The Past In The Great Gatsby

The past is something that should remain in the past. The present should be lived for instead. For Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, forgetting what was in the past and letting go of it was a struggle. He was so in love with Daisy Buchanan, a girl he met five years ago, that he continued to pursue her even after she was already married. In The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald shows the character of Jay Gatsby as someone who dwells on the past and would do anything to get Daisy back.
When Gatsby found out that Daisy and Nick were cousins, he had Jordan Baker ask Nick “if you’ll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon” (83). What Nick soon found out from Jordan is that “ Jay Gatsby is planning a little reunion with Daisy so he can see her again. Gatsby was “afraid” and has “waited so long” for this moment (84). Gatsby wants the reunion with Daisy to be at Nick’s house because “he wants her to see his house” (84). The reason for this reunion was because “he half expected her to wander into one of his
Tom accused Gatsby of having an affair with Daisy because “she had told him she loved him” (125) back when they were having lunch. According to Gatsby, Daisy only got married to Tom because “he was poor and was tired of having to wait” and that “in her heart she never loved anyone other than me” (137). Gatsby wants too much of Daisy because he wants her to tell Tom that she “never loved him” (139). Daisy “did love him once” but she “can’t say she never loved Tom” (140). Gatsby was so wrapped up in the past that he couldn’t see who Daisy really was. All he had of her was an idea from the past. Living in the past is a dangerous thing to do. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is so hung up on the idea of Daisy Buchanan he did almost everything in his power to get her back into his life. This states that Gatsby really does dwell on the past and has trouble letting