The inevitability of time

There is a certainty that time is unstoppable. Time cannot be stopped, paused, fast forwarded or rewound. It will go at the same pace it has been and will be. In the novel, we see characters holding onto past things as time continues to move forward, regardless of how much people are holding onto the past. This creates the unstoppable feeling of time. The last line in the book acknowledges how strong and unbreakable time is, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” People are pushing through life (current) in the opposite direction they should, like boats fighting against the current. Always bringing up the past and clinging onto soemthing that is not the natural direction we should be moving in.

The myth of the American Dream

A myth describes something that isn’t real, so the American Dream is literally just a dream. Everyone, regardless of race, social status, gender etc. can achieve success (wealth and power) if they work hard enough. Nick comments that Gatsby “…Paid a high price for living too long with a single dream…” he was focused on completing the American Dream by winning Daisy back. Everything he has done with his life, from the moment he met her, has been fpr Daisy. He has no other purpose. It comes back round to people beong obsessed with something that is unattainable. The price of being obsessed with the dream and focusing solely on this is the loss of your self and umtimately death.