Examples Of Immaturity In The Great Gatsby

Heathcliff and Gatsby are both trying to live in their past lives, in the recreation of their lives the show the same ambitions and social status, while having different levels of immaturity that draws sympathy from the reader.
Gatsby’s long journey to rekindle the love Daisy and he once shared and to make it “just the way it was before” (118), was undeniably impractical and quite frankly impossible. Gatsby wants to live in the past, and go back in time, take the love that he once had and place it in the present, where he had tirelessly built a lifestyle that, he thinks, is everything she wants. Although Nick states that this is impossible Gatsby continues to insist: “‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’

Gatsby’s resistance to Nick’s realistic talk gave a sense that he felt like he was missing something that he used to have. “[Gatsby] 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 once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was” (118). Heathcliff’s past affects his entire life, he acts on the previous events that heavily changed the way he interacted with others. He let his emotions on things such as his relationship with Catherine and how Hindley treated him as a servant, make him seek revenge on those around him. Once Catherine and Hindley die, Heathcliff continues to find a way to

Gatsby possesses a trait that many yearn for, an impalpable optimism. Gatsby wholeheartedly believes in his childish dreams. He remains confident when he could’ve lost sight of his true goal, having a future with Daisy: “an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which is not likely I shall ever find again” (2). Although Gatsby hadn’t seen this woman for five years and she had started a family with another man, he believed that deep down Daisy never stopped loving him: “both of us loved each other all that time,” (131). He went so far to think that Daisy would tell Tom she had never loved him and she would come live in the perfect world that Gatsby created for her. Throwing large extravagant parties, “[buying a] house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (78), just in the hope of impressing her. In many cases, readers may think his persistence and unwillingness to give up is admirable, however, Gatsby is being ignorant. His boyish dream, that has consumed most of his thoughts for fives years shows an immaturity that makes him oblivious to the truth of the matter. Readers may sympathize with him because they find his childlike demeanor to be innocent. Fitzgerald also built Gatsby a classic “rags to riches” story line, this generates a status of