Great Gatsby Imagery
The image of the green light in the novel Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a significant symbol which represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. The novel starts and ends with a reference to the green light at the end of the dock. The first time, Nick sees Gatsby reaching towards the green light with the dream of being with Daisy who is across the bay. Daisy represents the American dream or Gatsby’s American Dream. The second time was when Nick goes to the beach, to the edge of the continent, and has a vision that transcends the moment and carries him back to the arrival on the coast of the pioneering Dutch sailors. Nick associated the green light with the lush green vegetation that greeted the first Dutch sailors. "But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—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, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness."
“And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new
“And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes — a fresh, green breast of the new