In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s acclaimed novel The Great Gatsby, the color white takes on a symbolic meaning and represents several key themes and ideas throughout the story. White is often associated with purity, innocence, and virtue, but Fitzgerald uses the color in more nuanced ways to symbolize duplicity, emptiness, and the facade of the wealthy elite who inhabit West and East Egg.
White and Daisy Buchanan
One of the most prominent connections between the color white and a character is with Daisy Buchanan, the beautiful young woman from Louisville, Kentucky who Jay Gatsby has been in love with since 1917. Daisy is associated with white in several descriptions:
- “She dressed in white, and had a little white roadster…” (Chapter 7)
- “She was dressed to play golf, and I remember thinking she looked like a good illustration, her chin raised a little, jauntily, her hair the color of an autumn leaf, her face the same brown tint as the fingerless glove on her knee.” (Chapter 7)
This white clothing evokes Daisy’s outward purity, charm, and social status. However, as Nick Carraway, the narrator, gets to know Daisy over the course of the novel, he sees through this facade and recognizes the emptiness and superficiality beneath the surface. Key quotes that connect Daisy to the duplicitous meaning of white include:
- “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered ‘Listen,’ a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour.” (Chapter 1)
- “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” (Chapter 9)
Daisy gives the impression of purity but in reality is careless, selfish, and destructive in her relationship with Gatsby, Tom, and others.
White and the Valley of Ashes
In contrast to the wealthy denizens of Long Island, the poor industrial area between West Egg and New York City known as the Valley of Ashes is associated with gray and dingy white colors:
- “This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” (Chapter 2)
- “Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.” (Chapter 2)
The bleak whiteness of the valley represents the barrenness, pollution, and poverty of this industrial area and its inhabitants. While the East and West Egg elite gleam brightly in pristine white clothes and mansions, the working class is coated in white ashes.
White and Gatsby’s Party Guests
When Nick attends the lavish parties thrown by Jay Gatsby at his West Egg mansion, he provides descriptions of the sophisticated party-goers dressed in elegant white clothing:
- “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” (Chapter 3)
- “Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York—every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves.” (Chapter 3)
- “On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold.” (Chapter 3)
However, Nick soon realizes the emptiness and superficiality behind the dazzling white façade of Gatsby’s parties, noting the insincerity of the people laughing too loudly and enjoying themselves a bit too much. Their bright white clothes represent the sterility and hollowness of the Jazz Age social elite.
White and Morality
Traditionally associated with purity, white can also symbolize morals and strong values. Mr. Wilson, the owner of the run-down gas station in the Valley of Ashes, believes himself to be a morally upstanding man who earned his place in life through hard work, in contrast to Tom Buchanan who was born into a wealthy family. Some key passages linking Mr. Wilson to white and morality include:
- “When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.” (Chapter 7)
- “Michaelis and this man reached her first, but when they had torn open her shirtwaist, still damp with perspiration, they saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap, and there was no need to listen for the heart beneath.” (Chapter 7)
Despite Mr. Wilson’s belief in his own morality, he is unable to see the truth about his own wife’s affair and ends up murdering Gatsby and then himself in a fit of misguided righteousness.
White in Descriptions of Gatsby
As an enigmatic character who appears to be shrouded in mystery, Gatsby is associated with white in several key passages that hint at a deeper meaning beneath the surface:
- “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.” (Chapter 1)
- “He gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—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.” (Chapter 1)
- “An hour later the front door opened nervously, and Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in.” (Chapter 5)
While Gatsby desires to present himself as a paragon of wealth and privilege, hints of his mysterious past and his longing for more suggest a deeper meaning and humanity beneath the white façade.
Conclusion
Through strategic and evocative descriptions of clothing, settings, and characters, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the color white as a complex symbol and motif throughout The Great Gatsby. On the surface, white represents purity, innocence, and high social status. But below the surface, white symbolizes emptiness, superficiality, deception, and the facades people construct to disguise their true natures. By weaving together these different meanings and associations with white, Fitzgerald creates a nuanced commentary on social class, materialism, and morality in the 1920s. The multilayered symbolism of the color white is an integral part of the novel’s enduring power and allure for generation after generation of readers.
| Character | Quotes connecting character to white | Symbolic meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Daisy Buchanan | “She dressed in white, and had a little white roadster…” (Chapter 7) | Outward purity and charm, inner emptiness |
| Valley of Ashes | “This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” (Chapter 2) | Barrenness and poverty |
| Gatsby’s party guests | “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” (Chapter 3) | Emptiness beneath the glamour |
| Mr. Wilson | “When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.” (Chapter 7) | Morality and righteousness |
| Jay Gatsby | “An hour later the front door opened nervously, and Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie, hurried in.” (Chapter 5) | Hidden depths beneath the surface |
In summary, F. Scott Fitzgerald employs the color white as a symbolic motif throughout The Great Gatsby to explore themes of social facades, emptiness, class, morality, and the complex inner lives of characters beneath the surface. His ingenious and evocative use of this multifaceted symbol contributes to the enduring fame and readability of this American literary masterpiece.
