Preview

Color In The Great Gatsby Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
895 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Color In The Great Gatsby Essay
Color is a drive behind the world. A thing that helps people describe what something is, who a person, and what kind of person they may be. Color is more than just a look or a style, it can describe who a person is beneath the color coat they may wear. Color determines who a person is in many stories and goes deeper than thought. The extensive use of Color is key in The Great Gatsby and helps find out who people really are.

Gray is a color used in The Great Gatsby that describes hopelessness. The Valley of Ashes “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already
…show more content…
The light at the end of the dock is a major focus in the book and it represents an envy for Gatsby’s love of his life; Daisy Buchannon. It is an envy for things of the past, bring youth, hope and spring. He is green with envy as Nick Carraway describes “In the sunlight his face was green”(123). This shows that Gatsby was full of envy, actually green with envy. Green is used through money showing that Gatsby need to have money to enjoy himself. He enjoys himself by throwing parties quite often. The reason for these parties are to try and attract Daisy to them. Green in this instance represents a hope and envy for a bright future. He is so envious that he always looks at the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock dreaming with envy that he could have her back. The green light is so far away but with his hope he believe he still can get Daisy.This shows that he longs for her, “Now it was again a green light on a dock”. Every time he looks at the light he hope it will bring a better day bringing him closer to finding Daisy. Gatsby is living in the dark and the green light brings hope to him. Green is the color of hopeful envy for a better future. For Gatsby it is a hope for

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • 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

    The author uses of the green light throughout to portray the position of the green light to Gatsby’s aspiration. The green light on Daisy’s dock warns in coming boats, even in cloudy weather. Through the harshest times, the cloudy or crazy weather, Gatsby still has hope, the green light always is seen. Green is a color representation of will and hope. His goal throughout was to have Daisy back, the green light was on her dock, in her direction. Another quest for him was the idea of the American dream. The green light showed all of the possibilities of his happiness, so close, but yet so far. It was separated from him, he was on the other side of the lake. This showed he was truly separated from his love and his dream and that he wasn’t getting…

    • 142 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fitzgerald utilizes the symbol of the green light to represent Gatsby’s hopes and dreams in order to demonstrate Gatsby’s character development. The mysterious Jay Gatsby is describing to his long lost lover Daisy that she “always has a green light that burns all night at the end of her dock” (Fitzgerald 92). Daisy’s house is right across Gatsbys; he points out the green light on her dock. Before Gatsby mentions the green light, he notices a change in the weather: “If it wasn’t for the mist” usually they would be able to “see [Daisy’s] home across the bay” (Fitzgerald 92). The weather is now foggy and they cannot see the green light as clearly as it regularly would be. Getting back Daisy is all Gatsby wanted for five years, it is his vision…

    • 345 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In conclusion, the colors green and white are both competent and symbolic colors of the novel The Great Gatsby. White representing innocence corruption and fakeness, of both men and women. While on the other hand the color green is used as a symbol for having hope, luck, and fortune. Those two colors go hand in hand with characterizing the men, like Mr.Gatsby as well as the women like Mrs.Buchanan (Daisy) in the novel. They depict on what we know about their past, present, and their future goals. They also influence the start of a person's new beginning for one day having the “American Dream.” Which answers the question, “Who really are we?” By saying we are what society makes us thrive for, and what we think is correct. The internal and…

    • 148 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory 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
  • Good Essays

    The most used color of the whole novel is green. Green symbolizes money. In the story money is the center of the characters’ lives. Gatsby thinks that having a lot of money will win over Daisy. Which he later finds out is not the case. Green in the novel is used to describe new money, the money Gatsby has. Symbols of Gatsby’s money include “his large green lawn and the green ivy growing up his house”. Another possible meaning of green is envy. Gatsby is an envious character. The love of his life, Daisy, married another man for money. He spends every second trying to win her back. Leading one to believe Gatsby is “green with envy”…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    | What colors make up Gatsby’s attire? What do these colors symbolize?White, silver, and gold symbolizing money/wealth (the white is like platinum)…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, red is used quite frequently. It represents passion, lust, rage, love, and shame, especially shame. It also closely relates to death and mortality. Throughout the book, especially in the first few chapters and the last few, different shades and tones of red will rear its head around the corner, showing us plenty of exciting and heart wrenching scenes. All the feelings, emotions, and actions that are associated with the color can easily be linked back to one household, the Buchanans.…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    -In the novel, the Great Gatsby, white represents innocence and delicacy. He has a white suit, but also with a gold tie and silver shirt. This means that part of him is innocence, but he is being corrupted and changed with wealth and money.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What colors mean anything to you? Do certain things stand out from the ordinary to you in a way that brings back a specific memory or a certain trait of yourself or someone you know?…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The green light at the end of the dock is Gatsby’s “American Dream”. The green light serves as hopefulness for Gatsby life long dream that he is going to do anything he can to accomplish his goal. “Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever.” This symbolizes that the dream of Daisy has vanished and that it will never become a dream. Gatsby will either achieve his goal of getting his dream girl or hit the bottom with failure.”The moment when Gatsby and Daisy are together, the dream Gatsby had in mind is forever not a dream anymore. All of Gatsby materialistic possessions he has are no match to the affection he has for Daisy. Even though Daisy and Gatsby had been separated from each…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The color grey a boring and depressing color used to show sadness and despair. Why would an author use this color in this book well first of grey perfectly describes the color of the people and how happy they are. Their not happy with their lives at all and grey describes that perfectly and how Gatsby just can't get over daisy and how the rich have money but they hate their lives. Now Having money would be amazing but hating your life would be terrible buts thats all these people do in the book of the Great Gatsby. This is how grey goes with the book and describes the people and thier lives of THe Great Gatsby.…

    • 117 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    F. Scott Fitzgerald paints many an image and character with color in his renowned novel, The Great Gatsby. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald employs a figurative journey comprising the color yellow to enhance and develop his themes and characters. In The Great Gatsby, there are several definitions for the color yellow, including impurity, falsity, and demise.…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In his novel “The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses color symbolism in most parts of the novel as character developments. Colors are an important part of the world around us, they can send messages and express emotions, belief that words cannot express. In the novel F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the color yellow as immorality and readers can also see that it stands for corruption. F. Scott Fitzgerald also uses the color gold, which represents wealth in his novel, “The Great Gatsby.”…

    • 529 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby: The Role Color in Chapter 3 Color plays a big role on chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby. Color can set the mood a scene or explain the personality of a person. In this quote, "In his (Gatsby's) blue gardens", blue represents a happy atmosphere where all people get along. In the Quote, "The orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music", yellow is a bright color so it means that the music is good and it is soothing to people listening to it.…

    • 274 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays