Yellow Symbolism in The Great Gatsby Anonymous 11th Grade

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the color yellow is a prevalent hue within the narrative's depiction of high society. Although interchangeable with the color gold, there are two distinct connotations in the mention of each color. While gold equates to luxury and wealth in an objective sense, yellow serves to display the corruption, greed, and materialism that prevails among the riches.

The high flying society of the East embodies the very essence of greed, corruption, and inevitably, destruction. The growing need for materialism and money serves as a detriment to good character, moral, and values, and the color yellow is omnipresent in every aspect of the rich; Jay Gatsby’s glamorous parties are narrated with an overabundance of yellow, and Mr. Wilson’s yellow house depicts a sense of hopelessness in a different sense. The “yellow cocktail music,” as well as the two party-goers encountered wearing yellow dresses, accentuate the superficial feeling and attitudes in Gatsby’s parties: the people who attend these parties do so for the sake of status and superiority fulfillment, disregarding the host himself and instead indulging in rumors and gossip. These parties are far from genuine, and the presence of yellow defines...