论文总字数：22310字

摘 要

《了不起的盖茨比》描述了上个世纪美国的社会现状，尤其是一战后一代年轻人的梦想的破坏的揭示。本文通过分析色彩的象征意义来探讨色彩在这部作品中的作用，通过色彩在环境和人物刻画方面的使用，读者可以看出颜色的使用对揭示盖茨比美国梦破灭的主题起到独特的作用。同时，这些颜色伴随着主人公的描写由始至终，不同的颜色有不同的象征意义。菲茨杰拉德通过运用绿色、蓝色、黄色、白色等具有代表性的颜色来暗示小说中人物的性格，而且这些颜色词贯穿整个故事的叙述过程，给读者留下很深的意蕴。本文旨在分析上述各种颜色分别代表的象征意义，从而进一步地领会作者的写作意图及反映的社会意义。

关键词：了不起的盖茨比；象征主义；颜色；美国梦

Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………................................1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………..1

2.1 An Analysis of the Current Research Situation of the Great Gatsby in Overseas ...............................................................................................................1

2.2 An Analysis of the Current Situation of Domestic Research on the Great Gatsby...................................................................................................................2

3. The Symbolism of Colors...............................................................................4

3.1 Green ………………………………….......................……………………...4

3.2 Blue………………………………………....................………………….....5

3.3 Yellow.…………………………………………......................……………...6

3.4 White...............................................................................................................7

4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..9

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...11

1. Introduction

Fitzgerald is one of the "lost generation" writers. "in modern American novels, he is only the third character after Faulkner and Hemingway"(Wu 3), and is generally praised as an outstanding writer in the 20th century literary history. "The Great Gatsby" centers on the mysterious young millionaire jay Gatsby and his unrealistic infatuation with Daisy Buchanan, a beautiful upper-class lady he has known for a long time. "The Great Gatsby" explores themes of decadence, idealism, unwillingness to change, social unrest, and indulgence, and is a vivid portrait of the sobering American dream and the "roaring jazz age."(Karol ides 499)

With the development of symbolism, one of ramification of the color symbolism has been widely used by lost of writers for represent figures, to convey feelings and make the theme standing out in the literary works. Fitzgerald uses color symbolism to portray the characters and reveal the theme in his finest work "The Great Gatsby" and present us a vivid image of American during the Jazz Age after the First World War. This paper is based on the social background and tradition of America and makes an analytical study of the unique symbolic achievement of the novel through summarizing and analyzing the colors Fitzgerald use.

Unlike his other novels, in "The Great Gatsby", F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolic   methd to express plot, charaters and the final disillusionment of American Dream. The use of symbolism is especially obvious in the novel; anything in the novel can be taken as a symbol. Based on the American history, religion, literature and culture, F. Scott Fitzgerald vividly shows us a colorful painting of the Jazz Age.

2.Literature Review

2.1 An Analysis of the Current Research Situation of the Great Gatsby in Overseas

"The Great Gatsby", a famous novel, has been in hot demand since its publication, which has triggered in-depth discussion and research in the literary circle at home and abroad. Most foreign studies on this work focus on the theme of "American dream", focusing on its tragic style and symbolism, For example, Lean Richard reveals the important conclusion that Gatsby"s dream is the dream of an era by analyzing the reasons for Gatsby"s disillusionment in pursuit of the "American Dream" in "the great Gatsby"; John f. Callahan pointed out that this work profoundly depicts the "jazz age" of American society at that time, and shows how the "American dream" that American young people dreamed of at that time was shattered. (Hu 45)

Most of the foreign studies on "The Great Gatsby" are analyzed from the perspective of macroscopic ideal, while there are relatively few studies on symbolic details. Therefore, the foreign studies on the color characteristics are relatively few.

