What Does The Green Light Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

The United States instilled its position on the international stage as a world leader economically and industrially during the 1920’s in which it achieved an unprecedented growth in its mass production and financial prosperity in a consumerist boom that seemed to be never-ending and eternal. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the novel set in the peak of the Roaring Twenties, the presence of the green light was ominous not only to the fate of the characters Jay and Daisy, but also stands as a symbolic metaphor of the country during this era. The colour green symbolizes go, take action and follow through with the plan speedily and immediately, just as the green stop light indicates one can drive through without any drivers of other

Most people of the time believed the affluence brought from the growth in company profits, increased production, and mass consumerism would be the green light that would never fade or change colour, much like drivers speeding through the green light not expecting for it to switch to yellow or red too soon, and dealing with the consequences of missing the light. By all means, the green light, as much as it gave the sensation of instantaneous, pressing action, also brought the sentiment of an elusive, uncertain future in which they could not truly see what was on the other side of this infinite prosperity. For instance, 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 - to-morrow we will run farther, stretch our arms farther…” (9.149). By being blinded by the green light, the top 5% percent with the majority of the wealth of the country were ignorant of the conditions with the remaining population of the country that lived a life completely different from