"THE GREAT GATSBY" COLOR SYMBOLISM
BLUE
Of all the colors used in The Great Gatsby, the color blue is the most important of them all. It is used to represent calm, hope, trust, and above all else- God.
“Above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg… [they] are blue and gigantic…” (26, Fitzgerald)
The color blue is a very important color in the Great Gatsby- the book’s representation of God is through the piercing blue eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg on a big, blue billboard. By using the contrast of the blue on gray, F. Scott Fitzgerald represents the highest power that exists, God, as hope in the midst of gloom, knowledge in the midst of ignorance, and perhaps most prominently, trust in the midst of betrayal. He makes the eyes all seeing and powerful but with a gentle, caring feel. Our first introduction to blue leads us to believe blue is the calm, so where then is the storm? Simply put, the storm is deception; it’s Tom cheating on his wife, the lovely Mrs. Daisy, with the voluptuous Mrs. Myrtle, a woman married to a client of his, the clueless Mr. Wilson.
“He [Wilson] was a blonde, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us [Nick and Tom] a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes,” (28)
Nick recalls his first encounter with Wilson. This quote brings a relation between Wilson’s blue eyes and the hope Tom brings to him, which is ironic because of the affair between Tom and Myrtle, especially as she was the one thing Wilson truly held close to his heart. His hope is understandable though, as Tom brings Wilson business when there aren’t many people with the money or cars to have dealt with like Tom.
“‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me but you can’t fool God!’ Standing behind him Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg which had just emerged pale and enormous from the dissolving night. ‘God sees everything,’ repeated Wilson,” (170)
Even though this quote does not directly reference blue, it still connects to the meaning of the color. After realizing Myrtle has a secret lover, Wilson exclaims that God is always watching while talking about the tall, blue billboard outside his house, making another textual reference to the eyes of doctor T.J. Eckleberg as God himself; the embodiment of the color blue.