Jay Gatsby, the mysterious man living alone in the magnificent mansion is staring intently across the bay of water fixated on the green light on the dock belonging to Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Nick Carraway notices that Gatsby is deep in thought and in a moment of time in which he wouldn’t want to be disturbed. Later the green light and the meaning and symbolism behind it become all too apparent to Nick, but upon first seeing Gatsby, Nick doesn’t understand the significance of the green light.
To illustrate what a green light means we can refer to basic driving skills to know that the green light means GO! Continue! Proceed! Right of Way!—and Gatsby was cruising fast without stopping for 5 years now. Gatsby was not stopping for anything in his way, as he was pursuing Daisy and the dreams of wealth, glamour and privilege that she symbolized for him.
In the same way, the fire at the top of the mountain, in Lord of the Flies and the importance it represented to the lost kids is symbolic of possibilities of being rescued and returning to the life which they desperately wanted to return. The fire was something the kids were drawn to for warmth, safety from unknown animals, the possible return to a regular life—it was everything to them just as the Green Light at the end of Daisy’s dock represents to Gatsby that he has located Daisy, who represents acceptance, love, and security to a man lost in his own world.
As an illustration we see Gatsby and Daisy racing back to the West Egg from New York City and Daisy speeds up when she sees a stranger in the road running towards her car. Rather than slowing down or stopping, Daisy speeds up and ends up killing Myrtle Wilson. Daisy never slows down, never stops to assist the woman she hit and never accepts responsibility. Daisy just keeps moving ahead as if her life is full of green lights and she never has to yield, slow down or stop.
Perhaps the green light symbolizes what was going on in the United States during the roaring 20s, the fast paced, never look back time period of fast paced, self-indulgent people racing to where they are going, never slowing down or stopping to see if they are harming anyone by racing forward to where they are going.
To illustrate what a green light means we can refer to basic driving skills to know that the green light means GO! Continue! Proceed! Right of Way!—and Gatsby was cruising fast without stopping for 5 years now. Gatsby was not stopping for anything in his way, as he was pursuing Daisy and the dreams of wealth, glamour and privilege that she symbolized for him.
In the same way, the fire at the top of the mountain, in Lord of the Flies and the importance it represented to the lost kids is symbolic of possibilities of being rescued and returning to the life which they desperately wanted to return. The fire was something the kids were drawn to for warmth, safety from unknown animals, the possible return to a regular life—it was everything to them just as the Green Light at the end of Daisy’s dock represents to Gatsby that he has located Daisy, who represents acceptance, love, and security to a man lost in his own world.
As an illustration we see Gatsby and Daisy racing back to the West Egg from New York City and Daisy speeds up when she sees a stranger in the road running towards her car. Rather than slowing down or stopping, Daisy speeds up and ends up killing Myrtle Wilson. Daisy never slows down, never stops to assist the woman she hit and never accepts responsibility. Daisy just keeps moving ahead as if her life is full of green lights and she never has to yield, slow down or stop.
Perhaps the green light symbolizes what was going on in the United States during the roaring 20s, the fast paced, never look back time period of fast paced, self-indulgent people racing to where they are going, never slowing down or stopping to see if they are harming anyone by racing forward to where they are going.