了不起的盖茨比中颜色象征意义的研究

苏州大学应用技术学院2009级学士学位论文A Study of Color Symbolism in The Great Gatsby《了不起的盖茨比》中颜色象征意义研究专业：09英语学号：0916411014姓名：周丽莎导师：张荣兴2012.12.23AcknowledgementsThe thesis would probably have never been possible without the help, support, foresight and inspiration of my supervisor, teachers and classmates, so I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of them.My deepest gratitude goes first to my supervisor, Mr. Zhang Rongxing, who has contributed to getting the nuts and bolts of the thesis into place. His careful and microscopic scrutiny of the manuscript resulted in the elimination of many inconsistencies and in the development of the study throughout the thesis. His witty ideas and valuable advice brought me a new way of learning and different vision of the research.What’s m ore, my thanks go to my parents and friends who give me support and encouragement.AbstractFrancis Scott Fitzgerald, one of the most prominent novelists in American literary history in the 1920s, has been regarded as “the singer of the jazz age”, and “chronicler” and “poets Laureate”. He works give us an accurate picture of the social state of America in early twenties of last century. The Great Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s finest n ovel, which was published in 1925, and Eliot considered it “to be the first step that America has taken since Henry James”. Finished in 1925, this novel wins lots of favorable praise. Nowadays, people keep reading it, and many films have been adopted from it.Just as above said, The Great Gatsby is a symbolism story, in which, many color symbols are used, for example, green and green light, blue, yellow or golden and so on. This paper will analyze the novel by means of the respective symbolism meanings of these color symbols.Key words: Francis Scott Fitzgerald; The Great Gatsby; color; symbolism.摘要美国著名象征主义代表作家Francis Scott Fitzgerald ，20世纪20年代美国文坛最著名的作家之一，素有爵士时代代言人，编年史家和桂冠诗人的称号。

他的作品准确地反映了美国上世纪20年代的社会状况，在1925年正式发表的小说《了不起的盖茨比》是菲兹杰拉德最棒的文学作品之一，且被Eliot认为是“自亨利詹姆士以来美国小说史上跨出的第一步”，《了不起的盖茨比》受到读者和评论界的一致好评，直到现在还有很多人愿意去读这部作品，并且不断有人把这部小说改编成电影搬上大荧幕。

就像上面所提到的，《了不起的盖茨比》一书中在颜色，人物等方面运用了大量的象征手法，这篇小说之所以取得这么大的成功，不仅仅在于它深刻的主题，还得益于象征手法的独创运用，象征的使用，使他的作品超越了狭隘的个人天地，放大个人经历并赋予其代表性。

