gatcolor Color Symbols and Symbolism in The Great Gatsby

Color Symbolism in The Great Gatsby

Colors can symbolize many different things. Artists use colors in their

paintings when they want you to see what they are trying to express. Like if

an artist is trying to express sorrow or death he often uses blacks blues, and

grays basically he uses dreary colors. You automatically feel what the artist

is trying to express. When the artist uses bright colors you feel warm and you

feel happiness. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald is like an

artist. He uses colors to symbolize the many different intangible ideas in the

book. He uses the color yellow to symbolize moral decay decadence and death.

Then he uses the color white to symbolize innocence. He also uses the color

green to express hope. Fitzgerald's use of the color green the strongest.

Although these are not the only colors that Fitzgerald uses for symbolism, they

are the ones that he expresses the most. This book is a very colorful book in

the sense that it uses colors to cover so many different aspects of peoples

lives.

Fitzgerald uses the color yellow to symbolize moral decay. On (Page 18)

he writes " The lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf

yellow of her hair." He is talking about Tom and Jordan Baker, and he is

suggesting that tom might be heading for moral decay. In the book there are

several things that Tom does that might prove this. First of all Tom is having

an affair with Myrtle Wilson. A second thing is that he does not like Gatsby,

and several times he tries to prove that he is not who he says he is. Tom even

hires a detective to prove this. Gatsby had a Rolls Royce that was yellow "His

station wagon scampered like a yellow brisk-bug . . ." (Page 39). Gatsby's car

was referred to many times in the book, but it was always referred to as "The

yellow car" (Page 157).

The color yellow was used most frequently when there was a death. One

of the first things that Fitzgerald wrote about when Myrtle died was when they

laid her on a table in the garage.