Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald' usage of color symbolism creates the different feelings and attitudes that are prevalent throughout The Great Gatsby.

Fitzgerald uses different shades of white to veil Daisy Buchanan's corruption; however, through Gatsby's eyes, Daisy represents innocence and purity. She is solely described as "dressed in white," her face whitened by powder, as she mentions her "white girlhood". The millionaire describes this perfect princess figure to be "high in a white palace, the king's daughter, the golden girl." This initial use of color helps characterize her as the unattainable "enchanted princess" who becomes incarnate as Gatsby's dream. Even her house and its furnishings are tuned in light shades; this fact might be interpreted as: beauty, cleanliness, wealth, innocence, and virginity. But away from the gaze of her innocent guise, she is like an egg, white on the outside and yellow inside.

Yellow stands out as a symbol of corruption and decay. Materialism has corrupted the citizens of East and West Egg because they center everything on money. Silver and gold (or yellow), the colors of wealth, recur again and again, associated especially with vulgar displays of prosperity. When Gatsby entertains this wealthy class, the orchestra plays "yellow cocktail music". Even Gatsby believes that he can win Daisy back with his money - thus he is described as wearing a "caramel-colored suit" when he lies about his past to Nick. More potently derived is Gatsby's car. The car becomes the omnipresent topic of conversation among the townspeople after it kills Myrtle as a witness specified this "death car" to be yellow.

Green, the most frequently used color, symbolizes the dream that is so close, yet so far away. Gatsby moved into a mansion purposely across the Buchanan's, close enough that "a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been at the end of a dock," was visible. This green light at Daisy's house symbolized his hope and chance to relive and revive the extinguished spark that is their, Gatsby and Daisy's, past - a goal that, in the end, is too far to reach. In a like manner, green is also used to symbolize money. Money controls the lives of the people in the story. Gatsby feels that he needs green money to live and win back Daisy, throwing extravagant