How Does The Author Use Flashback In The Great Gatsby

Whether the roaring twenties in America or the chaotic 1960s in Iran, literary techniques such as flashbacks can still be found. Two great uses of flashbacks are in the texts Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Both texts effectively use flashbacks to develop the character and the plot of the story. The Great Gatsby begins with a mysterious man named Gatsby and one of the first questions is who Gatsby is. The author uses flashbacks to slowly bring Gatsby out of the darkness, until he is fully reveled while simultaneously pushing the plot along. In Persepolis the author does an amazing job describing the social society using flashbacks and uses them to connect the reader with Marji in the book. These great uses

The first major flash back in The Great Gatsby is when Nick is talking to Jordan right after Gatsby ran away, after seeing Tom in chapter 4. In the flashback Jordan tells Nick, “When I came opposite (of Daisy’s) house that morning … she was sitting in (her white Roadster) with a lieutenant I had never seen before. They were so engrossed in each other that she didn’t see me until I was five feet away. … The officer looked at Daisy … in a way that every young girl wants to be looked …, and because it seemed romantic to me I have remembered the incident ever since. His name was Jay Gatsby, and I didn’t lay eyes on him again for over four years — even after I’d met him on Long Island I didn’t realize it was the same man.” (Fitzgerald 58-59). This is the first flashback we receive of Gatsby’s past and it reveals that Gatsby and Daisy have met before and were in a serious relationship. It is at this time, in the book, that Gatsby is going to ask Nick to invite Daisy to tea so Gatsby can reconnect with Daisy. This flashback creates an emotional connection for Gatsby from Nick and makes Nick willing to accommodate Gatsby’s favor moving the plot along.