Yellow Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

The yellow car belongs to Jay Gatsby. Mr. Wilson is extremely amazed at his wife’s death. Myrtles death led to the temptation of Mr. Wilson falling into the thought that Gatsby murdered his wife. Therefore, Mr. Wilson gained the courage to denounce Gatsby and leave him in disdain.

Fitzgerald uses symbolism another time to show his position as well. In the fourth chapter of the book, after Gatsby’s party that Nick was invited to, Gatsby’s car was described as vibrant with a yellow-esque color. As noted by Nick, “ It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns” (Fitzgerald 64). In The Great Gatsby, the color yellow is a symbol that represents wealth and power. Gatsby can be associated with the color yellow because it relates to his quest to gain money and get close to Daisy again.

It is used to represent many things, including corruption, decay, and death. One of the novel's most prominent yellow symbols is the Valley of Ashes, which represents the moral and social decay of wealth. Another example is the yellow car that kills Myrtle, which symbolizes the corruption and carelessness of the wealthy. While yellow is used to represent negative things, there are a few instances where it is associated with positive things. For example, yellow is used to describe the “two girls in twin yellow dresses” who attend Gatsby’s parties.

Green is archetypally associated with wealth, envy, and life. One example of green being used in the novel is that it is the color used for furnishing Gatsby’s car. Although the outside of his car is yellow to certify that everyone is aware of his wealth, the area that he inhabits while driving is green to remind him of the wealth he had built himself. When Nick is in the car, he describes it as a, “green leather conservatory” (47). The use of the word conservatory reveals to the reader that Nick feels like it is something of a spectacle seeing how a conservatory holds things that should be looked at.

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.

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].

One’s ability to not get caught up in the chaos of the 1920’s is evident in the novel, especially in Daisy. Daisy symbolizes innocence and purity, which is why she is described wearing white clothing and having white powder on her skin. Even though Daisy represents purity, she becomes corrupt throughout the novel. The color black resembles Daisy as a result of Daisy running over and killing Myrtle. Gatsby became worried that Tom would harm Daisy for her murder of Myrtle, so Gatsby travels to Daisy’s house to check on her when he stated, “I waited, and about four o’ clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light” (Fitzgerald 147).

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 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.

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.

On the day that Daisy and Gatsby are reintroduced, Daisy wears lavender which could represent unattainability of the “American Dream”. The color lavender taints the immaculate image that the “Golden Dream” or Daisy has because she was only seen in white before. The American Dream’s tainted color could represent how the only way for people to change their socioeconomic status drastically is through criminal activity like Gatsby did. Like the “American Dream” Daisy is unattainable to Gatsby because she is married. Gatsby is only able to be in a relationship with Daisy through them having an affair, which many people would view as a sin or illegal.

Color subtly shows the emotions of the novel, such as envy, disaster, and false purity. Not every place in The Great Gatsby is beautiful or sophisticated, for example The Valley of Ashes is where the “not-so-rich” reside. The Wilson’s Garage belongs here as well.

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.

Another symbol seen often in the novel is the color green and gold. These colors symbolize wealth and greed. Gatsby is seen standing on his dock staring into a green light, which is coming from Daisy 's house. This green light symbolizes his desire for wealth and an attraction like that of moths to light. Gatsby also creates a false image of himself towards the public.

Item 2: Color Chart: In the book “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, colors have been used to represent the character’s unapparent and underlying thoughts, feelings, status and class. Through the motif of colors, Fitzgerald depicts the feelings of the character as he refers to a specific color while describing each one of them. The colors make a deep impact on the readers as they contain a profound meaning throughout the novel. There are around five main colors in the novel appearing frequently: white, yellow, green, blue and grey, which help the novel look more gaudy and idealistic.