Chapter 9
“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—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning--
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Chapter 9 Page 180)
Response
This passage is Nick’s final words of the novel. His final words are used to speak about Gatsby and his belief in the “green light”, or rather the “American Dream”. The quote implies that the dream is simply that, a dream. It is something unobtainable and unrealistic. Every day that goes by the dream gets further and further away until one day you die, and in the end you never achieve what you wanted to. This quote is also quite reflective of the human spirit. Despite the possibility that you may never achieve anything, you continue towards it pushing harder than the days before. The final line of the novel could possibly mean that if we refuse to let go of this idea of the “American Dream”, then we can never move forward as a society and will forever trap ourselves in the past.
“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—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning--
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Chapter 9 Page 180)
Response
This passage is Nick’s final words of the novel. His final words are used to speak about Gatsby and his belief in the “green light”, or rather the “American Dream”. The quote implies that the dream is simply that, a dream. It is something unobtainable and unrealistic. Every day that goes by the dream gets further and further away until one day you die, and in the end you never achieve what you wanted to. This quote is also quite reflective of the human spirit. Despite the possibility that you may never achieve anything, you continue towards it pushing harder than the days before. The final line of the novel could possibly mean that if we refuse to let go of this idea of the “American Dream”, then we can never move forward as a society and will forever trap ourselves in the past.