Preview

Green Symbolism In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
433 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Green Symbolism In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
Everyday, we come across different colors. To some people, these colors that we see have a specific meaning or remind them of someone/something. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, all of the characters have a color that represents their personality.
Firstly, the color green makes me think of Jay Gatsby. This color fits Gatsby well because green symbolizes hope and wealth. Throughout the book, Gatsby never loses hope that he will one day soon see Daisy again after 5 years. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before.” (pg 180). This quote helps prove why the color describes Gatsby because it tells us that he never gave up hope for Daisy and he did everything he could to see

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Colors are a powerful form of communication used to convey what words cannot. Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism in the form of color is on display in nearly every chapter of The Great Gatsby. To understand his use of color as a symbol, a reader must recognize the situations in which they are used. Fitzgerald applies colors to his characters to hint at their personalities. The colors are intentionally repeated multiple times to establish a significance between them and the characters personality they are used to symbolize. Therefore, to understand each character entirely, colors must be considered. Throughout The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald uses color symbolism to show how people mask their personalities to hide from the truth which results in negative…

    • 123 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Colors and matching emotions we are familiar with most commonly are dark and light. Dark colors can initiate the unknown, death, or fear while lighter colors can resemble welcoming feelings, prosperity, and goodness. What about colors like green ? Green is often is associated with growth, prosperity, and hope. For instance, in the book and recent movie, “The Great Gatsby,” where the protagonist, Gatsby is longs for the companionship of his long lost love Daisy. Gatsby revolves his entire life around gaining her affection and even lives directly across a large lake from Daisy to keep an eye on her. The author of this story puts a green light at the end of the dock found at Daisy’s home. Gatsby spends countless nights looking at this light hoping that one day his lifelong dreams will come true. The light symbolizes Gatsby’s hope and progression into the direction of his…

    • 1704 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Symbolism of Colors in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby Throughout the book, “The Great Gatsby” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A lot of colors are used to symbolize personalities, places or even foreshadowing. The colors chosen were white, yellow and red. They can have different meanings but in the book they are known for: purity, decay and blood.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Green is representative of the power that Gatsby has with his wealth. An example of this is when he is throwing his clothes around the room. One of the shirts is described as “apple-green” (Fitzgerald 99). This represents his money because he uses the shirts to showcase his wealth and try to win over Daisy. Another place where Gatsby’s tries to use his wealth to show off it with his car. “He felt the hot, green leather of the seats (Fitzgerald 128).” This quote shows the wealth of his car and how he tries to use it in order to show off to Daisy by suggesting that he, Nick, Tom, and Daisy all take his car to get into town. Green is also used to show Gatsby’s corruptness and deceitfulness. When Michaelis described the car that hit Myrtle to the police officer he said it was light-green when its actual color was yellow (Fitzgerald 147). This represents corruptness because Gatsby allows Daisy to speed off in his car after she just ran over Myrtle Wilson. The last example of green being a corrupt color is the green light Gatsby saw at the end of Daisy’s dock (Fitzgerald LAST). The corruptness in this example is shown because it wraps up all the bad relationships in the end of the book with all the characters, and how Gatsby never would end up being with Daisy, the girl of his dreams. This connection between Gatsby and Daisy was depicted in great detail throughout the…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “A lie has many colours, while white is the only faithful color of truth” (Khan). In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald used primary symbols in his novel that would interest the reader. When Fitzgerald used colors as primary symbols he used primary colors in the novel so that the reader can shape the novel’s theme for the reader. When he used colors in his novel he used colors as symbols to mean something different. The colors that he used in this novel speaks a different language to the reader such as the quote in the beginning of this paragraph. The use of colors used in Fitzgerald’s novel symbolizes happiness, greef, purity and guilt. F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the novel’s everlasting optimism theme through the use…

