Jay Gatsby
1 December 2009
World Literature
Images of Innocence
Every night at dinner time, television channels are inundated with advertisements for fast
food restaurants. Restaurants showcase pictures of their popular items while an announcer
describes them in detail. Even though the audience can easily see the hamburger being
described, the commercial will still use up valuable time informing the viewer that it is made
with "fresh, juicy beef" and "hot, crispy bacon." Such images are an effective tool; viewers'
mouths are watering by the end of the commercial. The descriptions have made the hamburger
more real to the audience, and many will leave their homes to purchase one. Imagery is even
more important in literature. Authors use imagery to make situations and characters more real.
Abstract ideas can be visualized when an author uses imagery effectively. In F. Scott
Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, imagery is used to portray innocence. Throughout the novel,
these images make the loss of innocence more poignant. Although there are several instances of
such imagery, there are three recurring images of importance: the color white, weddings, and
fairy tales.
The Great Gatsby places importance on every color imaginable. Fitzgerald uses every
color for a reason. The first colors in the book, red and gold, represent two of the major
conflicts, love and money. Perhaps the most predominant color throughout the novel is the color
white. When Nick first visits the Buchanan home, he notes that "[t]he windows were ajar and
gleaming white against the fresh grass." Daisy is wearing a white dress when she guesses that
the bird singing on the grass "must be a nightingale come over on the … White Star Line."
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When Nick attends his first party at Gatsby's he takes care to mention that he was "[d]ressed up
in white flannels." In Gatsby's white car, Nick sees New York "rising up across the river in
white heaps and sugar lumps."
The color white is seen throughout the novel. Many agree that white is a symbol of
purity, virtue, and goodness. However, the color white is particularly important to The Great
Gatsby because the characters within it are anything but. Tom wears white riding pants,
signifying strength in virtue. The reader learns as the story unfolds that Tom is currently having
an affair, and that it isn't the first time he has engaged in one. Daisy wears a white dress and
refers to her "beautiful white girlhood," signifying trust and innocence. She knows about Tom's
affairs, and goes on to have one of her own. The windows shine white light away from the
Buchanan house, mirroring the polite façade they show to the world. Most importantly, Gatsby's
car is white. At the end of the book, Daisy runs over Myrtle in Gatsby's car. The color used to
portray the idea of innocence becomes a tool of murder.
As with the color white, wedding images are too frequent in The Great Gatsby to be
accidental. When Nick first enters the Buchanan home, he notices that a breeze "blew curtains in
at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of
the ceiling." Jordan uses Daisy's wedding to explain her history with Gatsby. Further, the
conflict boils towards climax in the Plaza hotel while a wedding is going on downstairs.
One could argue that The Great Gatsby is a story about the importance of marriage.
Marriage is viewed by all cultures as a religious vow, a sacred oath of fidelity between two
people. Nick's assessment of the Buchanan home is a reminder to the reader that Tom and Daisy
are in fact married. Fitzgerald's use of wedding imagery at the very first cements the Buchanans'
marriage in the reader's mind. Infidelity, when it comes, should shock the reader. Tom's and
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Daisy's respective affairs should be shocking and appalling. However, when Jordan tells the
story of Daisy's wedding, Nick learns that Daisy was not happy with her marriage to Tom. She
could not marry Gatsby, the man she wanted to marry, because he was away at war. Waiting
was not an option; "[s]he wanted her life shaped now, immediately – and the decision must be
made by some force – of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality – that was close at
hand." Daisy's marriage was not what it should have been, because she was too anxious to get
married to be able to do it right. Eventually, it seems as if Daisy's marriage will end. Everyone's
secrets are revealed at the Plaza Hotel, in the middle of a wedding. The happiness of the music
is an intense juxtaposition to the potential divorce upstairs. Tom can only salvage his marriage
by slandering Gatsby's character, leaving Daisy to choose the lesser of two evils.
Fairy tales are often connected to childhood, and by correlation, innocence and purity.
While the references to fairies are not as prominent as colors and weddings, the fairy images are
perhaps the most important images in the entire book. Through flashbacks, the reader learns that
Daisy's maiden name was Fay. This particular image escapes many readers because of its
subtlety. On the surface, it seems like a common enough surname. However, a careful
examination shows that Fay is also an anglo-saxon word meaning "fairy." Daisy is Gatsby's
fairy tale. Everything Gatsby became was a direct result of his insatiable desire to possess Daisy.
"For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of
the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s
wing." When Gatsby first kissed Daisy, "[a]t his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a
flower." All of the images up to this point, the white dresses, innocence, and now flowers,
portray Daisy like a fairy tale. Just like a fairy tale, the hope of Daisy's love was pure and
innocent. When Gatsby finally reunites with Daisy, they have an affair together, shattering the
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innocence of the fairy tale. No matter how hard he tries, he can never keep her. Daisy's love
was a wonderful fiction, a fiction for which Gatsby gave his life.
The Great Gatsby is widely regarded as an American classic. Fitzgerald's masterful use
of imagery doubtlessly played a part in his rise to fame. While Gatsby's life makes for an
interesting story without any deeper meaning, the images of innocence add depth and meaning to
the characters. The reader can easily identify with wedding cakes and fairy tales, and can use
those ideas to identify with abstract ideas such as innocence and betrayal. In short, imagery turns
this entertaining story into a masterpiece of human emotion and experience.