After acquainting myself with several The Great Gatsby essay examples and conducting thorough research, I can confidently assert that the color that someone likes the most, more often than not reveals a lot about their personality. With that in mind, Fitzgerald uses certain colors to show certain characters' true intentions and personalities. In the book The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald pushes the idea of the American Dream, and how practically anyone can achieve their dreams if they work hard enough for it. But, unfortunately, many people today are not able to achieve their dream due to the cycle of debt. So when understanding each other and their American dream we can use colors to decipher who they are. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses colors, and symbols to illustrate every character's true personality. And to add depth and push the theme of the American Dream.
Gold and yellow in The Great Gatsby have been used frequently throughout the book, and it has numerous meanings that can show the reader the characters' true intentions. Gold and yellow symbolize money, aristocracy, and Daisy. Furthermore, it also signifies affluence, greed, and cowardice. For Gatsby, pursuing Daisy proves to be no simple task. Gatsby works his way to becoming a more prosperous, rich, and influential person, all in order to attain his American dream, Daisy. Gatsby, therefore, utilizes the color yellow and gold, in his clothing, car, house decor, and party to display that he is a glamorous and high-class individual. To Gatsby, Daisy is a sort of dream girl, “High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl” (65) In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is flinging his shirts to Daisy. But then, Daisy cries, with her face down in his shirt. She had finally realized that if she hadn't left Gatsby then, she would be living graciously with Gatsby, instead of being in an abusive marriage.
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In The Great Gatsby, the color white is also very prevalent throughout the book. While Fitzgerald not only uses the color white to symbolize certain traits, but also certain people in the book, particularly Daisy. Daisy is Gatsby’s Golden girl, but, Fitzgerald uses the color white to emphasize the fairness and innocence of Daisy throughout this book. White symbolizes purity, innocence, peace, immaculate loveliness, nobility, and beauty. When Daisy and Gatsby first met Daisy was wearing a white dress, Fitzgerald describes it as so, “She was dressed in white and had a little white roadster” (p79). This gives the reader the perception that Daisy is pure, innocent, and high class. However, white is a sort of double-edged sword, white may also symbolize emptiness, superficiality, and selfishness. Characterizing Daisy with the color white displays that she only has two sides to her personality. Daisy’s life is filled with luxury. She wasted her life with boring activities and a lack of social contact. To simply state the obvious, the color white is used to symbolize Daisy as both a pure and corrupt person.
Finally, green symbolizes vitality, confidence, and hope. Green represents Gatsby's American Dream and the love of his life, the pursuit of his American Dream practically ruined his life. The very first time the green light was mentioned was at the tail end of chapter one. “Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (p24). A beacon is at the end of Daisy’s dock. In the eyes of Gatsby, the beacon represents Daisy, who is his American dream. The next time the beacon is brought up was in chapter five. Gatsby says to Daisy that “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock” (p99). He realized his dream, but he loses his dream, because of the difference between the real Daisy and the Daisy he imagined. The next time the beacon was mentioned was at the end of the book, with Gatsby’s death, people that were close to him almost completely disregarded his existence, which shows the true reality of the American Dream. Gatsby believes in the beacon, the orgiastic future that, as time goes by, slips out of the grip of children and adults around the world. “It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (p193). The reality of his dream, the beacon also shows how hope and the struggles toward our dream, can be crushed or achieved with the snap of a finger. How basic everyone's lives can be, to the point where everyone can be utterly destroyed by the simple loss of hope.
In conclusion, Fitzgerald creates and shapes a world that colors around the characters of the novel, not only constructing distinctive looks and behaviors but likewise elaborating upon their personalities and sentiments. The colors associate the reader with the novel by making them experience the book as it happens. This creates a greater connection and makes the reader really feel and understand the characters. A great example; is Gatsby, who was beautifully created to deceive the reader, then suddenly make the reader feel great for him. Not only did Fitzgerald create a whole world in this novel, but he also uses full lines of rich color imagery to create this world. Gatsby’s personality is immensely shaped by the color imagery, validating how great The Great Gatsby was.
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