在此之中，颜色的象征是其着墨最多，也是最成功的。

比如绿色跟绿灯的象征作用，绿色是作者频繁运用的颜色之一，也是追随主人盖茨比一生的主色调。

白色也是作者着力运用的象征手法之一，还有黄色，黄色是金子的颜色，小说用黄色来象征拜金主义和腐化堕落。

除此之外还有蓝色，灰色等等。

颜色象征是这部小说最大的特点，所以我这篇论文主要分析讨论这篇小说中的颜色的象征意义。

关键词：菲兹杰拉德；《了不起的盖茨比》；颜色；象征。

ContentsAcknowledgements (II)Abstract (III)摘要 (IV)Chapter 1 Introduction (1)Chapter 2 Literature Review (3)2.1 Symbolism (3)2.2 Related studies (4)Chapter 3 Colors and Their Symbolic meanings in T he Great Gatsby. 63.1 Green: symbol of life ,hope, envy and destroy (6)3.2 Blue: symbol of illusion (11)3.3 White: symbol of innocence (12)3.4 Yellow: symbol of wealth, money and death (13)3.5 Gray: symbol of hopeless (13)3.6 Pink: symbol of love and persistency (14)Chapter 4 Conclusion (16)References (18)文献综述报告 (19)Chapter 1 IntroductionFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, and named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star-Spangled Banner. Fitzgerald was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Though an intelligent child, he did poorly in school and was sent to a New Jersey boarding school in 1911. Despite being a mediocre student there, he managed to enroll at Princeton in 1913. Academic troubles and apathy plagued him throughout his time at college, and he never graduated, instead enlisting in the army in 1917, as World War I neared its end.Fitzgerald was the most famous chronicler of 1920s America, an era that he dubbed “the Jazz Age” Written in 1925, The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest literary documents of this period, in which the American economy soared, bringing unprecedented levels of prosperity to the nation. Like Nick in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald found the new lifestyle seductive and exciting, and, like Gatsby, he had always idolized the very rich. Now he found himself in an era in which unrestrained materialism set the tone of society, particularly in the large cities of the East, even so, like Nick, Fitzgerald saw through the glitter of the Jazz Age to the moral emptiness and hypocrisy beneath, and part of him longed for this absent moral center. In ways，The Great Gatsby represents Fitzgerald’s attempt to confront his conflicting feelings about the Jazz Age. Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald was driven by his love for a woman who symbolized everything he wanted, even as she led him toward everything he despised.Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess.Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night—resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. A person from any social background could, potentially make a fortune, but the American aristocracy—families with old wealth—scorned the newly rich industrialists and speculators. Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand for bootleg liquor among rich and poor alike.This thesis includes four chapters. The first chapter introduces the author and literary themes, and the structure of the thesis. The second chapter is a literature review, briefly going over related studies home and abroad and some key concepts the thesis uses. The third chapter discusses the author’s employment of symbolism in the novel, including the name of the characters, etc. The last chapter comes to the conclusion of this thesis.Chapter 2 Literature Review2.1 SymbolismIn totally words, symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.Symbolism refers to movements in both literature and the visual arts during the late 19th Century. It appeared in the 1880s among French poets, les poètes maudits, who developed an idealistic type of verse, as a reaction to Naturalism and Realism. The Symbolists drew inspiration from the mid-century poetry and critical writing of Charles Baudelaire and also from the earlier works of Edgar Allen Poe. A number of manifestoes were pub lished in the 1880s, including “Le Symbolism”, by Jean Moréas in 1886.Like emotions, colors also symbolize different things. Color symbolism can have a powerful effect on human emotion. The color black represents evil or sadness. This is why the color black is used more in funerals. Black is also used when celebrating birthdays of people reaching middle age. The reason for this is that everyone is supposed to be sad that the person is getting old. When black is used this way, it also becomes funny. We call this irony, but that topic is for another time and another website. The color white symbolizes purity and life. This is why you see the color white in weddings and usually see angels dressed in white gowns. “Color symbolizes different things in different parts of the world. Color symbolism is also important to companies around the world. When we think of certain colors and shapes we think of certain companies”（李稚阳、张允2006）.In world Culture, color means many different things to different people and cultures. We all have our own favorite colors. People like different colors like they like different foods. Color also represents feelings, people, countries, cultures, and color symbolism. In the western world, the color red is seen frequently of symbolizing anger or aggression. Some car insurance companies charge more for red cars becausesome of the owners of red cars are more aggressive or take more risks.By the way, we can see lots of colors in this story, for instance, the green light , red tower, gray valley, golden car and so on . If you are a careful reader, you must be able to pick out something from those colors, because colors can speak under Fitzgerald's pen, and these colors all have their meanings.2.2 Related StudiesThe definition of symbolism in literature is “any object, person, place or action that has both a meaning in itself and that stands for something larger than itself, such as an idea, belie f or value”(刘爱星2005). Symbolism as a literature device was frequently used in various works. In John Bunyan’s books, for example, everything and every person appearing presents something more than themselves. It’s obvious that the protagonist Christians stands for every Christian reader, and his goal, the Celestial city, is the representation of Heaven. The places through which had passed on his way, such as the Lucre, Vanity Fair and so on stands for the temptations that Bunyan