Essay about The Great Gatsby: The Past is Forever in the Present

Although Gatsby was unrelenting on reliving the past, Gatsby vaguely lived for the present. This is evident when he cancels his biology by leaving home, changing his name, and leaving his heritage behind which was not done by following the past. In the past Jay Gatsby made a platonic notion of himself. What Nick said about Gatsby's spiritual theory of himself was that Gatsby "...was a son of God?" (104). From Jay Gatsby's hypothesis he makes an ideal conception of himself, of which he projects himself into the future. Eventually, Gatsby is left with the choices to "...suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder," (117) or kiss Daisy and "...his mind would never romp again like the mind of God". In Gatsby's choices he is to ascend "the ladder" to God which represents Gatsby's future, or choose Daisy and the past. Since Gatsby idealized the past could be his future, from Gatsby's kissing Daisy, he is leaving his past perfect platonic conception of himself by choosing no longer to have his mind think like the "mind of God". In conclusion, Jay Gatsby begins to make his future from his present even

In the book “The Great Gatsby” there is many things that people say made Gatsby a great or a not so much of a great person. Gatsby was a great man because he became someone with almost everything anybody could and would want but grew up from with nothing, He made all this money from working jobs that were not so great and people envied him for it even though they did not know what he did, and he was just a very mysterious and many people found that very intriguing about him. person For people that didn’t know who he was when he was younger, they all expect him to be old money and get the money from his parents, but as we learn he made his money by working, good or bad jobs he still made money and he was successful and he was proud of it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby chronicles Jay Gatsby’s ill-fated attempt to recreate a lost love from his past. Through single-minded focus, he transforms himself from penniless James Gatz of Minnesota to the wealthy and mysterious Jay Gatsby of West Egg, New York. Despite the fact that Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby’s lost lover, has come to terms with their separation, Gatsby maintains his firm belief in the notion of rebirth, convinced he can recreate the past. Furthermore, the novel serves as Fitzgerald’s personal introspection, voicing his own desire for renewal in the search for his identity. Therefore, a central theme in the novel is rebirth, exemplified by the actions and motivations of Gatsby and Fitzgerald’s examination of his own life.

Everyone has a favorite memory, an embarrassing memory, a miserable memory, and certainly a few crazy memories. No matter if it is happy or sad, inspiring or depressing, these memories have an undeniable effect on our lives: past, present and future. However, is that effect positive or negative, and can it be changed by the whims of the person who holds those memories? F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon speak to this question, and though both of their main characters meet a similar end, they do so with different understandings and appreciations of their memories and their history. These two novels show the importance of embracing one’s past in its entirety, but not allowing those memories to dominate

Jay Gatsby is the character that longs to go back to the past. He wanted Daisy and him to love each other again and he wanted her to come and live with him. He brings her to tea at Nick’s house so they could meet again and throws extravagant parties to make her happy. As he continues to do this he starts to see his plan crumbling. Nick Carraway tries to make him see that it’s not going to work out but Gastby refuses to believe that.

The Characters in the book are static characters because everything that happens to them does not affect how they act on any permanent basis. Gatsby’s personality never changes from his smug, rich, party host for more than a hour or two. Tom and daisy Buchanan never stop fighting but, at the same time, never try to end their relationship because of it. Nick tries to become a big city man but never changes from his middle American farm boy ways. The Characters never change from their basic views and idiosyncrasies throughout the progress of the book.

When we think of Gatsby as a character, we would typically describe him as dedicated, cunning, and, more importantly, as a dreamer. This aspect of his character worked to his advantage in many situations, as shown when his dreams of being something more than a farmer led him to run away from his past life, and helped him gain his fortune. However, with some areas of his life, this proved to be a hindrance. While we all must be able to think creatively and think of new ideas, it is also important to know when to come down to earth. If Gatsby had learned his, he could have avoided his tragic fate. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s love for Daisy to show that we need to focus on the present.

The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald was a book about Jay Gatsby trying almost his whole life to get his love Daisy Buchanan back. Fitzgerald said in the book “So we beat on, boats against the current borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Reliving the past is not as easy as it seems as Fitzgerald showed through the book. As Gatsby wanted to relive his past with Daisy and have a perfect life with her, but unfortunately it does not turn out the way it was supposed to.

