Corbin DeSautell
The last two paragraphs of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald are very interesting and peak my curiosity. It talks about the matter of Gatsby’s mystical green light. I believe the green light represents the American dream and the struggle for it. He worked so hard for it just to fall short in the end.
The American dream is the desire for everything good in life. This however is impossible to attain. This is supported by the book in the concluding sentences “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning…” This shows us that it’s a never ending race and increases as we go along chasing it. Gatsby had everything he wanted money, a mansion, cars, and influence but his world still wasn’t complete he needed more. This more was Daisy. He was obsessed with her and strove to win her to him.
The last sentence of the book left me with an awed misunderstanding of it. The sentence says: “So we beat on boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This confused me because the sentence above it talks about striving to the future to try to accomplish endless goals and this says we are “borne back ceaselessly into the past.” I believed the author put this here to show us that our past effects the goals we have for the future. Gatsby when he was young started life poor and had no