


‘But it wasn’t a coincidence at all.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay’” (Fitzgerald 84-85). Jay Gatsby owns an extremely expensive mansion, and it may just look like it is where he lives, but looking closer, the house may be an important symbol that ties into the time where the book takes place, and also ties into the green light symbol. Once, Gatsby’s dream comes true and he is finally happy, his dream will fall and vanish, along with himself soon after. Gatsby vanishing into the darkness is foreshadowing that Gatsby will soon leave, which reflects on Daisy vanishing away from Gatsby five years prior after he had gone to war, to be with Tom. “When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness” (Fitzgerald 24-25). When Nick is watching Gatsby, Gatsby vanishes into the darkness.

He dreams of having her back into his life, after no contact between the two. The green light symbolizes Daisy and Gatsby’s dream for the future, and he is reaching towards his dream to come true and earn Daisy back from Tom Buchanan, to himself. Gatsby is reaching towards the light, and obviously he is not attempting to grab ahold of the light. This quote from the book introduces the green light and suggests it as an important figure in the story, and presents Gatsby, as this is the first time he is in the story in real time, and not just spoken about by other characters. 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” (24). Scott Fitzgerald as, “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.

Near the end of chapter one, Nick Carraway, the narrator, sees Gatsby at the end of his dock, reaching towards the green light that is at the end of Daisy’s dock, across the bay separating the East Egg and West Egg. There is a green light placed at the end of Daisy’s dock, and that green light is used to symbolize Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future, to have Daisy back. 2 Our writers can help you with any type of essay.1 Green Light Symbol in the Great Gatsby.
