What Is The Green Light In The Great Gatsby

The Green Light

Every person in the world has hopes and dreams. That's how new things get invented and how the world improves. There is always something new to reach for. Dreams of a better tomorrow are the only reason some people get out of bed in the morning. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the hope of the world through Jay Gatsby: "I thought of Gatsby‘s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it"(180). Gatsby dreams for years of reaching that green light because it was close to Daisy. He finally gets to Daisy, but she isn't what he expected. He placed her on a pedestal for so long and was let down when she

It most obviously represents Gatsby's hopes and dreams for Daisy to come back into his life: “involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock"(21). The green light is small and far away. It can barely be seen which means that Gatsby's hopes for a life with Daisy are incredibly out of reach. Gatsby can't stop living in the past and that eventually ruins him: "he looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand"(110). Ever since he met Daisy, he's had one dream— to be with her again and live on like they had never been apart. He thinks Daisy shares his dream, and he won't ever acknowledge reality: "he wouldn‘t consider it. He couldn‘t possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was going to do. He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn‘t bear to shake him free"(148). He was fooling himself the entire time. The green light was hope for a new and better future, but it could never be reached while he was living in the