F. Scott Fitzgerald's Symbolic Design in The Great Gatsby

The  paper explores the idea  that  F. Scott  Fitzgerald (1896 –1940) is a symbolist who occupies a unique position among his contemporaries. Like a designer or a painter, he follows the rules of some color and light theories in designing his symbolic system, which distinguishes him from other symbolists. Many critics pay no attention to his design of symbols. They discuss his use of colors as symbols, but disregard the major role of such objects as light and electricity as symbols. The paper presents a critical and literary analysis of his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, showing that color and light symbols are an integral part of its plot and structure. The thematic and character developments of the novel are based on its symbolic system. The analysis applies some features of traditional symbolism and rules of the color theory and RGB to the text. The conclusion presents and sums up the results of the study.