F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the great American writers of the Lost Generation. Novels like The Great Gatsby encapsulated perfectly the disillusionment of post-WWI life and the careless lifestyles of the moneyed elite. So, we were very excited to transform his words into a stunning The Great Gatsby poster.
But how did we capture the symbolism of Fitzgerald's most famous work? Read on to find out!
Why Daisy and Gatsby?
Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby may be one of the most dysfunction literary couples EVER, but The Great Gatsby wouldn't be what it is without their fraught love story. Beautiful, wealthy Daisy is the sole motivator driving Gatsby throughout the entire book.
He gets rich to impress her. He buys an enormous mansion across her house to be near her. He throws elaborate parties to enrapture her. But ultimately, Daisy is outside Jay Gatsby's reach. They will never be together, and that's what makes The Great Gatsby so tragic.
When designing this The Great Gatsby poster, it felt right to include Daisy and Gatsby. However, Daisy is placed on a pedestal—which is how Gatsby sees her—and turned away. He's looking up at her, but she's already looking towards the next glittering good time. Their love story is as shallow as Gatsby's wealth.
Why Green and Gold?
We always put a lot of thought into color symbolism when designing our posters, and The Great Gatsby poster is no different! The particular shades of green and gold you see in the The Great Gatsby poster are a shoutout to the 1920s Jazz Age.
But there's more to our choice of green and gold than that. For starters, green is the color of the light at the end of Daisy's dock. Jay Gatsby spends many nights gazing across the water at this green light. For him, it represents his love for Daisy and a certain optimistic hope for a future together. No The Great Gatsby poster would be complete without including this hue.
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us."
Gold is probably a pretty obvious choice as well for The Great Gatsby poster. It's the color of champagne and also represents the flashy exuberance of Jay Gatsby's famous parties. But, it is intended to symbolize the sound of Daisy's voice as well. In Chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby, Nick (the narrator) describes Daisy's voice in a very particular way.
"It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it."
Daisy epitomizes the typical golden girl. Not just that, she talks as if she has money—her voice is full of it. And ultimately, her decision not to be with Gatsby has more to do with the prestige of old money (the Buchanans) versus new money (Gatsby)—even if both types of wealth are acquired and used in less than moral ways.
We continue to be obsessed with The Great Gatsby nearly 200 years after its publication. If you haven't fallen under the spell of our The Great Gatsby poster just yet, take a closer look in the Proseposters shop.
Created using the entire book The Great Gatsby, this poster brings Fitzgerald's tragic tale to life in a breathtaking way.