Color Symbolism and Meanings in the Great Gatsby Term Paper

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color in "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

COLOR IN THE GREAT GATSBY

Fitzgerald uses color elaborately in "The Great Gatsby," and it usually has some ulterior meaning, like the "green light" that appears throughout the novel. Many critics say the green light symbolizes Daisy, but it is more than that.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning..." (Fitzgerald 212). The green light is the whole type of life they were living. Their lives did not mean much -- they were empty and phony. They lived them year after year because that is what they did in East Egg, and society was the most important thing, you were who you knew, and what you had.

There are several other green references in the novel, and they all have something to do with the lifestyle, and how these shallow people live. Wilson's face is green just before the "yellow car" hits his wife. The trees that gave way for Gatsby's house were green, and so is the water in the sound, on that hot day when they all drove into New York, and everything changed. Green in the novel also signifies change, as well as life going on.

The green light also symbolizes the divide between West Egg and East Egg. Gatsby can see the green light from his house in West Egg, but no matter how much money he has, and how many parties he throws, the people of West Egg will still look down on him a little bit. West Egg just does not measure up, and the green light shining across the green bay that divides the two communities, is the visible symbol that in the eyes of the residents of East Egg, West Egg is just another town, and they "slum it" when they come to Gatsby's parties.

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Of course green is also the color of money, and money is the ultimate theme of the book. You can call it many different things, from "money is the root of all evil," to "money does not buy happiness," to "money corrupts," but the book is all about money, and the references to green throughout the book can also all lead back to money, or the lack of it.

The color green, the color of money, plays an especially important role in this book - the light at the end of Daisy's deck, the same light that Gatsby watches every night, is green, and at the end of the novel, Nick describes North America as the large, undeveloped piece of green land had filled that the original Dutch explorers with hope and ambition. In this work, the color green symbolizes the quest for the American Dream and the belief of many Americans that….....

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