Color symbolism

Color* symbolism in The Great Gatsby

"and covered the table 

in many colored disarray ... 

in coral and apple-green 

and lavender and faint orange, 

with monograms 

of Indian blue".

*I spell the word "color" without a "u" on purpose, like Americans do. 

Here is just a short list of colors and the examples of their usage. I will enrich it while I`m struggling my way trough the text. Frankly speaking, I`m really struggling, trying to go behind the author`s words, making notes and reading some material concerning extra-linguistic aspects...It`s really time-consuming...So, let`s start!

Golden stands for 1) richness 2) happy or prosperous: golden days, golden age 3) successful: the golden girl of tennis 4) extremely valuable: a golden opportunity At Gatsby's parties even the turkeys turn to gold. "..turkeys bewitched to a dark gold". Jordan Baker - the golden girl of golf - is associated with that color. "With Jordan's slender golden arm resting in mine"; "I put my arm around Jordan's golden shoulder". With a few sentences Fitzgerald throws a light at the turbulent months while Daisy is waiting for Gatsby during the war. "All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the "Beale Street Blues" while a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust. At the grey tea hour ...". Here even the dust in the rooms, usually grey, is shining, while the usually golden tea is served at the grey tea hour. We find that contrast between golden and grey once more in "we went about opening the rest of the windows downstairs, filling the house with grey-turning, gold-turning light".

Silver represents jewelry and richness. In The Great Gatsby the moon or moonlight or the stars are often silver: "the silver pepper of the stars"; "The moon had risen higher, and floating in the Sound was a triangle of silver scales"; "A silver curve of the moon hovered already in the western sky". "...and Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and golden colored tie, hurried in."

Sometimes the gold at Gatsby's house turns to yellow. Thus the richness is only a cover, a short sensation, like the yellow press for the more offensively sensational press. "now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music". In contrast to the golden girl Jordan, her admirers are only yellow. "two girls in twin yellow dresses"; "You don't know who we are, said one of the girls in yellow, but we met you here about a month ago." "... we sat down at a table with the two girls in yellow".

White stands for 1) morally unblemished 2) honorable  When Nick Carraway visited the Buchanan he met two young women, of course Daisy and Jordan "They were both in white". Even the windows at Daisy's house are white "The windows were ajar and gleaming white". "Our white girlhood was passed together there. Our beautiful white" (Daisy and Jordan). Carraway came for the party at Gatsby`s house "dressed up in white flannels". Gatsby was wearing "a white flannel suit" during their first meeting with Daisy at Nick`s place. Green stands for a variety of meanings, but Fitzgerald used it mainly for "not faded", like in "a green old age", or for hope. "I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light". This green light is across the sea where Buchanan's house is supposed to be. Gatsby said: "You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock"; "Now it was again a green light on a dock"; "...when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock"; "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us". Later the whole water between Gatsby and Daisy gets green "On the green Sound, stagnant in the heat...".

Grey is often used for neutral, dull, not important. "grey little villages in France"; "The grey windows disappeared" (at Gatsby's house); "... a grey, florid man with a hard, empty face" about the portrait of Dan Cody in Gatsby's bedroom. Gatsby's ideal is grey and empty. The Wilsons, living in the valley of ashes, appear in grey, except for Myrtle, when she enjoys the company of Tom Buchanan. Wilson "mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity – except his wife, who moved close to Tom". The only way for Myrtle to get out of the grey seems to be Tom Buchanan.

Blue is the color of being depressed, moody, or unhappy. Therefore a lot of things around Gatsby are blue. "In his blue gardens men and girls came and went". Although a lot of people are in and around his house, his gardens are blue. "... ghostly birds began to sing among the blue leaves", of course in Gatsby's gardens.

Pink  Sometimes Gatsby comes up with the color pink. "the luminosity of his pink suit under the moon" (Gatsby). When Gatsby and Daisy are finally together, "there was a pink and golden billow of foamy clouds above the sea".

Red associated with live, joy, love, shame, and rage. The inside of Buchanan's home is in red. "We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-colored space"; "Inside, the crimson room bloomed with light".  From time to time I come across some peculiar colors such as: "A chauffeur in a uniform of robin`s egg blue...", Daisy is wearing "a three-corned lavender hat"...  Even odors have their own colors: "the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate"