The Great Gatsby
The Color Blue
The color blue in The Great
Gatsby represents the dream. It represents what is unreal, such as the eyes
of the non-existent Dr. T. J. Eckleburg.
Blue is also used to describe Jay
Gatsby's gardens where people come and go to parties as they please. His "blue"
gardens are representative of a fantasyland. Blue represents Gatsby's dreamland
which he thinks is reality.
When Dan Cody buys Gatsby a blue
coat, among other things, he begins to become more prosperous and wealthy. Maybe
in the dream, his success may have been caused by the blue coat, but in reality,
it was probably just a coincidence.
Quotations
"He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must
have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it"(189).
"The eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic; their
retinas are one yard high"(27).
"In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among
the whisperings and the champagne and the stars"(43).
Page last updated
on March 11, 1999.
Curator: Elisabeth Seve
