Significance Of The Green Light In The Great Gatsby

In the beginning of the book, even before Nick meets Gatsby he views Gatsby as a wealthy man who always throws parties. Then after they meet each other, Nick still views him as a busy wealthy man. Nick states that Gatsby is “better than the whole rotten bunch.” He says this because he believes that people like Gatsby only do things for themselves. They are selfish aristocratic people who only want to maintain their status. However, despite this, Nick does admire Gatsby at the end of the novel for his quest to achieve love, Gatsby’s quest to get with Daisy.
Fitzgerald uses the words “hope and “dream” frequently throughout the novel because he is trying to portray one of the main themes of the book. The main theme he is trying to reveal is about the American Dream. The American Dream is the ideal that every person should have equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work. This relates to the time in which the book takes place because WWI had just barely ended. This time period was also known as the Roaring Twenties. This is when
The green light is portrayed first when Nick starts reaching out for it. The color green represents life, prosperity, and growth. This represents Gatsby’s dream. It represents getting the “American Dream” and to get Daisy. “Gatsby believed in the green lights, the orgiastic future… it eluded us then… tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms farther.” He centers the green light to be around Daisy and associates the light with her. Another symbol in the book is a billboard in the Valley of Ashes. The billboard portrays the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg. This symbolizes a god that is looking down at the characters. The Valley of Ashes is a place of terrible pollution and it symbolizes hopelessness. “This is a valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens.” This is where the washed up American dreams go to die and