Significance Of The Past In The Great Gatsby

“The orgastic future [...] year by year recedes before us” and the past consumes us with its “moments of hope and promise and wonder” (Fitzgerald 180, Parr 76). To be human is to be unfulfilled, always wanting more, but such aspirations often prevent one from living in the present. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, an obsession with the past consumes the lives of many of those living in an “universe of ineffable gaudiness” (Fitzgerald 99). Using a motif of water, Fitzgerald traces Jay Gatsby’s relationship with the past, to reveal that those who attempt to escape the past will remain there should they mistake it for the future. In the short term, they often recognize and attempt to overcome the shortcomings of their own

After seventeen-year-old James Gatz, lounging on the beach on Lake Superior, sees Dan Cody's yacht "drop anchor" (104), he "[borrows] a row-boat" and "[pulls] out" to the yacht in order to "[inform]" Cody of an impending wind. "Borrow," "pull" and "inform" (104) signify taking action; in this moment James Gatz becomes Jay Gatsby—a man who no longer "[loafs] along the beach" but who rows actively—as if taking control—toward a man who symbolizes wealth and power. Rowing away from the shore represents Gatsby's desire to escape his roots as the son of "shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (104). In this instance, the water is significant because Gatz has to leave the shore and take the risk by rowing—on the water—toward what he desires. Water often symbolizes rebirth, and Gatz essentially becomes reborn as Gatsby in that moment just before he crosses the water. Fitzgerald highlights Gatsby's encounter with the water to illustrate the longing to escape the

On the day that Gatsby has chosen to reconnect with Daisy, his lover from many years in the past, it is “pouring rain,” and, during Gatsby and Daisy’s awkward interaction, “once more it was pouring.” (Fitzgerald 83, Fitzgerald 88). When a liquid “pour[s],” it is falling as a result of gravity and rain represents an atmosphere of hopeless melancholy. Here, Fitzgerald uses watery weather to demonstrate how Gatsby is falling back toward the past just as rain falls to the ground. However, when it becomes less awkward, Gatsby notices that “It’s stopped raining” and “twinkle-bells of sunshine” enter the room (Fitzgerald 89). When something “stops,” it comes to an abrupt halt and “sunshine” represents happiness. Gatsby’s disappointment has disappeared along with the rainy atmosphere and he sees hope and happiness as the “sunshine” enters the room. When faced with the dilemma of “whether to embrace the dreams of youth and keep alive the hopes bred in innocence, or to face the reality that such dreams are inevitably elusive and illusory because they are of the past,” Gatsby decides to continue to devoting his present and his future to the search for the past, remembering “all the ways [he] got to know [Daisy’s] pretty face and electric soul” (Parr 77, Del Rey). He believes that he can build his future from the past and