Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Question One: The Great Gatsby


The Great Gatsby: on symbolism

One of the great symbols of The Great Gatsby is the green light at the end of Daisy's deck across the water from Gatsby's back yard. Think about this symbol. What makes this green light so great? What could it represent? 

I want to hear your opinion on this famous symbol. Sure, I've read what critics have said about it. But what do you think about it? What do you think it means? When you first read the novel, did you notice the green light? Refer to specific places in the novel as you tell me what you think about Daisy's green light.


You will respond to this question by leaving a comment on this post. 
Responses should be at least 250 words each.
Remember: you must respond to at least 4 questions per novel. 
Extra credit will be awarded if you respond to more than 4 questions.

*and remember, this is a blog--write with good English and use your inner intellectual, but speak casually!



16 comments:

  1. The green light in The Great Gatsby is mentioned a few times in this novel. It is referenced in chapter five directly after when Gatsby shows Daisy his extravagant collection of shirts and they go take a walk on his back lawn. This is a significant part of the book because it is when Gatsby shows Daisy that he truly loves her by telling her the importance of the light to him. This light across the channel was a symbol of his separation from Daisy and that she was so agonizingly close to him but he knew that he most likely would never be able to be with her. Another possible explanation of why Fitzgerald put the light in his book is because it was a beacon of hope to Gatsby and used as a symbol for a goal that Gatsby wanted to achieve. He was portrayed to be a wealthy man who came by his money honestly but eventually turned out to be a corrupt man. It is also possible that Gatsby was after Daisy because of her money which is symbolized in the story because of the color green which is the color of money. However the most likely explanation for the green light mentioned in chapter five is Gatsby’s ultimate goal, Daisy. Once again in one of the very last paragraphs in chapter nine of The Great Gatsby, the light is referenced however in a different context. This time it is used to symbolize a future filled with hope and excitement which is what Gatsby believed in.

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  2. in the book we read that Gatsby hadn't seen Daisy in about five years. instead of going home after the war Gatsby went to Oxford and while he was away Daisy married Tom. when Gatsby finally get too see Daisy again, he finds that his love her has not diminished, but it has grown. the green light serves as a reminder that Daisy is so close but yet so far away. in chapter seven, Gatsby tries desperately to get Daisy away from Tom, but he fails. Other way of explaining it is their relationship is almost like comparing to the bridge effect between us and God. There are two cliffs. we are standing on one cliff while God is standing on the other. there is a gap in between the two cliff which is caused by sin. in order to get to God we need a bridge to get over the gap. Jesus is our bridge. In Gatsby's situation, he is standing on one side of the bay while daisy is standing on the other side. these are the "cliffs". the gap between Gatsby and Daisy is caused by her husband Tom and the effect that the war had on their relationship. Gatsby needs a bridge to get to the other side where Daisy is, and this is where he uses Nick Carraway to get back in touch with her. Using Nick, Gatsby is able to get back in touch with Daisy but fails to get her away from Tom. the green light can also be seen as a sign of hope. throughout the book it was apparent to me that Gatsby was a pretty depressed person, and in order to feel like he had friends he threw big parties so people would come to his house. Knowing that Daisy was just across the bay gave Gatsby a hope of a better future with someone who actually loved him and cared about him instead of living on his own.

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  3. The green light was first introduced in chapter one. Nick observes Gatsby standing with his arms outstretched towards the dark waters at the end of his lawn. Gatsby is facing a green luminescent green light at the other side of the water. Nick said, “I could have sworn he was trembling.” At first Nick’s telling of the green light and Gatsby appeared minute and just added detail, however, as the story continues, I learned that the green light is far more important and symbolic than what it had appeared to be. What makes the green light so great is the power and symbolism behind what it actually means. The green light represents the one thing that Gatsby doesn’t have, yet the only thing he wants (which is Daisy). I think the green light is a very powerful symbol because it has multiple meanings. Like I said earlier, I think that the green light is that one thing Gatsby desperately desires, but will never obtain. The light is one of false hope, misconstrued by an overbearing, covetous desire for Daisy’s love. However, in Chapter nine, Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation. The green light to me is an unobtainable fantasy/dream. I first noticed the green light in chapter one and wondered if it would show up later. Eventually it did show up again and was explained by Gatsby himself in chapter five as he shows Daisy around his mansion. I see similarity to an old German fable titled The Fisherman and His Wife when I thought about the green light. Gatsby was not happy with all the blessings and riches in his life and kept wanting to push the envelope by stealing another man’s wife. Eventually it was Gatsby’s downfall. Greed.

