阅·思 | 【2023级9班】Time Maze and Memory Reconstruction in Gatsby

ITRODUTION

Wandering in the long river of time and searching among the fragments of memory, The Great Gatsby is like a magnificent and sad epic, leading us into the journey of the maze of time and the reconstruction of memory. The glitz and glamour of the Jazz Age and Gatsby's obsession and madness have become clearer in the precipitation of the years. As the wheel of time turns relentlessly, memory has become Gatsby's last haven. He is lost in the maze of time, yet seeking that trace of past beauty in the reconstruction of memory.

Ⅰ

「READING」

During the progression of the novel's story, Nick's memories constantly switch between Gatsby's past and present. At times, he describes the luxurious party scenes of Gatsby. For example, "Every Friday, five crates of oranges and lemons were delivered from a fruit store in New York; every Monday, these oranges and lemons turned into a small mountain of halved peels and were hauled out through his back door."[1]Then, through Jordan Baker's retelling, he shifts the time back to the past of Gatsby and Daisy, recalling their once-upon-a-time love story: "He stretched out his hands in despair, as if trying to grasp a wisp of air, to preserve a fragment of the city made lovely because of her. However, in his misty, tear-filled eyes, everything was moving too fast, and he knew that he had lost that part, lost the freshest and most beautiful part forever."[2] This kind of time-jumping is like a sudden turn in a maze, making people lost and searching among different time-based scenarios, constantly constructing an understanding of the whole story, and during these jumps, the suspense also gradually deepens.

Ⅱ

「READING」

In this story, the reliability of memory is extremely challenged. Gatsby's memory of Daisy is filled with an idealized hue. In Gatsby's memory, Daisy is an innocent and loving girl, and he always cherishes the love he had with her in the past. However, when they meet again, we find that Daisy is no longer what Gatsby remembered. Daisy in Gatsby's memory is more of his imagination and expectation. For instance, “He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way.”[3]

Ⅲ

「READING」

The background of the novel is set in the United States in the 1920s, which is the Jazz Age characterized by economic prosperity and prevalent materialism. Gatsby was born into a relatively poor family. However, the gold rush and the wave of the pursuit of wealth in this era drove him to strive vigorously. During World War I, he experienced the test of war. After the war, he took advantage of various opportunities in society, including illegal ones, to accumulate wealth. Time propelled his destiny, gradually transforming him from an unknown young man into a mysterious and wealthy figure. Nevertheless, it was precisely the fickleness and moral degradation of this era that doomed him to experience the frustrations and tragedies during the pursuit of his dream. When he was young, the beautiful experience with Daisy also made him live in an ideal world constructed by his own memory all the time. He attempted to make reality coincide with memory, but eventually, he was burdened by memory.

CONCLUSION

In Fitzgerald's writing, The Great Gatsby is like a mysterious labyrinth of time. The interaction between time and memory is like an invisible net, tightly binding the characters in the novel, making them unable to escape the arrangement of fate and eventually move towards their respective destinies. From this novel, we can see that memory can be a beautiful recollection or a shackle that binds us. We need to view our experiences as objectively as possible, avoid the beautification of memory and the distortion of facts, and thus move towards a future that truly belongs to us.