There are numerous characters in The Great Gatsby, many of whom are represented by different colors throughout the book. The color of each character also helps us to understand their inner motivations. As much as Jay Gatsby's "verandas are gaudy with primary colors," " (p. 40) so too are the pages of The Great Gatsby itself. Red, blue, yellow, white, and green all appear numerous times throughout the book. The characters have their colored pairs: Tom Buchanan matches the power of red; Jordan Baker has yellow hair; Daisy Buchanan, as her name might indicate, has a yellow center and white on the outside, and Jay Gatsby covers himself in blue. .
Jay Gatsby, the titular character of the novel, surrounds himself in the blue of a promised future. Jay Gatsby was introduced to his future through Dan Cody; it was through this introduction that the formerly poor James Gatz became Jay Gatsby. Dan Cody took Gatsby "to Duluth and bought him a blue coat, six pairs of white duck trousers, and a yachting cap. " (p. 100) Although it isn't Gatsby who does it, Dan Cody covers him with the blue coat, the sign of the future. The life that Dan Cody leads would pass on to Gatsby through this coat "and not through Dan Cody's money because Cody's family would take it all when he died. This blue continues through Gatsby's death. Nick Caraway says, "The East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes' power of correction. So when the blue smoke of brittle leaves was in the air and the wind blew the wet laundry stiff on the line I decided to come back home. " (p. 176) The East was haunted by the remnants of Gatsby, particularly of Gatsby's blue "the smoke that remains. Fitzgerald hits the reader again, quickly, with an adept play on words when the wind blew the wet laundry. This use of "blew " carries the transient quality of impermanence in addition to the sound of the color blue. Unfortunately for Jay Gatsby the blue future that he surrounded himself with isn't perfect.
