Past In The Great Gatsby

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

“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