Red In The Great Gatsby

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In the book The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a vast amount of colors to represent characters in the book. For instance, Gatsby is one of, if not, the main character in the book. Every single color in the book has to do with Gatsby. The three main colors in this book or most used colors are red, yellow, and black. These three colors seem to have the most meaning. When it comes to Gatsby, these colors represent him in many ways. Red is by far the most used color in this book. It is used so much because it has so many meanings. The color red is interchangeable with the colors crimson, ruby, blood, and rose. Red comes in various shades too, but with each different shade comes a different meaning. There is light red, pink, dark red, and Gatsby does just that by throwing these huge, movie like parties in his huge mansion. While at these parties there is a lot of yellow in the setting, and it is used to describe a lot of people at the party too. In the book yellow and gold are classified as the same thing but they have different meanings. There is yellow cocktail music being played in the background while there are twin sisters wearing yellow dresses. Gatsby has his very nice and very expensive car painted yellow (Fitzgerald 167). All these possessions seem nice, but they really are not. The meaning of yellow in this book is fake, desire, and cowardness. Yellow is fake gold which means that it looks valuable and looks like real gold but underneath that coat of “gold” there is nothing but a plain old coin or man. Gatsby has some real gold belongings that do symbolize wealth; his gold ties and gold toilet show his wealth (Fitzgerald 85, 93). Gatsby uses his yellow music and his yellow car to distract people into thinking that they are something that they are not. The yellow cocktail music makes laughter become easier and easier at Gatsby’s parties (Fitzgerald 44). The way the music makes that happen shows that it is a distraction tactic used by Gatsby and is used to make the party seem more appealing. When the twins in yellow dresses did a baby act Gatsby brought out more champagne It has many meanings and many of them are dark and sad. Black signifies grief, depression, loneliness, secrets, and the unknown. It does not have many positive meanings, and it may not have any positive meanings. Gatsby relates a lot to black. Gatsby holds a lot of his feelings in and the only time he lets them out is in ways only he knows what they mean. These ways are by the using the colors at his parties, in his house, and his belongings. Gatsby shows a lot of grief in this book the black sand on his beach at one of his parties shows the grief he has from Daisy not liking the party he just had (Fitzgerald 117). Gatsby is a very mysterious man and nobody in this book would say anything different. He hides a lot about his life to almost everybody in this book, and he keeps a lot of secrets, especially about himself and his past. Gatsby finally comes true about his dark and mysterious past, his real name is James Gatz (Fitzgerald 106). Black has a lot to do with death in this book and there are many signs death is coming. There is a black knotted tree sitting right in front of house that represents death, Gatsby’s death, and it is right in front of his eyes the whole time (Fitzgerald 89). Towards the end of the book after Gatsby is killed at his funeral there is a black hearse that drives by (Fitzgerald 175). The hearse in a way tops off the sadness and darkness in the book, it shows that the damage is done and the darkness

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