The Great Gatsby Color symbolism

“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions”   “Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions” --Pablo Picasso

Gold Richness happy or prosperous: golden days, golden age successful: the golden girl extremely valuable: a golden opportunity

Gold At Gatsby's parties even the turkeys turn to gold. "..turkeys bewitched to a dark gold" (p. 41). Jordan Baker - the golden girl of golf - is associated with that color. "With Jordan's slender golden arm resting in mine" (p. 44); "I put my arm around Jordan's golden shoulder" (p. 77).

Yellow Sometimes the gold at Gatsby's house turns to yellow "now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music" (p. 42). In contrast to the golden girl Jordan, her admirers are only yellow. "two girls in twin yellow dresses"; "»You don't know who we are,« said one of the girls in yellow, »but we met you here about a month ago.«" "... we sat down at a table with the two girls in yellow" (all p. 44). Remarkably Daisy's daughter has old and yellow hair: "Did mother get powder on your old yellowy hair?" (p. 111). Sometimes the gold at Gatsby's house turns to yellow

Silver jewelry and richness In The Great Gatsby the moon or moonlight or the stars are often silver: "the silver pepper of the stars" (p. 25); "The moon had risen higher, and floating in the Sound was a triangle of silver scales" (p. 48); "A silver curve of the moon hovered already in the western sky" (p. 114). jewelry and richness

White 1) morally unblemished honorable; pure When Nick Caraway visited the Buchanans he met two young women, of course Daisy and Jordan "They were both in white" (p. 13). Even the windows at Daisy's house are white "The windows were ajar and gleaming white" (p. 13). "Our white girlhood was passed together there. Our beautiful white" (Daisy and Jordan, p. 24). "they came to a place where there were no trees and the sidewalk was white with moonlight" (Daisy and Gatsby, p. 106). In a El-Greco-like picture at the end of the novel "four solemn men in dress suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken woman in a white evening dress" (p. 167). "His heart beat faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own" (p. 107).

White Daisy Fay. She wears white clothes and has a white car. Fitzgerald uses the color white for At the end of the novel ["the party was over" (p. 171), like the end of the Jazz Age at the Great Depression 1929] somebody soiled Gatsby's house. "On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight, and I erased it" (p. 171). Daisy Fay. She wears white clothes and has a white car.

Green This green light is across the sea where Buchanan's house is supposed to be. Gatsby said: "»You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock«" (p. 90); "Now it was again a green light on a dock" (p. 90); “ ...when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock" (p. 171); "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us" (p. 171). Later the whole water between Gatsby and Daisy gets green "On the green Sound, stagnant in the heat,.." (p. 112). Once (as far as I found it) Fitzgerald used "green" for envious or jealous: "In the sunlight his face was green" (George Wilson, p. 117). Fitzgerald used it mainly for "not faded", like in "a green old age", or for hope.

Grey is often used for neutral dull not important "grey little villages in France" (p. 48); "The grey windows disappeared" (at Gatsby's house, p. 91); "... a grey, florid man with a hard, empty face" (p. 97) The Wilsons, living in the valley of ashes, appear in grey, except for Myrtle, when she enjoys the company of Tom Buchanan. Wilson "mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity – except his wife, who moved close to Tom" (p. 28).

Blue the color of being depressed Moody unhappy Although a lot of people are in and around his house, his gardens (plural!) are blue. "... ghostly birds began to sing among the blue leaves" (p. 144 After Myrtle's death George Wilson and Mr.Michaelis are in a blue mood. " ... a blue quickening by the window, and realized that dawn wasn't far off. About five o'clock it was blue enough outside to snap off the light" (p. 151). The most unhappy place is the graveyard: "He had come a long way to this blue lawn" (Carraway at Gatsby's grave, p. 171). Blue the color of being depressed Moody unhappy

Pink Sometimes Gatsby comes up in the color pink. "the luminosity of his pink suit under the moon" (Gatsby, p.136). When Gatsby and Daisy are finally together, "there was a pink and golden billow of foamy clouds above the sea" (p. 91).

Red Alive Joy Love Shame rage The inside of Buchanan's home is in red. "We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-colored space" (p. 13); "Inside, the crimson room bloomed with light" (p. 22).

Light Light colors represent dreams or goals Gatsby follows the pure light of the grail Gatsby is reintroduced to Daisy on a dewy bright morning.

Dark The Valley of Ashes is the stark opposition to East and West Egg All of Gatsby's parties are held at night and are bright with a false light. Dark colors are the realities of Gatsby's dream-like life.

Symbolism in The Great Gatsby The Elements

EAST EGG = AIR It is crisp, clean, white, breezy here in East Egg. Everything is fresh and pristine. The upper crust (higher class) live here. The Buchannan couple have an “air” of self importance about them. Old Family Money dominates – this family has been on top looking down on the rest of the world for quite a while. Heaven is represented in East Egg.

West Egg = WATER New Money abounds. The American Dream is alive and well as even immigrants from across the water become successful. Partygoer’s (mostly perfect strangers to even Gatsby himself) practically drown themselves in Gatsby’s wealth. Jay even dies in the pool.

New York - EARTH The working class live in the Valley of Ashes. Everything is gray and desolate. Hopes and Dreams are more rare in this earthly place. God (symbolized by the forgotten billboard of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg) watches the earth from above but seems to have forgotten this class of people.

Manhattan = FIRE It is always HOT here. They cannot seem to quench their thirst while in Manhattan. Violence seems commonplace here. The atmosphere, moods of characters tend to be HOT here as well. Hell is represented by both Manhattan (fire) and New York (earth).

Manhattan = Artificial Light Light Themes East Egg = Sunlight West Egg = Moonlight Manhattan = Artificial Light