Theme Of Time In The Great Gatsby

The conception of time is an idea of a period of length that is constantly described based upon diverse periods and aspects. Although time is always consistently flowing in the same direction, it is broken up into the ideas of the past, present, and future. Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the character Jay Gatsby is shown as a character who constantly wastes his life in the past wishing for his idyllic vision. Fitzgerald presents the reader with the idea that over time, the course of reality destroys the romantic illusions that characters idealize. Although time is a constant force that creates, in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses the character Jay Gatsby to illustrate the idea that time is in reality, a destructive force.

This is noticeable when he is talking to Nick. He thinks he can fix everything which we see when he is talking to Nick, “ ‘ I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,’ Gatsby said, and nodding determinedly. ‘She’ll see.’ ”(110). At this point in the novel Gatsby sees how close his goal is, but he feels that the only way to get Daisy is to repeat the past and ignore the present, so she can feel the way she did about Gatsby before she met Tom. All the characters in this book will do anything to repeat the past, and do not see all the opportunities in front of them. Yet they are living in the roaring twenties, when everyone was trying to move forward with there lives. This idea from society is ironic to the characters in the book, because society is taking advantage of these opportunities of being wealthy, getting jobs, and living in the moment. Ironically Daisy, Gatsby, and Tom are living in the past, trying to take advantage of of opportunities that have already ended, specifically with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship.

Fitzgerald reveals the detrimental impacts of living in the past, through the character James Gatz and his numerous flashbacks responsible for Gatz’s development into the character of Jay Gatsby. Gatz invented the character of Gatsby, providing a fallacious back-story, in order to convince himself and hopefully Daisy that there remains a possibility of love despite their difference in economic backgrounds. Nick reveals, “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this (Platonic) conception he was faithful to the end” (132). Gatsby changed his past, hoping to change the outcome of his future happiness. Fitzgerald reveals Gatsby’s construed misconception of himself through flashbacks in order to emphasize the effect the past has on the present.

Time is an idea described in diverse periods and aspects, for example philosophical, psychological, physical and biological. This time flows consistently but is broken into the past, present and future. Since we only live in the present forever in preparation for our futures and dreams, when we try to live in the past it restricts our future. Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby wasted time and his life for a single dream, and it was his illusion of his idyllic future that made time a key dimension in his life. Fitzgerald sees life in satiric-tragic dimensions, as a contest between romantic illusion and coarse reality. The reality slowly and viciously disintegrates the illusion.

True love is seen through a relationship of two people. Love exists when two people give all their trust, loyalty, and support to one another. Now imagine finding out all of the love and loyalty was false? Betraying a loved one can make someone capable of things they didn’t even know they were capable of. Betrayal is the breaking of a trust that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals. In The Great Gatsby, characters pursue in the action of having an affair and the result of betraying their loved ones. In the book, The Great Gatsby, the concept of true love is portrayed in a way that negatively affects the characters.

Motifs are repeated images or symbols that reoccur in stories to suggest a theme. In literary works, motifs are often used produce other literary aspects such as mood, theme, and foreshadowing. They are a crucial literary technique that writers use to create and convey themes. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the narrator, Nick Carraway, relives the story of his stay in the luxurious yet corrupt East, specifically New York. Various motifs and symbols can be found in the story and illustrate key themes to the reader. In the novel The Great Gatsby, the motif of being on the outside and inside works to create the theme of wealth and class throughout the novel.

Gatsby is determined to win back the love of his life. He concludes that if he amasses a substantial wealth, he will be able to manipulate time, erasing Daisy’s marriage and fixing her future with him. Perhaps, this is why so many people are able to resonate with Gatsby, he invokes the sentiment of a common man. So many others have believed that if they simply change one aspect of their life and imagine it to be a particular way, the future will fall right into their hands.

In the texts Huck Finn, The Great Gatsby, and The Things They Carried, a major theme is the transformation of self, which happens through choice, through experience, or a combination of both. In The Great Gatsby, Jay makes the conscious choice to transform himself from the poor farmer boy, which he was born as, into an Oxford-educated rich millionaire, all so that he could win the heart of a girl. In Huck Finn, Huck ends up on a raft with a slave named Jim, and through the course of the whole story Huck experiences events that ultimately transform him from a young southern boy into a young adult knowing right from wrong by how he reacts to these experiences with Jim. Finally, in The Things They Carried, Jimmy Cross makes the conscious decision not necessarily to transform himself, but to take on responsibilities after the death of one of his men which in turn force change upon him. These responsibilities transform him.

