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The group consists 4 people.

Sienna, Øyvind, Mathias og Mia.

We are 16 and 17 years old.

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Why The Great Gatsby fits into the Roaring 20s

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Why The Great Gatsby fits into the Roaring 20s

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The Great Gatsby symbolies the difference of the people in the USA in the 20s. Some were very rich and a lot of the population were poor. In the 20s the big companies grew bigger and the smaller ones had to be shut down. The big parties for the rich people were very common.

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2 links with credible information about the roaring 20s

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2 links with credible information about the roaring 20s

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Roaring Twenties: Flappers, Prohibition & Jazz Age | HISTORY

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Roaring Twenties, colloquial term for the 1920s, especially within the United States and other Western countries where the decade was characterized by economic prosperity, rapid social and cultural change, and a mood of exuberant optimism. The liveliness of the period stands in marked contrast to the historical crises on either side of it: World War I (1914-18) and the Great Depression (1929-c. 1939). The name may have originated as a play on the nautical term roaring forties, referring to latitudes with strong ocean winds.

By the dawn of the 1920s, the second Industrial Revolution had transformed the United States into a global economic power and drawn millions of Americans to cities. With a concurrent rise in immigration, the 1920 U.S. census was the first in which the majority of the population lived in urban areas. Although World War I had strained the country's finances, the fact that the United States had entered the war late and that the fighting took place overseas helped it secure a more dominant economic position relative to its European allies.

During the 1920s, the American economy continued to accelerate. One reason was the growing electrification of the country. The portion of U.S. households with electricity rose from 12 percent in 1916 to 63 percent in 1927, and its widening use in factories led to increased productivity. Also contributing to the economic boom was the advent of mass-production methods such as the assembly line, which spurred the growth of the automobile industry. The decade saw the number of passenger cars more than triple, which in turn stimulated the expansion of transportation infrastructure and the oil and gas industries. In addition, the overall business sector benefited from the laissez-faire economic policies of U.S. presidents Warren G. Harding (1921-23) and Calvin Coolidge (1923-29). Between 1922 and 1929, the country's real gross national product increased by nearly 40 percent, and the unemployment rate remained low.

The technological and manufacturing boom ushered in a modern consumer culture. With electricity came a range of new household appliances, such as the refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, and washing machine, and the increased availability of credit made it possible for many Americans to afford them. The growth of the advertising industry and the development of sophisticated marketing techniques also helped create demand for these and other products in an expanding mass-media landscape. Not only was the radio one of the most popular new electric devices, installed in 40 percent of homes by 1930, but the airwaves became an effective advertising medium. As labour-saving technologies created more opportunities for leisure, a plethora of popular entertainment arose from new media. Moviegoing became an American pastime, especially after the emergence of " talkies." By the decade's end, 80 million people flocked to cinemas weekly, with radio and magazines boosting interest in the stars on the screen.

The 1920s also brought about social changes for women in the United States. Women had entered the workforce in significant numbers during World War I, filling jobs that had been vacated by men sent to war and taking new jobs that aided the war effort. Their contributions galvanized support for the suffrage movement, which culminated in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Many women remained in the workforce after the war, especially as growing industrialization provided greater opportunities. Young women who were employed in cities enjoyed unprecedented economic independence, and the increased use of contraception (the country's first birth control clinic was opened in 1916) provided sexual freedom as well. Perhaps the most enduring symbol of the Roaring Twenties is that of the flapper, the emancipated "New Woman" who bobbed her hair, wore loose, knee-length dresses, smoked and drank in public, and was more open about sex.

In a rapidly modernizing world, young people guided creative movements that often defied convention. Jazz music, which had developed into an exciting style defined by improvisation and swinging rhythms, became the dominant sound of the new generation. (Its prominence earned the era another nickname, the Jazz Age, popularized by the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.) The vitality of jazz was part of a broader flourishing of African American art and culture known as the Harlem Renaissance, which was centred in New York City but reverberated far beyond it. Fitzgerald himself was a leading figure of the Lost Generation, a group of writers whose work captured the era's decadence and spoke to the disillusionment of many who came of age during World War I.

Although postwar economic conditions were less robust in western Europe than in the United States, the social and cultural milieus were similarly dynamic. In France the 1920s were known as "Les Années Folles" ("The Crazy Years"). In Germany's Weimar Republic, which produced an explosion of intellectual and artistic activity, they were the "Goldene Zwanziger Jahre" ("Golden Twenties"). The British public was scandalized by the exploits of a set of affluent youth dubbed the Bright Young Things. In the art world, Surrealism grew out of the Dada movement that had developed in Zürich during the war, while Art Deco, promoted by a 1925 exposition in Paris, became highly influential in international architecture and design.

