Fitzgerald’s Use of Color in the Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, exposes the corruption and greed of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald is able to captivate readers' attentions through his employment of color symbolism. Fitzgerald portrays important messages in the novel by his symbolic use of colors. Colors play an important role in Fitzgerald’s descriptions of the lives of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway and many of the other characters in the novel. Fitzgerald uses the colors white, yellow, and green to express certain sentiments to the reader, commenting what is going on in the story. Fitzgerald uses the color white to symbolize purity and innocence, while yellow is used to symbolize moral decay, and death. Green is used to represent hope and dreams for the future. The reader is able to acknowledge these colors and understand the mood being expressed through their symbolism.
White is one of the main symbolic colors in The Great Gatsby, representing purity, innocence, and honesty. Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Jordan Baker, and Daisy Buchanan are all examples of how Fitzgerald uses white to describe both personalities and social status. Additionally, Fitzgerald employs the use of the color white to depict both the environment and social context of East Egg. In the opening chapter of the novel, the narrator, Nick Carraway, describes the “white palaces of fashionable East Egg” (Fitzgerald, 5). A.E. Elmore reflects on the description of East Egg and its inhabitants in his article “Color and Cosmos in The Great Gatsby”: “the pervasively white mansion of the Buchanans, who dress in white and talk endlessly about the white race” (428). East Egg is considered to be old money and those who reside there do not wish to share their land with foreigners or even people who have recently acquired their wealth. “Civilization's going to pieces...the idea is that if we don't look out the white race will be – will be utterly submerged” (Fitzgerald, 12-13) Tom Buchanan warns Nick on
White is one of the main symbolic colors in The Great Gatsby, representing purity, innocence, and honesty. Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Jordan Baker, and Daisy Buchanan are all examples of how Fitzgerald uses white to describe both personalities and social status. Additionally, Fitzgerald employs the use of the color white to depict both the environment and social context of East Egg. In the opening chapter of the novel, the narrator, Nick Carraway, describes the “white palaces of fashionable East Egg” (Fitzgerald, 5). A.E. Elmore reflects on the description of East Egg and its inhabitants in his article “Color and Cosmos in The Great Gatsby”: “the pervasively white mansion of the Buchanans, who dress in white and talk endlessly about the white race” (428). East Egg is considered to be old money and those who reside there do not wish to share their land with foreigners or even people who have recently acquired their wealth. “Civilization's going to pieces...the idea is that if we don't look out the white race will be – will be utterly submerged” (Fitzgerald, 12-13) Tom Buchanan warns Nick on
Cited: Eble, Kenneth E. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Criticism, New York. McGraw-Hill, 1973. 78.3 (1970): 427-443. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. Fitzgerald, F Gatsby"." Modern Humaniites Research Association. 57.3 (1962): 335-339. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. Parkinson, Kathleen Books, 1990. Pearson, Roger English. 59.5 (1970): 638-645. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. Westbrook, J.S