What is the role of color in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby choose 1/2 colors How does Fitzgerald use that those color S to convey a theme?

(Click the symbolism infographic to download.)

The green light isn't the only symbolic color in Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses color like a preschooler let loose with tempera paints—only a little more meaningfully. Let's break it down:

Yellow and Gold: Money, Money, Money. Oh, and Death.

First off, we've got yellows and golds, which we're thinking has something to do with…gold (in the cash money sense). Why gold and not green? Because we're talking about the real stuff, the authentic, traditional, "old money" – not these new-fangled dollar bills. So you have Gatsby's party, where the turkeys are "bewitched to dark gold," and Jordan's "slender golden arm[s]" (3.19), and Daisy the "golden girl" (7.99), and Gatsby wearing a gold tie to see Daisy at Nick's house.

But yellow is different. Yellow is fake gold; it's veneer and show rather than substance. We see that with the "yellow cocktail music" at Gatsby's party (1) and the "two girls in twin yellow dresses" who aren't as alluring as the golden Jordan (3.15). Also yellow? Gatsby's car, symbol of his desire—and failure—to enter New York's high society. And if that weren't enough, T. J. Eckleburg's glasses, looking over the wasteland of America, are yellow.

White: Innocence and Femininity. Maybe.

While we're looking at cars, notice that Daisy's car (back before she was married) was white. So are her clothes, the rooms of her house, and about half the adjectives used to describe her (her "white neck," "white girlhood," the king's daughter "high in a white palace").

Everyone likes to say that white in The Great Gatsby means innocence, probably because (1) that's easy to say and (2) everyone else is saying it. But come on – Daisy is hardly the picture of girlish innocence. At the end of the novel, she's described as selfish, careless, and destructive. Does this make the point that even the purest characters in Gatsby have been corrupted? Did Daisy start off all innocent and fall along the way, or was there no such purity to begin with? Or, in some way, does Daisy's decision to remain with Tom allow her to keep her innocence? We'll keep thinking about that one.

Blue: This One's Up For Grabs

Then there's the color blue, which we think represents Gatsby's illusions -- his deeply romantic dreams of unreality. We did notice that the color blue is present around Gatsby more than any other character. His gardens are blue, his chauffeur wears blue, the water separating him from Daisy is his "blue lawn" (9.150), mingled with the "blue smoke of brittle leaves" in his yard.

His transformation into Jay Gatsby is sparked by Cody, who buys him, among other things, a "blue coat"—and he sends a woman who comes to his house a "gas blue" dress (3.25). Before you tie this up under one simple label, keep in mind that the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg are also blue, and so is Tom's car. If blue represents illusions and alternatives to reality, maybe that makes the eyes of God into a non-existent dream. As for Tom's car…well, you can field that one.

Grey and a General Lack of Color: Lifelessness (no surprise there)

If the ash heaps are associated with lifelessness and barrenness, and grey is associated with the ash heaps, anyone described as grey is going to be connected to barren lifelessness. Our main contender is Wilson: "When anyone spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable colorless way" (2.17). Wilson's face is "ashen," and a "white ashen dust" covers his suit (2.17), and his eyes are described as "pale" and "glazed." We're not too surprised when she shows up with a gun at the end of the novel.

Green: Life, Vitality, The Future, Exploration

Last one. We're thinking green = plants and trees and stuff, so it must represent life and springtime and other happy events. Right?

Well, the most noticeable image is that green light we seem to see over and over. You know, the green light of the "orgastic future" that we stretch our hands towards, etc. etc. (9.149). Right before these famous last lines, Nick also describes the "fresh, green breast of the new world," the new world being this land as Nick imagines it existed hundreds of years before. Green also shows up—we think significantly—as the "long green tickets" that the rich kids of Chicago use as entry to their fabulous parties, the kind of parties where Daisy and Tom meet, and where Gatsby falls in love. So green does represent a kind of hope, but not always a good one.

When Nick imagines Gatsby's future without Daisy, he sees "a new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about...like that ashen fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees." Nick struggles to define what the future really means, especially as he faces the new decade before him (the dreaded thirties). Is he driving on toward grey, ashen death through the twilight, or reaching out for a bright, fresh green future across the water?

One of the most memorable images in The Great Gatsby is the green light that Gatsby watches across the water, which simultaneously symbolizes Gatsby’s love for Daisy, money, and the American Dream. We first see the green light at the end of Chapter 1, before Nick has even met Gatsby, and immediately understand it as an elusive and powerful object that has great symbolic meaning for Gatsby. Because the green light hangs at the end of Daisy’s dock, and Gatsby bought his house in order to be able to see it each night, the green light most obviously symbolizes his unwavering love for Daisy. When Gatsby reveals his knowledge of the green light to Daisy after their reunion, Nick observes, “Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever…His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” For Gatsby, the green light proved that he and Daisy existed in the same world and suggested the possibility that they might someday meet again. In a sense, the symbol is more important to Gatsby than what is being symbolized, and Gatsby will struggle, and fail, to reconcile his dream with reality over the rest of the book.

The color green is traditionally associated with money, and the green light also symbolizes the wealth that Gatsby believes will enable him to win Daisy back from Tom. But Gatsby is discounting the important distinction between wealth and class made by other characters in the novel. Through his illegal activities, Gatsby has acquired great wealth, but he is still shut out of the upper classes by those born into wealth, like Tom and Daisy. While green is the color of money due to its association with American paper currency, it’s interesting to note that Daisy is associated with gold and silver, more stable, enduring forms of currency. Daisy is described as “the golden girl,” and “gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.” In this sense, the green light represents the type of money that is available to someone like Gatsby who is willing to do anything to attain it, while the inherited wealth of Daisy and Tom, linked to their class status, remains out of reach.

