' The car's bright yellow color is representative of gold and Jay Gatsby's newly acquired wealth. Gatsby's flashy yellow car plays a critical role in the conclusion of The Great Gatsby, as it ultimately leads to Jay Gatsby's own death and the deaths of Myrtle and George Wilson.
In the Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald uses the color yellow in the book to symbolize and portray Gatsby and his richness. Gatsby's yellow car shows status and wealth of richness.
For many of Fitzgerald's characters, the automobile represents American progress. Fitzgerald, however, remains unconvinced. Despite its superficial role as an emblem of man's ingenuity, Fitzgerald suggests that the automobile is actually a tool of destruction.
When Myrtle sees the yellow car coming down the road, she assumes it's Tom, breaks out of her room, and runs out to seek his help. Myrtle's mistake proves fatal when Daisy, who's driving Gatsby's car, accidentally hits her, killing her instantly.
The group leave – Gatsby in his yellow car with Daisy and Tom taking Jordan and Nick in his own blue coupé. We then hear about the accident that occurred just after this point. The narrative briefly switches to a court of inquest .
Thus yellow symbolism not only appears among the rich, but also appears in palces of desolation. While gold equates to luxury and wealth in an objective sense, yellow serves to display the corruption, greed, and materialism that prevails among the riches.
Tom confesses that George first came to Tom's house that night. There, Tom told him that the yellow car was Gatsby's and insinuated that Gatsby was the one who killed Myrtle and the one who was sleeping with her (9.143).
Daisy drives the car that kills Myrtle Wilson, and it is ironic because Myrtle is Daisy's husband's mistress. When Tom hears of Myrtle's death, he assumes Gatsby had been the driver. Gatsby has no connection to Myrtle and therefore it would not make sense structurally for him to be the killer.
Myrtle runs outside. Outside, Myrtle sees the yellow car and assumes it's Tom on his way back to Long Island. Myrtle runs out to the car, waving her arms, likely because she thinks Tom will stop for her and rescue her from George.
Plot twist. Earlier, Tom had borrowed Gatsby's distinctive yellow car, so when Gatsby and Daisy are on their way back from the Plaza Hotel, Myrtle Wilson, Tom's mistress, sees the car and runs out to flag Tom down. They have all been drinking, and so Daisy loses control, hitting Myrtle and killing her.
The car's description serves as the perceived image of Jay's personality. However, the narrator thinks that there are more things to reveal. Gatsby's Rolls Royce is the demonstration of his power and desire for protection. On the other hand, it shows the character is confused about materialism and emotional values.
Later in the novel, however, things take a dark turn. Tom forces himself into Gatsby's car for their trip to the city. It is unclear why he does this other than to simply assert his own power over Gatsby. Finally, the car, driven by Daisy, murders Myrtle Wilson and is renamed the “Death Car”.
Detailed answer: Myrtle tragically dies of being hit by Gatsby's car. But it is Daisy who is behind the wheel on the way to East Egg. She is allowed to do it to help settle her nerves.
Yellow Symbolism In The Great Gatsby
Yellow is said to be the color of depravity, representing acts like death, but is also is similar to the wealthy color gold. Yellow is an artificial representation of wealth and a portrayal of corruption and death in F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby.
"' Go ahead," answered Daisy genially, "and if you want to take down any addresses here's my little gold pencil"' (Fitzgerald 105). The colors of gold and/or yellow symbolize wealth, or more specifically, 'old money'. Daisy acquired plenty of 'old money' and the respecting status when she married Tom Buchanan.
Gold symbolizes money and wealth. Yellow symbolizes depravity as well as the tackiness of Gatsby's ''new money'' wealth. Blue symbolizes Gatsby's hopes and illusions as well as Tom's wealthy upbringing. White symbolizes innocence, or in the case of Daisy, the masking of questionable morals with hypothetical innocence.
Myrtle is a significant character since she embodies the meanings and qualities of red. She is a character who encapsulates the bold, intense, sinful, and sensual attributes of red.
Possibly drunk from the day in the city, Daisy carelessly strikes Myrtle with Gatsby's car. She then negligently speeds off from the scene of the accident without stopping. She is only thinking about herself rather than the woman she struck.
Yellow, though, represents false wealth, such as Myrtle's house. It is a desire to be part of the upper class yet never achieve it. Myrtle wears yellow dresses in an attempt to create the appearance of wealth. By the novel's end, however, yellow symbolizes decay and a loss of innocence.
Daisy does not stop the car after hitting Myrtle shows she was panicked at first. After escaping the crime scene, Daisy did not feel anything about killing Myrtle, known by what Gatsby tells Nick. “'I thought so; I told Daisy I thought so. It's better that the shock should all come at once.
Daisy, who doesn't know Myrtle, is driving the car when it strikes Myrtle down; Daisy doesn't even stop to see what happened, and escapes without consequences. The lower class characters – Gatsby, Myrtle, and George – are thus essentially sacrificed for the moral failings of the upper class characters of Tom and Daisy.
Gatsby was an outsider, so Tom could get away with blaming him instead of Daisy who was an insider. Jen I took it as Nick' s loyalty to Gatsby. Gatsby wouldn't have wanted him to reveal that Daisy was the driver. As well as Gatsby would rather take the fall for his one true love.
The first thing that attracted Gatsby was Daisy's wealth – her house in particular ('there was a ripe mystery about it'). This removes the idea that he was attracted to Daisy in herself. He was – and still is – attracted to the 'money' in her.
Why couldn't Nick get anyone to come to Gatsby's funeral? Gatsby had no close friends. All of the party people were too shallow to hardly even meet him.
Tom tells him that he was the one who told Wilson that Gatsby owned the car that killed Myrtle, and describes how greatly he suffered when he had to give up the apartment he kept in the city for his affair. He says that Gatsby deserved to die.