From the beginning of the novel, Gatsby is infatuated with this green light that could be seen from across the lake in front of his house and when Nick sees Gatsby for the first time, he says “...he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way… and distinguished nothing except a single green light … that might have been the end of a dock.”(20-21). This shows that the green light was at the end of a dock, but it was not just any dock, it was Daisy Buchanan's dock, who was Gatsby’s long-lost love. The green light was his hope and the only thing that kept him close to Daisy during the five years they were apart. After Gatsby’s death, Nick goes over to his house and starts to look around. He says “...I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He has 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...” (180). Everything Gatsby had ever done in his life was for Daisy, in hope that one day she would drop everything and come back to him, but what Gatsby did not realize was how much time had passed and how much Daisy changed since then. He lived in the past which affected his actions and future. The green light at the end of Daisy's dock represents Gatsby’s hope and unrealistic dreams.
It is the way Fitzgerald describes certain aspects of