Effects Of The Past In The Great Gatsby

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The past is always going to be effecting the present, but sometimes the past can be effecting the present to much. Gatsby is almost constantly driven by the past, and is always trying to recreate it, which leads to a very strong message warning you to not live in the past. Everything that Gatsby has done, has been to try and get Daisy back. He is driven by Daisy, who is a part of the past. When trying to pursue Daisy, Gatsby ended up killing two people and ruining a marriage because he is so blindly chasing after what he cannot have. The book warns the reader to not do what Gatsby did.
Gatsby was one of the richest men in America, but he didn’t even enjoy his money, he just worked hard to get rich to aid his chase after Daisy, who should of stayed in the past. On page 78, it reads, “The modesty of the demand shook me. He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual months-so that he could ‘come over’ some afternoon to a stranger's garden.” In this quote, Nick realizes that everything Gatsby has done for the last five years has lead to being with Daisy again. Gatsby is essentially wasting his life for something that is almost impossible to obtain, for Daisy has married and Gatsby knows it. …show more content…
On page 62 it says, ”It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete.” This quote shows the worst damage dealt by Gatsby’s conflict with the past. Wilson killed Gatsby and himself, after Gatsby was partly responsible for Myrtle's death. All of this happened because Gatsby was not thinking about his actions, but was thinking about Daisy. He was trying so hard to recreate the past with her, something that would never happen, he stop caring about anything else that

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