Nevertheless, the popular image of the 1920s as a prosperous, progressive, and jubilant era obscures some realities. In the United States, the decade began with the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment, under which the manufacture and sale of alcohol was prohibited. Despite the emergence of bootleggers and speakeasies, and the glamour associated with drinking illegally, the temperance movement did succeed in significantly reducing Americans' consumption of alcohol. In addition, while the Great Migration provided a path for African Americans to pursue greater economic and educational opportunities, and the influence of African American culture spread, the 1920s also saw a revival of the Ku Klux Klan. Growing anti-foreign sentiment (also espoused by the new Klan) led to the Immigration Act of 1924, which severely restricted the number of immigrants arriving in the United States.

More generally, not all Americans shared in the spoils of the roaring national economy. In the late 1920s, the wealthiest 1 percent received nearly one-quarter of all pretax income, and 60 percent of families earned less than $2,000 a year, a benchmark that economists regarded as "sufficient to supply only basic necessities." Rural, nonwhite, and immigrant Americans were among the groups less likely to benefit from the boom. Inequality was one of several factors that contributed to the collapse of the economy in 1929, as the stock market crash in October signaled the end of the Roaring Twenties and the start of the Great Depression.

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Roaring Twenties | Definition, Music, History, & Facts

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Roaring Twenties, colloquial term for the 1920s, especially within the United States and other Western countries where the decade was characterized by economic prosperity, rapid social and cultural change, and a mood of exuberant optimism. The liveliness of the period stands in marked contrast to

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Jay Gatsby is a Millionaire who lives in a mansion on Long Island. He often trows big partys hoping that Daisy Buchanan will show up. He is a mysterious man that no one really know.

he has never been rich, but he inherited a man he saved because he saw an opportunity when he ran away from home as a 16-year-old.

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What the american dream is for me(Mathias)

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What the american dream is for me(Mathias)

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The american dream for me is where the people respect eachother regardless of their skin colour and religion. It is also to get rich, live a happy life and have the best time of our life everyday.

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The first character we meet in the movie is Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story. He moves next door to the very rich and eccentric Jay Gatsby, who hosts these grand parties every week. Gatsby is in love with Nick's cousin Daisy, a married woman. Daisy is in love with Gatsby too, and they want to be together. Gatsby wants Daisy to tell her husband that she never loved him, so that Jay can eventually marry her himself. Daisy says that she has loved her husband, and after a heated argument Daisy runs over her husband’s mistress (unknowingly) with Gatsby’s car, and Jay takes the blame. He is shot because of this, and Daisy doesn’t even show up for the funeral.

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Daisy Buchanan is a wealthy socialite woman from Louisville, who resides in the fashionable town in East Egg on Long Island. She is Nick Carraway second cousin, and she is married to the polo player tom Buchanan.

She had a romantic relationship with Jay Gatsby before her husband Tom.

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The green light may be a symbol of Gatsby's desire for winning back Daisy, as well as his hope for the American Dream. The green light symbolizes his hopes, dreams and desires. It can also be sort of an afflication test for Gastby. The ones who felt the same about the green light, were the ones who he sympathized with, like Nick. Meanwhile the ones who only saw it as an object, were the ones who dismissed him.

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Nick Carraway, Daisys second cousin and Jay's neighbor was a Yale universe Alumnus from the American Midwest, he lived on Long Island and had a close relationship with the married couple Tom buchanan and daisy Buchanan, he soon became close with his neighbor Jay Gatsby, they became really good friends when Nick helped Jay get in contact with he's old love daisy. Nick was the main character in this movie

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The lost generation is a word used by describing the young men who lost their youth due to time in the war. The loss of faith in traditional values and ideals led many to become hedonistic, rebellious and aimless- "lost".

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To me, the American dream is about freedom and equality, and the rights for everyone to feel accepted no matter what backround they have. People should be given a chance to succeed in life, and have enough money to live a happy life. This should be an opportunity for everybody not depending on backround.

