The Green Light In The Great Gatsby Essay

890 Words4 Pages

The hardships that are exposed in Fitzgerald's exquisitely crafted novel, "The Great Gatsby", are detrimental in the comprehension of why Gatsby is so great. Coming from a poverty-stricken family, Gatsby is able to climb to the apical growing point of his social standing that could ever be achieved in the 1920s, and continued to have a devouring hunger for success. It is Gatsby's sheer ambition and optimism that makes Gatsby a remarkable individual, one who exemplifies the title of this book - a great man. The magnitude of Gatsby's dream can be described by the green light that is referenced to multiple times in the novel. The green light at the end of Daisy's dock symbolizes the dream he longs for. He is so close to this green light, it is almost palpable. This can be noted when Nick speaks of Gatsby’s longing as “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling.”(24) What creates the barrier of this dream is the expanse of water that is in between Gatsby and the green light which serves to symbolizes the reality of Gatsby's situation. The water encompasses the ideals that Gatsby is willing to sacrifice, but because of circumstance, he will never be able to. One of these ideals can be noted as the reoccurring subliminal segregation of the nouveau …show more content…

Sometimes, if you don’t reach the goal you have anticipated, you can land amongst something close to it. It is not the actual dream that we should aspire to achieve, but rather how much of ourselves are we willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it. It is in dreaming and the ability to be diligent that makes us exercise our potential to the fullest capacity. It is the ability to see beyond the reality we are in that gives us hope. It is our relentless strife in becoming the best version of ourselves that makes us virtuous. It is through Gatsby that we see why he is

Open Document