The image of hope is a constant portrait hanging in the backdrop of The Great Gatsby. It is arguable that Jay Gatsby values two things above all others, love and money. The two motivations converge in Fitzgerald’s use of the color green, a symbol that represents the blend of love and money, as well as Gatsby’s ultimate goal, a spring-like renewal that would put his past behind him and plant the seeds for a future with Daisy. Fitzgerald shows green in its many manifestations, from the promise of a new bud, to the decay of a stagnant pond, as Gatsby’s dream progresses from a dim light in the distance to the reality of lovely illusions left in ruins. But his quest for Daisy’s love is a true showing of optimism and hope, which is the epitome of all man.
The first glimpse of green in the novel comes in the first chapter, as Nick st
umbles upon Gatsby with his arms outstretched toward “a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.” (25). The light marks the end of the Buchanan’s pier, and the beginning of Gatsby’s green hope. Through all the adversity he is faced with, Gatsby never relinquishes his dream for daisy, showing true perseverance. Nick doesn’t quite see why Gatsby has such a stronghold on the past or a former dream, but realizes that it’s not the ultimate outcome that matters to Gatsby, but the hope that something can come of nothing. It is a symbolic message that the “American Dream” is often insurmountable, yet we “beat on, like boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Showing that no matter how hard we row in pursuit of our dream, it steadily drifts away from us.
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