Great Gatsby Green Light Quotes

He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.

– F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby. Chapter 1, for Gatsby the green light at end of Daisy’s dock represents the American Dream and his dream of being reunited with Daisy, the woman he loves. It is a constantly recurring symbol in the novel.

Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.

– F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby, Chapter 5. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock represented Gatsby’s dream of a new life with Daisy. Now he had realized that dream, he had Daisy’s love.
I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock - Great Gatsby quote

And as I sat there, brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come such a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. But what he did not know was that it was already behind him, somewhere in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

– F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby. Chapter 9, the closing pages of the novel reflect at length on the American Dream. They hark back to our first glimpse of Gatsby reaching out over the water towards the Buchanan’s green light, a metaphor and respresentation of hope, especially for the future. Narrator Nick Carraway notes that Gatsby’s dream was “already behind him” then, in other words, it was impossible to attain.
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