Essay On The Past In The Great Gatsby

Words: 1662
Pages: 7

Lost in the Past of Gatsby
“If you constantly dwell on the past that's where you end up living” (Weston). If you always try and recreate your past or think about your past that is where you are going to stay. You should not worry and think about what has happened, but you should focus your attention on the present. This is what Gatsby does with Daisy. He will not move on to make a future for himself. Rekindling an old flame with someone can sometimes be good but it could possibly hurt others. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Gatsby and Daisy romanticizing their past relationship ultimately leads to the demise of other characters.
In the first place, Gatsby and Daisy romanticize their past relationship, and Gatsby hopes it will be the same it use to be. “A love for ‘the precious, the incommunicable past’...” (Lathbury 170). Gatbsy is in love with the past
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At first Gatsby is really nervous about seeing Daisy after their long time apart. Gatbsy and Daisyarrive to Nick’s house and they are awkward around each other because it has been so long since they have seen each other. Finally, Nick decides to leave the room and comes back to them enjoying themselves. They are finally together again and Gatsby is obsessed with trying to recreate their past relationship. “‘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). Nick tried to convince Gatsby that just because he moved to be near Daisy, and just because they are together again that they will not have the same relationship as before he left. “Gatsby exhibits some of the same blindness… attracted to a person he understands incompletely, he is unaware of his natural passion…” (Lathbury). He does not know what happened while he was away, and he does not know anything that may have happened with Daisy and