When Gatsby first is going to see Daisy again, he dresses in “a
white flannel suit” (84). Gatsby is trying to act like just a average, nonchalant guy, which ties into his
“strained counterfeit of perfect ease” (86) when Daisy arrives. Gatsby later wants to make more of an
impact on Daisy at his house: he “flip[s] a switch” which gives the impression that the “gray windows
disappeared” and “the house glowed full of light”: the ordinary looking house suddenly turns far from
ordinary (94). Finally, Gatsby’s father pulls at his “sparse gray beard” showing that Gatsby’s father,
Gatsby’s family is just common, low class people (167).
Fitzgerald sets up red/pink to mean a subject is newer, better, or special in some way. Fitzgerald
begins to set up red as meaning new or extraordinary in the very beginning of the book. The books
Nick buys that are like “new money from the mint” are “red and gold” (4), Tom and Daisy’s
“elaborate” house is “red-and-white” (6) and filled with “rosy-colored space” (7) and “wine-colored”
(8) rugs. Nick sees “new, red gas-pumps” (20) before he returns home. Red is at Gatsby’s high class
and exciting parties: in the “primary colors” (40) and a “red-haired young lady” (51). Red is in
Gatsby’s elaborate, exciting lies of his adventures: Gatsby claims he collected “jewels, chiefly rubies”
(65) with their “crimson-lighted depths” (67), as Gatsby finishes his lie Gatsby and Nick pass “red-
belted” ships (68). Red is the first color in exciting America’s “red, white, and blue banners” (74) and
it is the “Red Cross” (75) that Daisy, “by far the most popular of all the young girls” (74) participated
in.
As soon as Fitzgerald applied meaning to these colors, he began to use them to show readers
subtle things about important subjects. Gatsby’s house is full of red as we see from Fitzgerald’s
descriptions of “bedrooms swathed in rose” (91). Fitzgerald also puts red around Gatsby himself, for
example when Gatsby is standing “in the centre of the crimson carpet” (116) and later he is wearing a
“pink suit” (122) the day he and Tom have their encounter. 
 Fitzgerald furthers this second effect by the almost complete lack of red or pink
besides subjects related to Gatsby: the only other times are the “pink glow from Daisy’s room” (144) as
Gatsby is watching which could symbolize the room being the complete focus of Gatsby’s attention;
Gatsby’s last attempt to capture this lost dream, and when Gatsby, Nick and Tom look “over the rose-
beds” to the boat in the ocean which speaks to the overall message of the book through color symbols. These examples of
red surrounding Gatsby have two effects. The first is that Gatsby seems, or is at least trying to seem,
new and important and exciting, like red. The second effect is for readers—the use of red puts more of
a focus on Gatsby.
