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What Does Nick Mean by the Last Line of The Great Gatsby?

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The last line of The Great Gatsby is often referred to as the main character’s constant desire to reclaim the past. It is shown in Gatsby’s desire to win Daisy’s love back and his unwillingness to give up are.

Detailed answer:

The line says: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” The statement probably alludes to the American Dream and Gatsby’s dual nature. The statement’s explanation is quite complicated. However, the meaning behind these words can be traced throughout the last pages of Fitzgerald’s writing. The passages refer to the mistakes of the wild past full of ill-considered decisions.

The scenes depict Nick standing and looking at the cloudy sunset. His mind is occupied by the thoughts about the first Dutch sailors there. They saw the new green bosom of the New World filled with wonder. The next section plunges into Gatsby’s fantasy. There, he is wondering about his previous love affairs, especially the one with Daisy. These two examples show that both Gatsby and Nick could understand the meaning of a dream. Nick thought the new land was spotless for Europeans to start over. Gatsby also believed in the possibility of going back and starting again with Daisy. He wished to fix the past and build a better future.

The ending suggests that people race towards a more stable future to redo their past. They desperately want to fix mistakes but inevitably plunge into them, which makes it all worse. Sometimes dreams can be deceptive, and people fall for them, disregarding the precautions. The beginning of the novel represents how Gatsby’s fantasies impacted Nick’s mind. Imagination makes people quarrel again and again, and it is never connected to the future.

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IvyPanda. 2022. "What Does Nick Mean by the Last Line of The Great Gatsby?" September 6, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/q/what-does-nick-mean-by-the-last-line-of-the-great-gatsby/.

1. IvyPanda. "What Does Nick Mean by the Last Line of The Great Gatsby?" September 6, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/q/what-does-nick-mean-by-the-last-line-of-the-great-gatsby/.


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IvyPanda. "What Does Nick Mean by the Last Line of The Great Gatsby?" September 6, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/q/what-does-nick-mean-by-the-last-line-of-the-great-gatsby/.

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