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Past In The Great Gatsby

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In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the past comes up quite a bit for a few of the characters and we are shown how they became who they are from their past. Each character in the book has their own unique characteristics that create who they are. In this book we are told what happened in Gatsby’s past and what he did to get to the place where he is at now. Throughout the book Fitzgerald shows us what how Gatsby keeps looking back at his past especially when is with Daisy. What you do in your past cannot be justified by your actions in the future. In chapter 6, Gatsby tells us about what his past was really about, how he changed his last name and worked for a guy whose wife ended up stealing all his money. He worked with Dan Cody and he started to realize his obsession with being wealthy and he wanted to become wealthy himself on day. As Gatsby goes through his life his will to become rich continues which leads him to do things like doing business with people that were not looked on as being the most reliable or well thought of people. At this point in his life he is doing whatever he can to become rich with a nice house and expensive …show more content…

“He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadows of his house, just out of reach of his hand,” (Fitzgerald 110) Gatsby longs for the love of Daisy and he wants to bring back their relationship that they had back in the past. He tells Gatsby that you cannot repeat the past and that what he is doing might not change the fact that Daisy will want to be with him. “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.”(Fitzgerald 110) Nick realizes that the past is dragging Gatsby down in a way, he is trying to change himself to become this past person who he used to be so Daisy might love him

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(110). Fitzgerald does an excellent job of finalizing Gatsby’s mindset by describing, “He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of is hand” (110). All of Gatsby’s actions and words suggests that he wants the past to be what is the

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Gatsby on the other hand cares about getting Daisy back and tries to repeat the past. Fitzgerald claims that, “can’t replace the past… why of course you can!” (116). In this quote Gatsby is trying to convince himself that you can repeat the past and that him and Daisy would be able to pick up from where they left off five years ago. When a person wants to repeat the past it never turns out the same and everything gets

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Although Gatsby cannot see it, Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s friend, can see the inalienable effect his past has on Daisy. Fitzgerald wrote, “He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to causal moths so that he could ‘come over’ some afternoon to a stranger’s garden” (Fitzgerald 78). After all these years without seeing Daisy, Gatsby concocts a perfect plan to reunite with her. As much as Gatsby wants Daisy, he cannot make her feel the way she once did. Fitzgerald wrote, “’You can’t repeat the past.’… ‘Can’t repeat the past?’

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He wants not only wants to erase the past but also wants Daisy to confess that she has only loved him. This would give him confirmation that repeating the past is obtainable. Gatsby reluctantly criticizes Nick on his way of thinking with the phrase, “Can’t repeat the past?... Why of course you can!” This passage shows how strongly Gatsby lusts for the idea that he can repeat the time in which Daisy only ever loved him and she did not have a family of her own.

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Gastby’s romanization of the past with Daisy has been causing him to repeat the past to be able to impress her. Within The Great Gatsby, Gatsby has been romanticizing his past to Nick, while also trying to replicate it within the present. His way of looking at the past is through what is known as a Rosy Retrospection, which is known to give a person expectations that are difficult to follow. There are two parts of his past that make him the way he is today, in which he longs for Daisy.

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Connor Hamilton Ms. Montgomery English 5-6 March 8th, 2024 Memories, Past, and Regret In the Great Gatsby Memories, past, and regret can be an important part of someone’s life, but living in the past isn’t always the best idea. The Great Gatsby is about a man who finds his way to riches to try and impress a girl from his past. He holds parties every weekend with his newfound success, hoping she shows up. In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald presents the idea that memories, past, and regret can greatly affect one’s future by showing the dangers of holding onto the past and how trying to change it can be bad for one’s health.

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The past is something that is capable of shaping people into who they are, but the past is also an aspect in life that is unchangeable and permanent. In The Great Gatsby, the significant theme of “memories and the past are eternal” is portrayed through the idea that humans tend to remember the past positively via the characters Daisy and Gatsby, the regret within Daisy, and the naive thoughts of Gastby. Throughout the novel, readers receive a sense that is it human nature to remember only the positive memories of the past, rather than the negative aspects. For example, Daisy dramatically states, “Take ‘em downstairs and give ‘em back to whoever they belong to.

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The idea of being trapped in the past in The Great Gatsby Thinking about the past is something that many people do at some time in their life, but some people are more given to it than others. Time works differently for Gatsby in the novel "The Great Gatsby ", written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. An example of being imprisoned in the past can be found in the character Jay Gatsby. He doesn't have deep thoughts about his past occurrences but instead has a strong desire to return to them. The majority of people who live in the present day make plans for their future desires and goals.

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In Gatsby’s mind this was untrue and that if you wanted to recreate the past you could. He was willing to go to any lengths to get back what he so ever craved. “It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning ——” Fitzgerald had left the last part of that sentence blank because we don’t really know what could happen. Gatsby struggled to recreate the past, a past when he was with Daisy.

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Gatsby did not try to build a better future but instead attempted to recreate the past, even though it is impossible. “'Can't repeat the past?' he cried incredulously. ' Why, of course, you can! ' He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. '

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Throughout the book Gatsby uses his actions and events that happened in the past to either bring it back or move on from it. His love for Daisy started in the past, and it is so strong that he wants to bring back what they had and not leave it. Nick takes us through his story as he learns more about this character who, for everyone else in the book, is a mystery and no one really knows where he came from and what his past really was. The way he started off getting his money doing illegal actions was not exactly the right thing. When Daisy leaves Gatsby for Tom he is devastated because Daisy was everything to him and he wanted to recreate what they had in the past.

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In The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, one of the characters is “stuck in the past”. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is constantly longing for a past relationship he had with a woman named Daisy, who moved on from Gatsby and married another man when Gatsby left for the war. Gatsby’s view of the past is used to develop a major theme of the novel: the moral decay of society. The novel begins with Nick, the narrator saying how the events that happened in New York, where the novel takes place, caused him to leave, and how he doesn’t like any of the people he was involved with.

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2095 Words | 9 Pages

"I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before, he said, nodding determinedly. She'll see" (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby had an idea in his head about Daisy and would not let it go. His need to repeat the past, the perfect image he had of Daisy, and the unrelenting need of completing his task of gaining back Daisy is awful for him and the people around him. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Gatsby's obsession with the past is what ultimately led him to his death.

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793 Words | 4 Pages

This hinders Gatsby from moving on and focusing on his own life and happiness. In the beginning to gain Daisy's affections, Gatsby accumulates extortionate wealth and displays extravagant gestures, such as organizing luxurious parties every Friday and showing her his grandiose mansion after the Tea Party with Nick. To Gatsby the memories of the past with Daisy are everything that he wants. Therefore winning Daisy back becomes his primary goal in life. When Nick tells Gatsby, “You cannot repeat the past,” Gatsby replies incredulously,“Why of course you can.”

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720 Words | 3 Pages

Gatsby always wanted to be rich and does become rich, but we learn that he did not become rich from his own hard work. To try to earn his wealth Gatsby went to “the small Lutheran college of St. Olaf’s in southern Minnesota. He stayed there two weeks, dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny, to destiny itself, and despising the janitor’s work with which he was to pay his way” (99). Gatsby, as we learn, had every chance to earn a degree at St. Olaf’s college but choose to leave because he had to be a janitor. Gatsby felt the school did not recognize the dream he had of himself because they were indifferent to his destiny.

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