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The great gatsby theme analysis essay
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Can you turn back time and what happened in the past? Turning back time is impossible. Acknowledging what happened is apart of life. You can wish and hope things will be the same, but in the end they never will be. Life happens for a reason and you can’t just ignore the past. On page 110 Nick says, “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…” What I gather from this is even though Gatsby wants to turn back time with Daisy, he has been through a lot since then and he can not just go back to a certain time with Daisy and ignore all that has happened. Gatsby hates what his life has become, but instead of changing it he wants to head back to the past. Nick is trying to get through to him when he says, “I wouldn’t ask too much of her… you can’t repeat the past.” (Fitzgerald 110). …show more content…
He realizes that Gatsby has all these different emotions running through his head seeing Daisy after so many years. On page 109 it shows how much Gatsby is caught up in his emotions and how unrealistic he is about the situation when Fitzgerald stated, “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: “I never loved you.” Daisy was not going to leave her husband, Tom, just so she could be with Gatsby after not seeing him for years. This was one of the most unrealistic things that Gatsby thought would happen throughout the entire story. He was hoping to go back in time, but that was never going to
Gatsby’s quest to acquire Daisy was enlarged by his colossal obsession with the idea of being reunited with her, until the time actually came in which something so simple as a tea date was all he asked for in order to meet her. The purpose of acquiring such wealth and an extravagant home seems so pointless when Gatsby decides to meet with Daisy in Nick’s underwhelming cabin. The extravagancy of his vision deeply contrasts the modesty of the acquisition of his goal in this case. This shows a different side of Gatsby and his visions on what he thought would happen when he reached his goal and what actually occurred. Gatsby starts to panic when his visions do not occur when Nick and Gatsby are sat in Nick’s home, waiting for Daisy, Gatsby argues “Nobody’s coming to tea. It’s too late...I can’t wait all day” Fitzgerald 85). Gatsby is clearly very antsy and nervous about seeing Daisy again. He was very deeply in love with her and after 5 long years of waiting to see her again and they are finally reunited. All of his plans will be put into action and all of this planning will make him terribly self conscious
Gatsby has many issues of repeating his past instead of living in the present. A common example of this would be his ultimate goal to win Daisy back. He keeps thinking about her and how she seems perfect for him, but he remembers her as she was before she was married to Tom. He has not thought about the fact that she has a daughter, and has been married to Tom for four years, and the history there is between them. The reader cannot be sure of Gatsby trying to recreate the past until the reunion between him and Daisy. This becomes evident when Nick talks to Gatsby about how he is living in the past, specifically when Nick discusses Daisy with him. “‘I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’ Gatsby ventured. ‘you can’t repeat the past.’ I said. ‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’” (110). This excerpt shows how Gatsby still has not learned that eventually he will have to just accept the past and move forward with his life. If he keeps obsessing about Daisy, and trying to fix the past, more of his life will be wasted on this impossible goal. Througho...
Daisy is the only thing he cares for, Daisy represents a trophy that Gatsby wants to accomplish all along. We learned that Gatsby unlimited desires for Daisy, is a token of success that Gatsby dreams to achieve but fails. Daisy doesn’t care for Gatsby, she only cares for him due to how much attention he gives her, and how he worships her like a goddess. Gatsby still desires the past, he had with Daisy, and how she was all his. Nick explains Gatsby desire for the green light, he tell us “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic 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.”(Fitzgerald 153) Nick is explaining to us that Gatsby is trying to reenact the
This is evident when Gatsby states, “Can 't repeat the past?...Why of course you can”(cite). Gatsby implies here that the past can be repeated, in this case with Daisy. Gatsby does not realize, however, that she is now married and has a child. Thus the past cannot be repeated and he is being way too overambitious. .....This is evident when Nick and Gatsby state, “Was Daisy Driving?....Yes...but of course, I 'll say I was”(cite). Gatsby implies here that he is taking the blame for the car accident, even though Daisy was driving. This was overambitious of him and led him to his tragic downfall, as
