Missed Opportunities

684 Words2 Pages

People are given many opportunities throughout their lives. Some people take these opportunities and embrace them, but others simply lose these opportunities because of the loss the time. In the novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald’s most timeless theme conveyed throughout his work is time. Fitzgerald displays this recurring theme of time with the help of Gatsby, Daisy and Tom.
The word time appears repeatedly in the novel; therefore Fitzgerald obviously wanted to stress the importance of time to the overall theme of the book. Time is most important to Gatsby's character. The first time Gatsby starts showing his issue with time is when Nick invites Daisy over for tea. Gatsby was impatiently waiting for Daisy to come and two minutes before four, he began to vent “Nobody’s coming for tea. It’s too late! I can’t wait all day” (90). Then simultaneously, Daisy pulled into Nick’s driveway. Also during this get together, Gatsby leaned his head against a clock, but the clock took a “tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers and set it back in place” (91). The clock represented his grasp of time because Gatsby is having trouble keeping time and he had trouble keeping a hold of the clock. Furthermore, Gatsby wants to erase five years of not only his own life but also Daisy's. Gatsby fully believes what he says and thinks about Daisy is true. In one part of the story he actually tells Nick how, as soon as Tom is out of the picture, he and Daisy were going to go to Memphis so they could get married at her white house just like it were five years before. Gatsby states “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before” (117). In another scene, when Gatsb...

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...led’ repeated Tom, staring” (147). Myrtle was hit by an automobile and Tom is caught by surprised. Tom did not have the time to get over Myrtle. Finally, Tom “saw that damn box of dog biscuits sitting there on the sideboard I sat down and cried like a baby” (187). Tom was still stuck in time thinking Myrtle. Myrtle’s death allowed Tom to go back in time and remember the memories they shared.
In conclusion, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald’s most prevalent theme conveyed throughout his work is time. In the novel, Fitzgerald displays this recurring theme of time with the help of Gatsby, Daisy and Tom. Yet, “The Great Gatsby” still connects to the modern world. People are given many opportunities throughout their lives, but some people take these opportunities and embrace them. Others simply lose these opportunities because of the loss the time.

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