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  4. Green the color associated with a famous macabre the Green Eyed-Monster, which embodies the concept of jealousy and a hideous self-driven envy for something you can't have, and most likely never will. The answer is not as blatant and simple as the separation between Gatsby and Daisy, but more so the desire embodied in the light, a desire to be intimate and together with Daisy. The control the light has over Gatsby is the underlining fact that he has all a man could want: power, women, money, and yet he is empty and longs for love. Green is also a stale color. Simply this color cannot make any other distinct named color from a mixture of the primary colors. Significantly enough this idea is the Green Light, whereas Gatsby cannot figuratively mix with daisy because of Tom, whom Daisy is married to. A green light is also a sign of welcoming and in the context of The Great Gatsby, it is too. However the light is bitterly ironic in that Fitzgerald' protagonist Nick describes the people who go to it as moths. “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” (GG 39) Though its beauty is undeniable, a moth is not the smartest creature, and in most cases when a moth or other insect travels towards the “green-light” in reality...it, well, you get the idea. Much to, is this the case for the people Nick considers “moths”, while not physically dying, moreover it is a death of spiritual and moral self.

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  5. The green light in The Great Gatsby symbolizes the “light at the end of the tunnel”. It is the visual manifestation of all Gatsby’s hopes and dreams. The light also symbolizes Daisy, the woman Gatsby is deeply in love with, and how he is so close to her yet so far away. Gatsby has everything in the world he needs except for the one thing he wants, Daisy, the light symbolizes that. In the first chapter Nick sees Gatsby at his house with all his things looking over the water wanting the one thing he can’t have. The light also shows Gatsby’s hope that he will eventually have Daisy and his willingness to never give up. This willingness to never quit is shown throughout the novel as Gatsby eventually gives his life for the hope that he and Daisy will have a life together. The light is a major symbol in the American literature of the time. This light is the under laying plot of the novel. Gatsby’s goal is to win Daisy from tom and the light is Daisy and in order to win her over he has to figuratively “cross oceans” and the lake that separates them symbolizes that. The lake that separates the two houses is just as an important symbol as the light itself. It shows that no matter the distance Gatsby is willing to go after Daisy. The lake is the physical separation between them and the light shows just how far away they are.

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  6. Teachy. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock seems to represent taunting distance. It symbolizes that she is so close, yet so far away from Gatsby. Gatsby has created an entire life that is suiting for Daisy, and yet he can not have her due to her unhappy marriage to Tom Buchanan. The first time the green light is spoken of, it is by Nick. He notices the light and is intrigued by it. This is when Fitzgerald creates the curiosity in his readers. We begin to wonder, “What does is mean?” “What could be the symbol that it portrays?” “Is it truly significant?” I think that my eyes are sun-burnt. As you read on, Gatsby begins to talk more of the green light. It is the constant reminder to him that Daisy is just across the pond—simply untouchable for years. The first time that the light does not seem to symbolize distance is when Gatsby and Daisy sit side by side at his party. They sit across from the green light at the end of the dock together. They’re reunion finally being had. The light somewhat changes it’s meaning throughout the novel—but one thing remains constant. The light is always some kind of distance. Whether it is physical absence, or the absence of courtesy and morals: there is the perpetual sting of distance.

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  7. The green light is spoken of a few times in The Great Gatsby. We first encounter the light in the first chapter as Nick is returning home from his dinner at Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s. Gatsby is standing alone in his yard reaching for the light in a longing way, almost worshiping it with his silence and focus (Fitzgerald 21). The light turns out to be at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock. The color green can be seen to represent hope and promise, so it is fitting that Gatsby’s hope and his dream is to have a relationship with Daisy. The green light reapers as Gatsby is giving Daisy a tour around his very impressive house. To further impress her he reveals there is a green light visible at the end of her dock. He goes on to show his love by telling what the light means to him. The light was the symbol of his goal being so close to attainment but knowing it may never happen. At the very end of the story as Nick is sitting on the sand he thinks back to that first time Gatsby had found the light and the wonder and hope that it gave him. Nick likens it to the “green breast of the new world.” And how the first settlers must have felt given this hope of a new start and new life. This is the same hope that Gatsby held to rediscover Daisy and the rediscovery of their love for one another.

