Jordan Baker's Use Of Flashback In The Great Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby, Nick, the narrator, tells the story of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby during the summer of 1922 in West Egg, New York. Nick lives next door to Gatsby in a house that appears like a shack compared to Gatsby’s mansion. As the first person narrator, we see the observations by Nick of his neighbor and how he lives his life. The book presents an interesting view on time and how time affects people, especially Gatsby, in their daily lives. Specifically, Fitzgerald uses a flashback technique throughout the novel at different points that go back to earlier times in Gatsby’s life and continue to affect him now. These flashbacks show the effect that time and the past have on people. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the flashback technique at strategic

In chapter 4, Jordan Baker has a flashback to a time when she saw Gatsby and Daisy Fay together in a car next to a golf course. She says: “The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime, and because it seemed romantic to me I have remembered the incident ever since.” This shows that it was a good time in Gatsby’s life that he might possibly want to go back to. Then, in chapter 6, we see Gatsby actually wanting to go back to that time in his life, even after Nick says it is impossible, saying: "‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’" This shows how Gatsby feels as though he missed an opportunity with Daisy in the past and he is doing everything to convince himself that it is possible to go back. Although it is impossible to go back to the past, the luring qualities of positivity of some situations in the past make it seem that going back it possible. This illustrates the luring ability and attractiveness of the past to people in their current lives in the present. Because Gatsby knows that was a good time in his life, he thinks he missed an opportunity to marry Daisy. Daisy married Tom Buchanan as it turned out, but Gatsby thinks he would be a better person to marry Daisy. So, even though

We see this most with Gatsby as he keeps flashing back to times with Daisy throughout the novel. This shows how often he thinks about his time with Daisy and how he is going to go back to the past. The last line of the novel is: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This literally shows the fact that people “ceaselessly” try to go back in time to fix something, but they never will get there; however, they still “beat on” to achieve impossible feats. This shows how attractive the past can be and even when people know they can’t get there, they continue to assure themselves that they can. This quote suggests a specific reference to Gatsby and his obsession with the past throughout the novel. Throughout the flashbacks by Gatsby in the novel, we see how he is the boat that doesn’t give up and continues to “beat on,” but he still never makes it anywhere. This is supposed to reemphasize the fact that no matter how hard people try, they will never be able to turn back the clock to the past. Although it is tempting because the human mind is capable of flashbacks, time travel and going back to the past is impossible. So, through Gatsby’s character and the use of flashbacks, Fitzgerald shows that everyone is affected by time and how memories of the past affect people by making them think they