The Great Gatsby chapter 6 reading question “You can’t repeat the past.”

“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”

He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.

“I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,” he said, nodding determinedly. “She’ll see” (Fitzgerald 116-7).

1. Throughout the novel, where do you see indication that Gatsby would like to recreate the past?

2. In the quote above, Nick suggests two locations where Gatsby seems to think the past is: 1) in the shadow of the house, and 2) just out of Gatsby’s reach. What is significant about each of these “locations” for the past?