The Great Gatsby Chapters 5 and 6

"If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay," said Gatsby. "You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock."
Daisy put her arm through his abruptly but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her,almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon, now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one" (Fitzgerald 98).


Before I begin analyzing this particular paragraph, I must note that I picked this part because of how it connects to previous references to personified"enchanted objects". One such instance is on page 91: "Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head." The construction of this sentence emphasizes the clock over Gatsby. On page 73 it says,"A dead man passed us in a hearse heaped with blooms".One could argue that this passage emphasizes man over object, but I believe that the moving car is shown to be more alive then the immobile corpse of a dead man. This personification seems to highlight the loneliness and isolation felt by all. That Gatsby's house is full of ghosts of former guests makes it seem lonelier not warmer. These objects retain almost human-like significance in the eyes of their beholder to fill up the void left by the lack of fulfilling relationships between the characters and those around them.

The green light represented Daisy to Gatsby. However the light loses all significance when she becomes reality, standing next to him. I think Gatsby might also realizes that if the light is "almost touching her", it is still not actually touching her nor is it within her she never was the light at all. Then the green light loses even more significance. It is an interesting analogy that the light seemed as close as a star to the moment. When a person looks from earth to the the sky they perceive that the stars and moon are close but in reality they are light years apart.This could correspond to Gatsby's realization that Daisy and the light were never really related at all. His perception differed from reality.