Reframe · No. 34
The Great Gatsby is not an American Dream story. Fitzgerald never wrote one.
Most readers arrive with the dream already finished: a poor boy, a green light, and a last line that sounds like hope. That is the cliché. It is not what F. Scott Fitzgerald put on the page.
The light is a lamp on Daisy's dock. Gatsby says of course you can repeat the past. She says she loved Tom too, and she was driving. The guests do not come to the funeral.
What most readers assume
“A self-made man reaches for the green light, throws the parties of the age, and dies for the girl he loves. The last line is hope.”
What F. Scott Fitzgerald actually stages
Most readers arrive with the dream already finished: a self-made man, a green light, and a closing line about boats that sounds like hope. F. Scott Fitzgerald published the novel in 1925, and the light sits on Daisy Buchanan's dock. When Nick says you cannot repeat the past, Gatsby answers that of course you can. Daisy was driving the car that killed Myrtle, and the guests who ate all summer do not come to the funeral.
The Great Gatsby · F. Scott Fitzgerald
The popular summary sells a green light and a dream. The book sells a dock lamp that goes ordinary, a past he says he can repeat, and a funeral the guests do not attend.
Common Questions
Search questions this reframe installment answers about The Great Gatsby.
Is The Great Gatsby an American Dream story?
No. The green light is on Daisy Buchanan's dock, and in chapter 5 Nick says its colossal significance vanishes once she stands beside Gatsby. In chapter 6 Nick tells him you cannot repeat the past. Gatsby answers that of course you can, and that he will fix everything the way it was before. The last sentence does not deliver the dream. It says the boats are borne back ceaselessly into the past.
What does the green light mean in The Great Gatsby?
It is a lamp that burns all night at the end of Daisy's dock. Chapter 1 ends with Gatsby reaching toward a single green light before Nick knows his name. In chapter 5 he tells her she always has that light, and Nick thinks its colossal significance has vanished forever now that she is in the room. The light seemed near because she was far. Once she is close, it is only a lamp.
Does Gatsby believe he can repeat the past?
Yes. After Daisy leaves his party unhappy, Nick says he would not ask too much of her, and that you cannot repeat the past. Gatsby answers, incredulous, that of course you can. He looks around as if the past were in the shadow of the house, and says he is going to fix everything just the way it was before. The plan is a return to Louisville, not a new life.
Who was driving the car that killed Myrtle Wilson?
Daisy. In chapter 7 Nick asks if she was driving, and Gatsby says yes, but that he will say he was. Tom later tells Nick he told George Wilson who owned the car, because Wilson had a revolver and tried to force his way upstairs. Tom also tells Nick that Gatsby ran over Myrtle and never stopped. Wilson finds Gatsby at the pool. The laden mattress moves down the water, and Wilson's body is in the grass.
Who comes to Gatsby's funeral?
Almost no one who came to the parties. Daisy and Tom have already left. Wolfshiem will not come. Klipspringer calls about tennis shoes. Henry C. Gatz arrives with a ragged Hopalong Cassidy book and a boyhood schedule dated September 12, 1906: rise at six, save three dollars a week, be better to parents. The owl-eyed man from the library comes in the rain and says he could not get to the house, and neither could anybody else.
Is the last line of The Great Gatsby hopeful?
The popular summary reads it as grit. Nick has just remembered Gatsby picking out the green light, and he says the dream must have seemed close, and that it was already behind him. The sentence then says we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. It names the pull backward. It does not promise that the reaching arrives.