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Significance Of The Past In The Great Gatsby

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“Never take anything for granted”, a famous quote by Benjamin Disraeil saying how humanity can’t take anything for granted. If people end up taking something for granted without being able to question it or appreciate it, we will never understand how to cherish things. This is the same case with our memories back in the past. Have we ever truly ever looked back and our memories have been disinterested, or reconstructed our memories so that when we look back at it, it ends up aligning with what we have wanted? Within the novel The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald, the case of a past that has ended up being reconstructed to a person’s view has happened. Jay Gatsby has been consistently looking back on the past, always romanticizing it with …show more content…

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. His obsession with wealth and a luxurious lifestyle is the first part ever since leaving college. After dropping out of college, he ends up meeting Dan Cody, on a yacht when he was working. When getting to know Dan, he ends up becoming an assistant to any of his needs, in exchange for looking into this lifestyle of being rich. But after Dan’s death, Gatsby was left with, “the vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out to the substantiality of a man”(Fitzgerald 101). Gatsby had been left with an outline on the world of the upper class as that was what Jay Cody had taught him. Although Nick believes it’s mendacious, Gatsby uses this part of his past to take control of the present. His past with Daisy has been the part where he keeps romanticizing as he is being …show more content…

He believes that it was perfect with Daisy, and the lifestyle he was taught from Dan kept him striving to keep on trying to get with her. The most specific part of his past where it has truly been romanticized through a rosy retrospection is when he and Daisy share a kiss. The scene is described as, “a place where there were no trees and the sidewalk was white with moonlight. They stopped here and turned toward each other. Now it was a cool night with that mysterious excitement in it which comes at the two changes of the year. The quiet lights in the houses were humming out into the darkness and there was a stir and bustle among the stars.”(Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby’s eventual kiss with Daisy is also put in par with a beautiful setting which might still be false due to it being told by him. Since Gatsby keeps romanticizing the past with Daisy and other his achievements, it makes Nick think twice about it as it may be untruthful. As said, Jay Gatsby’s past has been through a rosy retrospection, which is a real life way of looking back on the past. The way

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