The Great Gatsby quotes

She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. “All right,” I said, “I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (17)

Context: When Nick visited Tom and Daisy at their house and Daisy starts talking about her daughter, Pammy. Daisy expresses how when she found out the baby was a girl she hopes she would be a “beautiful little fool.”

Analysis: This quote is important because it showcase women’s role in society at the time. Although she made interesting decisions, Daisy wasn’t entirely a fool and her saying that shows that a woman’s intelligence at the time didn’t really hold as much value as beauty. Although she’s referring to her daughter, she kind of indirectly sharing that beautiful women have more fun because they’re seen as simple and foolish. Overall, she confronting the social values of the time while also acknowledging her unhappiness knowing about tom’s affair.

“It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. If faced - or seemed to face - the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood  you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey” (48)

Context: When Nick meets Gatsby at one of his parties and doesn’t initially recognize him but as they talk, he examines Gatsby.

Analysis: The quote demonstrates the distinction between reality and illusions. Nick reflects on how Gatsby easily had the ability to satisfy and make others feel seen, yet he’s so content with living with the character he created for himself when he was seventeen years old.

“And she doesn’t understand,” he said. “She used to be able to understand. We’d sit for hours----”

He broke off and began to walk up and down a desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers.

“I wouldn't ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.”

“Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!” (109-110)

Context: After one of Gatsby’s parties that Daisy attends, Gatsby later expressed to Nick about how Daisy seemed unimpressed and how he wanted recreate the relationship they had before she married Tom.

Analysis: This quote is important because it shows Gatsby’s biggest flaw. His devotion to recreating and winning daisy back so they can live a life that never really existed. It showcases how unrealistic his dream is and his belief that the money and success he worked for can compensate for all that happened, yet it really can’t. The quote also really reinforced how money cannot buy happiness, yet Gatsby truly believed that his wealth would allow for it even. it also successfully shows how most dreams, like the American dream are unattainable for most and very distorted because like Gatsby, the American dream is driven by illusion.

I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. (179)

After Gatsby’s death, Nick reflects on everything like how tom’s affair led to Mrytle’s death, Gatsby’s murder, and Wilson’s suicide and yet after all that, Daisy and Tom leave and avoid taking accountability.

Analysis: Like most rich people, Tom and Daisy create problems and leave them for others to fix. They smash things like Nick’s “innocence,” Gatsby’s life, and both the Wilsons only to act in different to the negative consequences of their actions.What makes the quote really important, is not only the fact that it applied to the time period and the book’s plot, but it also still applies today. Wealth allows the rich to use their status and money as a shield against accountability.

And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, 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 already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning—

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (180)

Context: After packing his trunk and selling his car to the grocer, Nick reflects on Gatsby’s life, his dream of daisy, and his desire to live this unrealistic life he set to achieve.

Analysis: The green light is meant to demonstrate the past and dreams for the future. In many accounts throughout the book, Gatsby was unable to move past his past and was constantly drawn back no matter how hard her tried to get to the green light. Gatsby’s desire to recreate the relationship he had with Daisy stopped him from moving on. Like Gatsby’s pursuit of the green light, the American dream is corrupt. Now matter how hard he worked or tried to reinvent himself, he was still held back. He worked and succeeded, but even after all the work he put him, it was nothing compared to the old money Tom and Daisy had. He could buy the status, This is what makes the green light and the American dream out of reach, which is why Gatsby was across the bay. The American dream is motivation yet it is also an illusion that people believe to being success and fulfillment.