Gatsby's Closure

As Nick reminds himself of Gatsby, he "thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock." (180) Nick steps into Gatsby's shoes and imagines how it must have been for him to see the green light for the first time. Later on in the passage, through Nick's thoughts, Fitzgerald descirbes Gatsby's big dream in the following: "his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it." (180) By means of Nick's reasoning, readers can visualize the hope Gatsby had and how quickly it all vanished. Nevertheless, the idea of Gatsby's dream being left behind long before his death is brought up by Nick. Readers can infer Gatsby's dream was just a fantasy since "he did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city."(180) Concluding that Gatsby's hope was no more than a delusion, Nick gives closure to his neighbor's death.