Theme In Gatsby

After finishing The Great Gatsby we see a theme of what the past does to one man and his dream to obtain it. Anger is what made Gatsby, his wealth and power were his goals of happiness and love. Gatsby supports this when he says to Tom, "she only married you because I was too poor and she was tired of waiting for me." (137) Gatsby has never forgotten that if he had had the money when he first met her, then she would be his. So this starts his journey to make money and use the money to relive the past.

Regardless of Daisy's currant life with a husband and kid Gatsby still wants to make it like old times. After all, his beliefs drive him to do crazy things. He truly believes that he can change everything, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can...I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before. She'll see." (116) Gatsby's dreams drive him to do the impossible, change the past. Nick doesn't understand why a man would spend so much time and money for something that lasted so short and in no way in favor of Gatsby. "His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was" (117), the idea of a love relationship with Daisy as it was in the past. It is hard for Nick to understand this because he has never experienced love. To Gatsby, it was true love, but to Daisy, she did love Gatsby, but she moved on to more money. He even agrees with this saying that "her [Daisy] voice is full of money." (127) The reason that Gatsby can never truly enjoy his time with Daisy is because time has passed and things have changed, Daisy is married and has a daughter. "Afterward he kept looking at the child with surprise. I don't think he had ever really believed in its existence before." (123)

Gatsby must stop living in the dream world, hoping for a change