2.2 An Analysis of the Current Situation of Domestic Research on the Great Gatsby

Li Chuanfang analyzed the "The Great Gatsby" in his research and believed that "The Great Gatsby" mainly meant the "lost generation" and the disillusion of the "American dream". Let us know that even" The Great Gatsby" in that special era is difficult to get rid of the shackles of fate, it is doomed to the abyss of failure, not to mention the fact that "The Great Gatsby" has great limitations. ( Li 3)

Zhang Fuyong pointed out that "The Great Gatsby" means the sense of responsibility of the protagonist, namely the sense of responsibility for love and dreams. The greatness of Gatsby lies in his responsibility and responsibility. ( Zhang 3)

Cheng Ruilan also believes that "the greatness of Gatsby lies in his obsession with love in the money society and his persistence in dreams despite of betrayal", indicating that "The Great Gatsby" is actually the embodiment of persistence and persistence. ( Cheng 13)

Wu wen also denied "The Great Gatsby" and believed that "The Great Gatsby" is a symbol of failure, that is, Gatsby is a failed figure, no matter in his career or in his life. It points out the negative embodiment of "The Great Gatsby" on Gatsby, and lets us see the characteristics of the negative image of a character like Gatsby. (Wu 3)

In spite of this, the current research on "The Great Gatsby" is not comprehensive and in-depth, especially reflected in the characteristics of things themselves. We should not only pay attention to the theme and time environment of the works, but also start from things, understand the dreams and pursuit status of the young generation in the jazz age, and deepen our understanding of "the Great Gatsby". 

From the above studies of scholars, we can see that they seldom do too much research in the aspect of color, and some of them simply elaborate the superficial meaning of color. In many literary and artistic works, the author USES color to shape the character, enhance the meaning of the works, and express the author"s deep thoughts and feelings. Lafayette Gerard was no exception. In“The Great Gatsby”, he made vivid and subtle descriptions of various colors, which contained rich symbolic meanings and embodied different class cultural implications. There are many studies on “The Great Gatsby” at home and abroad, most of which focus on the theme of "American dream" and involve studies on social life and social aspects at that time. Few people make comments on the outlook on life reflected in his works. The color symbols used in this paper not only reflect the cultural implication of class in the text, but also reflect the theme of "American dream". More importantly, this paper also reflects the readers" thinking on the outlook on life. How does the text reflect the philosophy of life? In the colors reflected in the novel, there is a desire for money in every color. The protagonist of the novel would do anything to get money, but what he thought was a romantic love drama turned out to be a tragedy.

Therefore, the philosophy reflected in it is the rapid development of the United States with unprecedented economic prosperity. Americans enjoy wealth, become greedy and do whatever it takes to get it, but it empties their hearts. So the 1920s was a time without faith, a time of confusion, a time of tragedy. The novel also has practical implications for Chinese readers: 21st century Chinese have similar ideas: extreme individualism, hedonism, and so on. This realistic significance also deserves the Chinese living in the morbid society to ponder.

3. The Symbolism of Colors

3.1 Green

No matter in the Oriental culture or in the Western culture, green is the color of spring, which symbolizes confidence, vitality and hope. In "the great Gatsby", the green color runs throughout the whole novel, and it is closely related to Gatsby’s short life. So it symbolizes Gatsby’s original dream and hope, his ceaseless pursuit of his dream and even the corruption of his dream and life. The green color is closely associated with the green light occurred in the novel, which is closely related to Gatsby and the whole theme.

The green light burning all night occurs three times in the novel. The green light first appeared at the end of the first chapter. Nick saw Gatsby stretching out his arms to the black water, trembling all over. I could not help glancing at the sea - I could see nothing but a green light. It was a minute and a second away, maybe the end of a wharf. (Fitzgerald 169). Actually, the green light is just at the end of Daisy’s dock. In Gatsby’s eyes, the green light just represents Daisy, who is his lifelong pursuit and dream. He thinks that the reason why Daisy breaks up their represents new hope and the ceaseless struggle towards our dream. The second time when the green light occurs is in the fifth chapter. By this time, Gatsby had succeeded in showing Daisy his vast wealth: at the end of your wharf, there was always a green light on all night. (Fitzgerald 98)

It seems that he is nearly realizing his dream, but he becomes lost in a deep reverie because of the big difference between the real Daisy and his imaginary Daisy. So now the green light seems to have lost its original significance and the fascinating charm, which symbolizes the big difference between the dream and reality and indicates that the American Dream is beautiful in the imagination but is fragility in the reality.