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  8. Honestly, the symbolic meaning of the green light was probably the last thing on my mind when reading The Great Gatsby. Although it is mentioned several times throughout the novel I focused more on other symbols. I mean, when I first started reading, I noticed the green light being there I just didn’t read a whole into it. The green light has a variety of possible meanings. It could represent Daisy, the one thing that Gatsby feels he must have. In chapter one, Nick mentions Gatsby outside “trembling” as he watched the green light. This could mean that Gatsby was afraid he would never reach Daisy and his hopes of a future with her were impossible. Daisy was so close yet so far away from Gatsby. But that shiny, green light seemed like a glimmer of hope that one day she would return to him and everything would be perfect. Gatsby had everything he could possibly need and he would have thrown it all away for Daisy. Since Gatsby associated his future with Daisy, it makes sense that the green light could also symbolize a goal for Gatsby. As long as that green light flashed his goal of winning Daisy’s heart would still be achievable. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is thought of as a brilliant, sophisticated man. It isn’t until the final few chapters that you realize how corrupted he was. The green light represents Gatsby reaching into darkness trying to get to Daisy when he could just move on and forget about her.

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  9. The famous green light from The Great Gatsby is first mentioned in chapter one, when Gatsby reaches out longingly for it. However, I didn’t notice it until Chapter 5, when the light has lost all mystic qualities for Gatsby, because he holds Daisy (what the light had represented to him) in his arms. Gatsby had serious troubles getting over his first love, Daisy, when he returned from the war. He longed so much to be reunited with her that he bought a house on the opposite side of the bay from Daisy’s. On Daisy’s dock was a green light. Gatsby would stare at the light night after night, thinking about his long lost love. To Gatsby, the light represented the one thing he had not achieved. He had worked his way from poverty to exuberant wealth, but he was still missing the beautiful girl he fell in love with. He could not be content until he had Daisy along with all his wealth. I think this light also represents the need for a healthy sense of contentment along with the American Dream. Daisy has moved on. Although her husband was a bit of a jerk, Gatsby did not have the right to expect her to drop her life for him, because, although he had been obsessing over her for five years, Daisy had had a new life until Gatsby just recently came back into it. The green light acted as an itch, a desire to obtain the last great prize that the American Dream had not yet given Jay Gatsby.

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  10. The mention of the green light in chapter 1 seems to symbolize Daisy. When Gatsby reaches out to the green light it becomes apparent that he sees the light as a beacon of the woman that he wants to be loved by. Throughout the novel, however, you learn that the green light is not a symbol of Daisy, but a symbol of the physical separation between Daisy and Gatsby. It symbolizes the distance geographically, and the distance socially. Daisy lives just across the lake, but the lake is an expanse that can't be crossed directly (just like Gatsby can't approach Daisy directly because she has a husband). Chapter 5 is where I noticed that the green light actually had a purpose in the novel, when Gatsby tells Daisy what it means to him. Another thing that the green light represents is the image of Daisy that Gatsby has. Shorelines typically only have white lights, but the green light is unique, just as unique as Gatsby sees Daisy. Daisy is the green light among other colorless, tasteless women that Gatsby knows. After Daisy and Gatsby get together the green light almost turns into a trophy. It seems like Gatsby looks at it differently because he conquered the green light and won his goal, the girl.

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  11. Honestly, as I was reading the novel, I was not so focused on the symbolism of the green light as much as I was on the purpose of the billboard of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which was more ominous in my opinion. But many people find this green light fascinating, because it seems to symbolize the emptiness of dreams. In Chapter 1 (pages 20-21), we are first introduced to this green light. The narrator says he observes Gatsby as "he[Gatsby] stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way...I glanced seaward-and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away." In this first glimpse of the symbolic green light, I immediately noticed how Gatsby held out his hands in longing for it, but it was too far away to ever grab. This shows early on that the relationship with Daisy, while it was longed for and sought after, was never meant for Gatsby to have in his grasp. This is further proved later, in Chapter 5 (page 93) when we find out that the green light was directly connected to Daisy. I believe the green light was also was a self-created stumbling block for Gatsby. Gatsby, after returning from the war, was never able to shake his one summer of love with Daisy. In fact, he became obsessed with her and fantasied about her day and night. He created a dream that was too good to be true, and had long since passed away. But the green light, to Gatsby, was his one slim glimpse of hope, despite how fate turned its head away from Gatsby's romance. Gatsby reasoned that the green light further proved how close he and Daisy were, and how only a few miles separated their devoted love. But Gatsby, in his delirium of love, fails to see the true implications of this symbol. The green light, to me, shows simply that while Gatsby and Daisy are close in proximity, their love has long since ran out of time. The green light only instills false hope that a romance still exists. It is, in fact, the physical embodiment of a crushed dream. While Gatsby has thoroughly convinced himself that it proves he and Daisy were meant to be, it only further proves to me that it was a warning. It was a symbol meant to warn him that love with Daisy could never be again as it was. The green light almost guards the dock from Gatsby. This is why he longingly reaches for the dock, but knows (or at least should know)deep within himself that, despite his fantasies, the dream would never become a reality. Chapter Five's presentation of the green light proves this, because it states how Gatsby, after obtaining Daisy, realized that he put too much hope and meaning into the green light. Therefore he lost another "enchanted object", and his fairy tale ending is being dashed to pieces. The green light, like Daisy, were never close enough for Gatsby to keep in his life.

