What Does The Blue Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

As a reader becomes immersed in a novel, there is a sense of captivation within a fantasy world where characters come to life, vivid images of setting fill the mind, and skin tingles with emotion. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, readers are taken from the poverty stricken times of the 1920s to a world at which point there is a capsulated moment of escape. Fitzgerald’s inclusion of imagery through color helps to exemplify the characteristics and symbols throughout the novel. The use of color in literature can foreshadow an event, personify a feeling, and convey a character’s traits. Regal, seductive, and murderous, Fitzgerald uses gold to describe old money and the successful. While Nick and Gatsby are waiting outside of the Buchanan’s house to go into the city, Tom is described as a king in his palace and Daisy is his queen,

During Gatsby’s transformation from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby, Cody buys Gatsby a “blue coat” for his future expeditions, hinting at the fact that Gatsby’s wealth is an illusion (Fitzgerald 136). A more prominent symbol in the book is the “blue” eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg (Fitzgerald 36). Wilson explains to Myrtle how the eyes of God are always watching, but is T.J. a symbol in its self? The initials T.J. have commonly represented the president Thomas Jefferson throughout American History. Jefferson was an agronomist and believed that a nation needed to protect and multiply their resources and if this happened any nation rooted in their agriculture economy could not fail. The valley of ashes is filled with farmland and gardens made of ashes, alluding to how industrialization has taken over and people have moved onto better things. In a sense, this ad foreshadows the market collapse of the 20’s and Jefferson looks over the remains of everything he fought