The Great Gatsby

At numerous points in the narrative, a green light emanates from Daisy’s dock that can be seen from Gatsby’s house. To Gatsby, this light represents his hopes and dreams of rekindling his youthful relationship with Daisy from many years ago. Of this light and Gatsby’s attitude toward it, Nick says, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (176). Beyond Gatsby’s feelings toward Daisy, the light has a broader meaning: it represents the American Dream that beckons while remaining just out of reach. This association may seem counterintuitive, given that Gatsby in many ways epitomizes the American Dream: he came from humble beginnings, worked extraordinarily hard, and amassed absurd amounts of wealth. Yet for Fitzgerald, Gatsby’s success only emphasizes the rot at the heart of the American Dream as he views it in the 1920s. To achieve his social status, Gatsby had to become a criminal, and even then he was still excluded from the upper echelons of American society. 

The valley of ashes is an industrial dumpsite filled with the waste created by the wealthy residents of West and East Egg. Both literally and symbolically, it represents the stark divide between rich and poor on Long Island.