The Great Gatsby Impossible Goal Essay

Karina Cordova
Ms. Tillotson
American Literature II Honors
March 27th, 2015 Pursuing An Impossible Goal?

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes by us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And then one fine morning --- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back carelessly into the past.” (Fitzgerald 180). These words conclude the final sentences of The Great Gatsby. Humans prove themselves unable to move beyond the past. Gatsby is obsessed with recreating the past. In the past, Daisy and Gatsby have an affair. They both crave the love they once had. Daisy and Gatsby are optimistic
Gatsby accomplished the desired American dream, he was wealthy, powerful and best of all, he had fame.
Despite it all, he wanted one thing, his true american dream, Daisy. The interpretation of the American Dream to society includes happiness and prosperity. In The Great Gatsby, author F.Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the different views of the American Dream through the symbols of the green light, the great valley of ashes and the yellow car. Fitzgerald uses these symbols to show love, differences in the American Dream, the poverty and hopelessness, and ultimately the death of the American Dream.

In The Great Gatsby, there is a green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Fitzgerald uses the green light to represent Gatsby’s true American Dream, which is Daisy. The first time Nick sees Gatsby he sees that he is standing at the dock looking at something, “... he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, as far as ***I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--- and distinguished nothing except a green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 21). The green light is described as minute and far way which ultimately
Scott Fitzgerald, had a paradox life as well. He became a writer, became famous, married someone who was the definition of wealth, power, and fame. As stated in Scott and Zelda: Their style lives by Eleanor Lanahan, “Gatsby and Scott, to different degrees, invented their lives.” Fitzgerald growing up always wondered if he had been part royal because he had good looks, natural talent and an ease with people. Just like Gatsby, Fitzgerald wanted to reach the American Dream, which in result lead him to invent his own life. At the end, they did both reached the American Dream but not a love. Yes, he was married to Zelda but she had a mental illness. Diagnosis for Zelda was schizophrenia, she was in and out of clinic from 1930 until her death. Just like Gatsby, he had the power, the wealth, the fame, power and even love at some point in life. However they both lost the love of their lives, Fitzgerald lost his wife to the mental illness and Gatsby he lost Daisy to Tom. In conclusion, author F.Scott Fitzgerald is portraying through The Great Gatsby that yes, the American Dream can be achieved, but only a portion of it. To have the benefits of being rich, you must be born rich. In The Great Gatsby, author F.Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates the different views of the American Dream through the symbols of the green light, the bay, the great valley of ashes and the yellow car. Fitzgerald uses these symbols to show love, the poverty and hopelessness, and ultimately the