Like many authors, Fitzgerald uses a lot of color in his book, to communicate more about the story. And color has a lot of influence in our life, the way we dress and even our moods and sometimes feelings. Fitzgerald uses the meaning of the colors in the great Gastby to give other meaning to the objects and the characters.
He uses green.
We know Gatsby for being a rich man, he has a huge house for himself, has lots of luxurious car, and he is also know for the bug parties he give every weekend. As some would say he has good luck because he is wealthy.
And Gastby is mostly associated with green, it can represent money and wealth and good luck. But it also represents aggression. Like the aggressive pursuit for Daisy, the meetings he has with her, and the fact that he things the things are going to be the way they used to 5 years ago.
Misfortune, illness, greed, are represented by the color green. And those adjectives can be use to describe what happened to Gastby and the way he died.
“ Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory, we started to town” (Fitzgerald, 64)
Brown.
James Gatz was a poor guy with a dream to become rich, he used to work by the sea as a clam-digger, a salmon fisher or in any other job that would bring him food and bed. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people.
“ His brown, hardening body lived naturally through the half-fierce, half- lazy work of the bracing days.” (Fitzgerald, 98)
As the passage says, the brown hardening body is referred to poverty. And brown can also be related to dirt, as the hard and dirty job he had.
Pink.
Pink is a mix between red and white. Red is used to infer danger, aggression, blood. And the way Gastby died was because of anger, Mr Wilson wanted revenge for what Gastby did to him, he shot Gastby which shows aggression.
And white, cowardice, coldness, also regarding to the way Gatsby was murdered.
“ Gatsby stepped from between two bushes into the path. I must have felt pretty weird by that time, because I could think of nothing, but the luminosity of his pink suit under the moon.” (Fitzgerald, 142)
