Give an example of where the color red or green is used. Briefly discuss the symbolic meaning of the color in that example.

In The Scarlet Letter, red becomes symbolic of passion and life itself. The rose the grows beside the prison door is the first glimpse of color in the novel. The letter Hester wears to signify her adultery (a sin of passion) is deep red. As Arthur stands on the scaffold during the night, driven there by guilt for his sin, the giant red letter appears in the sky. As a color motif, red contrasts sharply with the colorless, gray Puritans and their stifling moral code.

In The Great Gatsby, green becomes symbolic of the fresh, uncorrupted promises of life. This is seen most clearly in the novel's coda in which Nick imagines the North American continent as it existed before it was settled, "a fresh, green breast of the new world," a place that "pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams . . . ." Gatsby's dream is also symbolized by the color; the light at the end of Daisy's dock is a green light: ". . . [Gatsby's] dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it."