What Does The Rainbow Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

The rainbow is a natural phenomenon, noted around the world for its beauty. The amalgam of colors has become a symbol for many things, a recent event being the adaptation of the “Gay Pride” flag. Colors play a large role in our world today, just as they did in the novel The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald went wild with his pastel, acting as if they were washable paints. Fitzgerald painted a rainbow, but it was no ordinary rainbow.
The obvious take on the color white is innocence. It seems that everyone says that white in this novel means innocence. That’s easy to say, made even easier by the fact that everyone else is saying it. If Daisy, the “white” girl, is examined, is she truly that innocent? In the end of the novel, Daisy doesn’t resemble the picture of feminine innocence at all, later being described as careless, destructive and selfish. This shows that even those who are pure can fall along the way; no one is perfect. Fitzgerald shows a different side of the color white. It is a descriptor being applied to Daisy. Everything around her is characterized with white. Her rooms are white. Her clothes are white. Her neck is white. Her girlhood was white. Before she was married, even her car was white. Even though he definitely did not qualify as a feminist, Fitzgerald may have been connecting the color white with femininity. …show more content…
Gatsby’s car is yellow. His music played at the party is described as yellow. Two girls at one of Gatsby’s parties wear twin yellow dresses. Yellow also crops up many more times. However, the color gold also is close at hand. Yellow represents fake gold; a thin veneer trying to masquerade something plain and ordinary as a valuable commodity. Gold represents money, specifically the old, traditional money. The yellow surrounding Gatsby serves as a reminder of his failed attempt to enter the upper class and well-established ring of people in New