The Great Gatsby has a reoccurring theme of time. There are about 450 time words and even 87 appearances of "time". Gatsby is trying to achieve his dream of a going back to the past, but ultimately his dream fails and he cannot repeat the past.
Great Gatsby Quotes about the Past
Gatsby says "'Can't repeat the past?' He cried incredulously. 'Why of course you can!'" (page 116).
"He talked a lot about the past and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy" (page 117).
Nick says "I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known" (page 64). Can we trust his memory, as we get all of our facts from Nick, our narrator.
Gatsby tells Nick that he was "trying to forget something very sad that happened to me long ago" (page 70).
"He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the
time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount
of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly
heart" (page 101).
Daisy says "I can't help what's past" (page 140).
"He was at present a penniless young man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders" (page 156).
The book ends with "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (page 189).