The third time occurs at the end of the novel. With the death of Gatsby, the people who holds the faith in the light is not existed anymore, which indicates the disillusionment of the American Dream.

The green light appears throughout the whole novel makes the plot more complete and the theme more deep and profound. Gatsby simply integrates his dream with love and wealth, and gambles on Daisy, who is hollow, selfish, greedy and indifferent. And in such a society where is full of materialism, carefree hedonism and moral decadence, Gatsby’s pursuit of his dream on the spiritual level is incompatible with the social environment. So Gatsby’s American Dream about winning back Daisy is doomed to corrupt in the Jazz Age.

3.2 Blue

Blue represents tranquility, melancholy, loneliness and fantasy. If the yellow color is the color to show Gatsby’s outer self, the blue color, which is full of sadness and fantasy, indicates Gatsby’s real inner self - lonely, sorrowful and fanciful.

In the novel, Gatsby’s garden is described as blue, such as the blue garden and blue livery occurred in the third chapter, “the blue leaves” occurred in the eighth chapter and the “blue lawn” occurred in the ninth chapter. The blue tone of Gatsby’s garden reveals Gatsby’s loneliness and melancholy in his inner heart. He holds lavish parties in his blue garden to allure Daisy, but fails, which makes him become more sad, lonely and melancholy. Though holding the luxurious parties, he never takes part in them. That is why the people who take part in the parties hold speculation and debate on the real identity of Gatsby and there are few people knowing or seeing the host of the free parties. As to the reason why Gatsby does not take part in his parties, it may be that the real Gatsby cannot merge himself with those wealthy people and the tranquility in his inner heart is contrary to the noise scenes.

Blue also symbolizes the fantasy and illusion of dream. When the blue color is used to describe Gatsby, it indicates that Gatsby is full of beautiful fantasy and illusion towards his dream, Daisy. He believes firmly that Daisy loves him sincerely in the depth of her heart all the time and he will own Daisy one day in the future with his enormous wealth and true love. In the end of the novel, when Nick sees the blue smoke of leaves in the air, he realizes that the disillusionment of the American Dream is inevitable in such a roaring age. Then he decides to come back home where own the traditional morality.

3.3Yellow

Throughout the novel, Gatsby can be seen that the most common color is yellow. With this color, the author skillfully implies what kind of outer self that Gatsby intends to show before others.

Yellow is golden, symbolizing money, material and social status. In Western culture, the yellow color is the color that the aristocratic class uses to decorate themselves, so it represents wealth and noble identity as well as the gaiety and communication. Then in order to win Daisy back, Gatsby chooses the yellow color to decorate himself and his house to show that he has been one member of the rich folk. As Gatsby naively thinks that Daisy has never loved anyone else any more except him, he engages himself in earning enormous wealth to win his losing love back. After owning enough money, he keeps himself in a golden world to show his wealth to Daisy: His golden tie, yellow car, golden toilet set and even his golden food and music in his lavish parties. What is more, Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s enormous spectacles are yellow too. So all these yellow and golden things indicate that the Jazz Age is an age where everyone shows great worship of money and where the materialism is so fashionable that even God cannot avoid its influence.

What is more, the author describes Daisy as a golden girl. So yellow also symbolizes luxuriousness, greed and coward. When Gatsby showed a pile of shirts in front of Daisy, Daisy buried her head in her shirt and began to cry.

Even her voice is full of the sound of gold coin. All of these show that what Daisy loves only is just money and wealth and that she enjoys herself greedily in the wealthy and luxurious life style. Regarding such a golden woman as his dream, Gatsby is doomed to be disillusioned.

