Another example of red is that the reader’s main hint of Gatsby’s all-important death is the “thin red circle in the water” (162).
There is, of course, a second reading that adds to Gatsby trying to look new and significant, the first
effect. This comes from Gatsby’s clothes always being a “pink suit” (122), or his shirts being almost
red—“apple-green”, “coral”, “lavender”, and “faint orange” (92) but none is quite there, he is never
quite red—new and exciting.
F. Scott Fitzgerald actually uses colors in another significant way besides giving certain colors
meaning then using that meaning to apply subtle details about other subjects, usually characters. The
main purpose of the applying meaning to colors for later use is to show that Daisy is just some generic
object with her “white childhood” (19) and “white dresses” (115) that Gatsby dreams for and to bring
the focus on Gatsby, always on the “crimson carpet” (116). Fitzgerald also uses the meanings he set up
for white and red, plainness or being an ordinary person and newness or being extraordinary, in a few
passages that show readers the message of the novel. The first is as Nick, Gatsby and Tom are at Tom
and Daisy’s, in the back, and they look “over the rose-beds” over the extraordinary items or people, to
the “white wings of [a] boat” simply plain people, they focus on the plain instead of the extraordinary
or new and exciting (118). The other passage is at the end of the book, as Nick looks at Gatsby’s house
one more time, he sees on the “white steps” and “obscene word, scrawled...with a piece of brick”
(180). This second passage seems to suggest that on the “white steps” the everyday world, “brick”
(red) items that are supposed to be new and exciting can be bad and ruin life; readers see this especially
when Nick feels the urge to erase it (180). These two passages together with the symbolic meanings
Fitzgerald earlier assigned them seem to suggest that one should just be an everyday person, not try to
be something new and extraordinary, this meaning is also supported by the mainly red character, the
only person trying to be extraordinary, ending up dead with nothing, a “poor son-of-a-bitch” (175).

One of the most interesting topics regarding the play Othello by William Shakespeare is the way
in which Othello completely falls from his high ranking and respected position so rapidly. The main
debate is whether the fall is the result of Iago’s plotting, or a flaw in Othello’s character, namely his
passion. If one examines the play, they will see the reason that furthers the plot resulting in Othello’s
downfall varies throughout the play. In the beginning of Othello, the only cause of the plot eventually
leading to Othello’s downfall is Iago; about halfway through, a combination of Iago and Othello’s
passion furthers the plot; but in the last part of the play Othello’s passion is the only reason for
Othello’s downfall.