    • 135 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    For one, it symbolizes hope. Gatsby has a lot of hope that he and Daisy will make their way back to each other. Gatsby thinks that the green light on the dock is like a spring renewal for him and Daisy. However, green can have a much darker meaning to it for Gatsby. It can show envy and jealousy.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Green is usually associated with the emotion of envy and jealousy. Gatsby says, “If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,”. That color characteristic really embodies Gatsby’s feelings each time he stares at the home of Daisy and Tom across the bay. Then the text goes on to say, “Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever.” When the text says that the green light might possibly have now vanished forever, it is refering to how in Gatsby’s eyes they are almost together already, but right after that Gatsby acknowledges that they aren’t together yet. “Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock.” After being suddenly so close to Daisy again, and…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The color green also generally stands for the future, life, and exploration, which Fitzgerald proves in this quote. Nick portrays an indifferent melancholy tone on Gatsby’s life when he states “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us”(Fitzgerald 180). The word “recedes” signifies how Gatsby’s feelings never go away and always reoccur. This shows significance because Gatsby reveals his incapability to move one from Daisy and his past. He ends up only battling himself and chasing his own lonely sad fate. The incapability to move on shows Gatsby’s hardships and the American dream…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Color has been known to carry emotion. It has the power to make us feel warm or cool, eerie or pleasant. F. Scott Fitzgerald does just that in one of the greatest pieces of literature out there, The Great Gatsby. He manages to capture a variety of different essences and takes us with the characters in the downward spiral that is The Great Gatsby.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are a lot of colors that could be used to describe the characters in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but one that really stands out is the color green. The color green is most represented by money, hope, and fertility. By describing someone by using the color green, you could be saying that they have high self-respect and well-being. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses green a lot in the money side of the color. Green could also mean learning, growth and harmony, which you see some of is The Great Gatsby. The color green is also described as the color of balance, and is designated as the safe color. The characters that the color green represent the best are Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan. Fitzgerald uses the color green to describe Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses color as a symbol throughout the novel. Colors can be used as foreshadowing in stories, commonly used to depict feelings of a character. These colors are used to create several settings throughout the book, along with several moods and are most definitely significant throughout the entire novel. Firstly, the discussion of the color gold and how it exemplifies wealth, happiness, and the attractive odds of attaining success will take place. Secondly, the color white will be discussed, pertaining how it describes perfection along with the value of honor. Lastly, the color green will be discussed, pertaining how the color depicts a better time along with the value of hope. Thus, because of the usage of the colors in the novel; gold, white, and green exemplify certain themes, moods, and symbols throughout the novel.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby introduced life during the 1920s where color was represented to serve ideal purposes of expressions and ideas. Fitgerald added symbolism to the novel by introducing symbolic values to the colors green and white. Fitzgerald uses green to allude to Gatsby's choices, attitudes, and thoughts; while white represented a social facade behind every character's action.…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, color is expressed in a variety of ways. The author uses color to emphasize his vision. The use of color throughout the novel further advances the emotion and irony between the characters relationships. To fully understand the meaning behind the color, it is important to identify the environment in which they are used in. White, green, gold and more are colors that Fitzgerald wants the reader to visualize a more in depth meaning. This is done so the audience can feel the emotion and thought process of the characters. Without this symbolism of color used throughout the novel, readers will not acquire the right connection to the characters. Life in color gives people an advantage to a greater understanding of emotions that are felt day-by-day.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The green light, which is representative of the American Dream, also represents everything Gatsby wants with Daisy. Half of green is blue, which is the perfect life the Gatsby sees possible with Daisy. It is the happiness he had with Daisy as a young man. However, Gatsby does not perceive the other half of green which is yellow. Yellow, just as in the Christian religion, is representative of greed and wealth. "Gatsby, seeking the blue, is blind to the sordid yellow" (Schneider 1). Yellow is the money in Daisy’s voice; it is the difference in class that will always keep them apart. It is this yellow that will be one of the two things that will represent the end of Gatsby and Daisy's…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel green symbolizes the choices that Jay Gatsby made in his lifetime. Naturally the color green is meant to symbolize boldness and stability. In this case the color green symbolizes Gatsby's ambition into having the american dream. Giving him hope, luck, and money. In the beginning of the novel, we get to know a lot about Gatsby’s past and his love for Daisy.…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays

Related Topics