Theme

You Can't Recreate the Past  -- 

Toni Morrison, the author of Beloved, wrote, "You can't let the past strangle you if you're going to go forward. But nevertheless, the past is not going anywhere." Clearly depicted in F. Scott's Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, inability to recreate the past is a major theme which can be greatly attributed to multiple psychoanalytical explanations about Gatsby. During the The Great Gatsby, the title character falls under a certain archetype, is clearly affected by defense mechanisms, and experiences clear difficulties organizing his subconscious thoughts. These characteristics all hinder Gatsby's ability to relive the life he once had with Daisy. Since that time, Gatsby has put his entire life into chasing Daisy Buchanan, crafting an elaborate facade in attempt to make her fall in love with him. 

The character of Gatsby can be clearly related to the "self-made man" archetype, which will be a major factor in why he cannot recreate the past. At the end of the night when Daisy and Gatsby first meet, Gatsby realizes that he is slightly dissatisfied with how the evening has gone, for "there must have been moments […] when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams" (pg. 95). It was not Daisy's fault, but "because of the colossal vitality of his illusion" (pg. 95). No matter how hard Gatsby tried, the past in his dreams would be unachievable because of how long he spent adding to the illusion of his past. At this point, Gatsby was less in love with Daisy and more in love with his magnificent creation of a dream. By looking at archetypes, Gatsby clearly falls under the "self-made man" archetype, which appears most often alongside the American dream. The self-made man is determined and ambitious, usually restless, unwillingly to grow up to take on their father's occupation or stay in the same place they were raised. In the novel, Gatsby grows up wanting nothing more than to escape the poor lifestyle that his living in. Eventually, through mostly illegal means, Gatsby becomes one of the richest people living on Long Island. It is made clear throughout the book that Gatsby is a dreamer that works extremely hard to get what he wants. The archetype finds power and strives on achievement, status and material wealth. Therefore, it is no surprise that Gatsby would spend five years of his life waiting for the perfect opportunity to reintroduce himself as a rich, successful man to Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby has gotten to the point where he can own everything except for Daisy, which makes her so much more attractive to him. Gatsby's inability to slow down and look at his goal critically, and even his inability to drop the dream all-together are all caused by Gatsby's self-made man state of mind, as well as his love for his magnificent dream. 

Denial by Scott Adams

Throughout the novel, Gatsby's mind appears to be hiding behind two defense mechanisms, distortion and denial. These mechanisms ultimately block his conscious mind from realizing that the present is going on around him, while he attempts to chase the past. Distortion and denial are both a reshaping or delusion of reality to meet internal needs. In this case, Gatsby's id seeks the pleasure it finds from the past, and avoids the pain it has from its lack luster, not yet successful present. He is not yet satisfied with his life because he is not with Daisy Buchanan. Even when Gatsby believes he has taken Daisy from Tom, he is completely unable to accept and admit that he cannot change what has already happened between the married couple. As stated by Nick, Gatsby "wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: 'I never loved you'" (pg. 109). However, this is obviously impossible as Daisy did love Tom at one point in her life. Gatsby has focused so much on the past, so that he has become completely ignorant of the present. His mind has blocked out everything logical pertaining to Daisy's current marriage that might hurt him or make him feel less successful. This is why Gatsby truly insists to himself that Daisy never loved Tom, because if he were to admit that to himself, he would have to share his accomplishment in having Daisy Buchanan love him. Later on, Tom breaks it to Gatsby that there are moments in Daisy and Tom's marriage that Gatsby will never know. Nick describes Gatsby's reaction to everything as "words [that] seem to bite physically into Gatsby" (pg. 132). A similar reaction is seen when he meets Daisy's child, he is completely shocked, as if he had never truly believed in the little girl's existence. This is because his mind would have had to of cope with this fact, or work around this fact, so he ignored it. It is only until these moments occur that Gatsby's defense mechanism shatters and he begins to realize that his dream is really unattainable. Gatsby was never going to be satisfied with the present that he was in, because his mind was unable to accept Tom and Daisy's marriage. 

Tied together with the points about his defense mechanisms, Gatsby's subconscious and conscious mind struggled to make decisions throughout the novel. Gatsby's id, part of his unconscious mind, seeks pleasure and avoids pain. Therefore, Gatsby's struggle to recreate the past can be described as the pleasure he wished to have. As explained, the defense mechanisms were the barriers used to avoid the pain he would have felt. Gatsby's superego was less of an influence than his id. Growing up in a poor family, then spending time in the war, followed by entering into illegal businesses were not good supports for Gatsby's superego, the part of the brain which learns from influences. Instead, Gatsby's superego was most likely plagued by the influences of certain characters who resemble Slagle and Wolfsheim. Therefore, throughout his past, Gatsby was learning to use any means to become wealthy to enter the social class Daisy was in. Later, these illegal businesses are used against him by Tom, strongly pushing Daisy away from him. Evidently, Gatsby's superego had a huge effect on his ability to make admirable decisions and therefore, his ability to win Daisy.