![]() Yet while Fitzgerald’s capacity for linguistic impressionism culminated in the grand scale of Gatsby, this skill was also evident in his earlier prose. Fitzgerald’s closing use of the green and blue palette evokes the natural, grandiose forces of Earth in that first and cyclical act of discovery. In the famous last paragraphs of Gatsby, the narrative voice of Nick Carraway recalls America as ‘the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes-a fresh green breast of the new world.’ Imagining all Americans as perpetual pilgrims, catching their first glimpse of a pristine land, Fitzgerald ends the novel with nautical imagery: ‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.' As maritime geography dictates, the clockwise spinning of the globe generates the North Atlantic Current, and ships from Europe sail ‘against’ it in voyaging westward to North America. This extended personification-of the concept in the character- exemplifies Fitzgerald’s mastery of literary imagery. Embodying the elusive American Dream in the aspiring and fated figure of Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s novel encapsulates the endless striving that drives American culture. ![]() In the canon known as the Great American Novel, F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) holds a secure place in the ranks.
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