"THE GREAT GATSBY" COLOR SYMBOLISM
YELLOW
Yellow is a representation of falsity and corruption of events or characters in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses yellow in his imagery to show depravity and that not everything is as it seems- it has an appearance of gold, but no substance.
“But we heard it,’ insisted Daisy, surprising me by opening up again in a flower-like way. ‘We heard it from three people so it must be true.” -Daisy is talking to Nick at dinner (Fitzgerald, 23)
It is no mistake that Daisy is named after a flower with white petals and a yellow center. Like her namesake's flower, Daisy appears pure on the outside, but she is actually tainted -- and dishonest -- on the inside. Daisy's corrupt inner core is best shown when she kills Myrtle and flees -- by no mistake, using Gatsby's yellow car.
‘It was a yellow car,’ he said, ‘big yellow car. New.’ -Man talking to policeman (149)
Gatsby's yellow Rolls Royce represents corruption and deceit. Gatsby buys this car to promote his wealthy facade to others, while this very car is also used by Daisy to run over and kill Myrtle. We see the color yellow attached to Gatsby one last time (right before he is murdered), when he walks through the "yellowing trees".
“The only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of the waste land, a sort of compact Main Street ministering to it, and contiguous to absolutely nothing.”-Nick (24)
Yellow is used to describe the Wilson's house in the valley of ashes, which characterizes the corrupt nature, and deceptive actions, of those who live in the house and the surrounding area.