Serena Diaz

1217/2018
Ms. Carroll
Period 1
Patterns of Gatsby

In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he uses patterns to symbolize the
meanings he wants his readers to get to know, one of the biggest patterns is the patterns of color.
Fitzgerald uses gray a lot throughout the story to show a pattern of depression in the book.
During this time period, the great war just ended and there was no alcohol, so people were
bootlegging and people were very poor. So gray is symbolism to depression and sadness linked
to people.

The color gray is said quite a lot before we get to other colors and patterns throughout the
book. “Her gray sunshine eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan,
charming, discontented face,”(page 11). A lady is having a bad day thus explaining why she
looks gray because it can symbol her being tired or being unsatisfied during this period of time
due to so many things going on. “But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which
drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburh,”(page
23) After the first war ended it caused places to not be kept they way they used to be like how
usually places are nice and clean but not where the blue eyes stand due to the railroad and the
working going on for men so they can just make ends meet making them feel depressed and tired
at work because they need a way to earn money after the war because tons of people became
broke or bankrupt. “It was a few days before the fourth of July, and a gray. Scrawny Italian child
was setting torpedoes in a row along the railroad track,”(page 26). Kids throughout the war
missed there days and were left alone and some kids did anything to occupy themselves because
of the sadness they had buried in them. “We talked for a moment about some wet, gray little
villages in France,”(page 47). Nick when going to the party was happy to say he would see these
people on the train and going places so they were familiar but when someone starts talking about
the war and the dark past of being in France Nick describes it as gray. Fitzgerald uses gray to
describe the dark times you wouldn’t want to remember.

Fitzgerald uses a smart way of patterns through this book and then the most interesting
part is that he does not stick to one color to give off ideas and themes but he uses different colors
to change it. He uses blue, white, yellow, gold, red, and gray so far and they all meant different
things. Patterns of color all mean something different like how red can define intimacy, blue
meaning loneliness, and gold meaning wealth. The main take away was gray. This takes away is
basically a symbol of what is happening after the great war and how deprived and depressed
people are so they turned to things like alcohol and partying.