Gatsby is unable to understand the flaw in his plan, for in his mind Daisy “is frozen in time forever”and will always be as perfect and pure as when he first saw and fell in love with her (Miller 126). Gatsby realizes for the first time that his Dream cannot be a reality when it begins to crumble before him as a result of Daisy’s refusal to revert to the woman she had been when she was with him. When called into question, she finds herself unable to deny her marriage, the evidence of her past saying, “I can’t help what’s past … I can’t say I’ve never loved Tom” (Fitzgerald 140). Her life with Tom has become a part of her, and she can’t bring herself to ever cast that away. This revelation crushes Gatsby, leaving him feeling lost since all this time he had been “clutching at some last hope”, working for the Daisy she had been during their time together (155). Whenever he speaks of his goals, he says in a matter-of-fact manner, “Can’t repeat the past?... Why of course you can!” (116). Gatsby now sees that Daisy is not willing to change, and revert her life to fit into his Dream, instead “she [vanishes] into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby--nothing” (157). Gatsby’s Dream has been taken from him by Daisy’s refusal and with his Dream gone, the phrase “you can 't live
He wants to pick up where he and Daisy left off five years ago. He wishes they would fall back in love and start their own family together, but the past can’t be repeated. The past is gone and so is their chance at a relationship. Now that Daisy is a mother and a wife she can’t run away to pick up things with Jay. Gatsby is so desperate to relive his past with Daisy that “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 110). He desperately wants Daisy back, but the past is in the past and cannot be revived. The author “presents it in Gatsby as a romantic baptism of desire for a reality that stubbornly remains out of his sight.” (Bewley) The reality of the situation is that Daisy has moved on and so should Gatsby. He doesn’t understand that the past cannot be brought back, and Daisy isn’t the same person he fell in love with five years ago. She is now older, and more mature with a daughter and husband. Daisy can’t and won’t leave her family for some unrealistic relationship with Gatsby. “Gatsby does not seem to realize that his idea of Daisy, whom he weds with a kiss one summer night, has as little bearing on reality as Jay Gatsby does” (Hermanson). Jay Gatsby is completely unaware of the fact that his vision of Daisy is a mere fantasy and is completely unrealistic. He also has an unrealistic vision of her and the kind
His every action shows his desire to recapture the past. The obsession becomes obvious through Nick's further description of Gatsby in Chapter 6, “He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking(...) He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy” (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby request Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him because he wants to return to the beautiful moments five years ago. All his hopes and dreams are to go back to Louisville and marry with Daisy. Gatsby's obsession with the return to the past is about the power of control. It's the control over his life and over anything he wants. This control starting to appears when he decides to leave his lower class family. Gatsby's management over his great wealth indicates part of the control over his own life. Even after having great wealth, he's still searching for things to control. His pursuit of Daisy shows his desire for control over love because wanting Daisy is one of his uncomplete dreams. Clearly, Gatsby will achieve all the dreams he has when he is a young man after having Daisy back. Therefore, Gatsby and Daisy are not true
Recreating the past will only result in sorrow and misfortune. Leave what happened long ago where it is and create a new future and make this new life whatever is desired. If only Gatsby believes in this. Daisy knew this to be true and even Nick knew that reliving the past will never truly result in happiness. Gatsby pushed his ideals onto Daisy and made her do something she does not want to do. Gatsby wants to go back five years and live this life again whereas Daisy just wants to create a new life. The uncertainties of the past are not grounds to repair a current situation in an individual’s life. The basis of the future is that what is created in the present. The future is not created in the memories of days before, the future cannot the same as the past once was. The future is the life of an individual, this present day reflects how the individual feels now and not how they felt five years ago. Using what has already occurred to change the future will never end well and individuals who seek to use memories to fix the present will only dig their own grave. Gatsby slowly digs and digs as he attempts to win over Daisy and even when he does, he will take nothing less than to go back five years and start
He is too obsessed with the idea of a possible future with Daisy. He does not live in the present. The passionate, yet improbable future he reaches for has become less likely to materialize one day. Nick Says, "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 further...and one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Gatsby cannot accept the realization that Daisy would end up without him and he without her. It doesn’t matter how much he hopes for it or believes it. It doesn’t matter how rich he is, even though he far from being wealthy, it would never
Starting from the first day that he meets her, Gatsby does everything within his power to please Daisy. Nothing has changed for him as far as his feelings for Daisy are concerned, even though it has been five years since their first meeting, and despite the fact that she has married Tom Buchanan. He “revalue[s] everything in his house according to the amount of response it...
