Significance of Green Light in The Great Gatsby (Book Analysis)

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, narrator, Nick Carraway presents the “green light” being more than just a light at the end of a dock, but “the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” (Fitzgerald 180) He explains that the green light symbolizes Gatsby’s hopes and desires for Daisy that had become unattainable. In his book, Fitzgerald does a great job of describing how wealth cannot buy the love of someone like Daisy; and Gatsby’s new (also dirty) money cannot fulfill his infatuation with Daisy. It seems to be hard to understand the characters in the book, like Jay Gatsby with how he obtained his wealth - how it was done illegally -  and in the text, as it is told from Nick’s point of view- we are given a more biased view of all of the characters, which makes Nick seem less trustworthy to his audience. In the book, The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald writes about elaborate parties on Long Island and New York because of his life through the 1920’s while bringing lessons of the characters Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby into the text in order to have the audience get an understanding of how and why money like what Gatsby had, does not equate to being liked or even loved, ultimately moving readers to learn from Gatsby’s mistakes of trying to get Daisy’s attention.

While the narrator of The Great Gatsby may not have been the most trustworthy person in the text, the author of it, F. Scott Fitzgerald is a trustworthy writer. Fitzgerald had used his own experiences and views for this novel because he had lived through the 1920’s which is what era this book is based off of. Fitzgerald living through the partying, prohibition era, and recalling the events that had gone on makes him a credible author. Now, unlike Fitzgerald, is the previously mentioned, Nick Carraway. He is not a credible source in The Great Gatsby because the story is told through his eyes, and since he plays a role in this story-literally-he has a position in it, meaning he has a bias and not everything is told how it is, making him not trustworthy. Going off of that, he also claims to be “one of the few honest people” (Fitzgerald 59) that he has ever known. Though Carraway claims he is “honest”, how can the reader know that for certain when Nick skews the truth? 

Along with Fitzgerald being a credible author, he does a great job of showing the emotions displayed by Gatsby when Daisy is in the picture. Gatsby’s infatuation with Daisy is easily viewed through the green light. The green light is literally Gatsby’s symbol of hope to reach his goal- and his goal is to be with Daisy. Jay Gatsby goes through all of his hard work of putting on enormous parties just to impress her and get Daisy to love him. This also evokes emotion of the reader when Gatsby’s efforts go to waste after Daisy decides Jay is not for her, as well as when Gatsby is shot because of their car wreck and Nick explains how he found him lying in a “thin red circle in the water.” (Fitzgerald 162)

Following this, Daisy Buchanan is characterized as a beautiful, yet shallow, ditzy person. On page 14 and 15, it introduces Tom Buchanan’s “other woman”, who Daisy is fully aware of, but chooses to ignore for her happiness. After this, we find out that Daisy and Tom are having a baby and Daisy says that “it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool--that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (Fitzgerald 17) Daisy feels that being a fool, which she is treated as-but actually is not-would be more rewarding than being aware of what’s going on.  Daisy is thinking of what would be the best for her daughter in the time period that they were in-which did not value women for anything like their knowledge. She hopes for her daughter to be naive to the fact that she won’t be treated fairly or get cheated on (because Daisy is in that situation). 

Finally, The Great Gatsby is a symbolic representation of the roaring twenties and what it entailed, such as the parties, but also the treatment of women. Fitzgerald did an excellent job at portraying Gatsby and Daisy the way that he intended them to be. The novel details the green light for the reader to pick apart themselves. This is a way for the audience to realize that a goal such as his green light can not be met with just materialistic items or events, but for it to be more meaningful.