Barbara Mapstead
English III
Mrs. Pentz, G Block
The Great Gatsby
May 1, 2005
White

In The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the color white as well as variations of the color to portray characters’ identity; that is, their morals (if any), culture, lifestyle, etc. Fitzgerald uses the white and the difference between its purity and off-colored-ness in order to represent the cleanliness (pure white) vs. corruption (off-white, dirty) that was apparent in the 1920’s. Where pure white represents things like wealth (old), ignorance, innocence, and superficiality, off-white represents corruption, lies, and unreality. Throughout the novel the reader is able to understand how white determines who a character is, through their materialistic possessions, their personality (through their lifestyle and culture), and what life means depending on how the color white is described.
Daisy and Tom Buchanan represent the ideal “white” American marriage, as well as ideal “white” individuals. They are wealthy, and not just any kind of wealthy; their money is old-it has been inherited and passed down from generation to generation, which was more respectable in those days. Fitzgerald describes the Buchanan’s home as a place “Along the courtesy bay [where] the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water…” (10). The narrator tells of where the Buchanans live, a place of “white palaces”, indicating that the rest of the description of their home is “fashionable” and “glittered”. The fact that Fitzgerald uses white to tie the description of their wealthy lifestyle together points out how important the color is in representing how people live. How people dress is also an indication of who they are. In the beginning of the novel, Daisy and Jordan Baker (a wealthy friend of Daisy’s) “…lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols, weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans” (122). The wording of this sentence emphasizes all that pure white is; both Daisy and Jordan’s wealth is portrayed in what they’re wearing-white dresses; both women “lay” and did not “sit”, indicating that their wealth doesn’t require any labor from them, and so they can relax; and, not only do they “lay”, but they do so on an “enormous couch”, instead of just a “couch”. Again, this shows that their wealth of white dresses provides them the luxury of having bigger and better material things. Lastly, Daisy and Jordan are reclining like “ silver idols”, and indication of statue-like figures, who are not real, but superficial, and shiny, or glossed over.
As the shade of white changes, so do people’s material possessions. Off-white in Gatsby, in terms of materialism, shows society on the other side of the tracks-that is, the not so wealthy, or, the not so innocent. George Wilson’s wife, Mrs. Wilson, who is having an affair with Tom Buchanan “…had changed…and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon…”(35). Mrs. Wilson does this after she leaves her gas-station home and husband and arrives at her sister Catherine’s upscale apartment in New York City with the rich Tom. As she moves up the ladder of wealth, in location and men, her clothing changes in order fit her upgrading. Mrs. Wilson doesn’t put on a white dress, but rather an off-white, or “cream colored” one. The fact that her dress is not pure white goes to show that she is not like Daisy, Tom’s wife, who does wear pure white. Mrs. Wilson is unfaithful with not such a reputable marriage or money status, again, unlike Daisy. And so her cream dress is an effort-but not a truth-to be like the upper class, while she is in a New York City apartment with the well-known Tom Buchanan. Another example of impurity is a description of a materialism concerning the main character of the novel, Jay Gatsby. Of course he is infamous, known for his lavish parties and generosity towards everyone. His car is even unmistakable; Nick, the narrator, had seen it, “Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hatboxes…and terraced with a labyrinth windshields…”(68). Although Gatsby’s car is described so lavishly, as “rich”, “bright” and “triumphant”, with its “monstrous size”, its color is not white, but cream. As much as Gatsby tries to give off the impression of wealth, the fact that his car is not pure white is a foreshadowing of his life, a poor background and now recently rich from new money. His money is not from a somewhere like Tom’s, but from a corrupt business, and so his cream colored car shows his dishonesty.
As for the lifestyle and culture of twentieth-century society, it can also be determined through the color white. Pure white represents a respectable culture and lifestyle (at least on the outside), and also things like an “honest”, and “innocent”, personality. For instance, Daisy, the one in white dresses, is also “…High in a white palace, the king’s daughter, the golden girl…” (127). Fitzgerald points out exactly who she is, how she lives her life. This quote is said right before Gatsby declares that she is “full of money”, which ties into the description of her in a “white palace” (old money, lavish dwellings). The “white palace” home matches her “golden girl” description, in that she is still youthful even though she’s an adult, and she’s shiny like “gold” in that she’s superficial and hiding something. As for white personality, a prime example is the description of of some of Gatsby’s guests at one of his parties, the “...Hornbeams and the Willie Voltaires and a whole clan named Blackbuck who always gathered in a corner and flipped up their noses like goats at whosoever came near” (66). These “clans” at Gatsby’s party are all very well known and wealthy. In fact their wealth translates into how they carry themselves, by “flipping up their noses like goats” (white animals, mind you), and their animal-like characteristic dictates their attitude-they ignore anyone that isn’t a part of their exclusive group, and are unaccepting as well. These white, wealthy “goats” portray their exclusivity and judgementality.
Off-white descriptions of people facial features in the novel are not written in for no reason; they give off a certain, more realistic sense of that person (and negative at most times), especially if the rest of their description is flattering and pure (pure white). When Nick first met Jordan at the Buchanan’s, “Her grey sun-strained eyes looked beack at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming discontented face” (15). Even though Jordan is described earlier as “white”, indicating her wealth and ignorance, her “grey...strained” eyes (not white) show another side of her. Later in the novel the reader learns that even though Jordan Baker is well known for her golf, she is also known (and proven) to have lied and cheated in her games in order to win. So really, although her dresses and big couches show her purity and wealth, her grey eyes give more of an honest impression, of her corruptness.
White’s variety is portrayed in more than just materialistic possessions and looks, it most importantly portrays the life of people, whether they are innocent and classy (white), or corrupt and untruthful (off-white). Gatsby is described as man who could “...climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he suck on the pap of life, gulp down the imcomparable milk of wonder” (117). Here life is described as “milk”, a white substance, that is “incomparable” and full of “wonder”. Gatsby, a man with some off-white descriptions is represented as someone that has the ability to grab the “wonder” of life, that is, the white wonder (“milk”) of life. But white wealth does not always bring the same white life. After Gatsby becomes familiar again with his true love, Daisy, he “...was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggle of the poor” (157). In this quote, wealth is described as bittersweet; although it is full of “youth” and “freshness” and excessive materialism (Daisy’s “many clothes”), the wealth “imprisons”, and even though it makes someone like Daisy “proud”, her pride makes her ignorant and insensitive-even to people she loves, like Gatsby-so that she doesn’t notice, or is unaware, of “the struggle of the poor”, (like Gastby at one point) and what real life is like.
Off-white, on the other hand, presents a different and somewhat negative view on life. For example, the road from Long Island into New York City, a place where many people drive every day, twice a day, perhaps, is