Color Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

Color symbolism has an influential role in The Great Gatsby, as it has had in many literary works throughout history. It is used many times to give a deeper meaning to the story, and convey messages that the author doesn’t explicitly say. It is the responsibility of the reader to read closely, and try to find the deeper meaning in specific details of the story. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, a tale is told of Jay Gatsby. Jay is a new money business man, and is intent on trying to turn back the clock and get back together with the woman he loved, the only high class woman who was ever nice to him, Daisy Buchanan. Unfortunately however, this quest is eventually responsible for Gatsby’s unfortunate and untimely demise. In this novel, color symbolism is used heavily by Fitzgerald. He uses it to give his sentences deeper meaning, and to convey information that enriches the experience of the reader in enjoying the novel. In particular, the colors of gold, grey, and green seem to play an especially heavy role in this task, and we will be exploring these colors more deeply, in addition to the other colors. Colors are used highly symbolically in The Great Gatsby. Gold is a very symbolic color used in The Great Gatsby. Since ancient times, gold has been a valuable currency, and gold …show more content…
According to Huber, “Silver represents jewelry and richness. In The Great Gatsby, moon or sunlight or stars are often silver.”(Huber 1). This can be seen as a color that definitely has meaning in The Great Gatsby, as almost all of the characters are either rich, or associated with the rich, as making money was a major theme in the novel. It could take on the light of a negative color, because the economy portrayed in the story was that people were either extravagantly rich, or dirt poor. To conclude, like many colors in The Great Gatsby, the color silver can be interpreted as either positive or