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  12. Red means stop and green means _. Thats right, green means go. At four o`clock A.M. (or it seems that way) when I`m driving to school, the most emotion I feel from when I wake until I chat with my friends in homeroom is the extinguishing of the ugly red lights, and the ignition of the green ones. On those days, green means relief; green means freedom.

    There are two sides to this symbol, each pertaining to a specific subsection of the phrase, "American dream." The first (the "dream" part) is simply the tangible symbol (in this case a light) of a dream. This is a universal symbol. Everyone has dreams or aspirations. Everyone`s dream is constantly in the back of their mind, returning to the forefront when prompted, just as Gatsby walks out to the water at times to simply stare, and lust for this dream. Everyones dreams seem to taunt them from across the wide, dark abyss that is the obstacles that stand in their way. These obstacles are symbolized by the water between Gatsby and his and the light, in this novel.

    The second part, and what makes this "dream-light" green, is specific to America. As I stated before, green means go. Green means freedom. The American dream is symbolized by this light by the Buchanan`s house because it is not only a dream to stare at and meditate on, but its GREEN. It`s reachable, attainable, and generally possible. The American dream says, "go for it!" As Gatsby looks out over the water, he knows he`s been given the green light. Because THIS. IS. AMERICA.

    "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- tommorow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... and one fine morning-"

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  13. The green light in The Great Gatsby is one of the most famous symbols in literature today. This symbol has a variety of meanings that continue to keep readers thinking. When I first came across the green light in chapter I, I immediately thought that the light was an alien space ship (or UFO) and that Mr. Gatsby was an undercover alien sent to research human life on Earth. “—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 way, 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.” I can’t be the only person to instantly think of aliens after reading that. Anyways, after further reading, you find out that it is actually Daisy’s green light on her dock. Fitzgerald brings up this green light a couple more times in his novel which voluntarily forces the readers into thinking further in to the symbol of the green light on Daisy’s dock. After completing the book, I realized that (to me) the green light symbolizes the distance between Mr. Gatsby and Daisy. Mr. Gatsby had loved Daisy since the day they met and because she was a married woman, he would have “to go the distance” so to speak, to get a chance with the woman he loves.

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  14. As I think about it more now, the green light on Daisy’s dock is very important as a symbol in “The Great Gatsby”. The light marks where Daisy lives. Able to be seen by Gatsby’s house, the light seems to be a reminder to him of his life’s goal which is to be with Daisy again. The green light, to me, also represents the green on a traffic light that figuratively sais “go” to Gatsby. It acts as a reminder to Gatsby that Daisy is always there and all he had to do was go over to her house or give her a call. At first, I did not notice the green light as important at all. I almost forgot about it until I got to the end of the book. I really noticed the green light at the end of the book more as a symbol. One place where it was mentioned was in Chapter five. In this chapter Daisy goes to Nick’s house and then takes a tour of Gatsby’s house. Here, Gatsby mentions to Daisy that he always sees her green light. In this chapter, Nick Carraway, the narrator, mentions that Gatsby was realizing that the light, now that he had met Daisy, was losing its significance. The green light is also mentioned at the end of the book. Nick sais how “Gatsby believed in the green light.” The light represented a goal for Gatsby to reach, to see Daisy and have her again. The Green light acts as a symbol to Gatsby of a future with the one that Gatsby truly loves.

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  16. The Green Light in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to me, symbolizes the dreams and hopes Gatsby has for the future. Though he obtains half of these such as his wealth and social standing in the social class, the other half of his hopes and dreams resides in the hope that he will still be able to sway Daisy and obtain all of her love as he once hoped he would. Gatsby’s sees the green light as a glimmer of hope in the darkness that he will be able to fully obtain the love he so desperately seeks from Daisy, even though she is married to Tom Buchanan. To Gatsby it is seen as the light that will eventually lead him to this desired goal. Now that Gatsby is a wealthy man, he hopes that Daisy will recognize these traits and come willingly on her own accord to him, and they can start the life he desires so much. For Gatsby the Green Light on the end of the lawn is a constant reminder to Gatsby that though she seems as distant as of now, Daisy is always near and close to him. This is the light that keeps Gatsby from wandering off course and his hopes set high. But even with this closeness to Daisy, the Green Light also manages to taunt Gatsby, because it was a love doomed. In the end, because of this light, Gatsby has accomplished what many other Americans wanted to accomplish themselves, the “American Dream”, the life of wealth, luxury and high social ranking, because of his love for Daisy.

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