The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is one of the deepest novels to date in the respect that it is packed with symbols, which serve numerous purposes in the novel, everywhere from describing its characters to foreshadowing its most important events. Without understanding these signs, one can hardly understand the novel. Of the many symbols present in the novel, three of the most prominent are the automobile, representing wealth; the color white, representing Daisy's purity and innocence; and the seasonal change from Summer to Fall, representing Gatsby's death.
From chapter one, Fitzgerald relies on the color white to characterize Daisy as an innocent and pure character. In this chapter, Daisy is wearing a white dress, and correspondingly, she behaves innocently as well. Nick ties together these two traits of Daisy's when he says that "she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire" (16-17). Throughout the rest of the novel,. Fitzgerald continues to portray Daisy's innocence using the color white. At Gatsby's mansion, she "admired the gardens" and "the sparkling odor of jonquils," which are white flowers (96).
Fitzgerald often uses the automobile to characterize the wealthy individuals in his novel. When Nick attends one of Gatsby's parties for the first time, Gatsby flaunts his wealth to his guests by having them gawk at his Rolls-Royce. Just as Gatsby's guests want to be around Gatsby's wealth, they want to be around his car as well. Nick states, "On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city, between nine in the morning and long past midnight" (43). Near the end of the novel, when Daisy hits Myrtle, Fitzgerald uses the automobile to describe the profoundness of Gatsby's predicament.
