The Great Gatsby
The Color Pink
The color pink, which is made by mixing red and white, represents the combination of both the dream and the reality. With white's representing purity and goodness, and red's representing violence and destruction, pink represents what is found in between.
Pink also represents Daisy and Jay Gatsby together. When they are together, they observe some pink clouds over the sea, and Gatsby wears a pink suit and has pink shirts.
Daisy's bedroom is also described as being pink. This pink glow of her room represents her purity with the white clothes that she wears, and the bloody violence that she also has in her which is displayed when she runs over Myrtle with Gatsby's yellow car.
Quotations
"An Oxford man!. . . Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit" (129).
"The rain was still falling, but the darkness had parted in the west, and there was a pink and golden billow of foamy clouds above the sea" (97).
"I'd like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around" (99).
Page last updated on March 11, 1999.
Curator: Elisabeth Seve