The Great Gatsby: What does it all mean?

"Gatsby believed in the green 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 then one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." gatsby represents the American dream. We all want to become wealthy and successful but when this dream is achieved we will look back to the past for happiness. The most important concept that I observed in this novel was that wealth is not the key to happiness. The key to happiness is love and friendship. Gatsby thought that he would be able to relive the past but no one can do this. The green light is only a dream. We can't have everything.
If gatsby had gone to see daisy after returning from the war they may have been together but because Gatsby thought wealth was a priority he made a sacrifice that he would never be able to fix. Gatsby always wanted to be wealthy because he liked the look and he wanted to better his life but he made a mistake. he attempted to completely rid himself of his old name. this is a mistake and can never truly be achieved. i think we all wish we could change the past but if we did it might not be for the better. we need to accept out past and not worry about our pasts. look to the future and live in the moment.
the first time i realized this was in 6th grade. It has seemed like my whole life had been crushed and i would never recover when the skatepark i went to every day since i was seven years old shut down. It shut down after 5th grade and it took me almost a full year to get over it but when i did i realized that the skills i had learned on half pipes could be applied to street skateboarding. i still look back and i wish i could go back but i know that that's not possible and so i look forward. i learned in 6th grade that we must try new things and be flexable inorder to achieve our dreams. our dreams change and we must "go with the flow."
Look to the future and never forget the past. "The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end." Gatsby always looked to the past and he erased his earlier identity. Gatsby represents the stupidity of the American dream.