Great Gatsby the Green Light

¶ … Great Gatsby

The green light on Daisy's dock symbolizes many things in this novel. Many people think it might symbolize Daisy herself, but there are many more meanings to the green light. Fitzgerald writes, "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning..." (Fitzgerald 182). The green light symbolizes the type of life they live and the emptiness of their lives, just like the empty wasteland they drive through symbolizes the emptiness of their lives.

Daisy's green light symbolizes the separation between West Egg and East Egg, as well. Gatsby can see Daisy's light from his house in West Egg, but the separation makes it quite clear that no matter how much money he makes, and how many parties expensive parties he throws, the residents of West Egg will always look down on him because of where he lives. He cannot make it into their society, because he has "new" money, and he is not one of the old, established, and snobby families of East Egg. West Egg just does not amount to anything to them, and Daisy's green light shining across the green bay that separates the two communities is the quite visible reminder that to the snobby residents of East Egg, West Egg is just another town, certainly not their own, and they "slum it" when they come to Gatsby's parties.

Of course, green is also the color of money, another enduring theme in this book. Daisy's green light that Gatsby watches every night is all about the color of money, the other thing that separates him from Daisy. She is from the old, moneyed families of East Egg, and that separates Daisy and Gatsby as much as the bay and the two towns. Gatsby has had to work for his money, which makes him suspect to those who were born to it. Green is used throughout the story to represent money and change, but the light on Daisy's dock represents the great gulf between the two characters. They can never be together, not because of their circumstances, but because their lives are just too different. Daisy may think she loves him, but really, she loves her life and her circumstances far too much to alter them for Gatsby. She says, "I did love him once [Tom, her husband], -- but I loved you too.' Gatsby's eyes opened and closed. 'You loved me too?' he repeated" (Fitzgerald 133). Gatsby wants to believe she loves only him, but the green light and the separation between them means she cannot.

5. The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg watch over the "valley of ashes," on the road that everyone has to take to reach New York City from West Egg. The Doctor's elderly and neglected billboard seems to see everything that passes by with golden spectacles and bright blue eyes. Fitzgerald writes, "But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg" (Fitzgerald 23). The billboard is like a silent critic, always watching the characters, and always there, it simply will not go away. The eyes represent God, because Fitzgerald writes of them as if they know all and see all, and they look out over a bleak and dark landscape that signifies Hell. The characters have to travel through this Hell to reach the "paradise" of New York City, the place where they work, play, and show off their wealth.

The eyes also symbolize the emptiness of the character's lives. They have money and lavish lifestyles, but none of them are happy. In fact, many of them end up dead by the end of the novel. The blue eyes on the billboard are empty of life, and so are the characters, so they are watched over by empty eyes as they go about their very empty lives. Daisy sums this up late in the novel when she says, "What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon?' cried Daisy, 'and the day after that, and the next thirty years?' 'Don't be morbid,' Jordan said" (Fitzgerald 118). These people seem to have everything they could ever want or need, and yet, they are unhappy in their souls and in their reactions to life. The emptiness of the "wasteland" they have to travel through each day mirrors the wasteland in their hearts and their minds. They are as empty as the wasteland, and not just because they are shallow, but because they have no intellectual interests that stimulate their minds. They spend their nights drinking, socializing, and trying to outdo each other in money and possessions, but they do not exercise their minds, and so their lives are empty and bleak like the land where the billboard stands and watches over them.