Essay Example on The Great Gatsby: Nick's Journey to East Coast

Introduction

Nick Carraway narrates the story of "The Great Gatsby" in which he is the neighbor of Gatsby. It commences where Nick moves to East Coast in pursuit of his career, and he works there as a bond trader and rents a small house where old people having money lived. While staying there he reconnects with Daisy Buchanan who was his cousin, Tom his cousin's husband, and Jordan Baker, their friend. Later, Nick meets the next-door neighbor Gatsby Jay who throws parties every weekend. When Nick and Jordan start having an affair where he finds out that Daisy and Gatsby were in a relationship years back. Nick then arranges Daisy to come to his house then Daisy and Gatsby start having an affair once again. However, Daisy is not interested in the relationship anymore. Daisy is involved in an accident, and Tom concludes that the car which struck her belonged to Gatsby and during that time, George also claimed that Myrtle's lover. George then kills Gatsby and himself. At the end, when Nick tells people to come to Gatsby funeral, no one is willing to come including the ones who attended his parties except his father. Although Gatsby tries very hard and sorts to achieve his American dream, he fails to win Daisy's love.

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The American Dream and the Green Light

The green light in the novel represents Gatsby's American dream. The main idea in the American dream is that an individual who comes from a low social class can work hard to be in a higher social class since American society has class mobility. In the novel, the reality of the American dream is explored. On the surface, it is like Gatsby has achieved the American dream because he has managed to change his social status by moving to New York's high echelons. Unfortunately, he shows hollowness in the dream because even with his social class, he is still unable to win Daisy's love. In this case, Daisy represents the elite group in American society. Another thing that shows the green light represents the American dream is the ending of the novel where after the car crash, the people from lower-class backgrounds including George, Myrtle, and Gatsby dies. However, the people from the social class such as Jordan, Tom, Nick, and Nick survive. This shows that even though the people from the lower class might try to be in the high-class social background, they might never be accepted. Also, the end of the novel implies that the American dream is inaccessible and a dream cannot be a reality at times, like for the case of Gatsby.

The Elusive Future and the Past

The future of Gatsby has eluded him by making him believe that he could win Daisy. It is because of his quest of winning Daisy that he loses his life. He had the dream of winning Daisy's love then he could escape with hi, but that does not happen in the novel. Winning Daisy was a difficult task for him since she had already fallen in love with Tom. Gatsby believed that he could win Daisy by having wealth that is why he resorted to doing businesses. However, it is evident that the dream of having Daisy was not about being wealthy. Instead, moral and social issues are important in any relationship. At first, Gatsby thought that by having wealth, he could win Daisy easily. However, that came difficult because even the wealth he had were not acquired by the right means. The people from where he lived mainly made a fortune through illegal activities and bootlegging alcohol.

'So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past' shows how human beings do struggle to achieve their dreams by recreating and transcending the past. In most cases, human beings are usually unable to move from their past as the current activities draw them back even as they strive to achieve the green light. Gatsby's past work as a source of his ideas concerning the future and this is evident by his desire for recreating the love he had for daisy in 1917. Both daisy and Gatsby cannot escape the past since they continue to try and transform the dreams which they had to reality. The last quote also shows that even though Gatsby tried hard to achieve the American dream, he still remembers his past as he came from a low-class social background. This made it difficult for him to achieve the American dream fully as he also engaged in illegal activities to acquire wealth.

Conclusion

In conclusion, although Gatsby tries very hard and sorts to achieve his American dream, he fails to win Daisy's love. In the novel, the green light represents the American dream that Gatsby had, and he tries to achieve it by engaging in bootlegging alcohol. Unfortunately, it became difficult that he even lost his life in pursuit of Daisy's love as she still loved Tom. Therefore, even as human beings struggle to achieve their dreams by recreating and transcending the past, the past still comes back to them.