That ashen fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous Ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about.like When Nick imagines Gatsby's future withoutĭaisy, he sees "a new world, material without being real, where poor So green does represent a kind of hope, but Green tickets" that the rich kids of Chicago use as entry to theirįabulous parties, the kind of parties where Daisy and Tom meet, and Green also shows up-we think significantly-as the "long The new world being this land as Nick imagines it existed hundreds of Lines, Nick also describes the "fresh, green breast of the new world," You know, the green light of the "orgastic future" that we stretch The most noticeable image is that green light we seem to see over and Represent life and springtime and other happy events. We're thinking green = plants and trees and stuff, so it must Green: Life, Vitality, The Future, Exploration We're not too surprised when she shows up with a gun at the end of the
His suit (2.17), and his eyes are described as "pale" and "glazed." Wilson's face is "ashen," and a "white ashen dust" covers Our main contender is Wilson: "WhenĪnyone spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable colorless
Is associated with the ash heaps, anyone described as grey is going toīe connected to barren lifelessness. The ash heaps are associated with lifelessness and barrenness, and grey
Grey and a General Lack of Color: Lifelessness (no surprise there) As for Tom's car…well, you can field that Illusions and alternatives to reality, maybe that makes the eyes of God Eckleburg are also blue, and so is Tom's car. You tie this up under one simple label, keep in mind that the eyes of Sends a woman who comes to his house a "gas blue" dress (3.25). Sparked by Cody, who buys him, among other things, a "blue coat"-and he Is his "blue lawn" (9.150), mingled with the "blue smoke of brittle His gardensĪre blue, his chauffeur wears blue, the water separating him from Daisy We did notice that the colorīlue is present around Gatsby more than any other character. There's the color blue, which we think represents Gatsby's illusions. Or was there no such purity to begin with? Or, in some way, doesĭaisy's decision to remain with Tom allow her to keep her innocence? Of the novel, she's described as selfish, careless, and destructive.ĭoes this make the point that even the purest characters in Gatsby haveīeen corrupted? Did Daisy start off all innocent and fall along the way, ButĬome on – Daisy is hardly the picture of girlish innocence. Likes to say that white in The Great Gatsby means innocence, probablyīecause (1) that's easy to say and (2) everyone else is saying it. Girlhood," the king's daughter "high in a white palace"). So are her clothes, the rooms of her house, andĪbout half the adjectives used to describe her (her "white neck," "white We're looking at cars, notice that Daisy's car (back before she was Glasses, looking over the wasteland of America, are yellow. Yellow dresses" who aren't as alluring as the golden Jordan (3.15).Īlso yellow? Gatsby's car, symbol of his desire-and failure-to enter New "yellow cocktail music" at Gatsby's party (1) and the "two girls in twin Gold it's veneer and show rather than substance. Wearing a gold tie to see Daisy at Nick's house. Golden arm" (3.19), and Daisy the "golden girl" (7.99), and Gatsby Where the turkeys are "bewitched to dark gold," and Jordan's "slender Money" – not these new-fangled dollar bills. We're talking about the real stuff, the authentic, traditional, "old Off, we've got yellows and golds, which we're thinking has something toĭo with…gold (in the cash money sense). Fitzgerald uses color like a preschooler let loose with tempera paints-only a little more meaningfully. The green light isn't the only symbolic color in Great Gatsby.