Boats Borne Back
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly, into the past.”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
Maybe you’ve read The Great Gatsby already as part of your high school education or maybe you haven’t. Either way I’m going to tell you something here your teachers may not like (shhhhh…) but that as a 35 year old writer I know to be absolutely, positively, irrevocably true: sometimes you aren’t ready for a great book the first time you read it. Sometimes we just haven’t lived enough to be able to appreciate a line like the one quoted above. I mean, how could we? How could I, at age 17, connect to the image of being born back ceaselessly into the past? What past? My middle school experiences?
And you know what? That’s okay. It’s no fault to have simply not lived long enough. I wish we talked about this more. I wish we acknowledged that there is no 5-step manual that can ever match or make up for actual living.
The Great Gatsby is an incredible story. If we let it, it can be a cautionary tale to us about how we should not relate to the past. Past dreams. Past loves. Past pain.
At his core, Gatsby is a man driven by the past and his desire to “fix” it. He sees his lost love, Daisy, not as she really is but as he remembers her. This is a fatal character flaw. Spoiler warning here, but he’s essentially dedicated his life to attempt to win her back. Initially, the tragedy appears to be that Gatsby and Daisy didn’t end up together, but by the close of the book, we realize that the true tragedy is Gatsby’s (and thus, our) shared experience with the past. We may long to overcome it, learn from it, or leave it behind, but however we relate to it, the past remains linked to our present. It’s the thing that shapes us, damages us, inspires us, teaches us, and haunts us.
So if we can’t escape from the past, then how do we engage in a way that keeps it from controlling us while still allowing us to become a better person because of it? The first thing that comes to mind is that we can’t isolate ourselves in relation to the past. In the book, it appears that Gatsby told almost no one about his true obsession with Daisy. When we engage in real, deep community, we are inviting outside voices to weigh in on the decisions we are making and why. That’s critical to engaging with the past in a way that helps us instead of hurting us. The past is powerful, and if Fitzgerald is telling us anything, it’s that none of us can ever escape it. If we keep that in mind, maybe, just maybe, we can make peace with it AND become a better person because of it.
Challenges/Points:
Sometimes we haven’t lived enough to fully appreciate something and that’s okay.
The Great Gatsby teaches us that refusing to let go of the past can be a deadly choice.
It’s important not to keep our past isolated. If we tell others about our past, then we can learn more fully from it and see it clearly.
Questions:
Have you read The Great Gatsby? What was your reaction?
Is there a part of the past that you find yourself wanting to relive or change?
How can you change the way you relate to the past so that it’s healthier for you?
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