Examples Of Flashback In The Great Gatsby

No matter how much money you have, how hard you work, how much you want it, the past cannot repeat itself. Trying to achieve something like this is nothing but foolish and impossible. One famous example of this unfortunate fact in action is the “The Great Gatsby.”. Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the 1925 novel takes place in a flashback of 1922 from a narrator recounting his experiences with Gatsby, a man who tries to repeat the past by attempting to get back together with a woman named Daisy, now married with children after 5 years of being separated from him. Throughout the story, Gatsby is absolutely driven to bring back the past. Throughout this novel, Fitzgerald makes use of symbolism, flashbacks, and irony to demonstrate the futility of attempting to repeat the past.
Symbolism is used

As a matter of fact, the entire novel itself is a flashback from Nick’s perspective. In the prologue of the novel, Nick gives a retrospective of the events ahead, how they have affected him and how Gatsby was the only one he truly liked. (Fitzgerald, 1) The story is Nick’s memory, a past that he pains to remember. Another example of a flashback in the story is after Gatsby proclaims that the past can be repeated. This flashback takes place 5 years earlier, detailing (potentially) Gatsby and Daisy’s first kiss: “One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street when the leaves were falling, and they came to a place where there were no trees and the sidewalk was white with moonlight… Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”(Fitzgerald, 6) This is the past the Gatsby wants to bring back; a past where he and Daisy are together. The use of flashbacks in “The Great Gatsby” is vital to how the story places importance on the past memories of its