Great Gatsby Green Light Analysis

The Great Gatsby Story
One motif of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the green light which is on the
end of Daisy’s dock. The green light motif represents the theme of not being able to go back to
the past by Gatsby unable to get back together with Daisy like they were 5 years ago.
The green light is first shown after Nick comes back from someplace with Tom and is
dropped off by a taxi. When Nick gets out of the Taxi he looks over at a dock and notices a man
that he thinks is Gatsby standing there “stretching out his arms toward … a single green light…”
(Fitzgerald 20-21). While Nick looks at the green light the man disappears like he was never
there and left Nick alone outside. Later in the book Gatsby points it out to Daisy.
In

the middle of the book Gatsby, Nick and Daisy are at Gatsby’s house. Gatsby is
throwing shirts at Daisy and she falls down crying. Gatsby go to comfort her on his bed and they
look out toward the Water next to Gatsby’s private beach. While lying there Gatsby shows Daisy
the “green light that burns all night…” (Fitzgerald 92) which is at the end of Daisy’s dock. Later
on Nick is looking back in time and thinking about Gatsby and his beliefs.
Nick is wondering in Gatsby’s house looking around recalling things. One thing is how
Gatsby was always trying to relive the past no matter how many times people told him he
couldn’t do that. Nick recalls first seeing Gatsby and how “Gatsby believed in the green light…”
(Fitzgerald 180) which represented how bad Gatsby wanted to get back with Daisy.
The theme of not being able to go back to the past can be represented by the motif of the
green light Gatsby saw at the end of Daisy’s dock. Gatsby believed that he could go back to the
past and get back with Daisy easily, but he can’t because he can’t repeat the past no matter how
hard he tries to do so.