Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, numerous motifs are used to establish and bring to the reader the author’s ideas and meaning. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses one of these motifs in his use color throughout the book. The symbolism of colors is prominent through out the book and is reflected in the atmosphere of the scenes through association with a specific mood. The author’s repeated and constant use of color helps emphasize and convey the book’s theme effectively.
Throughout the novel Fitzgerald emphasizes the color green as a
promise of hope and it seems to represent an urge to strive ahead in life, to excel and succeed. At the end of the dock in front of Tom and Daisy’s home is a blinking green light. Gatsby reaches towards the light because he is reaching toward his dreams of life with fantasy Daisy. The light represents Daisy as he remembers, or the Daisy he wants to remember. Even if his memories of Daisy are ones from the past or completely made up, to Gatsby the light is the perfect Daisy. On Gatsby’s way to impress Daisy he is going through a constant struggle to become a more successful figure in society. “He knew he had a big future in front of him” (pg. 181) and Gatsby was determined to attain that future and the dreams that came with it. The color green symbolized Gatsby’s unhesitant attitude to reach his aspirations and dreams, which “seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp [them, but] he did not know [his dreams were] already behind him” (pg. 189). Another reference to green is found at the endo of the story when Nick’s train tickets are described as “long green tickets clasped tight in [his] hands” (pg. 184). In this instance his green tickets that will take him back to his “middle west” (pg. 184) represent the hope for a new and better life.
The color white is a color that in one way or another is present through out the story and helps express Fitzgerald’s theme of the American dream and the distortion of it, in a...