felt Christian readers were likely to encounter on their journey to salvation. Even the names of Christian’s f ellow travelers—Mr. Feeble-mind and great-heart, all represent not individual characters but the states of being. Similarly, at the beginning of F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, there is the famous scene of the valley of ashes where Tom Buchanan’s mistress Myrtle lives（胡敏2006）. Although Fitzgerald didn’t make it clear, it’s obvious that the valley of ashes represents the real state of Tom’s soul. In people’s mind, his reside nce is in a mansion on the beautiful bay at East Egg, where everything is expensive and tasteful, while the inwardly rotten. Spiritually desiccated Tom really lives where his heart does, in a grim ashes valley, presided over by a billboard decorated a huge pair of bespectacled eyes. The eyes represent God, who can se e Tom’s actions and knows the interior of his heart, but seems powerless to intervene. The above examples confirm that symbolism is an integral component of fiction, which enriches the narrative by pulling its message down to the level of people’s unconsciousness and anchoring it there.Although previous studies have analyzed the symbolism of the characters and this novel, further studies should be conducted on the author’s employment of symbolism in The Great Gatsby. Chapter 3 aims at a detailed exploration of symbolic meanings of colors characters and objects.Chapter 3 Colors and Their Symbolic meanings in The Great Gatsby 3.1 Green : symbol of life, hope, envy and destroyThe color green calls our attention at first. It emerges at the beginning of the story, and the green light. Seeing the color green, we are going to think about plants, trees, grass and everything in springtime. And spring is a season of life, hope and future, In a word, the color green can symbolize hope and dream.Green stands as the most prominent color Fitzgerald employs in The Great Gatsby. Green is significantly associated with both “the green light of Daisy's dock”and the "green breast of the new world", which unites the hope and promise of Gatsby's dream with that of America itself. The color green is traditionally associated with spring, hope, and youth. Throughout the novel, green has many possible interpretations, but its use to explain Ga tsby’s character is probably the most meaningful in the story. One possible meaning of the color green is envy. Gatsby can be seen as a jealous character. He once had the love of his life, Daisy, but now she is married to another man. He spends all of his time and effort in an attempt to win back Daisy. He is also jealous of many of the wealthy people around his home. He makes huge parties and luxurious get-togethers, so he can relate with the wealthy. This leads one to believe that Gatsby is indeed "green with envy." It is also probable that Fitzgerald uses green to symbolize money and its power in society.Money rules the lives of the people in the story. Gatsby needs money to keep the life that he does. Gatsby also feels he needs the money to get back together with Daisy. He has “a large green lawn”and “green ivy”going up his house. Inside Gatsby’s car, the passengers sit "in a sort of green leather conservatory". All of these things represent the riches, as well as the importance of money in Gatsby’s l ife. The color green can both symbolize envy and money; however, the most reasonable meaning would have to be one of future hope, especially in Gatsby’s case. The use of a green light at the end of a landing stage to signal a romantic reunion is intriguinglysimilar to the green light at the end of Daisy's Buchanan’s dock, which becomes key image in The Great Gatsby.The green light located at the end of the Buchanans’ dock and is barely visible from Gatsby's West Egg lawn must have given the readers deep impression．The first appearance of the green light occurs when Nick sees Gatsby for the first time, standing in front of his mansion and stretching out his arms to "...a single green light, minute and far away that might have been the end of dock." The light becomes, for Gatsby, the symbol of a reunion with Daisy. This is a wonderful and appropriate symbol of Gatsby’s life. Gatsby is livin g alone in a world of "darkness", trying to grasp one small thing to bring him happiness. His life has had many shortcomings and many troubles through his younger years. He finally receives some breaks and is able make a name for himself. The longing in his heart is to have Daisy, but more importantly to have a new hope in his life. He has always kept the idea in his heart that he could be reunited with Daisy. Gatsby is trying to find a better world in the green light. Gatsby gets unbearably close to his dream, yet in all of his efforts, he comes up short in grasping the better life that he wanted（Donaldso 1984）. He hopes for the "green breast of the new world", the people's idea that tomorrow will bring a better day. This idea seems justifiable, yet it is far away from coming true.The strong color green usually symbolizes dream and hope．Therefore this green light represents both love and money as well as Gatsby’s ultimate goal, a spring-like renewal that would put his past behind him and plant the seeds for a future with Daisy．Nick's first vision of Gatsby is of his neighbor's trembling arms extended toward the green light in Chapter I．The green light burning all night here symbolizes the dream of Gatsby．From the cultural point of view，the color green not only represents hope，peace and dream，but also has the visional symbolic meaning alluding to Gatsby’s hopeful and dreamy life．Gatsby rose from a humble origin，but he was full of hope for life and future，and dreamed for the life of the upper class．During his term of military service，he fell in love with Daisy who was later married to a rich man Tom．Thinking the only reason was that of poorness，Gatsbycould not give up his love，he firmly believed that Daisy would come to him when he owned wealth．Therefore，he tried by hook or by crook，and even to take illegal activities to earn great wealth and realize his dream—material comfort and Daisy．Later, after Daisy and Gatsby’s successful reunion in Chapter V, a mist conceals the green light，visibly affecting Gatsby．