In Tyson's queer reading of the Great Gatsby, I thought she brought of two good points both relating to color. The first is the view of the two young women both dressed always in yellow dresses. As Tyson says " These two young women are a striking example of same-sex 'doubles' that function as lesbian signs...the women are portrayed dancing together at the party." (Tyson 344) When reading the book, I passed over the two women in yellow dresses, but Tyson brings up a good point in saying that the two women are the biggest examples of a queer dimension at Gatsby's parties.
Tyson also discussed Gastby's clothing, specifically his " various shades of lavender and pink, two colors that have been long associated with gayness." (345) Tyson talks about the way in which Gatsby's pink suit is portrayed in the novel. It is either showed in a romantic light, by Nick, and a criticized light, by Tom. I thought this was a good point because we have discussed Nick's questioned sexuality, and Tom's overly macho attitude and it supports all the theories we had already discussed.
Overall, I thought the color references Tyson brought up were important because we had talked a lot about color in class and with this new lens it adds just another layer to the plot. My question is do you think that there are more color references in The Great Gatsby that could be seen through a queer lens, and if so do you think Fitzgerald did that intentionally or not?
I feel like the color references were done intentionally, because even Fitzgerald is said to have planed his entire book to a perfect T. There are so many color symbols throughout the book and depending on which theory is applied, they can mean different things. For example, the two "yellow" women are a subtle representation of "lesbian," while through another lens like Marxist the color "yellow" can be interpreted as a "sign exchange value" or "commodities." With the many underlying means and symbolism through colors noted in the novel such as green, yellow, lavender etc..., the colors can each have their own meaning depending on how the reader interpenetrates it. I think that Fitzgerald intentionally placed the open ended colors in the book to give the readers many layers to peel back as they read the novel.
ReplyDeleteThe subtle use of yellow throughout the novel could also represent the idea of decay, since the book is about the end of an era. Just a thought!
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