What color is the light at the end of Daisy's dock?

The light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock is green. Jay Gatsby sees it across the water from his mansion in West Egg, where it becomes one of the novel’s most important recurring images.

The light first appears when Nick Carraway notices Gatsby reaching toward it across the bay. At a literal level, it marks the end of the Buchanans’ dock and helps Gatsby feel physically close to Daisy. Symbolically, it represents his hope of recovering their past romance and making his dream of a life with Daisy real.

The color also connects the light to ideas of longing, distance, renewal, and the American Dream. Gatsby continually believes that the future can fulfill the promise he has imagined, even though time and Daisy’s marriage have made the past impossible to recreate exactly.

A common mix-up involves the yellow color associated with Gatsby’s car and other scenes of wealth, spectacle, and moral decay. The dock light itself is green. Near the novel’s ending, Nick returns to the image and links Gatsby’s dream to humanity’s persistent hope for a better future.