Jake Lane
Ms. Marani
Pre AP Lit
October 14 2015
The roaring 20’s are characterized by exponential wealth, incessant partying, and lavish lifestyles, all built upon corruption. Gatsby lives a life that could easily be considered enticing due to his enchanting character and surreal assets. At face value, one could easily mistake his affluence as being equivocal to the many insignificant guests he hosts at his parties, but the thing that separates Gatsby from the others is his ambition and steadfast belief in changing the past. Gatsby is the only character in the book that feels he can recreate or repair the past. He also holds preeminent ambition over both the poor and the rich in the novel. This insight into Gatsby's real life helps to explain …show more content…
Gatsby feels he can “fix everything just the way it was before,” while Nick does not consider changing the past. Nick character is a paradox in the sense that he is sceptical about the uncertainty of the future but, due to his analytic point of view, Nick proposes that in reality, “you can't repeat the past” (Fitzgerald). Nick's inability to have strong ambition is directly a product of his fear of the future. Often seen as a character on the outside looking in, Nick remains relatively stationary, watching his counterparts move forward and back in front of his eyes. It is easy for him to analyze the past and others actions, but he has trouble with the future because he can not view it or analyze it. The future is a intangible burden on Nick throughout his life, preventing him from truly experiencing ambition even remotely equivocal to Gatsby. When Nick tries to tell Gatsby that you can't repeat the past, Gatsby declares, almost haughtily, "Why of course you can!" Gatsby has dedicated his entire life to recapturing a golden, perfect past with Daisy. Gatsby believes that money can recreate the past. Fitzgerald describes Gatsby as "overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves." But Gatsby mixes up "youth and mystery" with history. Nick is so disconnected from the future that he can barely look to his own birthday, completely forgetting his 30th birthday until midday. He chronicles his distrust in the new decade before him, portraying it as “portentous menacing road” (Fitzgerald). It is at this point in the book that he begins to acknowledge the battle between the old money aristocracy and new money
Ms. Marani
Pre AP Lit
October 14 2015
The roaring 20’s are characterized by exponential wealth, incessant partying, and lavish lifestyles, all built upon corruption. Gatsby lives a life that could easily be considered enticing due to his enchanting character and surreal assets. At face value, one could easily mistake his affluence as being equivocal to the many insignificant guests he hosts at his parties, but the thing that separates Gatsby from the others is his ambition and steadfast belief in changing the past. Gatsby is the only character in the book that feels he can recreate or repair the past. He also holds preeminent ambition over both the poor and the rich in the novel. This insight into Gatsby's real life helps to explain …show more content…
Gatsby feels he can “fix everything just the way it was before,” while Nick does not consider changing the past. Nick character is a paradox in the sense that he is sceptical about the uncertainty of the future but, due to his analytic point of view, Nick proposes that in reality, “you can't repeat the past” (Fitzgerald). Nick's inability to have strong ambition is directly a product of his fear of the future. Often seen as a character on the outside looking in, Nick remains relatively stationary, watching his counterparts move forward and back in front of his eyes. It is easy for him to analyze the past and others actions, but he has trouble with the future because he can not view it or analyze it. The future is a intangible burden on Nick throughout his life, preventing him from truly experiencing ambition even remotely equivocal to Gatsby. When Nick tries to tell Gatsby that you can't repeat the past, Gatsby declares, almost haughtily, "Why of course you can!" Gatsby has dedicated his entire life to recapturing a golden, perfect past with Daisy. Gatsby believes that money can recreate the past. Fitzgerald describes Gatsby as "overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves." But Gatsby mixes up "youth and mystery" with history. Nick is so disconnected from the future that he can barely look to his own birthday, completely forgetting his 30th birthday until midday. He chronicles his distrust in the new decade before him, portraying it as “portentous menacing road” (Fitzgerald). It is at this point in the book that he begins to acknowledge the battle between the old money aristocracy and new money