Grey and a General Lack of Color: Lifelessness.

Then there is the lack of color presented in the grey ash heaps. If the ash heaps are associated with lifelessness and barrenness, and grey is associated with the ash heaps, anyone described as grey is going to be connected to barren lifelessness. Our main contender is Wilson: "When anyone spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable colorless way." Wilson’s face is "ashen." His eyes are described as "pale" and "glazed." It is then no coincidence that Wilson is the bearer of lifelessness, killing Gatsby among yellow leaved trees, which we already decided had something to do with destruction.

Represents a dullness or a loss of hope, lack of happiness, lack of life.

Can also represent the fading of blue, which means the fading of dreams.

It is the main description of the ‘Valley of Ashes’

Jordan

- Jordan has grey eyes.

“Her grey, sun-strained eyes…”

They show lack of love and a general boredom in life because she is surrounded by everything she wants and has no dreams and no plans for the future.

- The first time Gatsby and Nick meet, they make a reference to the war saying:

“We talked for a moment about some wet, grey little villages in France.”

The villages are seen as sad as they have suffered during the war and can also be referred to ‘The Valley of Ashes’.