When he meets Daisy, he falls in love with her. But not only does he see her as a person, but also as an expensive object “whose voice is the sound of money”. Because of this, he needs to gain even more money to win Daisy over. In fact, after the war, he resorts to bootlegging, the filth behind his illusion to others that he is a noble and wealthy man, to gain this wealth. To complement this newfound money, he creates an entirely new persona that completely estranges him from his past, just to attain Daisy. Gone is Jay Gatz, the son of poor farmers, but now Gatz now creates Gatsby, a “Platonic conception of himself”. He has covered his past with mystery, parties, mansions, formality, and composure, “picking his words with great care”. He projects that he is a person with limitless resources and who can control everything with his charm and power. He even lures Daisy for a while, who believes that Gatsby is part of the class that she and Tom lie in. This illusion is only for others though; Gatsby does not even attend his parties usually. When Gatsby opens up to Nick, he shows that his true self cherishes the past, the time before the war when Daisy loved him, even though he was not wealthy. The most dangerous illusion that he creates is the one he creates for himself. He still thinks that he can “fix everything just the way it was before” and reclaim Daisy permanently, who has always loved only him, even though he is at a severe disadvantage to Tom, a wealthy, secure, and forceful individual to whom she has been married to for years. But even with many hints throughout the novel that abilities are not endless such as Nick’s claim that recreating the past is impossible, Gatsby stays entranced in the illusion of the power of his fake persona being able to bring back

Scott Fitzgerald proves, through his characterization of Jay Gatsby, that dwelling in the past can interrupt life in the present. Gatsby we learned was a man full of hidden truths. These truths were hidden behind the dwelling of the past and the fantasy of being wed to daisy Fay Buchanan. Gatsby never fully understands the reality of daisy never being forever endeavored to him. The symbolism in this novel is represented by the green light we see in the beginning of the book. This green light symbolizes the reaching out in the past to grasp the idea of love. Gatsby. In this paper we recognized many aspects of how Gatsby dwells in the past so much that it interrupts his present. He buys a big lavish house, so daisy would pour her attention over Gatsby’s luxurious lifestyle. She soon gets to rekindle their love over a cup of tea and conversation. Daisy leads gatsby on without him know she does not want to get back in the swing of thing. In this paper we recognized many aspects of how Gatsby masked his true feelings of dealing with the past effects his present. “ And in the end we were all just humans…drunk on the idea that love, only love could heal our brokenness”. – F. Scott

Understanding Gatsby’s past greatly helps the reader understand why Gatsby is protective of his real identity. Layng’s article concludes that “Fitzgerald's linking of his characters' personal histories with American history underscores that the past is an echo that, like sonar, measures the distance gained and lost by individuals and cultures” (Layng 93). Fitzgerald emphasizes that as someone gets further away from their past they lost themselves because of individuals and cultures. This is true in gatsby’s case because he loses his identity in the pursuit to live the Ameican Dream. Layng discusses how the Tom uses the past as a weapon against Gatsby to try to get his wife, Daisy, back.

John F. Kennedy wisely once stated that, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” While the past is able to give a person insight into future happenings, it can also be devastatingly blinding. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald showcases character’s relationship with the past whether it be positive or negative. In Gatsby’s particular case, his relationship to the past consumes him. Gatsby’s arrant obsession with the past confines and ultimately destroys his future. Gatsby’s relationship with the past only solidifies that the American dream or any dream for that matter is better carried out in one’s mind rather than in actuality.

The Great Gatsby is one of the novels which a character past affects their social life in the future. You can’t judge a person by their past, but you can’t hide what happened in the past. Jimmy Gatsby, was in total control of his past, but living in the shadows of the poor he couldn’t do much.

Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a novel that explains the conflicts between love, sin, and death. It is a story of love and how love can be quickly lost or hidden beneath the surface. It reveals what people go through in this decade, as well as the novel’s decade. There are conflicts throughout the novel of lust, sin, and pure evil. It basically explains the way the human mind operates when the heart is completely and undeniably in love with another. The fact that the people in this novel went to the extreme to have the one they loved, innocent people tragically ended up in a realm of violence, betrayal, and their own undeserved death.

“The orgastic future [...] year by year recedes before us” and the past consumes us with its “moments of hope and promise and wonder” (Fitzgerald 180; Parr 76). To be human is to be unfulfilled and to long for the unreachable, but such aspirations often prevent one from fully living in the present. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, an obsession with the inaccessible past characterizes the lives of many of those inhabiting a “universe of ineffable gaudiness” (Fitzgerald 99). Using a motif of water, Fitzgerald traces character Jay Gatsby’s relationship with the past, to reveal that those who reside in an acquisitive world and try to escape the past will remain there if they mistake it for a viable future. In the short term, they often recognize and attempt to overcome the shortcomings of their past lives. Should they confuse the past with the future, however, they will cease to make progress on their temporal voyage into the future. Ultimately, these individuals will come to believe in their capability of living in the past, becoming so delusional that they actually end up lingering there forever.