Great Gatsby Theme Paper

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“Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!” The theme for the book The Great Gatsby is that some people are only left chasing the past while some others are satisfied with their current situation. In this writing the reader has the chance to see how this theme shows through in the book. The essay will cover three main characters. After reading this essay the reader should be able to see how and why this theme holds true.

Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is an oddly normal man. He is very handsome, he has a lot of money, but how he carries himself is somewhat goofy. Jay just seems a little shady. He throws all these parties just to wait and wait and wait. He acted happy and cheery but was he really? Who or what was he waiting for? Daisy. Jay was obsessed with Daisy since he first laid eyes on her. His obsession gets the best of him and he tries getting her to fall in love with him again. Once again, Jay is a handsome, wealthy man. How couldn’t he get a girl to fall for him? In the book Jay tells Nick that in 1917 he has loved Daisy and she loved him back. Jay wants to be with Daisy but she has not once showed up at any of his parties. Jay hatches this plan in the book to get he and Daisy in the same place. His plan works and it sparks something. Nick tries to tell Gatsby that he cannot expect too much from Daisy and that could not repeat the past. However, Jay responds to Nick with easily the most remembered quote from the book on page 109, “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!” Jay is also convinced that Daisy never really loved Tom. He doesn’t believe it. He won’t believe it, but in the end Daisy tells Jay that she did love Tom once and she would be lying if she said differently. Jay was crushed by this news but continued ...

... middle of paper ...

...ay attention to how he gets upset when he sees Daisy and Gatsby together. One reaction Tom had that showed that he loved Daisy on page 131, “I can’t speak about what happened five years ago…I didn’t know Daisy then…Daisy loved me when we first married and she still loves me!”
Throughout this theme paper, valid points have proved the theme statement “some people are only left chasing the past while some others are satisfied with their current situation” to be true. Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan’s evaluation shows that these characters show how that theme holds true. To this day, this theme can still be seen in everyday life. In the book and in the real world there are dreamers and chasers and at the end of the day, almost all of the time, the chasers seem to win. Oh, and one last thing…one cannot repeat the past.

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The Great Gatsby book

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