Color, Irony, and Symbolism

"Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans." 

(Chapter 7) 

Most of the color references in The Great Gatsby are meant to show the character, or society as they truly are. This example can be seen in the name "Daisy" or the word choice when naming the towns "West Egg" and "East Egg".  These items are all white on the outside, seemingly implying purity. They are however, bright yellow in the center, implying arrogance and superficiality. The yellow can also be taken as an allusion to gold, which ultimately defines the society of the roaring twenties so cleverly portrayed by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Furthermore, the white daisy is supposed to be the symbol of loyal love, which makes the naming of the character ironic as well as symbolic. 

In the quotation above, the color carries as much importance as it does in the rest of the book. Giving the reader input on what each character symbolizes. 

Silver is commonly known as a representation for wealth along with gold. This is obviously important, but personally, I believe silver may also represent other things relevant to the story and the overall meaning in the book. The color silver is also related to femininity and female power, which in the abstract from the book, can be seen clearly, specially when the two women are referred to as "idols". 

Silver can also be a way to represent illusion, which could mean that these two "idols" are really a lie,  much like the Daisy metaphor already suggests. 

White on the other hand, is the color of purity and virginity. The irony in this lies in the fact that Daisy and Jordan were anything but virginal throughout the story. In fact, in chapter eight, the author removes all doubt of this when he writes: "It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy-- it increased her value in his eyes." The significance of the color white is increased when one considers the position the color currently occupies: it is being weighed down by the silver. Meaning that all the illusions, power, and femininity are utterly trouncing all the purity left in women of the 1920's. 

All in all, this sentence, though seemingly inconsequential in the meaning of the book as a whole, actually symbolizes women (or at least women the way F. Scott Fitzgerald saw them) in the society of the roaring twenties.