Colours and Moths

“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the
champagne and the stars.”

We are all drawn to certain things. Some are drawn to wealth, some are drawn to love and some
are drawn to other people. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby was drawn to the idea of Daisy, Tom was
drawn to Myrtle, and Myrtle was drawn to the life of being someone of high status. The reason
Scott Fitzgerald compared moths to party guests was because moths are attracted to lights and fire
just like the guests are to the lights of the party. Like moths, they only come out at night time and are
usually anonymous passerbys. I think the diction of this quote was what really stood out to me when
I was reading it. I chose this as the most beautiful quote of the book because the images of the blue
gardens, champagne and stars really stood out to me and set the scene as magical. I think colours
like blue and yellow were really important throughout the book. Blue was something that surrounded
Gatsby all the time and yellow was something that surrounded Daisy. Gatsby had blue gardens, sent
a girl a blue dress, and had blue water separating him from the woman he loved. Daisy was constantly
surrounded in yellow more than any other character. The daisy flower is surrounded by white petals,
which symbolize innocence and purity, but has a center of yellow, which can symbolize wealth. She
killed Myrtle in a yellow car, and is known as the “golden girl.”