Nick observes．“Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever….Now it was again a green light on a dock．His count of enchanted objects had diminished by on”．The image implies that Gatsby realizes he must face the reality, not the ideal he creates for her, but when Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, he seemed absorbed in what he had just said．Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever．Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her，almost touching her．It had seemed as close as a star to the moon．Now it was again a green light on a dock．His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one．The disappearance of the charm of the green light symbolizes dislocation of the predestined love of them．Being attracted by his dream，Gatsby totally ignores the real life，and gives Daisy a halo．Then in the American society overflowing of material or human desires，Gatsby's spiritual pursuit can never equal to the material wealth which Daisy represents．Although Gatsby owns wealth，his humble origin is destined that he has an impassable gap with American upper class．The social class system is also an important factor resulting in tragedy．The last appearance of the green light is at the end of the novel．This “green light”is conferred upon deeper meanings．Connecting Gatsby and the green color again and again，the author undoubtedly wants to prove that green color symbolizes the hope of Gatsby．There is another thing that needs to be pointed．Green is the color of “dollar”．So green also represents the wealth and American Dream Gatsby pursues all his life．In Gatsby’s life．The green light sometimes is his light of navigation which is real，attractive，and makes him believe his dream will come true．While sometimes is flickering and illus my which makes him feel that he may aspire to but can neverattain(钱清1994)．When his dream is lost in the city with infinite chaos，the green light representing hope fades away，and the trip to his dreamland becomes a pitch—dark．It could be concluded，from the analysis of the three appearances of the image above，that the “green light”，which was conferred upon multiple symbolical meanings，representing the beautiful things and happy life that Gatsby exhausted all his life to pursue，is an embodiment of money，success and dignity(刁可利2005)．However，it was impossible for him to be enough，no matter how much he has gained，even though the house of palace was crowded a great many men and women come from the upper class of the society．Yet he desired to obtain the love of Daisy who occupied his heart．Afterwards Gatsby got reunion with Daisy as he wished，but there and then the woman has not been the one whom Gatsby considered as the fairy in the last．The distance between ideal and fact was so immense that Daisy has converted from his first—lover of purity and beauty to a “golden woman” who just wants to chase for money and seek material pleasure．The repetition of ”green light”suggests the variation of Gatsby’s mind．implies that he have to envisage Daisy of reality．On the other hand，presented in the last paragraph of the novel，the symbolism of individual and the one of society and of history combined each other organically．Cooperating with the green new world in Nick's thoughts, the green light of good ideal，which symbolized the hope，the goal and the direction of Gatsby who wanted to achieve and attain all these through his hard and unremitting striving，gives the audience a clear under-standing of the substance of “American Dream” and the matters the American was undergoing from Gatsb y’s up and down．The meaning of the green light in the novel is really complicated，which is a symbol of aggressive spirit，for Gatsby persistently believed in his dream and sought it with his whole energy all his 1ife(李稚阳、张允2006)．As well as the symbol of the dream and the hope which was doomed to vanish in the end．Nick reminds as that green light after Gatsby's death．Gatsby adheres constantly all his life to the pursuit of one dream andseeks hard for that．Yet he was totally unaware that dream was bound to be smashed．His own dream also can be generalized as American dream．The green light was compared to how America must have looked to early settlers of the new nation．The green light is probably one of the most important symbols in The Great Gatsby, the first appearance is at the end of the first chapter, and that is also the first time Nick, in some point the author's incarnation because the author uses the third part to express his mind and became the all-known God, met Gatsby. When Nick sees Gatsby for the first time in his backyard, he notices that Gatsby is looking intensely at a green light, with his arms stretching towards it, as if trying to reach it. Later on, we learn that the special light is the end of Daisy's dock, across the bay which separates East Egg from West Egg. The action stretching out looks as if he is worshipping for something. But, what would we worship for? Only dream or hope. Then we can say the color green represents Gatsby's ambition and dream---to win Daisy, that light is the reason why he is ready to do everything he can to win her love. To reach that light is his only desire in life. So, in this case, Gatsby, who represents American people at that time, is in a loss time. And he indicates the emptiness of American people at that time clearly".Involuntarily I glanced seaward---and distinguished nothing except ssingle green light, minute and far away, that might have been the endof a dock. When I looked once for Gatsby he had vanished, and Iwas alone again in the unquiet darkness. (the last paragraph inchapter one)So ends the first chapter of The Great Gatsby and brings our attention to the first symbol in this book--- that mysterious green light. In our first acquaintances, we believe that Gatsby reaching out for it, we can also say, worshipping for it. Later on, we find out that this green light is at the end of Daisy’s dock, and is a symbol for Gatsby’s dream and the hope for the future, Because green is the color of promise, hope, and renewal---we have shown it clearly to you at the part of “life, hope, future”---so it is fitting to say Gatsby’s dream of a future with Daisy