The past, the present and the future – three simple words that delineate the life any man or woman can live. Defined as what has happened, what is happening and what will happen, people universally dwell on these mystifying figures of imagination: a soccer game the next day, a test taken last week, or getting on the bus in five minutes. Throughout the history of humanity, time has always been a mysterious presence in the thoughts of humans: the concept that everything, whether the time is day or night, winter or summer, progresses in an orderly, linear and identically spaced fashion provides much skepticism to some, and confident credence in others. Although no clear answer has arisen, the many years of debating on the truth of time has revealed one concept that has been proven with acute confidence: humans reflect on the past and dream of the future. Though irrational at best, and detrimental at worst, it is human nature to contemplate these two fascinating periods of time. Without such contemplation, one can never truly dream of the future, or expand on what has happened in the past. It is this optimistic dreaming that brings about a revelation, and thus, change. However, once this reflection on the past and future damages the man or woman involved, time is no longer an ally, but an adversary with the sole goal of instilling dissatisfaction on the man or woman concerned. As depicted in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, an attachment to the past, along with a false desired perception of the future, instills dissatisfaction with the present in one’s mind; therefore, that man or woman is controlled by displeasure on a daily basis until that feeling is overcome.

            Throughout The Great Gatsby, a man known as Jay Gatsby, or more commonly just Gatsby, lives the luxurious life of which the average man or woman could only dream; however, an attachment to his past showed just how feeble one can become when dissatisfaction lurks in the deepest facets of one’s mind. At one part in the novel, Gatsby meets Daisy, his love from many years ago, in his house. Previously, Nick, one of Gatsby’s neighbors, invites her to Gatsby’s house, saying it is actually his. Daisy is Nick’s cousin; therefore, inviting her to his house seemed nothing out of the ordinary. Once she arrives in the pouring rain, a light knock on the door alarms the two; Gatsby has arrived. Walking nervously into the living room, Gatsby and Daisy meet once again, followed by an awkward moment of silence: “For half a minute there wasn’t any sound. Then from the living room [Nick] heard a sort of choking murmur and part of a laugh followed by Daisy’s voice on a clear artificial note” (91). An attempt at conversation, both gauche and clumsy, follows this stillness; however, through time, this attempted conversation transforms into a moment of utter brilliance, as if Gatsby’s and Daisy’s love had finally shown through the years they were kept apart, and had radiated through every pore of their bodies, filling the atmosphere around them with pure passion. Following this intense scene of affection came a tour of Gatsby’s – or to Daisy’s understanding, Nick’s – house, including the swimming pool and the surrounding grounds. This was obviously irrelevant to Gatsby, though, as it did not matter if Daisy saw anything he owned, but that she spent time with him, as he had loved to do many years ago. After this tour, the group of three returned to the house, and settled in for the night. As Nick went to say goodnight and adieu to Gatsby, though, he experienced something he had believed was long gone: “As [Nick] went to say goodbye [he] saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby’s face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness” (101). This cannot be; Gatsby has finally met his love whom he had missed for so long. Even with this experience, Gatsby is still overwhelmed with doubt, as if someone or something spoke familiar words of dissatisfaction and displeasure into his mind. This dissatisfaction, though, is the reason he is feeling as he is in the final moments of his night. Through the many years of his life, he had failed to live in the present, but rather, lived with the perception that the future holds happiness, and the past must be redeemed in order to feel complete. If one lives with this mindset, as Gatsby has lived, that man or woman never enjoys what is happening in the present; rather, he or she always looks towards the future, wishing this or that to come his or her way, and knowing with the upmost confidence that happiness will come his or her way as well; however, the actual result of this mindset, this way of life, is dissatisfaction, no matter what the present holds. This is depicted in Gatsby’s reaction; although he has met Daisy, and is still deeply in love with her, he feels confused, doubtful. Nick concludes that “no amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (101). In Gatsby’s heart lies dissatisfaction and nothing outside of him will ever cure the state of mind from which he is suffering. This will even lead him into believing that the past, already completed, can be repeated in the same way as done before.