Color Imagery †The Great Gatsby Essay

Writers often use a variety of literary devices in their literature to relate to the themes of their stories. Imagery is just one of the many that atomic number 18 utilise to wee-wee the expression for the literary pieces. Imagery can be used to form images in the readers mind, good-hearted to the human senses. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the mind behind the American Modernist novel The Great Gatsby, uses a specific form of this literary device, which is color imagery, to make a much meaningful visual experience for the reader. Patterns of certain colors guard recurring themes in the story as a whole.In The Great Gatsby, certain characters portray the implication of colors in the color theory. Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Bakers actions in the story turn off this point finished their actions and their words. Fitzgeralds story contains an aspect of wealth, and each character goes about it in his or her own way, connecting suffer to the imagery the author uses. By examini ng the desire for power, material possession, dishonesty, and deception, it is clear that the colors color-belliedness(a) and gold are used to represent these themes.Fitzgeralds color imagery is clear when yellow is used to describe situations of rapacity and the desire for power throughout the story. In The Great Gatsby, in that respect are several characters who wish to draw more(prenominal), who are never satisfied with what they fall in. They become greedy, and their actions, as small as some are, help to prove this. Daisy Buchanan is Jay Gatsbys love interest in the story. However, it is known that she is married to Tom Buchanan, and that they have a electric razor together. The narrator of the story, gouge Carraway, describes Tom as an aggressive, arrogant, self-absorbed, man.His aggressiveness leads him to verbally and physically abuse Daisy. One whitethorn believe that the best situation would be for her to simply leave Tom in order for her to have a better life. T he thing is that Daisy cannot get herself to do that because she craves power and wealth. Daisy is observed by Nick, and is described as being in white, her dress rippling and fluttering (8). When thinking of an actual daisy flower, its known that a daisy has white petals with a yellow center. In the story, Mrs. Buchanan is in a white dress, exhibiting purity and innocence, except the yellow inside intelligibly shows she is full of nothing but greed.She stays with Tom, an abusive husband, because she enjoys having a imposing life. Daisy does and so represent a daisy flower, with her true color, yellow, showing through her actions. Along with Daisy, George Wilson subtly shows a desire for more in the story. According to Nick, George is a blonde, spiritless man and fairly handsome (25). Mr. Wilsons hair is blonde, which confiscates with yellow in the story. When Tom Buchanan visits George in the Valley of Ashes, the first thing he says to Tom is, When are you exit to sell me th at car? (25).George knows that Tom is a wealthy man, and although not being straightforward with it, George wants more than what he has with his dull life in the Valley of Ashes. His blonde hair shows that because the authors use of yellow shows the greed and the desire for power in the story. Fitzgerald applies his color imagery to The Great Gatsby in a in truth sophisticated way because he uses a single color to express multiple ideas. Not single do yellow and gold display a craving for more, but it also shows the material wealth that someone can have. As discussed earlier, Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan lead lives of great affluence.They live in the East Egg, the more extravagant of the two Eggs, in Long Island, New York. As the narrator of the story observes the couples beautiful mansion, he says it has a front broken by a line of French windows, animated now with reflected gold and wide open to the warm, windy afternoon (6). Nicks portrayal of the exuberant Buchanan home and life using gold shows how the author uses the color to represent material possession. While Nick Carraway spends time describing the Buchanans affluence, his own material possession is also depicted.Nicks love interest in the story is a woman named Jordan Baker. He spends a significant amount of time with her, and recounts what kind of impede they do together. At one of Gatsbys great parties, Nick is with Jordan, when he says, With Jordans slender deluxe arm resting in mine, we descended the steps and sauntered the garden (43). Nick has Jordan Bakers golden arm in his, which shows how he clearly sees her as some sort of righteous prize, a possession of his. The gold is used to make Jordan Nicks very own material possession.That is how Fitzgerald expresses yellow and gold when relating to this theme. Misleading and being dishonest are two of the things that several characters do in The Great Gatsby to portray themselves as better, or just simply different. In this story, dishon esty and deception are expressed by the author. Many in the story wonder how Jay Gatsby became this extremely rich man. Mystery surrounds Mr. Gatsby, and it is learned that it is his purpose to keep it a mystery. When he picks up Nick Carraway in his yellow Rolls-Royce he tells him some details about his origin.However, Nick is flat suspicious of what Mr. Gatsby is telling him in his yellow car. He tells Nick to be wary about what rumors he hears about Gatsby, and he tells him about Oxford and his status in the military. Gatsby seems to be trying very hard to create an image of himself that simply is not accurate. Gatsby is so full of deception that Nick somehow manages to restrain his unbelieving laughter (66). The narrator knows for a fact that something just does not add up, and this all happens in the luxurious yellow vehicle.While in the car, Gatsby is dishonest to Nick for the first time. He may have shown certainty, but Nick knows that Gatsby is deceiving him in a way. Ano ther character close to the narrator also displays very misleading behavior. Not unlike Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker is described as having a delicate white dress, making her seem like a pristine, pure object. Nevertheless, Nick also observes Miss Bakers autumn-leaf yellow hair (17). The narrator learns that Jordan is not all that truthful when he realizes that she did not play fair in a gold tournament once.Nick says, At her first well-favoured gold tournament there was a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round she was incurably dishonest (57-58). Her dishonesty ties back to the narrative description of her yellow hair. All in all, the author clearly displays yellow as a color of deception and fraud. F. Scott Fitzgeralds use of color imagery in The Great Gatsby not only makes a clear picture in the readers mind, but it also helps to relate to the broader themes of the whole story. He uses color patterns and attaches colors to certain images to craft a big idea using few words.More specifically, the yellow and gold patterns portray the themes of greed, desire for power, material possession, and dishonesty. Daisy Buchanan absentminded to keep her power despite having to stay with Tom, Nicks prize in Jordan Baker, and Gatsbys presumable deception all fall under the color yellow. This again shows Fitzgeralds multiple ideas under a single color. The many examples and patterns of one color are not coincidental, and that is why yellow and gold tie perfectly into the story in regards to representing themes and motifs in The Great Gatsby.