great gatsby green light

             After the events of this story have unfolded, the narrator Nick, focuses on the man
             most like himself; Gatsby. Both Nick Carraway and Jay Gatz hail from the mid-west,
             where morals and the right way of getting ahead are instilled into them. They travel to
             New York, where the morals are paper-thin and everything seems turned upside down.
             The saps with morals stay in the ashheaps while the careless, foolhardy upper society do
             what they please. Nick stays true to the mid-west morals of an earnest, hardworking
             living while Gatsby tries to be just like the others on East Egg. Nick says this of him,
             "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
             further.....And one fine morning-" (189). A central theme of the novel I think, is the idea
             that people aren't satisfied with what they have, they are always going further and further,
             never knowing when to stop, and always striving for that bright star that "seemed so close
             that he could hardly fail to grasp it." (189).
             To Gatsby the green light symbolizes Daisy, Daisy in a way represents her peers in
             the same social strata as her. Daisy is a fool, living vicariously and so are the characters in
             this book. The green light represents the wild and recklessness of the times. These were
             times when women for the first time were drinking and smoking alongside the guys, their
             war was over and so were their troubles. The green light for them means go, after most
             wars the economy experiences a boom, this was no different. They are cocksure, thinking
             that whatever they do is right, and they always push on. They don't care what happens to
             others as long as they remain untouched and unrivaled.
             This selfishness is shown in nearly all characters except Nick, who accepts his life
             an...

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