The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby shines light on some of the worst faults of humanity. Through Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the theme of chasing after past dreams. Gatsby pursuits a life with Daisy that idolizes a previous time that they cannot return to, yet he foolishly holds on to. As the story comes to a close, the final paragraphs encompass the futile nature of dreams, and how despite the odds, humans continue their attempts to make them come true. This persistence that all humans portray is what becomes the downfall of the great Gatsby.

The last scene presents the readers with a land of dreams that the Dutch found — a contrast to Gatsby’s now decaying land that was home to his failed dreams. Nick Carraway talks about the past nurturing green island while observing within the shadowy hue of the lake. The “green breast of the new world” had measured up to the dreams the sailors had while the grand houses that lay there now fade under the moonlight as they try and fail to live up to their owners’ dreams. They are an illusion of a fulfilled dream based on the idea of the American Dream, which has already become a thing of the past.

Daisy is a part of Gatsby’s illusion. She is a shiny trophy that fits into his fantasy, but the Daisy that stood before Gatsby in the present could not live up to his expectations. Gatsby committed himself to the idea of Daisy that he manufactured in order to return to how he felt during the peak of their relationship, a moment in time he could not regain. Yet, he was stuck in the haze of reaching his goal. When Nick tells him that he can’t repeat the past, Gatsby responds, “why of course you can.” However, time moves everything along and even if he would have been granted his wishes, his dream would have been long gone. At the end, the idea of Daisy that Gatsby idolized caves under the pressure of reality.

The green light became a symbol of what Gatsby considered to be his dreams. So close and so unattainable. Nick says that believing in that green light made Gatsby feel like his dream was so close. He worshipped the green light almost religiously. It was his guiding light and motive for continuing with his fantasy. He became enamored by the idea of it all instead of facing reality. He was chasing a dream blindly and his eternal hope and determination for something that had past lead him to his demise. Gatsby “did not know that [his dream] was already behind him.” The futility of dreams was accentuated by how easy it was for the green light to lose its meaning once Gatsby returns with Daisy. Yet, Gatsby’s eternal hope is something that many can identify with. It is one of humans’ greatest human flaws to continue to try to reach and push as hard as possible to achieve one’s goals.

Fitzgerald turns things to the audience when Nick says that “we beat on, beats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past.” It is a reflection of humanity’s flaws. Like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill, humans push through the motions of life and strive for hopeless dreams. Gatsby is striving for a dream that is in the past with no regard for the present. Tragically, Gatsby dies before even deciding what to do now that Daisy had left his life again. All his effort and his devotion to an “orgiastic future” and a green light seems to be pointless as his life comes to an end in such a meek manner. Fitzgerald tells readers through Nick’s character that humans chase after expired dreams and are clouded by their illusions. After all, it is humanity’s eternal flaw to strive for the unattainable.