ipl-logo

How Does Jay Gatsby Change The Past

462 Words2 Pages

Most people do not like to talk about the past. For most it can become very uncomfortable because everyone has done something that they are not proud of. Although we do not know very much about Jay Gatsby, we do know that his past record was not the cleanest. I believe that because of this Gatsby is naive enough to think that he can change the past. Simply because he does not like his past. Nick is realistic, he knows that changing the past is completely impossible. Making things the way that they were in the past or having the ability to turn back the clock would completely change most people’s life. Daisy continues to regret things about her marriage. This is described in chapter four when it is repeated over and over that “Daisy's change' …show more content…

I also disagree with this. People never truly forget. The past will always be in the back of their mind. Gatsby wants to change the past because he knows that Daisy and him are separated and, they always will be because of the past. “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself” In the novel Nick says this while describing what he believes is going through Gatsby’s mind. Gatsby really believes he has changed the past when Daisy is at his house for lunch “Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her.” Nick is very rational. He has proved this throughout the novel by being more of an observer, he seems to just be along for the ride. Nick knows the truth and he is very honest. He describes this about himself when he says “Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” I think it makes him feel sorry for Gatsby. Nick understands that you cannot go back. You must move

Show More
Related
387 Words | 2 Pages

From this quote, the reader can see that Nick finds Gatsby to be a unique and once-in-a-lifetime type of person. This explains Gatsby’s uniqueness and Nick’s immense interest in Gatsby. As Nick continues describing Gatsby, he personifies his smile and mentions that it “understood you”,

Read More
492 Words | 2 Pages

“I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Nick is not a reliable narrator. He prides himself on his honesty, yet he is a very dishonest person. We can see through his actions at parties, and his relationship with Jordan throughout the book that he cannot be trusted. Nick is often under the influence of alcohol when there are big events or parties.

Read More
539 Words | 3 Pages

Gatsby tries to rekindle his and Daisy’s old relationship by trying to relive the past while Tom is out having an affair. Nick is a people watcher, he observes anyone and everyone and gets to know them before he feels inclined to make a judgment. To start, Nick reserves judgment in multiple situations but the first example is when he meets Gatsby and is at his party. Nick was the only person invited but at the party, he heard rumors about Gatsby

Read More
1014 Words | 5 Pages

[Gatsby] cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”(110) As Gatsby truly believed that he was no longer James Gatz, he believed that Daisy still loved him and was the same from five years ago. But the truth of the matter is that Daisy had once truly loved him and she isn't the same as she was the years before, and there is nothing Gatsby can do to repeat the past and end up with the happy ending he dreamed of where “after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house—just as if it were five years ago.”

Read More
1299 Words | 6 Pages

Nick went back and forth in trusting Gatsby. Nick had heard so many rumors and he was confused and curious

Read More
348 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout the story, Nick is considered to be an honest and reliable narrator, but in fact he is not a reliable narrator. Looking at the way Nick narrates the story, it is in a way that the accounts are very much one sided as opposed to it being an impartial reminiscence of his past. Nick says he is a man who is inclined to reserve all judgement, when in fact throughout this story he has criticized and been making negative judgement calls to all characters except Gatsby. He would say that Gatsby is worth the whole bunch and that the other characters is just a rotten crowd. In my opinion i agree but also I don 't agree, I don 't agree because Gatsby is just another guy in love with a girl trying to get her attention

Read More
510 Words | 3 Pages

Gatsby has to be willing for forgive her for that if he wants the past to remain the same, and he has forgave her, so the past can remain the same!

Read More
694 Words | 3 Pages

Nick disapproves of his drastic actions to win back Daisy. An example of this is the quote, “He wanted nothing more than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘ I never loved you.’” This is obviously a drastic measure to take for Daisy and is unreasonable. However throughout the whole novel Nick stays with Gatsby and even facilitates him have Daisy cheat on Tom, and he remains Gatsby’s only true friend throughout

Read More
998 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
526 Words | 3 Pages

When Nick tries to figure out what he's looking at, he looks back at Gatsby again and he's not there anymore and this makes Nick wonder. The fact that Nick has to try to figure out who Gatsby is makes him think highly of Gatsby. He;s actually putting some effort in trying to figure out who he is and what he

Read More
921 Words | 4 Pages

At the beginning he is honest and because he is not judgemental, a lot of people tell him their secrets, and he happens to be in the middle of everything and knowing everything even though he does not want to be part of it after he realizes how cynic is the people that he is hanging out with now. “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life” (Fitzgerald 23) Nick says this at the beginning of the book when he does not really knows the society that he is moving in. After the summer ends, and Gatsby is killed and all the other things that happened, all the secrets, all the selfishness, he feels, without doubt, repelled by the society and he moves back to the

Read More
138 Words | 1 Pages

Therefore, the passage indicates that Nick may not actually be as prejudiced as he comes off to be. In this passage, Nick also describes Gatsby as a hopeless romantic that had good intentions that were pure but his methods and actions were clouded. This passage seems to

Read More
853 Words | 4 Pages

From this information, many novel readers believe that Gatsby may not have been all that it. I personally agree with this statement because Nick has always shown that he is a very honest and sincere

Read More
1335 Words | 6 Pages

We are given a thorough overview of his background and his values in the first pages of the book, and throughout it we see demonstration of this. Because he reserves his judgment we are able to look at the events throughout the course of the book in a usually reasonable manner. Despite this, it is interesting to see how at times, Nick gives a completely objective view, relaying events as he sees them, where at others he gives his own interpretation when it's required. Despite being reasonable, his views throughout the book on Gatsby are often ambivalent and contradictory showing different views people take on the new rise of investors as well as different sides of Gatsby. My favourite example of this being when Nick says "Jay!

Read More
822 Words | 4 Pages

Gatsby never forgets the past, and that is what leads him to his demise in the

Read More

More about How Does Jay Gatsby Change The Past

Related Topics

Open Document