The Past In The Great Gatsby

“He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.”(Fitzgerald). “The Great Gatsby” was a great literary piece that has conjured numerous meanings. Some might say that the meaning of the novel is focused on the consequences of obsessive love; Or it might be focused on a dark depiction of the world and maybe the novel defines something essential about American cultural values. However, I believe that the true denotation of “The Great Gatsby” is that our desire to recapture the past holds a deep allure, but this desire is both unachievable and self-destructive because of the actions and dreams that Gatsby had

All in all, as presented through this work, Gatsby was indeed in love with Daisy for the most part, in the beginning of their relationship, but it all change when Gatsby lost Daisy and so he let himself believed that his past was the one to blame for this circumstances. It is after this, that Gatsby became rather obsessed with the idea of Daisy and having a lovely future with her, because having her meant having it all: stability, confidence, love, happiness and so on. Also, it meant that he had succeeded in life as a whole. “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.” (Chapter 9) All his life, Gatsby intended to escape

Gatsby has many issues of repeating his past instead of living in the present. A common

Time remains a universal continuation of the past into the present and bears a strong hold on the future. The destruction of satisfaction in history withholds the contentment of the future with an impeding sense of unalterable guilt. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates “the past is forever in the present” through numerous literary and narrative techniques, suggesting that memories serve as crucial components in the development of individuals.

     In the text, The Great Gatsby, the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald leads us to sympathize with the central character of the text, Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald evokes our sympathy using non-linear narrative and extended flashbacks as well as imagery, characterization and theme. Through these mediums, Fitzgerald is able to reveal Gatsby as a character who is in an unrelenting pursuit of an unattainable dream. While narrative and imagery reveal him to be a mysterious character, Gatsby's flaw is his ultimate dream which makes him a tragic figure and one with which we sympathize.

The past is an idea that develops memories, while also establishing goals for the future. A past molds one’s personality into its unique form, which lasts a lifetime. Thus, it holds an essential role in creating the goals humans possess. In The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald bestows a lost, romantic past on Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses the character of Nick Carraway to enhance the overarching theme of his novel: “the past can not be repeated”.

In The Great Gatsby, the author, F Scott Fitzgerald depicts the post - war roaring 20’s, a time of overwhelming prosperity and a new found sense of hope for the future. While this novel is often perceived as a romance, it is also a criticism on the devastating nature of the elusive american dream. The story of Jay Gatsby is a representation of what had become the values of the individual at the time. With the progression of the early 1920’s the vision of the perfect life, or the american dream, had been skewed. It was replaced with greed, and an abundance of reckless spending in which the wealthier individuals placed their misguided ideas of happiness. In the Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald chooses to expose the hidden truth behind the illustrious concept of the American dream. Through his use of literary devices such as, symbolism, metaphor, and, irony the central idea of the truly unattainable American dream is supported throughout the novel.

“The past is never where you think you left it” (Katherine Anne Porter). People intentionally not willing to leave their past due to the prehistoric memories because the good memory they had. Relevant to Porter’s evince in the novel of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby a guy who cannot leave his past, constantly wanting to change everything back to the past with his former lover Daisy but never succeeds due to people’ desire of meliorate their lives. During this process the novel also reveals that there’s no distinction of careless between people in the 1920’s and the corruption of American Dream. Fitzgerald uses color symbolism to reveal the unfaithful condition of living and the loss of purity also the descended moral

In conclusion, Gatsby had a really shady past whom he lied to everyone to keep his reputation clean in society and most importantly from Daisy. The past from Gatsby came to stab him in his back not only because he was but he was trying to repeat it and run away from it. The past affects Gatsby in a negative way because it led to the event of him

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald displays society’s role in transforming one’s identity by creating complex and realistic characters. Jay Gatsby is a prime example of how one will change themselves to accommodate society. Once a poor son from a farming family, Gatsby puts up an extravagant facade to hopefully win a woman over, however in the process, puts aside morals and values. Fitzgerald demonstrates the importance of social expectations, wealth and the perception of the American Dream are in determining one’s identity.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the compelling story of the lengths one man goes to in order to try and win back the love of his youth. In order to do so, the titular figure of the novel, Jay Gatsby, reinvents himself from the hardscrabble soldier of his younger years into an enigma of a millionaire; during his time living at West Egg, Gatsby is revered by all, but known by none. Despite the lavish lifestyle which has made him ever so well known, Gatsby is never able to win back Daisy, the girl who has for so long represented the culmination of all of his desires. To convey the complex themes of the novel, Fitzgerald makes use of the literary techniques discussed in How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster, especially in his portrayal of the geography of the Eggs and in Gatsby’s quest to win Daisy’s affection. In his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s desperate struggle to ingratiate himself into Daisy’s life to illustrate how one can never overcome the socio-economic barriers placed upon them at birth.

Throughout the book, he shows multiple signs of mental illness. On page 87, Gatsby states, “ Five years next November” talking about the last time he and Daisy had met, prominently displaying his unstable infatuation with Daisy. When Gatsby buys a mansion next to a girl who he has not come into contact with in at least five years with the sole purpose being to be closer to her, the reader sees a gigantic display of his mental instability. Another example of his psychotic infatuation is when Gatsby takes the blame for running over Myrtle. That situation alone indicates that he is so infatuated with Daisy that he rules out all reasoning in attempt to make her happy.

Someone’s past can affect a person in many ways. The past makes the person that they are right now, and they change through experiences, decisions, and thoughts. People tend to learn from experiences and they take them forward in their future. In the story, “The Great Gatsby,” Jay Gatsby Went through a lot of experiences and decisions to Make him the sympathetic millionaire he becomes. Gatsby, who was before called James Gatz, was the Son of shiftless farm people from North Dakota.

Gatsby was stuck with his own imagination, planning what life would be like with Daisy when he returned, unaware that she had moved on. His focus was to turn back time to the way it was when he and Daisy first met five years ago to start their relationship over.

“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.