Examples Of The Past In The Great Gatsby

The Desire for the Past Can the past be recovered? The question of whether the past can be retrieved or not frequently appears in daily life. As a result, it is often present in many books and movies, especially in Fitzgerald’s great work of American literature: The Great Gatsby. Set during the 1920s in the United States, Nick, the narrator, tells the story of a rich man named Gatsby and his obsession with recovering his past life. Throughout the novel, he attempts to win back the love of his life, Daisy, even though she is married to another wealthy man named Tom. All the while, Nick continually warns Gatsby of the fact that the past cannot be physically recovered, no matter what he does. Needless to say, Gatsby continues to chase after Daisy, with deadly consequences. Thus, The Great Gatsby does a great job of laying out the consequences of pursuing the past, and yet does not give a clear answer on the issue. However, in a man’s life, it is clear that the past can be retrieved in some way

Although thinking and meditating on events that have already taken place allows one to live, so to speak, in the past, one cannot bring back the physical past using this method. For example, one can spend the whole day reflecting on the things that occurred the day before, thus, although being in the present in one’s physical body, one’s mind dwells completely in the past, unaware of what is happening in the present reality. Additionally, when one continually thinks and meditates on the past, one falls into the danger of “not knowing that those things of the past are already behind oneself” (Fitzgerald, 188), as Nick observes in his closing comments on Gatsby’s great longing and lifelong desire to recover his past with Daisy. Therefore, even though the past can be brought back through reflecting and meditating on it, one can become trapped in a disillusioned, fantasy world outside of