On the other hand, the yellow color is the color of autumn leaves, which symbolizes decay, death and destructive power. Before Gatsby was shot by Wilson, it was depicted that he refused the chauffeur’s help and disappeared among the yellowing trees in a moment, which indicated his death. And his yellow car not only ends Mrs. Wilson’s life, but also eventually leads to his death. But it is Daisy who actually leads to Gatsby’s tragedy. So this color also indicates the failure of the American Dream.

Yellow, the color that Gatsby is struggling all his life, not only gives him confidence, but also destroys his dream and life. So it reflects the characteristics of the times and the fate of the people at time.

3.4 White

White occurs many times in the novel, and it is closely associated with Daisy.

White represents the immaculate and pure beauty. It symbolizes nobleness and purity. It is Daisy’s color in the novel. When she first met when Gatsby and Nick time in East Egg to visit her, she wore a white dress. 18 years old, she was wearing white clothes, driving a white car, which made her very attractive in the eyes of the young officer. For example, her house is full of white, half-open windows, gleaming white (Fitzgerald 158) against the background outside fresh grass, breeze room, curtains blowing from one another head blow, as pale flag. (Fitzgerald 246) Even her name Daisy is also a kind of white flower. Thus it may easily make people feel that she is pure, flawless, innocent and noble when people meet her the first time. That is why Gatsby is infatuated with her throughout his life and regards her as a pure beauty and as his American Dream

However, white actually symbolizes empty, vacuity, superficiality, ruthlessness and selfish to a great extent in the novel. Describing Daisy with the color of white, it indicates that under the pure and beautiful appearance, Daisy owns a superficial, hollow, cold and selfish heart inside. Her life is full of nothing except luxury and she wastes everyday in boringness and loneliness, for example, Daisy once cried, “what will we do with ourselves this afternoon, and the day after that, and the next thirty years?” (Fitzgerald 168) As a result, she represents the hollow and superficial upper classes of the Jazz era

What is more, although Gatsby has run out of all his youth and passion for her, even sacrifice his life, Daisy shows no grief for his death but just goes out for traveling with her husband, which reveals her selfish and indifferent personality. Thus she represents the spirit and mood of the Jazz Age and the hypocritical values and moral standards of the bourgeois.

White implies that although the upper class is rich in their material life, they are quite poor and decadent in their morality, and are irresponsible and insensitive to the society, to their life and to other people. White symbolizes Daisy’s emptiness, superficial, hypocrisy and ignorance. Whereas Gatsby regards Daisy as his dream, so it indicates that his dream is illusive and worthless, and it also implies that his American Dream is doomed to be corrupted.

4. Conclusion

Throughout the novel, the reason why Gatsby"s American Dream was shattered and ended his life with tragedy is inevitably related to his specific social environment. Love and friendship are all based on money and material desire. Everyone can only live for their own interests. Interpersonal communication will inevitably reveal the selfish, greedy and indifferent nature, which is the essence of selfish, indifferent and degenerate social morality concealed under the postwar prosperity of American society. Gatsby"s failure in a sense heralds the failure of the American Dream. His struggle is the embodiment of American spirit, so his failure also declares the decline of American spirit. In the end, Gatsby"s American dream of money and love ended in failure. Gatsby paid a high price for his ideal. Gatsby"s tragedy was that he built his ideal on illusion rather than reality. He would rather escape do not want to face up to it. Gatsby longed for material success, but when he realized his dream of money, he fell into a spiritual crisis. Not only Gatsby, but society as a whole suffers from this mental illness, a kind of hopeless imitation and pain. However, where there is life, there is hope. Everyone should base his right ideal on reality.

From this we can see that both the American Dream and the Chinese Dream should prevent extremism and alienation and avoid taking the old road of the United States. But at the same time, Gatsby"s courageous, independent and aggressive spirit is worth learning from our "Chinese Dream". The shortcoming of this paper is that it does not see the essence from the phenomenon. We are still in the best period of realizing the "Chinese Dream", so we should upgrade the competitiveness of the Chinese nation by adhering to, inheriting and carrying forward the national cultural traditions, enhancing the self-confidence of the celebrities and stimulating national pride.

Works Cited

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