"THE GREAT GATSBY" COLOR SYMBOLISM
GREEN
The color green is probably the most commonly used color as a symbol in the novel as green is used to represent so many different things; it represents new beginnings and life, new money, greed, along with yearning and wanting.
“...he [Gatsby] stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward — and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock,” (Fitzgerald 19)
The green light is mentioned a total of 5 times throughout the novel; in the beginning it was a representation of hope for a reunion and romance. Gatsby wanted nothing more than to be with Daisy, to have the green light at the end of her dock no longer be something out of reach but to have it at his disposal. In the middle of the novel it becomes pointless as Daisy is no longer loyal to Tom and has figuratively become Gatsby’s, giving him no reason to reach out to the light. The light transitions through important to pointless until finally it represents loss and death. Daisy moves away from New York with Tom after choosing reliable old money over the less concrete new money Gatsby possesses, and after Gatsby is killed, the light is extinguished from his view forever.
“‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’ He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. ‘I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,’ he said, nodding determinedly. ‘She’ll see.’ ...he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…” (85)
There is also some irony in how the color green is shown, as it is made to represent new starts while Gatsby is trying to relive the past. Towards the middle of the book, Nick tells Gatsby he’s asking too much of Daisy, and Gatsby explodes. It has gotten to the point that Daisy is no longer giving Gatsby a reason to remain calm and sane but is causing him to lose focus and sanity itself. He is too stubborn to realize a new, green beginning is all that he and Daisy can handle, not reliving a dead past. Their history has either been tainted beyond repair or never was as sweet as he thinks, but both options lead to a failure at recreation.
“In the sunlight his [Wilson’s] face was green” (131)
The color green is usually associated with envy, it could have been used to show Gatsby’s overbearing lust for Daisy, but in The Great Gatsby there is only one example of jealousy being green. Wilson had just been informed that his wife has been cheating on him, Nick tells how and Wilson soon tells that he will be moving away with Myrtle to the West “whether she wants to or not.,” to take her away from whoever this secret lover is. Though this is the only representation of green as envy, it is very powerful as it shows how if you let your jealousy get the best of you, things can take a turn for the worst as later on Myrtle is killed trying to get to Tom, the lover she doesn’t want to leave.