Beginning with an Ending

To begin this blog, I'll start with an ending, and it's without hesitation that I share my thoughts about Fitzgerald's ending to The Great Gatsby:

"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."

Fitzgerald's poetic sound keeps us transfixed for chapters, and his ending doesn't disappoint. Not only does the novel end with an effective image, but it speaks to all of us who have the hope of a better tomorrow whether our goals are tangible or not. No matter the challenges we encounter, we muster the courage from our own past and recall that we, too, have a green light; we, too, feel the tension of our past tugging at our present. Like Gatsby, we embody flaws and feel nostalgia. Because Gatsby is fictional, he has the luxury of going for it, of striving to recreate his past, but for those of us who are flesh and blood, well, that sort of risk-taking isn't such a great idea.