Looking Back at that Golden Moment

Before reading this book, we were all told that a common theme to look out for was to be people living in the past. From the beginning the first one was laid out in front of us; "...but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game." Tom wishes he could still be in his golden years, a star football player with fans cheering him on with every movement.

Since then however, these moments for the other characters have remained hidden. Hidden until now it would seem, as not one but perhaps two characters have revealed to us, the readers, what moments they look back on longingly.

The first is Jay Gatsby, a character who we have finally learned much about after a long period of looking at him through clouded vision. In the most recent chapter Gatsby has arranged an elaborate meeting with Daisy, someone who we know through Jordan he previously held a relationship with. From Gatsby's tone and the description from Jordan, it would seem that Gatsby is quite obsessed with Daisy and wishes to be with her once more. This is his Golden Moment, he wants to be once more with Daisy.

I did say two characters have shown their Golden Moments, and the other is appropriately enough Daisy. We know from her own dialog that Daisy has become a cynic. She believes that there is nothing in life for her and that the best she and any other woman can be is a beautiful fool.

Now why would she think this? We now know that Daisy had a particular experience which may have affected her more that she lets on. In her late teens, Daisy had many relationships with soldiers, and at one point she planned to see off a soldier in New York. While packing she was caught by her mother, and was forbade from going to New York. This may have been when she begins to believe that she has been a fool, and she takes such a cynical outlook on life. No matter how she represses it, the golden moments of her life which she may forever look back on have passed.

Now here's why I post these both together. I believe their two moments connect more so than the book explicitly says. Again and again while telling the story of his life, Gatsby refers to a very sad thing that happened to him, just before the war. We also know that Daisy had many relationships with soldiers, one of them being Gatsby, a Lieutenant as Jordan remembers. This Lieutenant was Jay Gatsby.

Gatsby says that he accepted a commission to become a Lieutenant as soon as the war started.

Daisy was supposed to see a soldier off at New York, but was forbade from going. This soldier would have been expecting her, and to have her not show up must have been heartbreaking.

Gatsby and Daisy's break up was never explained, and Gatsby seems rather obsessed with Daisy now, why did he ever let her go in the first place? Was he forced by the war?

See where I'm going with this yet? What if the turning points for both Gatsby and Daisy are the exact same event? What if Gatsby was the soldier Daisy was going to see off, and Gatsby was very saddened by her not showing up? What if that very sad thing that happened to Gatsby was Daisy not showing up to see him off in New York?

Or maybe I'm completely wrong, but it makes sense it my head.