Tomorrow, as the afternoon air settles over Manhattan, the skyline will be illuminated by a familiar green light—not from the end of a dock in East Egg but from the Empire State Building.
On April 11 at 1 p.m., the Empire State Building will light up green to honor the centennial of The Great Gatsby. According to Time Out, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great-granddaughter, Blake Hazard, will give a private speech, then Ryan McCartan and Sarah Hyland, who play Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby musical, will pull the switch, allowing the tower to turn green.
Even 100 years after the book’s release, The Great Gatsby continues to influence how people see wealth and American aspirations. With many movie adaptations and the musical on Broadway, the book has been highly influential, and it does not seem to be disappearing anytime soon.
The Great Gatsby is one of the most, if not the most, widely read novels in high schools around the US, but if you haven’t yet read it, you may be wondering: Why green? The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, which Gatsby can see from his home in West Egg, symbolizes his hope for the past, specifically his romantic past. It also represents his idea of the American Dream, which Gatsby yearns for. The Empire State Building is a widely recognized symbol of the American Dream. Though constructed after Fitzgerald’s book, the Empire State Building represents the same spirit that defined Gatsby’s life.
The centennial celebration in New York City is especially symbolic of Gatsby. The book takes place on Long Island and in NYC, so lighting up a major landmark in a city that Gatsby frequently visits shows the lasting impact of Fitzgerald’s work on the city. The book takes place in the 1920s, or the Roaring Twenties, filled with glamour, excess, and social mobility. In real life, NYC was, and still is, a place where dreams come true. Lighting up the skyline shows that Gatsby’s hunger for the next best thing still resonates with people today.
So, just like Gatsby, who once curiously reached across the Long Island Sound towards the green light coming from Daisy’s home, we, in New Jersey, can reach across the Hudson River towards the green light from the Empire State Building.
