The Great Gatsby

Because The Great Gatsby is such a complex novel, much of its rewarding story lies behind the intricacy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s text. Although there are many topics to touch ground on, one of the most astounding ones is the underlying matter that revolves around the idea of the American dream. Throughout several points, the reader is confronted with the idea that the American dream has been corrupted by class structure and the materialistic idea of money. Colors mainly introduce the evident symbolism hidden in the text representing class, hope, purity, corruption, and wealth. With the primary colors white, blue, yellow/gold, and green, Fitzgerald generates a sense of distinction and symbolism between the characters as well as their social structure. In general, many of the sophisticated ideas about the corruption of the American dream lie beneath the use of colors and the relationships between the characters.

In my essay, I will elaborate on the symbolism of the colors and how their presence in the novel is vital to the deeper meaning of the story, that is the American dream. In order to demonstrate the color’s importance in the book, I will use the relationship between Gatsby and Myrtle as a strong key point of the story. Among the other characters, Gatsby’s and Myrtle’s relationship strongly accentuates Gatsby’s aspect of the American dream better than the others. On another point, they both also are associated with the colors blue throughout the book which clearly exemplifies they are dreamers and have a profound source of hope. Because they both die towards the end of the novel, their death could also symbolize how dreamers can never reach the American dream and thus the American dream is deceiving and cannot be attained. Overall, my essay will mainly pinpoint the proposal of the corruption of the American dream in the novel and how the symbolism of the colors and the relationships between the characters supports it.