Lavender (purple)
1) Up-stairs, in the solemn echoing drive she let four taxicabs drive away before she selected a new one, lavender-colored with gray upholstery, and in this we slid out from the mass of the station into the glowing sunshine" (Fitzgerald 43).
Lavender in this clip, provides a feeling of elegance. Traditionally purple represents royalty. Fitzgerald uses the purple taxi to display wealth.
2) "It was gas blue with lavender beads" (Fitzgerald 66).
In this scene Jordan is talking about the dress Gatsby had sent to her. Again, Fitzgerald uses lavender to develop an idea of unnecessary wealth and elegance.
3)"Daisy's face, tipped sideways beneath a three-cornered lavender hat, looked out at me with a bright ecstatic smile" (Fitzgerald 122).
In this section purple compliments Daisy’s attitude and personality. By adding the purple hat with her bright smile, the author sets the tone of the moment along with adding character clues.
4) "We went upstairs, through period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk and vivid with new flowers, through dressing-rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms, with sunken baths---intruding into one chamber where a dishevelled man in pajamas was doing liver exercises on the floor" (Fitzgerald 131).
The flowery writing in this passage accompanying the color purple allows for a full understanding of the luxury in which Gatsby lived. Fitzgerald uses the color and silk to establish wealth.
5) While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher ---shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue" (Fitzgerald 133).
Once again the vibrant colors are a description of an asinine luxury in the novel. While lavender is not the only color, it still helps set a seen of money and wealth.