11am

Brittney Engel Is there a time in which one simply gives up hopes that are in vain; Dreams that hinder instead of progress ones life? Fitzgerald used the over exaggerated shallowness of the people and culture of the 1920’s to show his interpretation of the American Dream. He tells of the vain dreams of men, especially displayed by Gatsby. This theme is carried throughout The Great Gatsby’s entire text. “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 further.” In the close reading of these lines, deeper meaning can be found, stretched, and analyzed to give further understanding to what Fitzgerald may have wanted his reader’s to understand. “Gatsby believed in the green light…” He didn’t only hope and dream about it, but he believed in it. It was his existence. Everything he had or did was because of his past love with Daisy Buchanan and he thought that he could make her a part of his life again. Gatsby had taken himself from nothing and made himself great because he believed he could. In the same way, he believed he could make Daisy a part of his life. Gatsby thought of Daisy when he saw “the green light.” The fact that the light was green is significant because green means “Go.” It implies no intent to ever stop until it turns red. Just as the Buchanans light will always remain green, so will Gatsby’s goal. He will never stop persuing it.
The “future” is “orgastic” to Gatsby. Orgastic refers to wonder and excitement, and he found in Daisy Buchanan those qualities. “...there was an excitement in her voice” Men like Gatsby found it “difficult to forget.” In it there was a “promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since.” This is exactly why Gatsby always dreamed of her. She had an aura about her that kept him wanting more and anticipating the future. She gave him the feeling that there were “exciting things hovering in the next hour.” Despite Daisy’s way of always seeming achievable and more exciting, as time goes by the chance of Gatsby actually obtaining her recedes. This perfect future “year by year recedes. It doesn’t recede by days, weeks, or even months…but years. It makes it seem as if the pursuit will never end. Year by year it recedes and year the pursuit will continue. If the exciting future that Gatsby sees for himself has not vanished after years, then when will it ever vanish? He uses everything in himself to chase something that moves ever farther away. Fitzgerald did not end the sentence with recedes, but with “before us.” It doesn’t just recede and become more of an impossible goal, but it recedes before us. It is blatantly going farther and farther away right in front of Gatsby’s eyes and still he pursues it. This idea continues with the word eluded. “It eluded us then.” Elude can mean escape or avoided. In this case, the reality and chance of Daisy becoming Gatsby’s had already escaped. Elude can also mean undiscovered. Gatsby had not yet discovered his goal. It hadn’t been reached. The word “then” means the past and the past escaped Gatsby when he lost Daisy and so his hopes and visions of the past are directly related to what drives him to again have Daisy in his future. The past functions as a source of Gatsby’s ideas about the future. Even though Gatsby’s dream had eluded, “that’s no matter.” Even though it was hopeless Gatsby still believed he could have Daisy. He believed he would have Daisy. It is this false reality of his that in the end became the death of himself. His vain hope (Daisy) eventually ended up killing him, leaving behind him a completely void unfulfilled life. “Tomorrow,” not today, but tomorrow the chase of nothingness will continue. It will always be tomorrow. Fitzgerald did not start the sentence with We. He started it with tomorrow because he was trying to get a point of never ending across even more. There is always tomorrow. And when tomorrow comes and it is today there will be another tomorrow. Gatsby’s chase would never end. One cannot look past the words “we and us” that Fitzgerald used. He did not say “Gatsby” but we and us. Gatsby was used as the protagonist throughout the book, but he was also used as an example of many people who attempt to live out their American Dreams. Despite everything: the hopelessness, the vainness, the shallowness of our dreams, “we will run faster, stretch out our arms further.” But for what? In Gatsby’s case, for nothing. This can be said of any people who attempt to capture many of life’s impossible goals.