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In essence, the American dream is the promise of rising from rags to riches with nothing than hard, honest work. On a surface level, this is exactly what the “new money”-man Jay Gatsby symbolises. But you can’t realistically escape poverty in America with nothing but your own two hands and a will to work. Everybody who gets rich do so either because of what somebody else does or gives them, fraud and corruption, or sheer, blind luck. The American economy is plagued with corruption and scams. It is this blind luck and lawless corruption that I find that Jay Gatsby symbolizes on a deeper level. It was pure luck that Gatsby ended up on the ship of that wealthy man, and later, it was at the illegal alcohol business and fraud that got him rich.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Gatsby

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Carraway

sienna

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Daisy Fay Buchanan is a fictional character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby (1925). In the novel, Daisy is depicted as a married woman with a daughter. She is reunited with her former lover Jay Gatsby, arousing the jealousy of her husband, Tom. She is widely believed to have been based on Ginevra King. She has appeared in various media related to the novel, including feature films and plays.

Daisy Fay was born into a wealthy Louisville family. By 1917, Daisy had several suitors of her same class, but fell in love with Jay Gatsby, "a beautiful little fool." Daisy and her family settled in East Egg, a wealthy old money enclave on Long Island.

After her cousin Nick Carraway arrives in West Egg, the neighboring island, he meets Gatsby, who by now has become extremely wealthy. Gatsby throws several large, extravagant parties in hopes that Daisy will attend. Nick successfully sets up a meeting between Daisy and Jay at his neighboring cottage in West Egg where the two meet for the first time in five years, which leads to an affair.

At the Buchanans' home in East Egg, Daisy, Tom, Gatsby, Nick and his girlfriend Jordan Baker decide to visit New York City, Tom taking Gatsby's yellow Rolls Royce with Jordan and Nick, while Daisy and Gatsby drive alone in Tom's blue coupe. Once the group reach the city, they throw a party that turns into a confrontation between Daisy, Tom and Gatsby. Though Gatsby insisted that Daisy never loved Tom, Daisy admits that she loves both Tom and Gatsby. The party ends with Daisy driving Gatsby out of New York City in Gatsby's car, while Tom leaves with Nick and Jordan. Tom's mistress Myrtle Wilson had previously seen Tom driving Gatsby's yellow car. When she sees it approach that evening, on its way back to East Egg, she runs in front of Gatsby's car in hopes of reconciling with Tom. Daisy does not see her until it is too late, and runs her over. Gatsby stops the car by applying the 'emergency brake' and then takes over the driving from Daisy, leaving the scene of the accident behind them. In her home in East Egg, Gatsby assures her that he will take the blame. Tom tells George, Myrtle's husband, that it was Gatsby that killed Myrtle. George goes to Gatsby's home in West Egg and shoots Gatsby dead before turning the gun on himself. After Gatsby's murder, Daisy, Tom, and their daughter leave East Egg, having no forwarding address.

Film and other adaptations

The first adaptation of The Great Gatsby was a silent film produced in 1926 and featured Lois Wilson as Daisy. The film is now considered lost.

In 1949, another film was made, starring Alan Ladd as Gatsby and Betty Field as Daisy.

Phyllis Kirk portrayed Daisy in a 1955 episode of the television series Robert Montgomery Presents adapting The Great Gatsby.

Jeanne Crain played Daisy in a 1958 episode of the television series Playhouse 90.

In the 1974 film adaptation, Daisy is portrayed by Mia Farrow. A photo of Farrow portraying Daisy appeared on the cover of the first issue of magazine in promotion of the then-upcoming film. In the photo, Farrow holds a string of pearls in her hand while the pearls are also in her mouth. It was later emulated in 2014 by Taylor Swift. Farrow's performance as Daisy was met with mixed reception; Bruce Handy of Vanity Fair praised Farrow as being "full of vain flutter and the seductive instant intimacy of the careless rich" while Leigh Paatsch of News.com.au thought Farrow missed Daisy "by a country mile." Vincent Canby of The New York Times, in an otherwise negative review of the film, wrote favorably of Farrow as Daisy, calling the actress' performance "just odd enough to be right as Daisy, a woman who cannot conceive of the cruelties she so casually commits". The author's own daughter, Scottie Fitzgerald Smith, after re-reading his book, when selling film rights, noted of Farrow in 1974:

"When I first saw Mia Farrow on the set I thought she was ravishing, just breathtaking. The New England Summer sun was hitting her face under this lilac chiffon hat and she looked just like my father's Daisy Buchanan should look".

Mira Sorvino played Daisy in the 2000 film adaptation.

