Dreams are a world where everything is perfect; reality isn’t. The fractured syntax in the passage plays a role in portraying how Gatsby’s dream was abruptly shattered and turned into reality. “It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms further…And one fine morning –” Though optimistic about being able to achieve the dream that continues to evade them, the Ellipsis points and the dashes indicate an unfinished thought, and this can be drawn into a parallel that this “orgastic future” can never be attained. Though the American Dream is technically possible, it comes at a cost; people who believe in it are filled with greed and materialistic illusions. Those people then unintentionally destroy all that is innocent and full of promise, like when Gatsby destroys the “fresh, green breast”, a wilderness that is so full of vitality, fertility and potential to grow, just for his house, an object which symbolizes power, wealth, and materialistic views. The “fresh, green breast” is also a reference back to when Myrtle Wilson gets run over by what can be argued to be a light green car. Ironically, the cause of her death was a fatal injury to her breast. These images are important as cars symbolize the American Dream – wealth, power and ultimately, greed and corruption, and for Myrtle Wilson to get her breast, a sign of fertility and potential for growth, ripped off and left “swinging loose like a flap” indicates that the American Dream can be achieved, but only through brutal and illegal means. This ultimately leads back to Gatsby, who would do anything, even earn money illegally, to achieve his dream, which portrays the American Dream to be a false dream, pushed forward by the corruption and false values of the society.
The recurring colors and images in the final section enabled the reader to recognize phrases or words that undermined a greater significance in the novel. Images such as the “old, unknown world”, “green light at the end of Daisy’s dock”, “blue lawn”, “dream”, “city…dark fields” and “boats against the current” were recurring images throughout the novel. The “old, unknown world” obviously extends back to when America was first discovered; and when compared to the “city” with “dark fields”, there is a stark contrast between times of innocence that was brimming with potential, contrasted to one with greed, guilt and corruption. The “green light at the end of Daisy’s dock” was a persistent image, one that reminds Gatsby often sees as a source of hope for his “dream”: to be with Daisy. The color “blue” often appears, especially with depressing or unhappy scenes, such as things around Gatsby, and describing George Wilson’s mood after his wife dies. All these images are followed by one final image “boats against the current”, which really ties everything together. Like many other people, Gatsby is a dreamer who lived his entire life in the past, and as Nick pointed out, he looked at everything from a child’s perspective, when everything was full of hope and infinite possibilities. “I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.” This “wonder” characterizes Gatsby as a dreamer from the beginning, and this is what drives him to believe that with his wealth, Gatsby could seek that unattainable, shapeless future that not just reflects his hopeless dreams, but all of our dreams as well, as dreams are a world where everything is perfect. But it never works, because “[inevitably] we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”. Though we row our boats towards the future in an attempt to catch our eluded dreams, we will never get there, because the current flows toward the past. This undermines that the American Dream is in fact unattainable, because it is just a materialistic illusion that is only attained temporarily through reaching back into the past; yet, it can be easily shattered as it can’t be sustained forever, as Daisy eventually chooses Tom over Gatsby.
In conclusion, the American Dream is possible; however, the destructiveness that goes with it can easily cause that false, materialistic illusion to dismantle and shatter. Through the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a portrayal of Jay Gatsby to undermine the importance that dreams are naturally unattainable. Though Gatsby still believed that it was achievable, the fact that he used crooked means to achieve his dream leads to the double portrayal of the ironic title “The Great Gatsby” where he is not that “Great” after all, and the American Dream as a distortion of the truth which is full of decaying moral and social values.