Email this article 
American Dreams Represented through the Color in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby
(1) Universitas Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta
(2) Universitas Sanata Dharma
(*) Corresponding Author
Abstract
This article aims at observing F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby that was first published in 1925, a novel about a man named Gatsby who wants to get his love back by making effort to be a rich person. The prominent color symbols and how the symbols represent the American Dream are the main concern of this article. Two objectives are set to guide the study of the novel. The first is to explai the color symbols that are prominent in the study, and the second is to analyze how the color symbols represent the American Dream. From the analysis, there are three prominent colors presented in the novel: green, white and gold. Green that symbolizes the American Dream of the better life and happiness can be seein in the green light, the green leather conservatory, the green-house, the apple-green shirts, the green jersey, the green card, the green Sound, and the green breast of the new world. White symbolizes the American Dream of of fame, wealth, perfection, innocence, and success. This color can be seen in the white palaces of fashionable East Egg, the white dress, the white windows, the white roadster, the white cards, and the white flannel suits. Gold that symbolizes the American Dream of material prosperity can be seen in the golden arm, the golden shoulder, the gold-colored tie, and the toilet set of pure dull gold color.
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 4th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College, 1981.
Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. Boston: Little, Brown, 1931.
Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson. Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 7th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College, 1998.
Bouti, Suleman. American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgeralds the Great Gatsby. Jurnal Inovasi. Vol.4. No.1 (2013): pp.1-9. UNG Repository. Web. 2 July 2015. /get/karyailmiah/169/american-dream-in-f-scott-fitzgeralds-the-great-atsby.pdf>
Cullen, Jim. The American Dream a Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2003.
Bortoli, Mario de, and Jesus Maroto. Colours Across Cultures: Translating Colours in Interactive Marketing Communications. Global Propaganda. University of Paisley. 2001. Web. 2 July 2015
Degler, Carl N. Out of Our Past. New York: Harper and Row, Inc., 1962.
Oxford Dictionaries - Dictionary, Thesaurs, & Grammar. Web. 2 July 2015.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Crack-up: With Other Pieces and Stories. Harmondsworth, Middlesex : Penguin, 1965.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Adelaide: The University of Adelaide Library. Web. 11 June 2014.
Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Guth, Hans P. and Gabrielle L. Rico. Discovering Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays. Englewood Cliffs: Blair Press Book,1997.
Hall, Stuart. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: SAGE Publication Ltd, 2003.
Hawkes, Terence. Structuralism & Semiotics. Reprinted. London: Menthuen Co.Ltd, 1978.
Holman, C. Hugh, William Flint Thrall, and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature. 5d ed. Michigan: Macmiller, 1986.
Krauzer, Michael. "What Does the Color Gold Mean or Symbolized in the Bible." Web. 1 July 2015.
Merriam-Webster. Web. 2 July 2015.
"Nation at the Crossroads: The Great New York Debate over the Constitution, 1787-88 ." The Declaration of Independence. By the Continental Congress at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, July 4th 1776, And Acknowledged by the Whole World in the Centennial Year 1876. 1983. Web. 1 July 2015.
Perry, Ralph Barton and Ralph H. Gabriel. Characteristically American. New York: Knopf, 1949.
Roberts, Edgar V. and Henry E. Jacobs. Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 3th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1991.
Rohrberger, Mary, and Samuel H. Woods. Reading and Writing about Literature. New York: Random House, 1971.
Myers, Jack, and Michael Simms. The Longman Dictionary of Poetic Terms. New York: Longman, 1989.
Samkanashvili, Maia.Uses of Symbols and Colors in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Journal of Education. Vol.2. No. 1 (2013): pp.31-39. IBSU. Web. 1 July 2015.
Smith, S.E. "Defining The American Dream." Google Docs. Web. 1 july 2016.
Stanton, Robert. An Introduction to Fiction. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965.
Strba, Ivan. Birth, Life and Disillusionment of the American Dream in the Great Gatsby. Undergraduate Thesis. Slovakia: Presov University, 2012.
Taghizadeh, Ali. Theory of Literary Structuralismin Henry James). Theory and Practice in Language Studies. Vol.3. No.2. (2013): p.288. Academy Publisher. Web. 3 July 2015
Thompson, Benjamin F. History of Long Island: Containing an Account of the Discovery and Settlement : With Other Important and Interesting Matters to the Present Time. New York: E. French, 1839.
Vaughn-Kelso, Katie, Christine Breese D.D., Ph.D., and Casey Carothers. The Meaning of Colors. Spiritual Symbols & Colors. (2005): pp.87-96. Starlight Journal. Web. 3 July 2015.
Warshauer, Matthew. Who Wants to be a Millionaire : Changing Conceptions of the American Dream Liverpool: John Moores University. 2003.
Wellek, Rene, and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1962.
Zettl, Herbert. Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics. Belmont: Wadsworth Publisher, 1973.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v16i1.151
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Journal of Language and Literature (JOLL) is published by Prodi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
JOLL is indexed in:
This journal is is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License