The Great Gatsby Final Line Analysis

In The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald ends the novel portraying Nick Carrawayś thoughts on both Gatsby and the future. This passage is used as a way to end the story and conclude Nickś narrative while he is on his way back to the Midwest due to the corruption he has seen in New York. After Gatsbyś death Nick realizes how the people in New York look out only for themselves in the way that Klipspringer did when he refused to go to the funeral. This scene illustrates the theme of the unattainability of the American dream seen throughout the novel and fills the reader with a feeling of sadness. The final line of the novel reflects what Gatsby has done not only during the time that he knew Nick but in the preceding five years as well. This being …show more content…
In this instant Gatsby would have felt closer to attaining his goal than he had in the last five years since he left for the war. Gatsby would have felt as though he was almost there similar to the way the sailors felt as they arrived on land. Consequently, in the first paragraph, Nick lets the reader know that sadly this was never the case by saying, ¨He did not know that it was already behind him somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond the city¨. Fitzgerald utilizes this line to evoke a feeling of sadness within his audience as they reflect upon Gatsbyś futile efforts to turn back time. The ¨lost generation¨ emerged after the war and were characterized as uncertain, many of these individuals felt as though society had to return to the way it was before going into the war. This is similar to Gatsby who believed that if he could just make things the way they once were his life would go back to having meaning the way it did when he met Daisy. Daisy was a pivotal part of his dream and plan to recapture the past but he was naive in believing that she would ever leave Tom for a man she barely