When Gatsby first meets Daisy, he pretends to be rich in order to court her. However, when he departs for the war, Daisy marries Tom. Despite this, Gatsby holds onto the belief that Daisy still loves him and not Tom. In response to Nick’s doubt regarding his ability to erase the past five years, he proclaims “Can’t repeat the past?... Why of course you can!” (110). However, while he is talking to Daisy, he knocks over a defunct clock, which symbolizes Gatsby’s desire to stop and reverse time. By knocking the clock over, Fitzgerald implies that Gatsby is not immune to the passage of time and his plan will not work. Later, it is shown that Daisy is unable to say that she has never loved Tom.

Foreshadowing, in literature, is used to indicate a significant event or a series of significant events that occur later on in the piece of writing. Often, the reader does not fully comprehend the importance of indicative words and/or phrases until being made aware of them later. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald foreshadows the inevitable outcome for his main star, Jay Gatsby. The events prior to Gatsby’s death all foreshadow the final outcome. Almost every characters are foreshadowed with how they end up. Fitzgerald uses imagery to convey hints and clues to Gatsby and everyone surrounding him and all of their eventual destination.

Fitzgerald uses seasons and clocks to suggest those who attempt to move against the passage of time lose touch with reality. Seasons happen in a cycle, with each time change happening constantly. Clocks, on the other hand, keeps sequences of events running. Gatsby is trying to recreate the past to reconnect with Daisy. In chapter 5, Nick made a meeting for Gatsby and Daisy as an attempt to reconnect them. At first, the reconnection didn’t go so well, but afterward, as their relationship is getting better, the clock, “Took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers and set it back in place.”(Fitzgerald 91) At this point, Gatsby tried to reconnect with Daisy, but time did not allow that to happen as the clock fell.

The classic American novel, The Great Gatsby, presents a major theme of passing time. Losing Daisy meant losing Gatsby’s entire world, which he only kept alive through his hope of repeating the past. Daisy is a symbol of everything he values and therefore became the entity of his dream: his dream of spending the rest of his life with Daisy, the woman he loves undeniably. But Gatsby doesn’t realize his dream is unattainable because unfortunately, he cannot go back in time or recreate the past. Gatsby is stuck in the past, longing for the relationship between him and Daisy, and can’t accept the future, resulting in his own death. This is depicted in

Some families do not have the most structured relationships, like Gatsby and his parents. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald the main character Gatsby believed from a young age that he would would figure out a way to go from nothing to having everything. He was never close to them and did not believe that they were his actual parents, he believed that he was a child of god destined to do great things. The purpose of Gatsby’s family, or rather his father, is a great and significant one, he shows what his son truly was capable of. They were never close but he still appreciated what his son had accomplished. He knows that Gatsby was dedicated and was destined to do great things, he could also admire all of Gatsby, unlike others who just thought of him as some rich pompous man that threw lavish parties.

In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the element of time is prevalent and essential to the story being told by the narrator Nick Caraway. So important that the actual word “time” is used 87 times and there are hundreds of other words that are time related. Even Fitzgerald’s use of the seasons lends itself to the element of time and what mood the season represents. The characters are living in the present while focusing either on memories of the past or troubles of the future. In addition, there is an underlining presence of fate in the lives of the characters and what is actually within their control. No matter how hard one tries, they cannot turn back the hands of time. Time had different meanings for Gatsby, Daisy, and Nick Caraway.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a story that has many different themes. Fitzgerald shows the themes that he uses through his character’s desires and actions. This novel has themes in it that we deal with in our everyday life. It has themes that deal with our personal lives and themes that deal with what’s right and what’s wrong. There are also themes that have to do with materialistic items that we deal desire on a daily basis. Fitzgerald focuses on the themes of corrupted love, immorality, and the American Dream in order to tell a story that is entertaining to his readers.