In great literature, symbolism is used as a way of strengthening a story. Symbolism is also used to enhance the conflict of main characters in a story. By using certain colors to symbolize these characters, their true selves can be seen without the author having to come right out and say what the character is really like. These symbolisms help explain the characters, as well as the events that take place. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, color symbolism is used extensively, particularly, the color green. The color green is one of the more prominent colors in The Great Gatsby. It embodies the essence of Gatsby's character and is used to represent 2 of the main themes in the story: Hope and Money.
The introduction to the color green comes at the end of chapter 1, when Nick Carraway sees Jay Gatsby for the first time standing in front of his house. "He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward-- and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock" (p. 25-26). Gatsby is in love with Daisy, who is now married to another man, Tom Buchanan. This green light is located, at the end of the dock of Daisy and her husband's house, across the water. The stretching of Gatsby's arms toward the light represents his hope for a reunion with Daisy, his true love, at some point in their lives. He even expresses this hope in the form of the green light to Daisy: "If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay . You always have a green light that burns at the end of your dock- (p. 98). The green light, which can also be associated with the green light of a stoplight, Gatsby's constant endeavor to win Daisy back is personified in the following: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us- (p.
