Great emphasis is placed on the past throughout 'The Great Gatsby'. The past of five years ago comes to meet Daisy and Gatsby in the novel, drawing them both into an emotional extramarital affair based on only a memory of love they once shared. Jay Gatsby himself is haunted by the past, and the novel explores his attempts to regain "some part of himself that went into loving Daisy". He believes that he can take her back by repeating the events of five years ago- "'Can't repeat the past?' he cried incredulously.
He started growing suspicious and then finally found out that it was Gatsby who she was seeing. Then it was Mr. Wilson, the only difference is that he’s only suspicious. He doesn’t know for a fact that if Myrtle was cheating or with whom she’s cheating with. “I’ve been here too long. I want to get away.
Tom is threatened by her questioning his authority. XIX. At the end the narrative becomes fractured/episodic. After the violent reaction, Carraway is trying to capture that all these images come back to him because he was drink, (the element of shock. ), capturing his semi-drunk memories.
Autumn, in literature, frequently symbolizes the weakening of life. Fall is a melancholy time of dryness and crumbling decay, much like Gatsby when he loses Daisy for a second and final time. Also, when a dream dies, many deaths are sure to follow. Gatsby’s death was foreshadowed when his dream – the American Dream that he clung to for all his young adult life – was shattered. He died along with his hopes.
The confusion and therefore discomfort within the reader is evident as a result of the “irregular babble” of the birds and the “tumult”. The use of verbs to heighten the sense of disorder and an unorganised surrounding allows the reader to comprehend the narrator’s views towards spring. Typically, Spring is associated with happiness and new life; however this is shown to upset the narrator in which she portrays the leaves to be “litter”. Furthermore, the use of natural imagery heightens the sense of mental instability within the narrator as she is evidently affected by harmless presence of nature. However, whilst it can be argued that the narrator’s dislike for the “sloven season” is as a result of the affect it has on her mentally, it can also be interpreted to affect her heart, as it is in reference to her “lover” who is “unbalancing the air”.
He feels bad for Gatsby for believing that he could recreate the past and take away the five years that separated him and Daisy. The last sentence is quoted “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.” This quote from Nick summarizes how lonely Gatsby was without Daisy and his time spent away from her he would think of how everything can remain the same as it was before the war started. Although he finds out that even with all his meticulous planning to create the perfect scene it would never be like the times he had with her before he left for the
When the girls start to sing the song “I’m the Sheik of Araby. Your love belongs to me. At night when your’re asleep Into your tent I’ll creep” this shows how Gatsby has the power to take back the love that Daisy has given to once and knows that it can happen once again like when they last met. When Gatsby is talking to Nick on page 152, Gatsby mentions how Tom never loved Daisy as much as he did to her. Gatsby enforces that he and Daisy should be together even thought that Daisy has moved on and let go of the past and got married and with a child.
This ended through Daisy’s love for wealthy men, which Gatsby is not at this point. He loses her which then spirals him into a long five year quest to reclaim her. He has to totally re-invent himself to achieve this goal. This then defines his first failure by losing the girl he loves; this then is the starting chain reaction to make the Jay Gatsby that is shown in the novel. At the start of the novel Nick, the main character, sees Gatsby standing looking at the east Egg dock where there is a green light that is barley visible.
Later on in chapter seven there is a conflict involving Tom, Daisy and Gatsby. Gatsby encourages Daisy to tell Tom she never loved him, which she had most likely lied to Gatsby about earlier. She unwillingly replies, “I never loved him.” (page 126). Rethinking that answer she soon after takes that back saying that she did love both Tom and Gatsby. Although she has lied to them both, it is more likely that this is a lie she is telling herself.
Jay Gatsby is also apart of the upper class and living unrealistically. Gatsby is preoccupied with a dream five years ago, and is trying to relive it. “”I wouldn’t ask too much of her” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.” “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can”” (Fitzgerald 110).