“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (180).
Fitzgerald ends his novel with a metaphor of life. He illustrates that people are continuously striving for an unattainable future, like a boat attempting to advance by beating “against the current.” He suggests that in a person’s attempt at reaching that future they are carried “ceaselessly into the past.” This future everyone is striving for is the place in which people are realize their dreams. Dreams stem from previous experiences that the imagination is elaborating on. Dreams are an ideal of something in the past and they are thought to be attainable somewhere in the future. Because dreams are never completely attainable as they are illusions of reality, they forever remain in the realm of the future. The future is a realm that is perpetually out of reach, forcing people to engage in an endless travel “against the current” to strive for these dreams. This eternal journey further pulls people back “into the past” as they are attempting to achieve that ideal dream that has stemmed from a previous experience, idea, or feeling.
Mary-You do a really nice job with the closing paradox of the novel, articulating the philosophical, if not metaphysical dimensions embedded in your quote. And, for all that, it still remains a paradox, doesn't it?
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