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The Past In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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The book “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a thrilling novel with lots of drama, twists, and character development. The book follows a character named Nick who has recently moved to West Egg where all of the newly rich people live in a tiny house, neighboring a massive mansion owned by a person named Jay Gatsby. Within the story there are many different themes and the 2 themes I see as most important are the theme of the American dream and the past. These themes are most important as they are heavily shown in the novel and can be seen as both a good and bad thing. The theme of the past is very important as it is the main reason for what Gatsby does and how he acts. The theme of the American dream is very prevalent throughout the story, and it is especially shown through Gatsby’s parties. During Gatsby’s massive parties …show more content…

In the beginning of the book, we see Daisy as this perfect person who does nothing wrong and is in this abusive relationship with a man she does not love. Daisy is portrayed as sweet and almost childish sometimes, but near the end of the book there is a huge shift in her character. This character shift is prevalent during the scene where Nick, Gatsby, Tom, and her are all at the Plaza Hotel and Gatsby is trying to convince Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him. Daisy says she doesn't love Tom but then she says that she does, she claims she loves both people which in my opinion can be a sign of manipulation as she is just manipulating Gatsby and his feelings and basically lying to him. The biggest mistake she made was when she was driving away with Gatsby and she ran over Myrtle. Because she made no effort to stop and make sure she was okay, she just ran away and soon moved out and ran with Tom. Throughout the book, my perception of Daisy shifted greatly and I now believe she was the main villain of the

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1805 Words | 8 Pages

She had been growing desperate for Tom as time passed on. When Daisy hit Myrtle she had been running in the middle of the road. Daisy did not stop after hitting Myrtle because she was upset about her own problems so because of that, she didn’t think twice about driving away and not looking to make sure she was alright. This behavior perfectly depicts her self absorbed demeanor because although she could have stopped to check if she was okay she instead was too upset by her own dilemma to even acknowledge that she killed a woman. Aside from her killing Myrtle Wilson, another character harmed due to Daisy’s selfish actions is Jay Gatsby.

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445 Words | 2 Pages

How does Gatsby’s past affect his present life and the theme? In the story “The Great Gatsby” the theme is the American Dream and if it is even a real and attainable dream or if it's all just made up. In Gatsby's past he was in poverty and he was very poor barely being able to afford essential items. Gatsby grew up penniless in North Dakota, for many years he was tremendously poor.

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626 Words | 3 Pages

She could have sabotaged Tom, but she sided with his unloyal, ugly, lying character. In addition she lets Gatsby take the damn blame for Myrtle 's death, which results in him getting killed! She is so inconsiderate and fake, her love for Gatsby was false all along. Gatsby fought hard to try and get her back, but all Daisy was doing was twisting the knife. She knew that she wasn 't really going to leave with Gatsby, but she kept leading him on.

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951 Words | 4 Pages

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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546 Words | 3 Pages

This scene alone shows the ignorant and careless mindset that the characters have. Daisy shows this in quite a few ways, from her smoking and drinking habits, to her willingness to entertain Gatsby for fun while cheating on her husband. During the intervention that occurs in the climax (chapter 7) Daisy reveals that she loves both Gatsby and Tom, and is careless to that fact that she is simultaneously hurting them both. Later that night, by driving recklessly to “clear her head” she strikes and kills someone on the road and then retreats into the safety of her home that very same night, not having to face any

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587 Words | 3 Pages

Thomas Merton once said, “The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” What can be said about this is we need to embrace our person for who they are and not who we like to think they are. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby feels love is monogamous, through an idealized, obsessive pursuit in order to recover the past. Throughout the novel, Gatsby’s view on love is shown greatly idealized due to his romanticized memories of the past.

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389 Words | 2 Pages

The past plays a very important role in the plot line of The Great Gatsby. Several characters are affected by their history, however, Jay Gatsby, new millionaire, contributes significantly . Gatsby’s memories of Daisy took over his mind therefore damaging his precious moments occurring at the time. This theme shows past experiences is a part of who people are, but it only controls their future if they let it. Jay Gatsby idolized Daisy Buchanan because he lost his opportunity five years beforehand when he came out of the military.

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500 Words | 2 Pages

Her choice between Tom and Gatsby is one of the biggest conflicts in this Novel. Daisy may seem like she’s a good person but as we move into the book we notice that she’s manipulates Gatsby and when it's all said & done she’s the total opposite of what people think she is. She has a strong need for love, that being the main reason for her marrying Tom, instead of Gatsby. She didn't know if Gatsby was going to come back from Oxford and she did not want to wait for him any longer.

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1024 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the novel, she is torn between her love for Gatsby and her loyalty to her husband Tom, trying to find a way to reconcile these conflicting feelings. Daisy is a deeply emotional and confident character who is also capable of being indecisive and conflicted. For example, she tells Nick that she is "very emotional" and that she is "absolutely stupid" about some things (Chapter 1). This shows that Daisy is aware of her own limitations and is willing to admit when she is wrong or when she doesn't understand something. However, Daisy is also capable of being reckless and impulsive.

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2095 Words | 9 Pages

A mistake that was not his to take the blame for, it was Daisy's responsibility. Instead of taking responsibility for her actions, though, she ran away from her problems. Gatsby's blindness for Daisy caused him to take the blame for it. " He risks everything to try and win over Daisy" (Wulick). His blindness caused him to look past all of Daisy's flaws, even though he knew they were there.

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1133 Words | 5 Pages

“ Through the twilight universe Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she again was keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men and drowsing asleep at dawn with beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed.” (Gatsby 158). As time went on and on daisy started to get restless and ended up straying away from her original intentions of waiting for Gatsby to return. Instead daisy started flirt and hook up with other guys, at first it was just for fun to cure her boredom until Gatsby's return until she met Tom and fell in love. Daisy’s betrayal of her original intentions baffles Gatsby throughout the book.

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339 Words | 2 Pages

Daisy didn’t even tell Tom about her real relationship with Gatsby, Tom later found out by Gatsby confessing. This is the worst way to find out about an affair, Daisy didn't have enough courage to confess to Tom about what she was doing. In addition, to Daisy having an affair, she choose

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263 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel, The Great Gatsby there are several themes such as love, money and reality but the main theme is the American Dream. The American Dream is to succeed in the workforce, have a nice family and a nice home. Lots of people have risked everything just because of the american dream. It has inspired lots of people to work harder and to achieve their goals. Gatsby chased after everything that he wanted and got all of it except for the family with Daisy.

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1133 Words | 5 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of the American Dream. Written in 1925, the book tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, whose main driving force in life is the pursuit of a woman called Daisy Buchanan. The narrator is Gatsby’s observant next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway, who offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective on the events; the action takes place in New York during the so-called Roaring Twenties. By 1922, when The Great Gatsby takes place, the American Dream had little to do with Providence divine and a great deal to do with feelings organized around style and personal changed – and above all, with the unexamined self .

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302 Words | 2 Pages

Daisy does not care for others, and she values Tom 's money over Gatsby 's love. The materialistic values that Daisy holds, therefore, ultimately corrupt her. Her corruption is further proven when Gatsby later describes to Nick Daisy 's car accident, "Well, first Daisy turned away from the woman toward the other car, and lost her nerve and turned back... Daisy stepped on it." (151).

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