Araby's Use Of Color In The Great Gatsby

Humans are constantly experiencing color, whether they realize it or not. It plays a vital role in how we experience the world; it evokes emotions and influences mood. Many authors recognize its power and thus fill their work with symbolic meaning and representation through color and shading. James Joyce, known for packing symbolic meaning in almost every word, utilizes colorful descriptions to enhance his short story, “Araby”, from the collection Dubliners. Both color and shade manifests ideas about growing up and finding love. F. Scott Fitzgerald mimics this descriptive technique in his novel, The Great Gatsby. In this piece, Fitzgerald develops key characters by using color description which helps lead the story. Both Joyce and Fitzgerald
use color and shade to not only enhance the setting, but to also represent the character’s inner selves. The symbolic use of color is evident through Fitzgerald and Joyce assigning each character a specific color that evolves with them throughout the story. Daisy is introduced to the reader as a whimsical, pure, angelic girl “in a white dress” that was “rippling and fluttering” (Fitzgerald 8). From this, we can easily deduce that Daisy’s color is white; a color commonly associated with purity, flawlessness and innocence. Daisy has an aura about her that enraptures everyone she meets. To the outside world, her life seems perfect with her beautiful white house and loving white husband. However, much like the flower for which she is named, this white outside surrounds a yellowed core.
As Daisy’s pure white shell is removed, her selfishness and greed are exposed through the use of yellow. In Daisy’s darkest moment, when she kills Myrtle, she uncoincidentally drives a yellow car. Daisy’s opulent lifestyle taints and corrupts her soul. All Daisy has ever known is money and comfort, not having to work for anything she wants. Money played a very valuable role in the Jazz Age of the 1920s. Fitzgerald uses Daisy to comment on “the hollow and superficial upper class” of this time, whose lives revolved around their wealth (Zhang 42). Daisy allows the world to see her whiteness, in the hopes of evoking jealousy in others. However, the one and only Jay Gatsby can see through her white façade to her yellow core. He too tries to disguise his real self, but unlike Daisy, he wants to show his yellow attributes. Gatsby’s yellow however, is more of a gold, to show the wealth he has accumulated for Daisy and for her love. He “garnished” his dresser with “a toilet set of pure dull gold,” his not so subtle way of showing Daisy how well off he has become (Fitzgerald 91). Gatsby knows how much Daisy values money and believes the only way she will love him as much as he loves her is if he is living as
opulent a lifestyle as she does. While Daisy disguises her yellow, Gatsby is disguising his true blue self. Blue, a color associated with sadness and loneliness, is a part of Gatsby’s life since he was poor “James Gatz of North Dakota” (Fitzgerald 98). Gatsby is very unhappy with the cards he has been handed, especially when he meets Daisy, and does everything he can to push it down. He changes himself in order to seem more appealing to the money-driven people of this time, most importantly Daisy. He does whatever he can, including illegal dealings, for Daisy to just love him and run away with him. This is paralleled in Joyce’s “Araby”. The girl, “a brown clad figure” is the motive behind much of what the boy does. (Joyce 1) Brown, a very earthly color, represents maturity. Like Gatsby, the boy believes that he is able to buy the love of the girl. He believes if he exhibits the same maturity as her, she will realize that she loves him and all will be right in the world. While the boy is not necessarily assigned a specific color, he wants to be brown, to be mature. The boy however is not having the purest thoughts of the girl. Seeing her “triggers the first liquid diffusion” (Doherty 3). This brown represents the dirty and muddy way the boy views the girl. It in a way represents a maturity, but not the maturity he wants. The boy later learns how foolish he has been and that money cannot buy the love of the girl. Gatsby, however is unable to learn this valuable lesson since his life was cut short because of the greed and corruption that followed him. The strategic use of color helped develop characters of both the boy and Gatsby and overall enhance each story.
The use of shade throughout both The Great Gatsby and “Araby” is used to describe the characters’ true reality.
Grey, a color considered to be a shade, often represents the loss of emotion and the dullness in people and objects. Yet, this color exhibits the true misconception of how the characters perceive reality. “About half way between West Egg and New York.. is a valley of shadows” upon “the grey land” with “ash-grey men” and “lines of grey cars” (Fitzgerald 23). Shadows often evoke the unknown and create a sense of mystery which is true for the people of West Egg. In their “reality”, colors such as white, blue and gold are used to illustrate their exuberant homes and lives while the rest of the world in covered in this grey area. The “Valley of Shadows” connects to grey since it is between the two areas: one being the dream and fantasy while the other is the nightmare. This balance between the light and dark is what one would experience in daily life involving issues including stress, family and love. The “West Eggers” don’t experience much of true life since they are blanketed with materialistic items and unrealistic views. The “reality shade” is around them however they never experience it due to the veil that covers their eyes. Like a bride on her wedding day, only then when the groom removes the veil can she see the reality that she is getting married. Until then, only the dream of being married encompasses her thoughts. Kathleen Parkinson acknowledges “he
[Gatsby] perceived a new reality in place of the dream that dominated his life” (Parkinson 36). This acceptance of reality is also presented in Araby when the boy finally realizes that the love in which he seeks is unrealistic and can’t be bought. The boy, throughout most of the passage, was focused on Mangan’s sister, continuously describing her as a “light” figure representing purity and hope. On the contrary, the boy when looking at his love, vaguely saw clarity. He “looked over at the dark house where she lived.” (Joyce 2). This displays the idea that shade is connected to the true grasp of reality. He saw her not as the light but as darkness in which is lived in. He is quick to forget this awareness instantly reverting back to fantasy. Due to his infatuation with her, the boy is convinced that going to Araby and buying her a gift will finally sprout a relationship. When navigating through this fantasy bazaar, the boy is interrupted by “the greater part of the hall [which was in] darkness” (Joyce 4). The boy is slowly understanding that love is not easily bought since most of the stores were closed symbolizing the waning of this fantasy. As well, in the boy’s final moments he “[gazes] up into the darkness and saw [himself] as a creature of vanity” (Joyce 5). No longer absorbed in the impractical dream, he embraces reality only to see how influenced one concept affected him and was distraught. Florence L. Walzl describes this realization as “ he [the boy] realizes his blindness…” (Walzl 224). As did Gatsby, it took a moment of darkness to bring out truth in the light. Both the boy and the characters in The Great Gatsby are blinded by their yearning desires, dismissing the concept of reality entirely. Grasping upon the truth creates a single moment of clarity, in the darkness.