The Great Gatsby Character Analysis

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”(189). The final sentence of the novel is what, I believe, reveals the reader of the novel to one of the most important themes of the book. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is all about the past and how you can never go back to how things used to be. The characters in this book seem to chase their future; that future being completely controlled by their past. Chasing this past they all wish to return to causes most of the conflict within this novel. Seemingly every character in the book wishes to return to the “good ol days.” The problem, is that each character's past they wish to return to is at a different time than that of other characters. The

He wishes to return to that time, because even though he hated the lifestyle and most of the people, it was the most interesting part of his life. Nick had a boring job; nothing too exotic or exhilarating, he did what he had to do to get by and he made a decent living off of that. When Gatsby was in his life, Nick felt the most alive. He didn't feel like another slave to conformity sitting at his desk filling out paperwork. So even though this was a terrible experience in Nick’s past, it is something that is always on his mind and something he is always reliving. Nick is stuck in the past; not at the time this story occurred, but at the time he is telling it. However, the next two characters were often caught in their own attempt to relive the

Before this, Tom is living in the moment; moving from city to city and spending money on extravagant items and creating priceless memories. His world seems to be crashing down at the point when they arrive in George's garage in Gatsby’s car and george informs them that him and his wife are moving away. Not only that but at that exact moment Gatsby is driving his wife Daisy around and everything is falling apart for Tom. Daisy even has the courage to say she never loved Tom. Tom then is listing days he believed she must have, “‘Not that day I carried you down from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes dry?’ There was a husky tenderness in his tone. ‘... Daisy?’”(139). Tom is bringing back things from the past to cover Daisy and claim her as his own and to repel Gatsby's constant claim that Daisy and him are still in love. By the end of the story, Tom learns to move on and takes Daisy with him. He settles for the future he knows he will have with Daisy and they both seem to forget everything about Gatsby. Gatsby never forgets the past, and that is what leads him to his demise in the