Gatsby’s Dreams

A Picture is said to be worth a thousand words, they draw out words in images that can be seen outside of ones mind. Using colour makes these pictures what they truly are. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, he uses colour symbolism to affectively show Gatsby’s ambition towards his love for Daisy and the tragic ending of his aspiration. Colours are brought out continuously in different objects and are shown in the atmosphere to bring out symbols of Gatsby’s ambitions. These colours are used to represent symbols of the characters and what is around them. The colours green and gold are the most powerful colour symbols and are used to portray dreams and success. The colour white reveals innocence and purity of Gatsby’s lover Daisy. Yellow is used to symbolize corruption and decay, which end Gatsby dreams and aspirations. All of these colours bring together the picture of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel as they paint the story of Gatsby’s dreams.

Gatsby’s dreams begin to be painted by green and gold. Both of these colours represent achievement and prosperity. The colour green is a very important colour symbol to Gatsby. As he stares out across the bay to his long lost love Daisy he sees that green light shining off her dock. This green light symbolizes his dream of Daisy. The narrator explains when he first saw this green light after meeting Gatsby who was dazed by the light, “ Involuntarily I glanced seaward and distinguished nothing except a single green light”(pg 26). The significance of this light is that it is the mark of where Daisy is and how close Gatsby really is to her. Gatsby’s dream is to have her back in his arms like he once did and to follow his dream Gatsby tries to use his wealth to wheel her in. Gatsby holds large parties hoping that Daisy will show up. They are described as having “turkeys bewitched to a dark gold” (pg 44). The colour of gold brings out Gatsby’s wealth and how much he tries to get Daisy’s attention. These colours together describe the struggles and the ambition Gatsby has to get Daisy back into his life. Daisy seemed to be the only person Gatsby cared about and his only ambition in life was to have her.

Dreams can sometimes become an obsession. Gatsby sees Daisy as being innocent and beautiful as for the reason of his fixation, to have her in his life. The author uses the colour symbol of white to illustrate the atmosphere around her, which brings out her purity and why Gatsby fell for Daisy in the first place. The narrator soaks in the atmosphere of Daisy’s house and describes how Daisy and Jordan Baker, “ were both in white”(pg12). This use of white brings out the purity of Daisy and it makes it clear why Gatsby is so in love with her. Fitzgerald uses the colour white for a better understanding of Daisy. The narrator also describes her house saying, “ The windows were ajar and gleaming white” (pg 12). Showing the atmosphere around