Color Imagery - the Great Gatsby

Color Imagery – Yellow Writers often use a variety of literary devices in their literature to relate to the themes of their stories. Imagery is just one of the many that are used to create the structure for the literary pieces. Imagery can be used to form images in the reader’s mind, appealing to the human senses. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the mind behind the American Modernist novel The Great Gatsby, uses a specific form of this literary device, which is color imagery, to make a more meaningful visual experience for the reader. Patterns of certain colors represent recurring themes in the story as a whole. In The Great Gatsby, certain characters portray the significance of colors in the color theory. Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker’s actions in the story prove this point through their actions and their words. Fitzgerald’s story contains an aspect of wealth, and each character goes about it in his or her own way, connecting back to the imagery the author uses. By examining the desire for power, material possession, dishonesty, and deception, it is clear that the colors yellow and gold are used to represent these themes. Fitzgerald’s color imagery is clear when yellow is used to describe situations of greed and the desire for power throughout the story. In The Great Gatsby, there are several characters who wish to have more, who are never satisfied with what they have. They become greedy, and their actions, as small as some are, help to prove this. Daisy Buchanan is Jay Gatsby’s love interest in the story. However, it is known that she is married to Tom Buchanan, and that they have a child together. The narrator of the story, Nick Carraway, describes Tom as an aggressive, arrogant, self-absorbed, man. His aggressiveness leads him to verbally and physically abuse Daisy. One may believe that the best situation would be for her to simply leave Tom in order for her to have a better life. The thing is that Daisy cannot get herself to do that because she