In the 2013 film adaptation with DiCaprio, Daisy is portrayed by Carey Mulligan. Mulligan had two 90-minute auditions, which she found to be fun and served as her initial encounters with Leonardo DiCaprio, who portrayed Gatsby, and who read with her both days. Mulligan left the audition, unsure she had secured the role, but was satisfied to have played off DiCaprio. Mulligan read the novel in preparation for auditioning for the role, finding the book to be accessible due to its length. Mulligan was familiar with the dislike some readers of The Great Gatsby had for the character, but felt she could not "think that about her, because I can't play her thinking she's awful." Mulligan strayed from watching Farrow's prior portrayal of Daisy, believing she might steal from Farrow's performance subconsciously for her own. Director Baz Luhrmann confirmed Mulligan had been cast as Daisy in November 2010, one month after she acquired the role. After the confirmation, assessed Mulligan as being attractive but in a childlike way, a contrast to Daisy's womanly beauty in the novel. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter in his review of the film wrote that viewers had their own ideals about Daisy's character and would debate whether Mulligan "has the beauty, the bearing, the dream qualities desired for the part, but she lucidly portrays the desperate tear Daisy feels between her unquestionable love for Gatsby and fear of her husband."

Tricia Paoluccio portrayed Daisy in the American Masters episode "Novel Reflections: The American Dream". Starting in 2006, in the Simon Levy version of the play, Daisy was portrayed by Heidi Armbruster, who according to Quinton Skinner, "is full of loony momentary enthusiasms and a dangerous sensuality, though by the second act, Armbruster's perf veers toward hollow mannerisms." Daisy was portrayed by Monte McGrath in the 2012 version of the play, and her performance was met with acclaim. Daisy is portrayed by Madeleine Herd in an adaptation by Independent Theater productions.

According to his own letters and diary entries, Fitzgerald's character of Daisy was based on Chicago socialite and debutante, Ginevra King, whom he had met on a visit back home in St. Paul, Minnesota while enrolled as a student at Princeton University. Immediately infatuated with her, according to his biographer Andrew Mizner, Fitzgerald "remained devoted to Ginevra as long as she would allow him to", wrote to her "daily the incoherent, expressive letters all young lovers write", and she would become his inspiration for Daisy, as well as several other characters in his novels and short stories.

The curator of Fitzgerald manuscripts and letters at Princeton, Don Skemer, has written that Ginerva "remained for Fitzgerald an archetype for the alluring, independent and upper class woman, ultimately unattainable by someone of a modest social background like himself", and that she "was a model for Daisy", as well as being "recognizable in many other [Fitzgerald] characters."

There is also evidence of Daisy being partially based on Fitzgerald's wife Zelda. Theresa Anne Fowler has written of the similarities that both Daisy and Zelda shared: "the Southern upbringing, the prominent family. And it is no secret that Scott borrowed liberally from Zelda's early diaries and their own life for his stories." And, when their daughter Scottie was born, Zelda, upon emerging from the anesthesia, was reported to have expressed her hope that their child would be a "beautiful little fool"-one of Daisy's lines, among many others, that have been attributed to Zelda.

Daisy Jenks was a life-long friend and neighbor of the Van Sweringen Brothers of Cleveland, Ohio, real-life billionaire developers of Shaker Heights, Ohio and Cleveland's Terminal Tower. Cleveland historian Kit Whipple describes possible inspiration for Daisy by the opulent lifestyle of the Jenks and Van Sweringens.

When first introduced, Daisy is shown to speak in a manner that is childlike and without any knowledge of what is correct. She fakes ignorance when speaking in Tom's presence but then reveals her actual feelings to Nick, including the fact that she had hoped her daughter would be unintelligent. From this, it is implied that her mannerisms are not some mere attempt at fooling those around her but actually contribute to an ongoing effort to serve as a role model toward her daughter and be directly responsible for her not learning much and becoming the "beautiful little fool" that she had aspired to have for a child. Daisy's motivations in wanting this are revealed by her to be that of hoping that her daughter is spared the unpleasant events that can occur in one's life and rooted in her view that she will not be affected by the emotional pain of her life as in being moronic, she cannot understand the events transpiring around her.

