In literature, symbolism is used in order to execute an overall lesson or theme of any literary work. A symbol could be an object, an event, or even a person. But the one we see quite often is color. Color can symbolize emotions, people, events, or virtually anything you can imagine. In the novel “The Great Gatsby,” by F.Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is the wealthiest man living in the ‘new money’ West Egg. His neighbor is Nick Carraway and just across the bay is the green lighted dock of Nick’s cousin (Gatsby’s long time love) Daisy Buchanan. Daisy lives in the ‘old money’ East Egg, and the main problem is that since Gatsby is new money and Daisy is old money, the social statuses at the time say that they cannot be together. So every night,
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Schneider investigates, “As the color of blood, red is inevitably associated with the violence caused by the human animals who prey upon Gatsby not merely hornbeams and the blackbucks and beavers and ferrets and Wolfsheim 's, but also the respectable
Tom and Daisy.” Clearly Tom wants to attack Gatsby and oust him from his home because Tom wanted to keep Daisy as his own wife. However, Tom even shows his inner violence in his affair with Myrtle. Nick explains, “There were bloody towels upon the bathroom floor and women’s voices scolding, and high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain”(Fitzgerald 41).Nick reveals the instability of Tom and Myrtle’s relationship to to Tom’s violent loss of his own temper. Also, not to our surprise, Tom is the culprit behind Gatsby’s death, he admitted to Mr.
Wilson that Gatsby was the one who killed Myrtle. Fitzgerald describes when they found
Gatsby’s body, “The touch of a cluster of leaves were revolving around it slowly, tracing, like the leg of a compass, a thin red circle in the water”(Fitzgerald 170). Gatsby’s body is found with a red circle of blood around it. Coincidentally, Myrtle was also in a bloody situation with …show more content…
This is because of another color symbol, yellow. Yellow symbolizes Gatsby’s car. The same car that hit Myrtle. “The ubiquitous yellowsymbol of the money, the crass materialism that corrupts the dream and ultimately destroys it.” (Daniel J. Schneider 1). As stated in this quote, yellow is the symbol that destroyed the dream. Also, yellow is shown with blue in the iconic billboard of ‘the eyes of T.J Eckleberg’ yellow is the color of the spectacles around the blue iris’. But, in that case, blue and yellow together symbolize judgement. The eyes see everything that happens so for that reason they also symbolize honesty. What the colors add to this novel is the truth and because of them we see how Gatsby’s dream is destroyed by misunderstanding because George Wilson did not know that it was actually Daisy driving Gatsby’s car.
And finally, there is the absence and presence versus lightness and darkness of colors throughout this novel. “the light dark symbolism is employed with great care” (Daniel J.
Scheider 2) From the white dresses to the grey valley of ashes where Myrtles dark crimson death took place, the lightness and darkness of color throughout the novel symbolizes the
Schneider investigates, “As the color of blood, red is inevitably associated with the violence caused by the human animals who prey upon Gatsby not merely hornbeams and the blackbucks and beavers and ferrets and Wolfsheim 's, but also the respectable
Tom and Daisy.” Clearly Tom wants to attack Gatsby and oust him from his home because Tom wanted to keep Daisy as his own wife. However, Tom even shows his inner violence in his affair with Myrtle. Nick explains, “There were bloody towels upon the bathroom floor and women’s voices scolding, and high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain”(Fitzgerald 41).Nick reveals the instability of Tom and Myrtle’s relationship to to Tom’s violent loss of his own temper. Also, not to our surprise, Tom is the culprit behind Gatsby’s death, he admitted to Mr.
Wilson that Gatsby was the one who killed Myrtle. Fitzgerald describes when they found
Gatsby’s body, “The touch of a cluster of leaves were revolving around it slowly, tracing, like the leg of a compass, a thin red circle in the water”(Fitzgerald 170). Gatsby’s body is found with a red circle of blood around it. Coincidentally, Myrtle was also in a bloody situation with …show more content…
This is because of another color symbol, yellow. Yellow symbolizes Gatsby’s car. The same car that hit Myrtle. “The ubiquitous yellowsymbol of the money, the crass materialism that corrupts the dream and ultimately destroys it.” (Daniel J. Schneider 1). As stated in this quote, yellow is the symbol that destroyed the dream. Also, yellow is shown with blue in the iconic billboard of ‘the eyes of T.J Eckleberg’ yellow is the color of the spectacles around the blue iris’. But, in that case, blue and yellow together symbolize judgement. The eyes see everything that happens so for that reason they also symbolize honesty. What the colors add to this novel is the truth and because of them we see how Gatsby’s dream is destroyed by misunderstanding because George Wilson did not know that it was actually Daisy driving Gatsby’s car.
And finally, there is the absence and presence versus lightness and darkness of colors throughout this novel. “the light dark symbolism is employed with great care” (Daniel J.
Scheider 2) From the white dresses to the grey valley of ashes where Myrtles dark crimson death took place, the lightness and darkness of color throughout the novel symbolizes the