Analysis of the Novel’s Last Sentence BY gifts English Assignment Fitzgerald tells his readers in his famous novel The Great Gatsby that it is the inescapable lot of humanity to move backward. “ So we beat on, boats against the current, born back ceaselessly into the past. ” Comment on the validity of this notion. “ So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. ” According to Fitzgerald and this last sentence of his famous novel The Great Gatsby we move on into the future eternally hindered by the past.
We row our boats against he current, fighting against the waves of our past. This concluding statement is preceded by the following sentence: “ It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – to- morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. … And one fine morning – “. And one fine morning we will realize that we haven’t moved an inch, we haven’t reached our goal, we’ll find ourselves to be unaccomplished and alone; one fine morning we’ll find ourselves floating lifelessly in a pool. This will be the result of our efforts to move forward while being held back.
And even though we may be aware of he fact that we aren’t heading in any particular direction, the one thing that escaped us in the past, the one thing that we so desperately want to achieve, will still remain our goal. We will try to run towards is and embrace it, but before we are even able to take another step forward, the past still holds us back. We are like dogs on leashes. We can’t move further than the length of our leash and the harder we pull away from our past, the stronger and more firm the grip of the past becomes. Although we try to, we cannot let go.
We know that if we stop pulling ND simply walk alongside the leash, we will go back to a path we’ve already been on, sniff a bush we’ve already sniffed, and pee on a fire hydrant we’ve already peed on. But is that really what we want to do? Or do we want a new adventure. Maybe a little bit of both. Is that complete life fulfillment? Then all we have to do, when letting go becomes harder and harder, is to simply toughen up, and pull once more with all our mighty power and we can break free from the past and run into the free open space of the future.
The quote reflects Jay Gatsby life. He has struggles for most of his life to create a utter life for himself and to detach from the poor life of his parents. He eventually starts succeeding until he has reached his full potential. The West-Egger lives in a colossal mansion, organizes parties with many people and famous personalities. Yet Gatsby is still alone with a void in his heart. He was held up by the past and had been living in it for the past five years.
The moments of the summer he spent with Daisy before we went war were the best moments of his life and his goal has been, ever since his return home, to return to that time, recreate it even and win Daisy back. Because he never stopped believing hat he will eventually be able to be with her again, he never moved forward. He didn’t row nard enough and the waves tot the current tangled him up – stopped him, left him floating in a pool. The quote is valid. We go on forward but face the obstacles of the past.
And in the end, what we have to ask ourselves is what our dreams and goals are. Is it to attain something we have never had before, or is it to find a way to return to the most glorious moments of the life we have lived? How can we realize our dreams, are they even realizable? After considering this quote, the context in which it is written, and he meaning behind it, I believe that the only attainable dreams are the ones that lie in the future – for a path uneaten is a path that lies ahead, not one that has be walked upon and belongs to our past.
And as much as we want to move forward, we seem to always hold on to the past. The only way to escape that strong grip is to find a little strength, a little courage and pull a little harder, push a little further, row our boats forcefully and continuously against the current and one day me may achieve something we have never experience before. We may achieve our true dreams.
