in his final comment, Nick says: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but thats no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...and one fine morning--so we beat on, boats against the current, bourne back ceaselessly into the past"? Why is this quote significant to the theme of the American Dream in the novel?
it is one of my questions on my homework and i dont really understand it. can someone please explain it to me? thank you!
2007-12-13 03:41:36 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
The social climate was drastically changing when this book was written.
The quote basically means that Gatsby has this romantic idea of what life is like. (the green light, orgastic future)
Even though he never really achieved what he thought he would, he is not dismayed. He continues to pursue the ideal happiness that previously eluded him - against the odds. But in the end, his life will still be stuck in the past as he holds onto that pastoral view of the world that helped him initially set the goals of happiness.
(Remember that time and the past are two significant themes in the book. While the American Dream (overall) consists of looking forward and planning for the future, Gatsby is engaged in the opposite: being bourne ceaselessly into the past. It's irony.).
2007-12-13 04:49:46 · answer #1 · answered by YSIC 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Three comments: First, you're confusing intelligence with education and stupidity with ignorance. A person's inherent intelligence is beyond their control. The problem with Christianity is that it is too often used to justify a certain willfully ignorant worldview. Second, great intelligence often places a young person at odds with their peers and causes great unhappiness at a time when popularity seems so vitally important. The result is that highly intelligent youth often fail to develop the emotional maturity they need to manage their lives. The highly intelligent are often compulsive perfectionists and their own severest critics. Ultimately, I think you are correct -- that persons of average intelligence have an easier and happier life. Third, a person who is both intelligent and educated often feels they carry a particular social burden, an obligation to humanity to use their gifts wisely, to help improve the human condition and fight social injustice. That places them directly at odds with organized religion, which persists in modern times by encouraging the faithful to remain willful ignorant and by making incessant demands for mandatory social uniformity.
2016-03-14 07:42:34 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Americans tend to maintain their optimism, to believe at some deep level that eventually their dreams will come true if they just work hard enough and try hard enough, but in reality (says Nick, and probably Fitzgerald speaking through him), we're on a figurative treadmill that keeps us from reaching the goal.
(Have you read Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to Alice in Wonderland? If you have, remember the part where the Red Queen tells Alice that they have to run like mad just to stay in the same place?)
2007-12-13 04:08:42 · answer #3 · answered by aida 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The green light (and Daisy) represent the WASP establishment that Gatsby yearns to join but never can. The quote suggests that we will continue to try harder and harder to try to get the unattainable.
Hope this helps.
2007-12-13 03:51:08 · answer #4 · answered by hfrankmann 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
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2016-08-01 11:30:00 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means that he overdid everything today, that he felt he could make up for his overindulgences in the future....which never comes. The emphasis on enjoying it all in his youth, in a way that he never could in old age.
2007-12-13 03:45:50 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