The green light is a brilliant use of symbolism on Fitzgerald's part. In short, the green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan's dock symbolizes all of Gatsby's hopes and dreams, especially his dream of winning Daisy's love. While that all sounds very positive, the green light ultimately becomes a symbol of the ways in which our dreams, as tantalizing and hopeful and promising as they are, are always just out of reach. The green light is agonizingly close to Gatsby, yet always just beyond his grasp at the same time. No matter how hard he works, he is never able to attain it and, by extension, he is never able to attain his biggest desire: Daisy. Just as Gatsby is unable to attain the green light, so too are we unable to fully realize our idealized dreams, no matter how hard we work to do so. As such, the green light is one of the novel's most powerful and tragic examples of symbolism.
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