Maddie+F.+Writing

(I must give Grace credit for this awesome idea) Seriously, no stealing this. The joke is on you if you do, because I will hunt you down and find a way to make you give it back. Thanks!! ~Maddie :) <3

Maddie Fricker Mrs. Pawlyshyn AVAD February 18, 2010 Gatsby and the Past in //The Great Gatsby// Everyone’s own personal past shapes who he/she becomes. Chances are, if he/she has had a life filled with love and happiness, they are very caring, joyful, and loving people. If they have had a life filled with dejection and depression, he/she would usually end up being a very dishonest and negative person. Many people feel as if Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s //The Great Gatsby// is a great example of somebody whose past has made him who he was. He had a past where wealth was suddenly donned upon him, which had made him believe that he could keep on persevering, and he would eventually get what he desired. Unfortunately, this is not the truth, though he believed it was. Those beliefs he had fueled, shaped, and colored his existence. Somebody reading this may wonder, “What is in Jay Gatsby’s past that made him who he was?” The answer to that question is simple: love. While he was still young, he fell in love with a beautiful girl named Daisy, (page 110). They eventually were separated, because she fell in love with another man and Gatsby went off to war, but he never forgot her, (78). He even moved to the New York Sound so he could be near Daisy. Even though she was married, he still believed they could make it work. It did not, in fact, work the way he had planned because she loved both her husband and Gatsby, (page 133). So, that love previously mentioned really fueled, shaped, and colored his existence. As stated earlier, Gatsby’s past had given him the belief that he could keep persevering, and he would eventually get what he longed for. In this case, that longing was Daisy. He thought he could “win” Daisy just as he did with his other riches: “gambling” for her “illegally”. He began his “gamble” for Daisy when he asked Nick to invite her to Nick’s house for tea, (page 78). While there, he invited Daisy to come see his house, (page 89). After seeing his enormous estate and being around Gatsby again after a long period of time, she was reminded of her love for him. Therefore, Gatsby got the belief that he had “won this game”. Unfortunately for him, the “game” was not yet over. Daisy still loved Tom and was torn between the two men she loved, (page 133). She did not even have a chance to further contemplate this because of Gatsby’s sudden death. After this occurrence and also after Tom and Daisy moved away, the book leaves readers guessing that this “game” Daisy played with Gatsby had fueled, shaped, and colored her future by possibly motivating her to “quit the game”, by leaving Tom and her previous life behind in the past that had motivated her ever so much.