"Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past"

"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 then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."


This quote is one of my favorites from the books I have read. Nick, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, says the quote on the last page and last sentence of the book. These words conclude the novel and find Nick returning to the theme of the significance of the past to dreams of the future, here represented by the green light. He focuses on the struggle of human beings to achieve their goals by both transcending and re-creating the past. Yet humans prove themselves unable to move beyond the past: in the metaphoric language used here, the current draws them backward as they row forward toward the green light. This past functions as the source of their ideas about the future and they cannot escape it as they continue to struggle to transform their dreams into reality. While they never lose their optimism (“tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther . . .”), they expend all of their energy in pursuit of a goal that moves ever farther away. This metaphor characterizes both Gatsby’s struggle and the American dream itself. Nick’s words register neither blind approval nor cynical disillusionment but rather the melancholy that he ultimately brings to his study of Gatsby’s life. Gatsby believed in this "green light" or this hope that him and Daisy will be together some day. However, he tries his best to fight to move on with his life an to continue towards the future, while fighting to forget the past. Because the present is constantly becoming the past, it is a constant fight to push forward. Stand still in a moment for even a second and you will find yourself in the past.