with Jordan and “they [are] both in white,” (Fitzgerald 10) in “a cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial mansion,” (Fitzgerald 9) surrounded in a pure, white room. Right from the beginning of the novel, Daisy is portrayed as a virtuous woman. She says her “white girlhood [with Jordan] was passed together [in Louisville]. [In her] beautiful white” (Fitzgerald 22) girlhood, “she dressed in white, and had a little white roadster” (Fitzgerald 80). This describes Daisy when she was eighteen years old, when she was in the prime time of her youth. White is used to convey her innocent childhood years. It also describes how she is

Arguably one of the most complex works of American Literature, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays a satirical United States taking place in the early twenties in New York. The roaring twenties often portrayed a happy time immediately following World War 1 however, it gave off a false feeling of joy and many people were truly unhappy. Even though Nick Carraway shows a realistic image of himself, The Great Gatsby encompasses an illusion created in this time period and portrays this image through the atmosphere surrounding the actions of its characters; it ultimately shows a conflict against reality, identical to that to the early 20th century.

Fitzgerald uses color to add mod and symbolize different things throughout the novel. The novel uses many different colors to provide imagery for the readers to understand and to live as if they are truly in the novel.

Color is everywhere. Although color may not seem important, they might have a greater, deeper meaning. Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is set back in the Roaring 20’s, when the economy was booming. A newly rich man named Jay Gatsby is one of the richer people in this time that enjoys his money. He throws overgenerous parties, hoping that the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan, attends. Gatsby’s life is filled with various colors which signify the messages Fitzgerald is trying to convey. Color symbolism plays an important role through the novel, The Great Gatsby.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald exhausts numerous colors throughout the novel to demonstrate different aspects of the changing times. He associates colors like yellow, white, blue and gray with certain characters as well as specific topics in the novel. The color gray is associated with the character Jordan Baker as well as with the topics of moral and sexual ambiguity. Fitzgerald also demonstrates the use of color psychology in The Great Gatsby, thus causing the audience to acknowledge perceptions of those colors.

There is a quote from an anonymous speaker that says, “It takes a couple seconds to say Hello, but forever to say Goodbye.” This quote can be related to the fictional characters, Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green. Both were men who met an extraordinary woman and could never seem to let her go. These are characters from the book The Great Gatsby, and the short story Winter Dreams, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest novels to come out of the Jazz Age in the 1920s. The two stories have similar plots. They are both about men who met a woman and fell in love with her, but in one way or another, she got away from them. They spent several years of their lives gaining money and rising up in society just to get her back.