F Scott Fitzgerald represents the inevitability of time through various symbols and scenes. He uses the idea, to represent how time continues to move forward, regardless of how much we hold onto the past. As humans time to us is a tangible thing, as we grow older we use time as a measurement of our existence, moments, memories and life. Throughout the novel Fitzgerald conveys the idea to show how Gatsby is blinded by the hope and imagination of being with Daisy but doesn’t realise the significance of the time that has separated them. He believes that the five years they have spent apart has changed nothing, but for Daisy, she has moved on with her life and is now a mother and wife. After they meet again at Nick’s house, It is not enough for Gatsby to just have Daisy he needs to erase the time they have spent apart but for Daisy, it’s impossible to do that, but Gatsby’s can’t see that as he has spent his whole life fantasizing over her. He says to Nick before Daisy comes over for lunch  “I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.” “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why, of course, you can”. This passage conveys accurately the inevitability of time by showing how one’s illusion of the present is operated by the past.

Fitzgerald using the theme of water in the novel to convey the physical idea of time.The persisting ripples of water appear throughout the book, from the moment Jay Gatsby was “born” at sea, to where he took his last breaths drowning in his pool of blood. It examples the time that Gatsby and Daisy have spent apart but it also shows how they are physically still apart by the body of water that flows between the two eggs. It represents a barrier that time engenders between Gatsby and Daisy and how this distances him from her and therefore, from his dream.

The the American Dream is used to convey the idea that everyone regardless of race, social status, gender etc, can achieve success (wealth and power) if they work hard enough. But as the novel unfolds we see how Fitzgerald uses this term as a “myth” and how everyone is under the illusion of it. We see the theme of the American Dream hughley in the four settings of the novel. In East egg (the elites) people are given the dream through inheritance and family whether across the bay in West egg the people have to work for their money to create a dream for themselves either illegally or entrubranal, “Just a bunch of bootleggers”.The Valley of ashes represents the false nature of the dream, the characters in the setting constantly work hard but never achieve their success, the “dream” fails them time and time again. As the setting carry on the characters find themselves in New York the city where “anything is possible”, to us the city represents hope and excitement of a new era, but as the novel unpeels the city seems to be an illusion. Gatsby represents the corrupt American Dream as he came from nothing; but had great determination and drive to create a future for himself. Although he is wealthy and could buy and have anything he wants, he will never be accepted into the “elite” upper class society. Gatsby is always trying to reach for something he can attain, no matter how hard he tries or how much money he makes. Fitzgerald uses this to show how The American dream is unattainable and illusive making the “dream” a myth.