In its largest sense, then, the green light represents the American Dream. The American Dream is the idea that someone from a lower-class background can work hard and move up the social ladder because American society has historically had more class mobility than other countries. The novel explores whether the promise of the American Dream is actually true. On the surface, Gatsby appears to have achieved the American Dream, because he has managed to move from a lower-class background into the highest echelons of New York society, entirely through his own self-invention. In reality, though, Gatsby illustrates the hollowness of the American Dream, because even once he has accomplished this goal, he still is unable to attain Daisy, who represents a traditional elite background. Tom consistently mocks Gatsby for his humble beginnings, calling him a “common swindler who’d have to steal the ring he put on (Daisy’s) finger.” This not only implies that the American Dream is ultimately unfulfilling, but it also suggests that despite the illusion of social mobility, people from the lower classes will never be fully accepted by those who were born into wealth.

That the American Dream is as unattainable as the green light at the end of the dock is evidenced by the aftermath of the car crash that serves as the climax of the novel. As a result of the crash, the three characters from lower-class backgrounds (Gatsby, Myrtle, and George) die, while the upper-class characters of Nick, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan survive. Tom and Daisy, who were born into privilege, remain insulated from the negative consequences of their actions. Here, Fitzgerald’s critique of the American Dream reaches its apex, as he implies that although working-class people can circulate with the upper classes, they will ultimately be expendable, while the upper classes will carelessly maintain their own dominance. At the end of the novel, Fitzgerald writes, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.” This description shows that the American Dream’s most important quality is its inaccessibility: a dream is not a reality.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel, is one of the greatest pieces of literature out there. But, perhaps, it is best remembered and spoken about for its color symbolism.

For example, at the end of the novel, green color symbolism is used to depict the limitless promises of an unachievable dream that the main character, Gatsby, pursues until the very end.

The main reason why color symbolism in The Great Gatsby is a highly studied topic is due to the fact that the writer also happens to be a painter. Naturally, he has used various colors to make this literary work extremely visual.

Let us study some of the most symbolic representations of different colors in The Great Gatsby.

Almost every chapter of Fitzgerald’s novel uses colors in their purest shades to give readers an insight into the different characters’ lives. Naturally, to fully fathom these colors mentioned, readers must also first understand the situations within which they are used.

Green

Green has been mentioned around 18 times in the novel. Traditionally, green is associated with wealth, growth, and spring. It is also used to convey envy. Thus, Gatsby is shown to be an envious character as he is jealous that Daisy belongs to another man (Tom).

Green is also used to represent the power of money which Gatsby has plenty of. Until the end, Gatsby is hopeful that he can win Daisy with this power of money.

Another area depicting green color symbolism in The Great Gatsby is the green car which is called the “death car’. Michaelis describes the car that kills Myrtle as light green, though it’s yellow. The witness of the tragic accident towards the end of the novel is actually not even sure whether the ‘death car is indeed green or yellow in color’ – so experts believe this to be representative of the fact that only money brings death.

Perhaps the greatest and most important representation of green color in The Great Gatsby is the green light mentioned at the end of the novel, which is used to depict that Gatsby remains a dreamer throughout. This color represents an orgastic future or romantic reunion which Gatsby continues to believe in. Sentences such as ‘tomorrow we will run faster and stretch our arms wider’ also reinforce this belief.

Gold

Golden, brass, or gold is used nearly 15 times in the novel. Traditionally, these colors symbolize wealth and riches, particularly old wealth. So gold and green used in the book contrastingly symbolize old wealth and new riches (gold for Daisy and her husband Tom’s old wealth and green for newly acquired Gatsby’s wealth). Tom himself is also believed to be gold, while Gatsby is green.

Jordan, another character in the story, is also represented with gold (‘I rested my arm on Jordan’s golden shoulder’ or ‘with Jordan’s golden arm’). The color is again used to represent old money.

In chapter 7, golden tea is served at the grey tea hour, which indicates the turning light. Gold turning to yellow is often used through sentences like yellow press or yellow cocktail music to symbolize beauty, old money, and sometimes, negativity.

White

Daisy is, of course, the golden girl, but the author has also used white (49 times) to show the fairness and innocence of her character. In fact, Fitzgerald used white color symbolism very effectively to portray Daisy‘s character.

Experts who have studied the novel in depth use the example of an egg (white on the outside, yellow inside) to explain the Daisy character. She seems pure and innocent on the outside, but inside, she is yellow and corrupt.

White is also vital to the novel as it is used to portray beauty, cleanliness, wealth, laziness, purity, and virginity.

Red

Red color symbolism is also to be found in The Great Gatsby.

Red and gold books, a wine-colored rug, a crimson room, a pink suit, a red circle on water, etc., are used to depict richness, elegance, danger, tastelessness, and death, respectively.

Black

In The Great Gatsby, black wheels represent mourning, black wreaths show nervousness, and black rivulets mean sorrow.

Black is also used to symbolize injury and gloomy settings. Words like black morning and black beach show gloominess or impending doom, and Tom’s black eyes are used to represent hostility and anger.

In Conclusion

The Great Gatsby is one of the most visual pieces of literature, and many different colors are used repeatedly for its different characters. For example, white is used for Daisy as Gatsby continues to think of her as his innocent bride, whereas she is actually yellow or corrupted. Gatsby, on the other hand, is mostly linked with green, representing envy and money, but there is also blue, representing Gatsby’s hopes and illusions.

Fitzgerald has used color symbolism in The Great Gatsby to literally paint a vivid canvas that will be discussed, appreciated, and remembered for centuries.