In the Great Gatsby, Tom and Daisy are both invited to the Gatsby’s huge party. And after the party, Gatsby tells to Nick that “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before”(Fitzgerald 110). Through this, readers can estimate that Gatsby is still in the past and tried to make all things as same as the past. Also, Gatsby still loves Daisy and want her to love a smuch as he does. According to the “On possession and character in the Great Gatsby”, “Part of Gatsby's dream is to turn back the clock and marry Daisy in a conventional wedding”(Donaldson 8), But she already gets marriage with Tom. Therefore, Gatsby wants Daisy to tell to Tom that “I never loved you”(Fitzgerald 109). It states that he wants to bring back Daisy as before as she gets marriage, and wants her to marry with him. Furthermore, it states that Gatsby wants Daisy to break up with Tom and make her as same as before she gets marriage. When Nick tells Gatsby that you cannot repeat the past, Gatsby gets angry and tells to Nick that he can repeat the past and also can make Daisy to love him as past as she does. But readers, Nick, and Fitzgerald know that repeat the past is hard thing. Especially in Fitzgerald’s shoes, Fitzgerald has drastic time after Zelda’s affair. And he also misses his past, before Zelda gets affair, as Gatsby does. Through this, readers can estimate that Gatsby reflect
They talked about Gatsby and how he wished that Daisy would just go and speak with Tom and say that she never loved him. Gatsby wished that he and Daisy could go back to their home town and get married and go back to pre war. Until Nick told Gatsby that “you cannot repeat the past.”[110]. Gatsby believed that you very well could, he believed that with the blink of an eye he could fix almost everything just like the way it was before when he was most happy, but what Gatsby wasn’t aware that with a blink of an eye his dreams wouldn’t become true, And instead almost everything would be coming to a halt. Tom is not fond of liking Gatsby, None in the slightest. Tom has seen how bad of shape George was in after finding out that Myrtle was struck and killed by a car. Tom took advantage of Myrtle’s death and told George that Gatsby was driving the
...nable to let go off the past because the past is safe. This is true for Gatsby because he cannot let go of his past because his dream of Daisy is safe there. He tries very hard to repeat it and wants to even try to erase the past and change it so that he will end up with Daisy at the end. “’Can’t repeat the past?…’why of course you can!”(page 116). And all he wants is for daisy to be with him and leave Tom but he is of dirty new money. “ He wanted nothing less of Daisy then that she should go to tom and say: ‘I never loved you,’”(page 116).
Before Gatsby leaves for the war, he has a brief relationship with Daisy, but he can not marry her due to the difference in their economic classes. Gatsby fails to understand why he is unable to obtain Daisy due to his newfound wealth he has acquired from shady business deals. Thus, Gatsby’s innocence causes him to believe that he can repeat his past relationship. In the novel, Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s friend and Daisy’s cousin, observes Gatsby’s innocence when Gatsby says, “You can't repeat the past,” and Gatsby determinedly says, “Why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald 116). In this statement by Gatsby, the reader is able to comprehend his innocence and vulnerability. As time progresses, Gatsby makes too many attempts to win over Daisy, which leads to his ultimate demise due to him taking the blame for Myrtle’s death. Additionally, Nick falls away from his initial innocence in the beginning of the plot. When Nick first moves to New York he is optimistic about his future and aspirations. He believes he can move to New York and start a new life after the devastating world, creating a mirage of the reality of New York. However, after
Gatsby, ever since his first encounter with Daisy, could not think about anything else but spending his life with her, as there was something different about her than all the other girls. After his long absence, Daisy married the stern Tom Buchanan, believing that she would never encounter Gatsby ever again after waiting so long for his return. Once Gatsby was in West Egg, he ran into Daisy and then wanted to try to win her over again and to get her to leave Tom and marry him. He would try his best to get her love again with all of his "new money" as well as the extravagant lifestyle he lived. Throughout the entire novel, he displayed his persistence in his goal the many times he would go out with Daisy: driving around his white Rolls Royce, always wearing his finest suits, inviting her to his colossal mansion, and bringing her to lavish parties. "I thought of Gatsby 's wonder when he first picked out the green light. . . his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it."(Fitzgerald 189) It was in this quote that Nick, the novel 's narrator, confirmed Gatsby 's undying hope for some kind of future where he and Daisy are happily together. Gatsby never gave up on that idea and always worked to making it a reality, all the way until his death, when he was shot dead by