Though she is faithful to her husband in the years of their marriage leading up to Gatsby's return, she jumps nearly instantly at the chance of being able to have an affair with Gatsby. While it appears at first that this is a mere relationship of lust between two former lovers that are seeking to reignite an old flame, it is later revealed by Daisy's words to Tom after he learns of the relationship that she went along with it due to her feeling of neglect by her husband. Not only did her neglect drive her to the point of breaking a vow, but so did her ambitions to have an actual fulfilling relationship for the first time since shortly after she married, as Daisy reveals the lack of intimacy between her and Tom, further evidenced by his continued decline to show her any type of consideration in their shared appearances. Daisy's reluctance to accept Tom's claims of remorse demonstrate that her trust is not earned easily and the fact that she continues seeing Gatsby following this proves that she was not as concerned with the consequences of her cheating than that of her happiness.

Looking at Daisy's character, one can see she did care for Gatsby, though maybe not as much as she ended up caring for Tom. Daisy was important to Gatsby because Daisy made Gatsby feel loved. Though no matter what Gatsby did to win Daisy's affection, she married Tom and remained married to him despite Gatsby's pursuit of her. "[Gatsby's] efforts to attain Daisy...are no more successful, as she abandons him and he realizes too late that he has set his sights on the wrong goal." Daisy is "a woman who gives birth to a child, cheats on her husband, kills another person, and allows Gatsby to take the blame for her mistake." This says much about Daisy's character, because Daisy seems to think that she can do what she wants without needing to worry about the consequences of her actions, nor how they affect other people. Beginning when Gatsby left the first time for the army, for she could never seem to find someone to fill the hole that which Gatsby had left: "Wild rumors were circulating about her...After that she didn't play around with the soldiers any more but only with a few flat-footed, short sighted young men in town who couldn't get into the army at all." Then there came the time for Daisy to marry Tom, but she wanted to "change' her mind!" for she knew that she loved Gatsby still, but decided not to do anything about her conflicted heart.

Daisy has become associated with wealth, victims of marital affairs,[citation needed ] and glamour. Since the Baz Luhrmann live action film was released, featuring Daisy with a bob cut, certain versions of the hairstyle are attributed to her. Actress Carey Mulligan, who portrayed Daisy in the 2013 film adaptation, said Daisy was similar to members of the Kardashian family, later stating, "what I was trying to imply was that there's an essence of part of the amazing business they run as the Kardashians is looking beautiful a lot and looking very present, presentational and perfect." Since the comparisons, members of the Kardashian family have been compared to Daisy. Shaun Fitzpatrick of compared Daisy with Henrietta Bingham, the lead character in the novel Irresistible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham, even using images of Daisy when talking about actions of the character since as Fitzpatrick wrote, she was similar to "a character in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel". Inga Ting of The Sydney Morning Herald used an image of Mulligan as Daisy in an article titled, "Men want beauty, women want money: what we want from the opposite sex". The character's physical description has become synonymous with 1920s culture.

Emma Gray of The Huffington Post wrote of Daisy, "As F. Scott Fitzgerald's twisted 1920s version of a manic pixie dream girl, The Great Gatsby antiheroine has become one of the most discussed and polarizing female characters in American literature." An afterword in the 1992 edition of the novel by publisher Charles Scribner III claimed that Fitzgerald blamed the initial commercial failure of The Great Gatsby on it containing "no important woman character and women control the fiction market at present." The line was inferred that Fitzgerald did not believe it contained any sympathetic female characters. Daisy has become a role model for young women who aspire to attain wealth, be considered physically attractive and fashionable and portray appealing personal qualities. This desire has been critiqued due to the perceived outdatedness of the character, her shallowness, and for sending negative connotations.

Daisy has been vilified for the consequences of her actions, such as directly and indirectly causing the deaths of several characters, and has even been considered the true antagonist of the novel. She ranked No. 1 on 10 On Screen Villains that Will Make Your Blood Boil, Part 2 on Moviepilot, a list consisting entirely of female film characters. Bloom wrote that, although Daisy was not technically the villain of the story, "she still sucks, and if it weren't for her a couple key players in the book would be alive at the end of it." Bloom then dedicated the subsequent list of her top ten detestable literary characters to Daisy. Despite the criticism, some commentators have sympathized with the character. Katie Baker of The Daily Beast concluded that though Daisy lives and Gatsby dies, "in the end both Gatsby and Daisy have lost their youthful dreams, that sense of eternal possibility that made the summertimes sweet. And love her or hate her, there's something to pity in that irrevocable fact." Dave McGinn listed the character as one who needed their side of the story in their novel told, questioning if she really had a "voice full of money" as Gatsby claimed and wondered what her thoughts were on the love triangle between her, Gatsby and her husband. This then occurred with the publication in 2021 of Daisy's Riposte, The Great Gatsby by Daisy F Buchanan, which imagines the book from Daisy's point of view and draws on the original manuscript of The Great Gatsby which contains more background details about the characters and situation.

