Great Gatsby - the Green Light
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald deals on one level with Jay Gatsby’s hopes and dreams, but on a deeper level also deals with the Great American Dream. The novel starts and ends with a reference to the green light at the end of the dock, indicating an important symbolism. The first time Nick catches sight of Jay Gatsby, Gatsby “stretched his arms towards the dark water […] [Nick] distinguished nothing except a single green light […] that might have been at the end of a dock.” (Fitzgerald 2000:25). Fitzgerald ends the novel by again referring to the “green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.” (171).
The protagonist of the novel is Jay Gatsby, a wealthy young man from the Midwest, who has moved to the New York in the East to pursue his dream. As a younger man, he meets Daisy and falls in love with her. Unlike Gatsby, she is from a wealthy ‘old money’ family and Gatsby misrepresents himself as being wealthy in his own right to win her heart. They fall in love, and when he leaves to go to the army, she promises to wait for him. However, before he returns she marries Tom Buchanan and Gatsby’s dream is to recapture her heart. He realises he has to be wealthy to do this and resorts to various illegal ways of making money, including bootlegging and trading in stolen securities. He associates with known criminals like Meyer Wolfshiem, “who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.” (71). His naïve belief that wealth and social standing is all he requires to win back Daisy is an echo of the failure of the American Dream. In effect, Gatsby sacrifices his soul to keep his dream alive. He never establishes real relationships, but rather uses people in general, and Nick specifically to pursue his dream
Gatsby’s belief that the end justifies the means is echoed by the Great American Dream. The singleminded pursuit of economic and material success in the 1920’s leads to the corruption of people. Even those who achieve their dreams labour under the belief that there is
The protagonist of the novel is Jay Gatsby, a wealthy young man from the Midwest, who has moved to the New York in the East to pursue his dream. As a younger man, he meets Daisy and falls in love with her. Unlike Gatsby, she is from a wealthy ‘old money’ family and Gatsby misrepresents himself as being wealthy in his own right to win her heart. They fall in love, and when he leaves to go to the army, she promises to wait for him. However, before he returns she marries Tom Buchanan and Gatsby’s dream is to recapture her heart. He realises he has to be wealthy to do this and resorts to various illegal ways of making money, including bootlegging and trading in stolen securities. He associates with known criminals like Meyer Wolfshiem, “who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.” (71). His naïve belief that wealth and social standing is all he requires to win back Daisy is an echo of the failure of the American Dream. In effect, Gatsby sacrifices his soul to keep his dream alive. He never establishes real relationships, but rather uses people in general, and Nick specifically to pursue his dream
Gatsby’s belief that the end justifies the means is echoed by the Great American Dream. The singleminded pursuit of economic and material success in the 1920’s leads to the corruption of people. Even those who achieve their dreams labour under the belief that there is
Bibliography: Fitzgerald, F.S. 1926 (rpt. 2000). The Great Gatsby. London: Penguin Books Term Papers Lab. http://www.termpaperslab.com (23 July 2008) Sparknotes.com. http://www.sparknotes.com (23 July 2008) Michigan State University. https://www.msu.edu (23 July 2008) Studyworld. http://www.studyworld.com (23 July 2008) Homework-Online. http://www.homework-online.com (23 July 2008) The Great Gatsby Comprehension and Literary Analysis Blog http://honorsenglish.learnerblogs.org/