Symbolism plays a big role in the novel The Great Gatsby. The Green Light is one of the more important ones. Literally, the green light is the light on Daisy's dock shining its meretricious beauty across to Gatsby's house. Symbolically it is the American Dream, specifically it is Gatsby's American Dream. It is first introduced in the book on page 25 where Gatsby is shaking because he can almost grasp it when suddenly it disappears. I believe it represents Gatsby's American dream, Daisy, and the old American dream. .
Gatsby was James Gatz a poor farm boy who never accepted reality and strived to change his stars. He accomplishes it by obtaining a huge fortune by illegal means. He has yet, to achieve the name. The book leads us to think that Gatsby accumulated all this money to impress Daisy but Daisy was needed to achieve the whole picture. Daisy was his ticket to a title of the true gentry he would then finally have achieved his true goal. The green light on Daisy's side represents that Gatsby needs Daisy and he can almost touch it but it is not within his reach. .
The explorers saw a green land signifying a new land filled with promise of new lives, homes, and land. The sailors had reached the shore by overcoming the sea, yet, that was in the past. In the 1920's the green light shined across a contaminated sea filled with lust for money, pleasure, and evil. Gatsby's boat could not defeat the evil and was crushed. The green light represented a dream within a dream. Daisy is considered the green light because she completes the whole picture. It plays a big role in the book because it symbolizes that the light of green ( life) is Daisy and without it (Daisy), Gatsby cannot live. .
