Ceaselessly Into The Past.

Literal	Figurative
Boats against the current	Men trying to fight their own present, and fate. Fighting for the past that will never come back

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Pg. 189)

A dream that starts in the past.  Long before us, devoting our lives to it. We try to reach it, try to relive the past to be able to attain it, not moving on towards our future and our truth.

We go against the present, against the straight line of our destined future, by trying to make up for the dreams of our past. Our past becomes our present, but we do not understand that the past is already behind us.

It’s a conclusion to Gatsby’s endeavors, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he cold hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that is was already behind him, somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (Pg. 189).

Gatsby is the boat, beating all sorts of currents to be able to relive his dreams, which were part of the past. Gatsby symbolizes us, our inability to live day by day without letting the past go. Living the past eschews us to live our present, giving us no reason to look forward for a promising future.