Great Gatsby Essay
Times Development In The great Gatsby
In the book, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald employed time as an important part of the imagery and symbolism representing how much Gatsby could actually change in his life. This theme was developed through a number of the characters and many settings. Throughout the story Gatsby tried to control this great force, but to no avail. The Great Gatsby was dedicated to the idea that no matter how hard one tried, he would never be able to bring back time.
Gatsby was perplexed by time, even as a child. His well thought-out schedule, that the reader saw later, left in his book, possibly for his dad, showed his yearning to control time. As a boy, the only way he knew to do this, was by planning every step in detail to save time in the long run. Gatsby saw time as opportunity. Why would he waste time when there were better things to be doing? At this point in his life, as a young child, there was no need for him to go back in time, since the decisions he was making were pointing him in the direction of greatness. He was on the fast track to completing his dreams and goals. But as time went along, his goal of great achievement was attained and then replaced by the goal to acquire Daisy as his mate.
In the beginning of the book, the green light in front of Daisy's home represented Gatsby’s dream. Gatsby had hope that he could reverse time and go back to the way things were between them. This was why he had moved right across the bay from her, in the hope that she would wander back into his life. She was just out of reach, though, much like the shimmering green light hanging over the bay, teasing him. As much as he yearned for that light to change time, it would always be the same, and never be anything but green. Even if they met again things could never be the same between them.
When Jay Gatsby and Daisy were reunited at Nick's house, in chapter five, Gatsby, through awkward tension, knocked over Nick’s clock. "The clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers and set it back in place." This event was an extremely important foreshadowing of Jay's failure to bring back time. He felt as if Daisy and he could be lovers again after all of the separation and passing of time. This was also where doubt started to creep into Gatsby’s mind. His trembling fingers, grasping the clock symbolized his great fear of failure.
A little later in the book, Nick tried warning Gatz that he could not repeat time. To which Gatsby responded, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can." Even after all of the warnings and signs, Jay was still a firm believer in his control of time, even believing he could repeat what was already gone. Nick saw this when he read Jay’s childhood schedule, the schedule that began the crazy obsession in his early years. In the end of the book, when Gatsby’s father showed up, the reader understood where he acquired this erroneous belief. The father, however, believed that Jay had left the schedule in the back of the book specifically for him in the hope that it could influence the father’s actions. In that way, maybe there would be hope for the father to become prosperous as his son. Here again, the author alludes to the theme of turning back time to change a course of action.
In the end, Gatsby’s death was the final utterance of the development of time. Gatsby turned out to be a fine young man, “it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams...” That was what sent him to ruin. What he did not realize was that time could not be stopped, much less traveled through. His entire adult life he had spent searching out his dream, his dream of Daisy, but “he did not know that it was already behind him.” After all that, what had it led to? He was dead and his home was empty, abandoned and alone. Time will stop for no man, not even the great Gatsby himself.
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