At the beginning of 1925 American author F. Scott Fitzgerald published the best of his novels entitled "The Great Gatsby". It seems to be one of the famous American books about the decade of 1920. The author used a lot of literary devices to describe his beliefs concerning the contemporary people. I would like to concentrate on the colour symbolism, which is the main technique in his book.
White colour seems to be very significant in this story. It is the symbol of innocence, purity and royalty. However Fitzgerald used white colour to show the inside of the influential people. That kind of innocence is just superficial and they used to cover the darkest side behind this surface, like Daisy. Daisy's name is the symbol of flower: its petals are white, but in the middle it is yellow, which isn't as pure as the white colour. Daisy seems to be fragile and remain a flower, but she is evil deep inside. She killed the innocent person, who was her husband's mistress. The main storyline in the book "The Great Gatsby" concerns the immorality of people included to the so called upper class. Daisy, her husband -Tom and Jordan are called "old money" people. They used to wear light clothes and live in big white houses, but the author stressed that they aren't moral inside and the fact that they don't have any scruples.
Another colour significant in this book is yellow. Here it symbolizes the desire for wealth and money. As I already mentioned, the wealthy people are usually "rotten" inside, like Daisy. But the people called "noveau riche" inside are also yellow, like Gatsby. The hero gained his fortune thanks to the dealings with criminals. It is a kind of example of the decadence of the famous "American Dream". These immoral people possess a lot of money, but according to the myth of "American Dream" the money should be gained in honest way and thanks to the hard work.
Green colour is very significant in this book. It is the symbol of new money and the hope. In "The Great Gatsby" green colour is often associated with the main hero-Gatsby. He belonged to "new money" people. He used to live in the green house, which was surrounded by green lawns. He hoped that the past would be repeated, which is another storyline in this novel. Each night he moved directly to the green light on Daisy's dock. In the ninth chapter Nick, who was the narrator, compared the green colour to America, which was rising out of the huge ocean and looking to the early settlers, who should create the new nation.
According to my analysis, the colour symbolism was very helpful to create the storyline of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Thanks to the characterization it is possible to recognize the relationships between all these colours and storylines, which influenced the main meaning of the book. Without this symbolism "The Great Gatsby" seems to be the one of simple love stories.
