Similarities Between Catcher In The Rye And The Great Gatsby
There is a very fine line between nostalgia and obsessing on the past. Many people argue that one should not waste today reliving yesterday. Unfortunately, the human psyche is delicate and we need to process our past in order to move forward. For example, when mourning the loss of a loved one, most of us tend to be paralyzed or stuck in the past because we have to process what happened. How long it takes to move through the negative and positive events of the past is highly dependent on the individual. The protagonists in the novels The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger uniquely put forth the dangers of existing in the present, but psychologically living in the past. Both of these novels portray
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Jay Gatsby is passionately in love with a married woman named Daisy Buchanan, a woman he lost five years before the start of the book. In this novel, Gatsby orders his life around his one desire: to be reunited with Daisy. Gatsby’s mission in this story leads him from poverty to wealth, into Daisy’s arms, and eventually into his death. Gatsby sees Daisy as embodying the past that can be again in the future. He is completely obsessed with returning to the time when he and Daisy fell in love. "He wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. 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; ch. 6) This clarifies why Gatsby is so desperate to reclaim Daisy and why he is stuck living in the past. In a way, Daisy represents a prize to Gatsby. Acquiring this prize is his dream, his salvation, and eventually it becomes his temperament. This love for Daisy is no longer a harmless attraction to Gatsby. It becomes an unhealthy obsession that completely takes over his life. In The Great Gatsby, it is shown that the occurrences and experiences from our past shape the present and future.
Jay Gatsby is passionately in love with a married woman named Daisy Buchanan, a woman he lost five years before the start of the book. In this novel, Gatsby orders his life around his one desire: to be reunited with Daisy. Gatsby’s mission in this story leads him from poverty to wealth, into Daisy’s arms, and eventually into his death. Gatsby sees Daisy as embodying the past that can be again in the future. He is completely obsessed with returning to the time when he and Daisy fell in love. "He wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. 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; ch. 6) This clarifies why Gatsby is so desperate to reclaim Daisy and why he is stuck living in the past. In a way, Daisy represents a prize to Gatsby. Acquiring this prize is his dream, his salvation, and eventually it becomes his temperament. This love for Daisy is no longer a harmless attraction to Gatsby. It becomes an unhealthy obsession that completely takes over his life. In The Great Gatsby, it is shown that the occurrences and experiences from our past shape the present and future.