is represented physically in the novel by this green light. Later, in the final chapter of this novel,Fitzgerald compares Gatsby's green light to the "green breast of the new world" and compares Gatsby’s dream of rediscovering Daisy to the explorer's discovery of America and the promise of a new continent. However, Gatsby's dream is discolored by his material possessions. The means corrupt the end, and Gatsby's dream died because of Daisy.At the end of the story, Fitzgerald encouraged his American readers or his contemporary ones that they should stretch out their arms just like Gatsby for their dreams though Gatsby's dream, in some point it is American Dream, is dead. “It eluded us then, but that is no matter---tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther--- And one time morning”（常耀信1995）. From these words we can see the green light not only the symbol of Gatsby's dream and future, but also the American's.3.2 Blue: symbol of illusionIn the meantime, the author not only chooses "green" to depict Gatsby, but also uses auxiliary colors like blue, white, yellow, golden silver, pink to enrich Gatsby's image according to his moods and expectations at that time. These colors are mainly used in clothes, articles for use and environment.Then there is blue, which I think it represents Gatsby's illusion. Because his romantic dream is totally unrealistic. Though he lies in a golden world, we also do notice that the color blue is presented around Gatsby much more than any other characters. His chauffeur wears blue, his garden is blue, the water separating him from his love Daisy is "blue lawn", mingled with the "blue smoke of brittle leaves'' in his yard, and his tutor of life Cody buys him a "blue Goat".The color blue in The Great Gatsby can be interpreted to represent hope for the future. It represents a lost time, a pure color that is overly displayed, a pure color in the valley of ashes. "The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic...." The blue of his eyes present a contrast to the dismal gray atmosphere of the Valley of Ashes; thus, symbolizing a higher world from which God looks down upon the scene.The color blue, in a sense, brings a window of hope into a land that is dead. Blue also symbolizes the unhappy relationship of Tom and Daisy. The color blue has always been known to represent a melancholy disposition or situation. Because it is based on money instead of love, Tom and Daisy's relationship is undoubtedly blue. Blue also represents fantasy and is a symbol of a different world. “In blue gardens”, men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. Gatsby’s blue gardens and house provid e places where people can go to get away from reality. His parties are out of touch with the real world and in an era of dreams and illusions.3.3 White: symbol of innocenceWhite is a color which appears many times throughout the novel，At first, it is used to describe Daisy. The first thing Nick mentions when he sees Daisy in the Buchanans’ is that she is in a "white dress”. Later on, we learn that Daisy's clothes are always white, even her car is also white. More than that, we can find lots of descriptions of her are white. For example, her “white neck", “white gi rlhood'', "high in a white place" and so on. The color white is closely related to Daisy, then, it is natural to define the color white as "her" color. I think that is why some critics insist that white symbolized innocence in this novel, Dose this color represents her purity and her innocence? No! The reason is that, at the end of the novel, Daisy is described as a selfish and careless woman.Besides seeing the color white on Daisy, we also can see the white on Gatsby. Once when Gatsby took Nick for a ride in his car, they were stopped by a policeman, Gatsby acted fast and showed the officer a white card, and the latter immediately excused him. At first, Gatsby made Nick believe that it was a Christmas card sent to him by the commissioner, but later on we learn that Gatsby had bribed the police officer. So, in contrast, “white” also represents corr uption, we can see from above that it is ridiculous to say the color white represents innocence in this novel.3.4 Y ellow: symbol of wealth, money and deathIn our mind, we will see the color yellow or golden as wealth, richness and moneys. But, in this book, yellow also represents death.It is easy to see the first meaning. In order to show his wealth, the major character Gatsby nearly uses everything in yellow. His car is yellow, he wears a gold tie, and he is in a golden suit. What is more, his party plays "yellow cocktail music" and he sits with "tow girls in yellow”.Gatsby's car is yellow and Tom's car is blue. That is the reason of Gatsby’s death, if' both had been black---as they usually were in those times---Gatsby would not have been killed by George Wilson. So, yellow, in a way, lead to Gatsby’s death. Golden and yellow are colors that symbolism old wealth. The green colors and golden contrast in a meaningful way. In old times people used golden as a means for exchange, but as national cash was established green money replaced the gold and gold no longer even backed the dollar. So, golden represents the old money and green represents the new. In the same way, golden symbolizes Daisy and Tom’s old money and green symbolizes Gatsby’s new money. One might say that Gatsby is "green". To contrast this Tom is gold. In the same way that green and golden contrast so do Gatsby and Tom. Jordan and Daisy are also represented by golden. "...Jordan’s slender golden arm resting in mine..." "...high in the whi te palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl..." The golden girl is, of course, Daisy. Gatsby wants to be rich with old money so he can win the affection of his true love, so he buys a yellow car. But it did not fool any one, Gatsby did not have old wealth（朱世达2001）.3.5 Gray: symbol of hopelessThe Valley of Ashes provides the scene for the majority of the use of the color gray in The Great Gatsby. Gray most prominently and obviously symbolizes the utter hopelessness that thrives within the Valley of Ashes. Fitzgerald describes the Valley of Ashes as "...a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and。