QUOTE #1
"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).
- Nick is realizing the carelessness of Tom and Daisy
- Theme - Hedonism - pursuit of pleasure above all
- Tom and Daisy's character revelation
QUOTE #2
"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—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (180).
- Nick ends the novel with this quote
- Theme - American Dream - pursuit of this dream leads us back to the past, which cannot be recovered
- Symbolism - Gatsby's dream is being carried backwards by the force of a current which is impossible to stop
- Gatsby's obstacle or "current" is: being born into a poor family