August 2013 The Harsh Reality ” Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning -” The last sentence of The Great Gatsby. Leaves so many questions unanswered, leaves so many possible ideas about what it could possibly mean. There are many potential reasons as to why Fitzgerald leaves this sentence unfinished.
Could it be because he is showing what can happen one fine morning” Just by simply cutting the sentence short? I think it shows that one day we could be chasing our dreams and living life to the fullest; frolicking throughout the world doing everything as normal; everything as planned. Then one morning, we could die, we could go bankrupt, we could lose our house, someone in our family can die; something can and most likely will happen to cut our future short. It’s the harsh reality of it all. Nothing lasts forever, and we can’t expect that it will.
I also think the unfinished sentence could be taken in a positive way, like Fitzgerald as letting the reader create their own idea of what could happen one fine morning. Whether that is something negative or positive. Some people can work hard enough and achieve their dreams, but if their sole purpose of doing anything in life is based on a person (Gatsby motivation was his ” love for Daisy), it isn’t a valid dream. It’s superficial and less likely to happen. That is why it can be interpreted different ways by the reader. As for Nick, I think he realizes that life doesn’t last forever and we don’t always get what we want.
Being highly educated, he isn’t naive to the facts of fife. Part of me also thinks that he believes on one fine morning, karma will come back to haunt you in a way. Meaning, everything that we have done will come back and bite us, and the fun will be over. ” The orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us” shows that we are aware of bad things happening to us in the future, but we don’t think about it. We put it aside and live for the moment, but ” one fine morning” everything that we have put off, comes into our life. Hopes and dreams are not always centered on a future belief.
I think dreams are usually things that pep down inside, we don’t think we can achieve; but push to get it anyway. Future beliefs are things like knowing you’re going to be a doctor, or be a lawyer, get married, have kids, etc. Those are things that are more realistically attainable, and dreams are not usually centered around those, although they are a wish. Hopes and dreams are things we think of when we can’t sleep at night. The things that make us fall asleep with a smile, while future beliefs usually stress us out at the thought of the work of attaining them.
In the end, it all depends on the individual’s interpretation. Although it is nice to imagine achieving all of our dreams, it is highly unlikely. That is why it is not as important to reach your dreams, as it is to succeed in your future beliefs. If you spend your life chasing dreams that are not coming true, you will never be happy. Happiness is the most important thing in life, so doing something with your life is better than trying to do something spectacular with your life. Unless you have a healthy, realistic motivation to reach your goals, the chances of you getting them are very slim, as you can see with Gatsby.
