The Symbolism of Colors in The Great Gatsby

There a several colors used for symbolism in the novel “The Great Gatsby”.

For example the colors BLUE, GREEN, WHITE and YELLOW are used throughout

the book.

The first time Nick Carraway meets his cousin Daisy Buchanan at Tom’s

and Daisy’s home, she was dressed totally in white. So as the house and

its furnishings are also tuned in light shades. This fact might be interpreted

as: beauty, cleanliness, wealth, innocence, virginity and also laziness.

Daisy’s color is white, she wears white dresses and recalls her “white

girlhood”, and this use of color helps her to characterize her as the unattainable

“enchanted princess” who becomes incarnate as Gatsby’ s dream (p.21, l.8-9).

The use of a green light at the end of a landing stage to signal a romantic

reunion, is intriguingly similar to the green light at the end of Daisy’s

Buchanan’ s dock, which becomes key image in “The Great Gatsby”. The initial

appearance of the green light occurs when Carraway sees Gatsby for the

first time, standing in front of his mansion and stretching out his arms

to ‘a single green light, minute and far away that might have been the

end of dock’ (p.22, l 31-33). The light has become, for Gatsby, the symbol

of a reunion with Daisy. Green is very significantly associated with both

the green light and the “green breast of the new world”, uniting the hope

and promise of Gatsby’ s dream with that of America itself. The color green

is traditionally associated with spring, hope and youth.

The color blue in “The Great Gatsby” represents hope for the future.

It represents a lost time, a pure color that is overly displayed, a pure

color in the valley of ashes. T.J. Eckleburg's eyes are blue, perhaps symbolizing

a higher world from which God looks down upon the scene. Tom's car being blue may even

represent the relationship between Tom and Daisy, (being unhappy), based on money and not love. Blue also represents

fantasy, and is a symbol of a different world.

As Gatsby' s lawn is blue, his house is a place where people can go

to get away from reality. His parties are out of touch with the real world,