I didn’t read Gatsby until college (2nd year of uni would be the UK equivalent), and even as a voracious reader I probably wouldn’t have taken much away from it without a great prof because on the surface not much happens (I never really looked for deeper meaning before when I was reading). What I did take away from it was that Americans (maybe just people, really?) are always in a state of wanting more. There’s always some unrealized goal, maybe not even fully formed, that they are reaching for. Once they attain it, another goal will take its place. If Gatsby had won Daisy, as if she were just some prize, he wouldn’t have known what to do with her. There is no way she could’ve lived up to the expectations he had built up in his head. That’s what the green light represents— those dreams that would die for the having of them. Gatsby’s (the character) is kind of an immature take on what happiness really is, the belief that getting what you want will actually bring happiness, rather than living in the present. If that’s your state of mind, you’ll never be happy, and for all his wealth, Gatsby wasn’t. He was just kind of… empty. Other than that impossible goal, he was just a cipher, completely defined by his wants than by his own accomplishments or qualities, and that was his own fault. Sorry for the wall of text, but I guess I commiserate with you— when I first read it, I was a bit like “wtf did I just read?” Without a lot of in-class discussion and the help of aforementioned prof, I would’ve probably binned it, but I ended up liking it. The Scarlet Letter, however, is another story, but I’ve already talked too much and that’s off-topic, lol.