"The Great Gatsby" by Charles Dickens

A friend of mine once asked, "We all want to fall in love. Why?" After going over it in my mind, my response is this, because to experience love makes one feel completely alive, where every sense is heightened, every emotion is magnified, our everyday reality is shattered and we are flying into the heavens. It may only last a moment, an hour, or an afternoon, but how long it lasts does not diminish its …

…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 one fine morning..." (189). This very last sentence of the novel - using the ocean tide as a metaphor for dark, undermining forces - questions this optimism, suggesting that it is a dangerous and fragile illusion, and dreams are fragile, to be pursued with caution.