Jared Russell
6th Cannon
AP English Language and Composition
November 5th 07
The Pattern of Color
Colors? What’s the big deal? Well if we take a deeper look into the intricate symbols that make up The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we will find that colors play a very important role in expressing the themes of the novel. Fitzgerald brilliantly utilizes symbolism of color to call attention to the corruption of the rich.
Fitzgerald uses the color gray to reflect all that is corrupt in the novel. The “gray land” that lies between the Eggs and New York is chalk full of corruptive symbolism (Fitzgerald 30). This area, known as the Valley of Ashes, is home to Myrtle’s husband, George Wilson, a man covered in gray dust. Myrtle is the dust that covers him, and like grime in an engine, Myrtle clogs George and her destructive fakeness sticks to him. This gray dust is also what distorts the men walking along the horizon, analogical to the rich societies distorting their own realities with money and materialism.
Like Dr. T. J. Eckleburgs’ eyes, Nick’s eyes are also dimmed from witnessing Gatsby’s absurdly immoral world. For example, the endless list of “gray names” that Nick recites to the reader (65). This list goes on and on, demonstrating how meaningless and fake the people’s lives are, and that they lack a purpose. By reading them one after another, Nick depersonalizes them almost like a list of men that are to be picked for a draft. Much like the color gray represents the corrupt partygoers, it also represents the fakeness of Jordan Baker. Jordan is “incurably dishonest” according to Nick, and also has “gray, sun-strained eyes” (63.) Jordan is associated with gray because she is a liar, and cheated in something as significant as a golf competition. Once again Fitzgerald implements the symbol of the color gray to display when someone or something is phony or distorted.
In a near 180-degree shift, Fitzgerald uses the color blue not to symbolize corruption, but a safe haven that is sheltered from it. Blue is usually thought of as a placid color, like the ocean or sky, and Fitzgerald is in agreement, which explains why he has so many references to the color blue when describing something peaceful or genuine. Once again, the eyes of Dr. Eckleburg come to mind. With eyes that “are blue and gigantic”, Fitzgerald relates the eyes of the “god” that “sees everything” with the color blue (167). These eyes are tarnished by the color gray, which represents the corruption that the rich have had on them. Maybe that’s why he has to wear those yellow specs?
Gatsby has a lot of relation to the color blue. Much like the ocean, blue represents bliss and a calm state. When Nick describes one of the parties he hears at Gatsby’s estate he says, “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (43). This passage is surreal, using words like “whisperings” and “stars” to give it a dreamlike and eerie feel that relates to the connation of the word blue. “Blue Gardens” also possess a peculiar feel that is prevalent in the descriptions of the party scenes. As Nick walked down steps with Jordan, “A tray of cocktails floated at us through the twilight.” Twilight carries a strange feel to it, much like the whisperings of the guests. Even the car that he ends up driving near the end of the novel is blue.
So the colors do in fact mean something. The color yellow surpasses all colors in terms of meaning and depth in this novel. Without any relation to the book, the color yellow already brings up associations with gold, money, and materialism. When Gatsby hopes to impress the materialistic Daisy, he sports his “white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold tie” (89). Much like yellow, silver and gold carry connotations of money – and the corruption that comes with it.
The color yellow carries an evil mist about it when it comes to Gatsby. Yellow is the color of the car that hit and instantly kills Myrtle, which in turn sets Gatsby’s death into motion. Another ill omen of yellow is the reminder of the physical relations that Tom and Daisy have had. After seeing Daisy’s daughter, Gatsby describes “its” hair as “old yellowy hair” (123). Describing a babies hair as “old” certainly spins a negative nuance to the line, further pushing yellow farther down on the morality charts. One of the most interesting uses of yellow by Fitzgerald in particular, however, is the egg metaphor. Many will agree that the color white has an angelic connotation, much like the “shell” of the rich people of the Egg societies. And what is inside of a perfectly white egg? The evil carrying color yellow. The Eggs are the perfect little societies that those who live in the Valley of Ashes look at with big eyes, but inside those Eggs is an evil filled yellow center. Fitzgerald crafts this metaphor elegantly and cunningly to once again associates the color yellow with the inner evil and shallowness of the rich.
To sum up, there are in fact many deeper symbols and meanings if one looks deep enough into The Great Gatsby. On the shell, the novel appears to be a story of a heart-broken young man, but with intense analysis of the text, there is much more to be found. Fitzgerald took the simple idea of color imagery and transformed it into a literary masterpiece that shaped the novels underlying theme of corruption and phoniness.