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Daisy Fay Buchanan is a fictional character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby (1925). In the novel, Daisy is depicted as a married woman with a daughter. She is reunited with her former lover Jay Gatsby, arousing the jealousy of her husband, Tom.

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The American dream takes on many forms and can mean differen6 things to different people. for some, it's about owning their own home, for others, starting a successful buisness.

sienna

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The Great Gatsby Quotes: The Green Light | SparkNotes

Mia

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One of the most arresting images in The Great Gatsby is Nick's vision of Gatsby stretching his arms out towards a small green light on the opposite shore of the bay. The mysterious, almost mystical nature of this gesture is a sure-fire sign that this green light is a symbol.

What is a symbol? It's something that is given extra meaning beyond itself. Something that stops being simply an everyday object, and instead represents thoughts and ideas that are bigger than itself.

What are the abstract ideas behind the green light in The Great Gatsby? Read on to see where this symbol pops up in the novel, what themes it is connected to, which characters are most closely associated with it, and some ideas for essay topics on this symbol.

Quick Note on Our Citations

Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book.

To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.

What Is the Green Light in The Great Gatsby?

Before we delve into the symbolic meaning of the green light, let's first establish what this object is in concrete terms.

The green light is a permanently lit electric lamp that marks the end of Daisy and Tom's boat dock. It's a way to warn boats at night or during inclement weather that there is a structure there-this is why it is always on.

Because the Buchanans' mansion is directly across the bay from Gatsby's mansion, Gatsby can always see the green light.

Key Quotes About the Green Light

In order to figure out what the green light means as a symbol, let's do some close reading of the moments where it occurs in The Great Gatsby.

The Green Light in Chapter 1

The image of the green light at the end of Daisy's dock occurs for the first time at the end of the novel's first chapter. Before we have even met Gatsby, we get a description of him stretching out his arms towards something he can't reach -a gesture he will repeat over and over again.

...a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor's mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars. Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was his of our local heavens.

...he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness. (1.151-152)

One thing in particular is interesting about the introduction of the green light: it's very mysterious. Nick seems not to be quite sure where the light is, or what its function might be:

Although physically bounded by the width of the bay, the light is described as impossibly small ("minute" means "tiny enough to be almost insignificant") and confusingly distant.

Even though we find out later that the light never turns off, here Nick only seems to be able to see the light when Gatsby is reaching out towards it. As soon as Gatsby disappears, Nick is in "darkness."

This vagueness and mystery is a good way for the novel to underscore the fact that this light is a symbol-it stands not just for the physical object that it describes, but for an idea within the book. What's the idea? I'll talk all about it in the next section of this article.

The Green Light in Chapter 5

We return to the image of the light exactly halfway through the novel, in the fifth chapter, when Gatsby is showing Daisy around his mansion after he "accidentally" runs into her at Nick's house.

"If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay," said Gatsby. "You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock."

Daisy put her arm through his abruptly but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one. (5.117-118)

This appearance of the green light is just as vitally important as the first one, mostly because the way the light is presented now is totally different than when we first saw it. Instead of the "enchanted" magical object we first saw, now the light has had its "colossal significance," or its symbolic meaning, removed from it. This is because Gatsby is now actually standing there and touching Daisy herself, so he no longer needs to stretch his arms out towards the light or worry that it's shrouded in mist.

However, this separation of the green light from its symbolic meaning is somehow sad and troubling. Gatsby seemingly ignores Daisy putting her arm through his because he is "absorbed" in the thought that the green light is now just a regular thing. Nick's observation that Gatsby's "enchanted objects" are down one sounds like a lament-how many enchanted objects are there in anyone's life?

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The Green Light in Chapter 9

The last time we encounter the green light is in the final paragraphs of the novel.

And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning----

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (9.152-154)

Now the light has totally ceased being an observable object. Nick is not in Long Island any more, Gatsby is dead, Daisy is gone for good, and the only way the green light exists is in Nick's memories and philosophical observations. This means that the light is now just a symbol and nothing else.

But it is not the same deeply personal symbol it was in the first chapter. Check out the way Nick transitions from describing the green light as something "Gatsby believed in" to using it as something that motivates "us." Gatsby is no longer the only one reaching for this symbol-we all, universally, "stretch out our arms" toward it, hoping to reach it tomorrow or the next day.

