Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

山东省城市服务技师学院 姜佳霖

Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, origin in poetry and other arts. Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas, by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense. Special charm in the novel is the uses of symbolism, which portrait deeply the landscape of Jazz Age and the collapse of American dreams. In the article, we will analyze the specific uses of color symbolism to imply the destination of the collapse of American dream.

The first color used in The Great Gatsby is white. Fitzgerald used this color in one of the opening scenes at the Buchanan household. Daisy and Jordan are both clothed in gorgeous white summer dresses, lying on white couches, and in a white room. The white color in this novel symbolizes innocence, purity, and beauty. This is before their true identity is revealed. It turns out that neither of these women are any of those things. They are both fake. The women use white clothes to hide the fact that they were not sweet little girls, but corrupt fakes putting on an act. Fitzgerald had another symbolic meaning in the color white. It was that white is the easiest color to soil or tarnish.It tells you how the beautiful, innocent women quickly change and become corrupted as the book goes on. In the first chapter it says, "They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house". This implies that they are something beautiful and perfect such as angels or doves. But soon, the reader finds that these doves are truly crows painted white.

The next color used was blue. Blue is the color of the sky and the sea, which means a broad scale,while it also means gloom and depression. In the novel, Fitzgerald describes something connected with dream and unreality. He uses blue to describe Gatsby' house: blue lawn that is an important part in his life, and blue garden; Gatsby also gets a blue navy clothes from the captain due to his upright characteristics. All of these symbolize Gatsby's dream and melancholy.

In chapter two of the novel, the eyes of Doctor Eckleburg are blue, with bleak look, watching the gray valley indicating an unfortunate disaster. In the author's opinion, this is God's eyes; he knows that Gatsby's dream is doomed to fail. So his eyes are sad and gloomy. And George Wilson believes that Eckleburg's eyes are existence of God.

The color green symbolizes different choices the character, Gatsby, can make during his life.The green element in this novel is taken from the green light at the end of the dock near Daisy's house. "I watched the green light fade away as the boat drew farther from the dock". The color itself represents calmness, as in everything is perfect.This warns Gatsby that he should not pursue his dream of getting Daisy back because his chance has passed and everything is as it should be. More than other colors in the novel such as gold or blue, the color green influences the story greatly. Green shows many thoughts, ideas, attitudes, and choices that Gatsby has throughout the story.

Another symbol of the color green is "go."Where as in my first example the color green showed that Gatsby should leave well enough alone, in the this example the color green is associated to a traffic light signal where the color green is symbolic of the “go” action. Also, Fitzgerald used this by meaning Gatsby should go for his dream without hesitation. Daisy has a green light at the end of her of dock on the other side of the bay from Jay Gatsby’s house. The green light represents Jay’s money, jealousy, and the go ahead for Jay Gatsby to get Daisy back from Tom no matter what it takes. Jay Gatsby thinks that money will make his former lover come back to him. Every one that attends the party is very envious of Jay Gatsby’s money. Gatsby is very jealous of Tom because he is married to Daisy.

Fitzgerald uses the color yellow to symbolize moral decay. He writes' The lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf yellow of her hair.' He is talking about Tom and Jordan Baker,and he is suggesting that Tom might be heading for moral decay. In the book there are several things that Tom does that might prove this. First of all Tom is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson. A second thing is that he does not like Gatsby, and several times he tries to prove that he is not who he says he is. Tom even hires a detective to prove this. Gatsby had a Rolls Royce that was yellow 'His station wagon scampered like a yellow brisk-bug'. Gatsby's car was referred to many times in the book, but it was always referred to as 'The yellow car'. The color yellow was used most frequently when there was a death. One of the first things that Fitzgerald wrote about when Myrtle died was when they laid her on a table in the garage. He wrote 'The garage, which was lit only by a yellow light in a swinging wire basket overhead' page.