Scott Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby" was published in April 1925. It soon became very famous. It shows, how life in America in the 1920s looked like. Fitzgerald proved to be a very talented writer and in this book he used many sophisticated techniques to underline his convictions and ideas. I am going to try to explain, what is the meaning of different colors, which appear in the book.
The color of greatest importance in this novel is white. Generally it is supposed to be a symbol of innocence and purity. But in the book it tells us about the inner life of rich people. They are white and pure only outside themselves. In reality, they pretend to be good, but their true self is bad and dark. The example of such person is Daisy- whose name is also a name of a flower. This flower is white, but it has yellow inside. Daisy seems to be a sensitive and good person, but her soul is full of evil. She commits a crime- murders his husband's mistress.
The writer concentrates on the immoral behavior of wealthy people. The characters- Tom, Daisy and Jordan come from the upper class. They dress smart clothes, their houses are of white color, but they live immoral lives.
Yellow is the other very important color in the book. It is a symbol of jealousy and great desire to earn as much money, as possible. It tells us about the bad insides and souls of the rich. But Gatsby- the main character, who is a man working hard to gain money and seems to be different from the others, also proves to be a bad person. He makes his money in an illegal way.
The author shows us the situation of American people- people get rich behaving immoral. They are not earned by hard work. It is the end of the ideals of 'American Dream'.
Green color symbolizes hope and success. In the book, Gatsby is a man, who makes 'new money' and the author shows him in green. He lives hoping that he can make the past come back. The green light, which appears on Daisy's dock every evening is compared to the image of America- the land seen from the ocean by the first European settlers.
I hope to have proved that that in Fitzgerald's novel, the meaning of colors is of great importance. Analyzing them, we may discover many additional themes, which have great effect on the main plot of the story.
