people who see gatsby's green light as a metaphor for 'daisy's love' lack imagination
fitzgerald’s closing remarks:
“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 farther… . And then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
as far as i can tell, most people argue that this green light, or orgastic future, that carraway is referencing is either daisy or the american dream.
i think fitzgerald had a deeper message in mind.
i think the green light represents the broader idea of illusions. whether it be our perception of what love ought to look like, the american dream (materialism), our idea of “safety”, or other socially constructed notions. instead of coming to terms with the chaotic nature of reality(the current beating against the boat) we strive endlessly for ever receding illusions in the distance.
which i guess leads me to a point i didn’t intentionally plan on writing about, but i see the entire novel as an allegory for life, or reality. nick carraway learns, and can teach us an important lesson. “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life” i want you to focus on the ‘inexhaustible variety of life’ part for a second.
(of an amount or supply of something) Unable to be used up because existing in abundance: “his inexhaustible energy”.
The quality or state of being different or diverse; the absence of uniformity, sameness, or monotony
nick discovers the inexhaustible variety, or infinite flux that life, or reality, really is. he extends his awareness outside of himself just long enough to notice the universe(beating current) and it is this awareness (being within and without) that we can all stand to learn from.
we see gatsby in his youth, as a young man full of potential:
“The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.”
so gatsby on some level as a youth understood bits and pieces of the implications of the inexhaustible variety of life, created in his mind some conception of what he wanted his reality to be like and slowly went about making that conception a reality. along the way however, something happens. gatsby loses his awareness of the beating current, and instead attaches himself to the idea of the green light. when we’re aware, then we are capable of constantly shifting or adapting, making the best of and appreciating the beating current. otherwise we strive tirelessly towards illusions that will forever be just outside our grasp.
http://youtu.be/i2sAai3WV2I
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