You can read a more in-depth analysis of the end of the novel in our article on the last paragraphs and last line of the novel.
We're basically saying that the green light is Gatsby's precious, right?
The Meaning and Significance of the Green Light in The Great Gatsby

Like many of the most interesting symbols, the green light changes and develops its meaning through the novel.

In the beginning, the light stands for Gatsby's dreams, hopes, and desires to reunite with Daisy and recapitulate their beautiful month of love from five years earlier. This positive association connects with the color green. Green means go (stoplights were introduced in the 1910s-20s, so this was a relatively new association), green means spring, rebirth, and the start of new life. The positive meaning also works well with the idea of a dock light. Daisy is a beacon, pulling Gatsby out of the darkness and steering him in the right direction.

However, during the novel, Gatsby's dream is revealed to be the delusional conviction that he could ignore five years of events and Daisy's own personality and inner life to get what he wants. With this disappointment, the symbolic meaning behind the green light collapses. Daisy is not a magically perfect creature, but instead a fallible and deeply flawed person. The love Gatsby feels for her can only be played out as a secretive and morally questionable affair. And the green light loses its "enchanted" qualities and instead is revealed to be the not particularly reliable indicator that it actually is (suddenly, it becomes invisible in the fog).

Finally, as Gatsby's dream is dashed, the green light stops being something that is his alone, and instead takes on a universal quality. Now it stands for the unreachable dream that lives inside all people. For Nick, life is a constant struggle between our past mistakes, experiences, and sense of reality, which pull us back and weigh us down, and the green light of unrealistic hope that drives us to think we will do better and achieve more the next day.

The green light ends up standing for this dream of an "orgastic future" -that's right, that means a future lived at the height of orgasm-which is constantly getting farther and farther away, and that we keep trying to grab for, despite the impossibility of reaching it.
According to Nick, we all keep hoping our future will just be this for every second of every day. Fedora optional.
Characters, Themes, Motifs, and Symbols Connected to the Green Light

Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is most closely associated with the green light. He is the one who obsessively stares at this light at the end of Daisy's dock, dreaming of reuniting with her. He is the one who reaches his hands towards it, showing us that it is a symbolic representation of his dreams that are always just out of reach. And he is the one whose belief in the green light and its promise of a future of perfect happiness so profoundly affects Nick that Nick ends up admiring Gatsby.

Daisy Buchanan. The green light is located at the end of Daisy's dock, and is Gatsby's only physical sign of her before he meets her at Nick's house. For a long time, the green light, Gatsby's ambitious hopes, and Daisy are all symbolically one and the same. Only when Daisy has an affair with Gatsby, showing that she is a flesh and blood person with her own desires, fears, and flaws, does she separate from this idealized symbol of hope.

Nick Carraway. Nick is the one who realizes the significance of the green light for Gatsby when he sees Gatsby stretching his arms out towards it. He is also the one who connects the green light with everyone's hopes and dreams at the very end of the book.

Society and Class. For Gatsby, just as Daisy is visible through the green light, but in reality out of reach, so is the old money contingent of wealthy Long Island society. No matter how high Gatsby rises and how rich he gets, he still can't break through that final barrier-and he can never quite grasp the green light.

The American Dream. The green light comes to represent not just Gatsby's dream, but the aspirational American Dream that the novel shows in both its positive and negative aspects. Like this national myth, the green light is forever just out of reach, but also forever motivating feats of improbable achievement.
Wait, is the idea that we are constantly reaching for the unreachable happy or sad?
Symbol: Colors. That the light is green is very significant in a novel that is methodically color-coded. Somewhat in opposition to its culturally positive associations, in The Great Gatsby, green tends to be a sign of either hopeful rebirth, or sickness, greed, and death.

Essay Ideas and Tips for Writing About the Green Light

Now that we've explored the layers of meanings behind the green light at the end of Daisy's dock, you're in a good place to think about how to write about this symbol.

How to Write an Essay About the Green Light

Here are some tips on how to write an essay about the role of a symbol in a novel:

Build from the text out. In this article, I first looked at the green light in context and discussed its meaning in the exact places where it appears, and only afterward wrote about its general significance in the novel. The same basic rule of thumb is good to keep in mind for your own essay. Work from small ideas to big ones, and your argument will be well supported.

Make an argument. It's not enough to just describe the symbol and explain its possible meanings. Instead, you have to make sure that you're making some kind of point about why/how the symbol works. How do you know if you're making an argument and not just saying the obvious? If you can imagine someone arguing the opposite of what you're saying, then you've got an argument on your hands.

