What Does Green Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

Color Essay
In The Great Gatsby there were countless areas in the book that had emotions, feelings, and many other characteristics represented by various colors. Gatsby was one of the characters that had some of these colors representing his different characteristics. Gatsby was referenced to many colors, but a couple that stood out more than the others were yellow, green, and pink/red. Yellow has a lot of possible meanings, however, the ones pertaining to Gatsby include his moments of criticality, and corruptness. Another color that has some significance to Gatsby is Green. Green can show both Gatsby’s wealth and corruptness. The last color pertaining to Gatsby is pink/red which can illustrate lust as well as danger. The colors yellow, green,
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
Gatsby’s love with Daisy is depicted when they are both looking out the window at the pink clouds above the sea line (Fitzgerald 101). In the end of chapter 7, Gatsby’s love for Daisy is also shown. When he waits outside her house in almost a stalking manner just to make sure she gets to bed safely. While he is standing out there, his pink suit is described as glowing underneath the moon (Fitzgerald 153). This pink suit symbolizes his love for Daisy. This general color can also mean something completely different. It can also be a symbol for death or dangerous events. An example of this death color is shown in this quote from the end of chapter 8: “The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of compass, a thin red circle in the water (Fitzgerald 173).” The red is not only suppose to stand as an illustration of the blood in the pool but as a representation of Gatsby being