The
last line of
The Great Gatsby. The preceding
paragraph is:
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 one fine morning ----
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Nick feels that Gatsby's entire
life was to live in the past. To live the
dream he had as a boy, when he was "
full of hope" and had "
infinite possibilities." Gatsby achieved
wealth,
fame, and the
lifestyle he worked so hard for, but he never had
Daisy. He got as close to her as he could, but would not
shatter the
perpetual dream he had of her.
Somehow,
five years later, Daisy doesn't live up to this dream. She chooses
Tom over him, and doesn't lend herself to the dream as fully as Gatsby did.
Gatsby's dream and hope of her and himself is what
drove him, with the hope that she would come to his
parties or that he would visit
East Egg. And when his dream was so close to being
reality, it shattered.