In The Great Gatsby, dreams and illusions epitomized and personified a paralysis between two realities: between an irrevocable past and a transitory future. Arguably a blessing and a curse, such dreams and illusions are born from yearnings, pursuits, and dissatisfactions. Also part of two worlds, worlds that are mavericks to governing dualities like light and darkness, good and evil, life and death – dreams and illusions in Fitzgerald’s novel coincide with an “orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” We find ourselves floating in the abyss and in a state of mind that forces us forward and that equally forces us backward. Through The Great Gatsby, we find that we are dreamers plagued with a pragmatic approach, compelled to reach and compelled to let go.
In the juxtaposing worlds that Fitzgerald presents, that of the West and East, that of new money and old money, that of elusive illusions and realities, we encounter a realization that remains unchanging. The motif of the green light symbolized Gatsby’s fixation with the past, “some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.” Ever a dreamer and ever a pursuer, Gatsby serves as a reflection for the illusions and dreams we set forth: goals that we “could hardly fail to grasp” and goals that, in our blind pursuit, remain behind us. Fitzgerald plays with the concept of the American Dream, a concept explored by Nick in the beginning of the novel, wherein a democratic sentiment is followed. The novel starts by reinforcing the truth of the Declaration of Independence – the truth that everyone is created equal and in correlation with the American Dream, that anyone can create their own future.
Before the compass, Polaris gave weary sailors guidance; with the invention of the compass, voyagers rejoiced on the prospect of discovering the unknown. In establishing a direction (the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock) Gatsby, a voyager on a northern journey, hoped to recapture what had been lost. However, a foul dust that hovered amidst Long Island overshadowed the dreams that were prophetic for Gatsby’s future. In believing love to be a rational, benign force surpassing obstacles, we see part of Gatsby’s naivety. As the novel progresses and regresses, we gain insight into the decay of altruism, an inability to care, and the principle that we ourselves are the creators of our own Valley of Ashes.
When referring to “a transitory, enchanted moment…in the presence of this continent” Nick brings to light the gratification of the American Dream, the notion that, at that specific moment, everything seemed possible for the Dutch sailors. For Nick, the immense nature of the illusion that eluded Gatsby was also a realization that eluded him – a realization that eludes us even, the dreamers.
The green light also represented money and greed, selfishness and values from the East not prominently shared in the Midwest. This color especially, of money and wild ambitions, reveals our humane pursuit of wealth and power. In a world that does not care about or see justice, the notion that perceptions are people’s realities comes to live as characters find themselves falling victims to misplaced nostalgia and misplaced hope. The characters in the novel, pursuing a greater beyond, failed to achieve and to fulfill. As the passage notes, we are compelled by a desire to continue and by a reality to cease for in fighting the ripple of time, “we beat on, boats against the current.”
As an audience encouraged to “stretch our arms farther,” we find ourselves “within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled” by the characters’ amorality and utter carelessness — in a contrasting and competitive duality, we assume the roles of participators and observers, just as our narrator Nick did. Simultaneously afflicted to dream and tormented to realize, Fitzgerald pokes at the Jay Gatsbys within us.
Upon coming “face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to [our] capacity for wonder” we suddenly wake up from the trance, from that dream we were in to find the harbinger of death as it were. As the fragmented sentences show: the ellipses, dashes, and commas, of “And one fine morning—” we realize that our quest toward such hypnotizing dreams has ended.
Plagued by an instinctual force to believe, we stand dubious through time in a restless pursuit of mercurial goals that in our greatest fears, tumble short of our dreams and resemble most, a haunting futility.
The tragedy of Gatsby’s voyage was not the premature halt, nor the dreaming, but rather the chasing of an unworthy, disenchanting dream.