In the hit TV show Lost, the basis of the show is about an eternally burning light at the heart of an island. However, not only is it a light on the island, but it is the same light that is within all of us, keeping us sane and giving us hope. Once the light goes out, hope goes with it. For Jay Gatsby, he dealt with death, jealousy, pain and loneliness just to keep his light burning. The one thing, however, is that Gatsby’s light wasn’t inside of him; it was in the form of a green light across the bay from his house, a light that belonged to his long lost lover, Daisy Buchanan. To Jay, this green light was not just a boating light, but a symbol of hope for his everlasting dream to one day be reunited with Daisy.

One of the biggest motifs in The Great Gatsby would be Daisy Buchanan's green light. To Daisy, it’s just a light at the end of her dock to help guide boats, but to Jay Gatsby, the green light is much more. It’s a symbol of his desire to be with Daisy again. According to Scott Donaldson, in Possessions in the Great Gatsby, the Green light also “assumes supernatural importance...the green light took on an aura of enchantment for Gatsby.” Gatsby built his whole life around the green light: he acquired a large fortune, and built a mansion across the bay from the green light where he can see it perfectly from his bedroom. The first time this motif becomes prominent in the novel, is when Nick Carraway, the narrator, sees Gatsby standing on the end of his dock one night, with his arms extended toward the lake “in a curious way...trembling.” Nick then looked out onto the lake and “distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 20). To Nick and the rest of the world, the green light is nothing but a physical light; nothing more, nothing less. To Gatsby, the green light is an anomaly, controlling his life. He tuned a basic light into a materialistic hunger, a dream that is “just beyond his grasp” (Donaldson).

The green light also serves as a symbol of the past. To Daisy, that’s exactly what it is: the past; something that already happened, something that you can’t change. Gatsby, however, has a different definition of “the past”. One night, when Nick and Jay are conversing, Nick mentions that you “can’t repeat the past.” Immediately thinking of the green light and its significance, Gatsby replied, “can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby, however, still doesn’t realize that his dream is out of reach. He believes that he can still achieve it, and in order to do that, he has to alter the past. The green light gives Gatsby the idea that “nothing is settled merely because it has already happened” (Voegeli). Going back to the idea that the green light controls Gatsby’s life, it causes him to develop the mantra: “if we don't like the hand we're dealt, the world we live in, we have the right and duty to call for a new one” (Voegeli). Daisy’s green light has caused Gatsby to believe that you can, indeed, change the past. Looking out at the light every night gives Jay a little more hope that he can reach further and further into the past, to change the future. The “intensity of his longing” has caused Gatsby to involve himself in illegal doings to get wealthy, all while “refusing to get over a broken heart and give up the love of his life” (Voegeli); having the green light to blame for all of his pain and suffering.

Not only does Daisy’s green light signify the past, it also represents the end. The whole basis of the novel is Gatsby’s dream to one day be reunited with his long lost lover, Daisy, as represented by her green light. However, once Gatsby realized that “dreams are after all leading us into the future,” this is a dream that “has been moulded by his indestructible wish into a perfect likeness of the past” (Decker). Thus, making this a dream that was better off left in the past. Gatsby lived his life one step behind him. He created his empire based from memories of a distant past, pushing him forward. He failed to look at the present, nor the future, until he actually found Daisy again. Nick Carraway best sums up this experience by stating: “I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was actually behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (Fitzgerald 180). The whole time, Daisy’s green light served as a window to the past, but also the beginning of the end for Gatsby’s inevitable demise. Once the past caught up to him, it was already too late to change the future.

Gatsby spent his whole life fixated on a dream that seemed so close, that he could almost touch it. In reality, however, it was already miles behind him. Every single thing he did, from his house, to his clothes, to his parties, was all for the green light. The forever burning green light, haunting Gatsby’s every waking and sleeping hour. Gatsby believed that you could indeed change the past, but once the past caught up to him, he realized that the past is something you can’t change, no matter how hard you try. Gatsby tried as hard as he could to keep the light burning, but once he realized that it was only him trying, and not Daisy, the light went out, along with his hopes and dreams of reuniting with the love of his life.