Don't overthink it. Sure, the green light can be said to represent lots of things: Gatsby's dreams, Daisy, or the quest to grab the elusive brass ring. But that doesn't mean that it also stands for world peace, environmental degradation, or Nick's pining for his war days. In other words, watch out for stretching your symbol analysis too far from what the text is telling you.

Essay Topic Ideas on the Green Light
Essays: it's not an argument unless a pigeon is pecking a chihuahua.
Here are some possible essay arguments. You can build from them as-is, argue their opposite, or use them as jumping-off points for your own interpretation.

1. The green light is a kind of affiliation test for Gatsby. Those who imbue it with meaning like he does (like Nick) end up sympathizing with Gatsby; those who only see it as an object (like Daisy and Tom) are doomed to dismiss Gatsby also.

2. Gatsby's downfall starts at the moment when he stops seeing the green light as a symbol for his dreams and goals.

3. Ultimately, the green light means far more to Nick than to Gatsby.

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Green Light in The Great Gatsby: The Bottom Line

The green light is a permanently lit lamp that marks the end of Daisy and Tom's boat dock.

The image of the green light occurs:

At the end of Chapter 1, when Gatsby is reaching towards it and it is very mysterious.

In Chapter 5, when Gatsby and Daisy have reconnected, taking the symbolic meaning away from the green light

At the end of Chapter 9, when it transitions from being a symbol just for Gatsby and instead becomes a universal symbol of hope for the future.

The significance and symbolic meaning of the green lights shifts:

In the beginning of the novel, the light stands for Gatsby's dreams, hopes, and desires to reunite with Daisy.

During the course of the novel, Gatsby's dream is revealed to be delusional and unrealizable, so the symbolic meaning behind the green light collapses.

Finally, as Gatsby's dream is dashed, the green light stops being something that is his alone, and instead stands for the unreachable dream of an "orgastic future" that is constantly getting farther and farther away and that we keep trying to grab for.

The green light is associated with:

Jay Gatsby, who obsessively stares at this light at the end of Daisy's dock, dreaming of reuniting with her.

Daisy Buchanan, since the green light, Gatsby's ambitious hopes, and Daisy are all symbolically one and the same.

Nick Carraway, who is the one who realizes the significance of the green light for Gatsby and who connects the green light with everyone's hopes and dreams.

Society and class, the upper echelon of which is just as out of reach for Gatsby as the green light.

The American Dream, which is the aspirational hope that the novel shows in both its positive and negative lights.

Colors, which are very significant in this methodically color-coded novel.

What's Next?

Review where the green light appears to get a better sense of its context: Chapter 1, Chapter 5, Chapter 9, explore the way the end of The Great Gatsby connects to its beginning through the recurring image of the green light and compare and contrast Nick and Gatsby to see what the different ways they relate to the green light says about them.

Want to get some of that green light into your own life? Get yourself some Gatsby accessories from our list of the 15 must-have items for every fan of The Great Gatsby.

Check out all the other symbols that enrich this novel.

Decide whether Gatsby primarily treats Daisy as an object, or whether he does have a sense of her as a person and loves her for herself.

Read along as we walk through other works of literature with our analyses of " Do not go gently into that good night" (Dylan Thomas), The Cask of Amontillado (Edgar Allan Poe), and The Crucible (Arthur Miller).

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Best Analysis: Green Light in The Great Gatsby

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One of the most arresting images in The Great Gatsby is Nick's vision of Gatsby stretching his arms out towards a small green light on the opposite shore of the bay. The mysterious, almost mystical nature of this gesture is a sure-fire sign that this green light is a symbol.

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Historically, the American dream has been a promise of a fresh new start, free from the bureaucracy of the monarchies back in Europe. Every man could head to the new country with nothing but their own two hands and a will to work, and they would be granted their own little plot of land. It’s obvious that something like this would never work once the country was established and populated. Over time the American dream has changed to be a promise that every American can become rich, with just a tiny bit of hard work. But in a world where people can’t afford education, healthcare or even a place to live, it’s obvious that this is an empty promise. At the root of the American constitution, and the definition of capitalism itself is the saying that “every man is born equal”. But every man is not born equal, and it is this false statement that places the blame of poverty on the poor, and keeps the country in a perpetual cycle of the rich getting richer and the poor poorer. The American dream doesn’t exist, and if it’s ever even has, it’s certainly dead.