They live in a world of decadence and lies but still feign their virtuousness Green is a very strong and important color within the story. When Nick first sees Gatsby, he is standing on his back porch staring into a green tunnel of light across the bay. This light turns out to be on the end of Daisy's dock. Green symbolizes hopes and dreams. Everything Gatsby has done to improve his life has only been for the purpose of bringing himself closer to Daisy.
Colours can be used as symbolic elements to express deeper meanings that are effective and universal. Artists often use colours in their paintings when attempting to convey a specific mood or concept. For example, if an artist is trying to display a theme of despair and sorrow, colours such as black and grey are apparent. Through these colours, the viewer can comprehend the tone of the masterpiece set by the artist by connecting the colours with the appropriate feeling or emotion that is naturally sensed. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald is an artist.
The first symbol in The Great Gatsby is the mysterious green light. In our first acquaintance with the light, Gatsby is reaching out for it almost worshipping it. Later it is stated that this green light is at the end of Daisy's dock, and is a symbol for Gatsby's dream and the hope for the future. Green is the color of promise, hope, and renewal, so it is fitting that Gatsby's dream of a future with Daisy be represented physically in the novel by this green light. Later, in the final chapter of this novel, Fitzgerald compares Gatsby's green light to the "green breast of the new world", comparing Gatsby's dream of rediscovering Daisy to the explorer's discovery of America and the promise of a new continent.
Stewart wakes the morning after and instead of worrying, he goes fishing and the others soon join in, it isn’t until the next day that they head back and report the body. The surroundings influenced Stewart getting him to not worry or stress about the pressures he would normal feel back in Jindabyne. Jindabyne is a town of beauty, the glasslike lake, the vast, expansive plains and the lush, shadowy forests surrounding it. But just like Claire and Stewart we take in so much from our environment that influences how we behave and how we feel. Just think, if you went to a different school or dropped out of school all together you would be a different
Although it is only a light at the end of a dock, the green light brings Gatsby with the hope he needs to do other things, usually involving money, to win Daisy. Another symbol that gives Gatsby hope is his money. Gatsby uses his money to try to win daisy. Gatsby has very large and extravagant parties all because he hopes that Daisy will attend at least one. Gatsby also tries to show Daisy how rich he is by wearing expensive clothes.
Gatsby is in love with Daisy Buchanan and longs to reunite with her, yet their physical and emotional separation is illuminated by the “Green Light” at the end of her dock. Gatsby looks to the light in hopes of rekindling their love that was established before the war. The green light further symbolizes the promise of a future with Daisy, which Gatsby knows he can only have if he can compete with the “old money” of East Egg. Gatsby believes that Daisy will be impressed by his “new money” and follow her heart, abandoning her East Egg lifestyle. As the novel progresses the color “green” takes on new meaning.
He threw ridiculously large and excessive parties with all different kinds of people. Nick even lists the many different people that came and notes that “All these people came to Gatsby’s house in the summer,” to demonstrate the wide variety of people that Gatsby lured to his parties. The reasoning behind attracting so many people was to either lure Daisy or to lure people that she knew. Gatsby was very successful at this because he attracted Jordan Baker, Daisy’s childhood friend, and Nick Carraway, Daisy’s cousin. He worked with them in order to reunite with Daisy, and up until that point his plan was flawless.
Captured by the two, Gatsby wanted nothing more than to have his own dream played out, this dream being his fight for Daisy Buchanan. Many characters throughout the novel had a false conception that Gatsby truly did achieve the American Dream by having an enormous amount of money, but in Gatsby’s true dream the only concept worth chasing was Daisy’s love. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, observes: “I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (Fitzgerald 193). In reality, Gatsby was always and would always be entirely too far away from his dream of getting back together with Mrs. Buchanan.
All Gatsby wants is to realise the American Dream, a concept desired by most Americans in the 1920s, and all he needs to do that is to win Daisy. The green light first appears at the end of the first chapter and it also coincides with Nick’s first sighting of Gatsby, “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.” Fitzgerald later tells the reader that the light is “minute and far away”. This makes it seem that it is impossible to reach and this idea continues throughout the novel where Gatsby is concerned. This is Fitzgerald’s way of suggesting that it was impossible to achieve the American Dream. His desire for Daisy also ties in with his desire for the past.
The eyes also represent how people can just not care at all about others as long as they obtain fame and fortune. Another symbol used in this novel is the green light on Daisy’s dock. For Fitzgerald, green means hope and a promise for the future. For others, it means wealth, power, and the achievement of the American dream. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.