In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick Caraway tells of his experience with his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, and the troubles that follow him. Whether it be because of lust, wrath, jealousy, or a combination of them all, Nick see’s first-hand the love, dreams, and ultimately the tragedy that succumbs of Gatsby and everyone around him. An important symbol throughout the text is the green light that shines across the water from Gatsby’s mansion. The light comes from the end of Daisy’s dock, whom Gatsby has immense feelings for. The book is primarily focused around Daisy and Gatsby's complex relationship. This paper will analyze the meaning of the green light at the end of the dock, and how it symbolizes Gatsby’s dream. In the first chapter of the book, Nick sees Gatsby for the first time since moving into his new house. Gatsby is standing at the end of his dock and reaches out to a green light from across the water. Nick narrates: “I glanced seaward-and distinguished nothing except a green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of the dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet …show more content…
He says: “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us”. Gatsby never reached the green light, or his ideal future with Daisy. Gatsby was too caught up in the past, and his dreams for the future, that he never truly lived in the present. When Gatsby died, his future died with him. Nick continues saying: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”. Nick implies that people, like Gatsby, will chase after their own green light, following their hopes and dreams despite the current pushing them farther away. This last scene shows the moralizing significance that the green light holds in the