Can't Repeat the Past — The Great Gatsby

A reporter turns up at Gatsby's door hunting for a statement about rumors he barely understands, and Nick says the instinct is right: by now the party guests have made Gatsby almost news. Then Nick tells the real origin. James Gatz of North Dakota renamed himself at seventeen when Dan Cody's yacht anchored in Lake Superior. He rowed out as Jay Gatsby, served Cody for five years, and inherited an ambition for meretricious beauty along with a fortune Cody's mistress kept from him.

On a Sunday Tom Buchanan arrives on horseback with Sloane and a woman in a riding habit. Gatsby rings bells and pours champagne as if hospitality could force acceptance. They refuse to stay, invite him to dinner out of politeness, and leave when he goes inside to change. That Saturday Tom and Daisy come to a party that feels different. Daisy sees West Egg through Tom's contempt: raw new money, uninvited guests, vulgar emotion instead of performance. Gatsby parades celebrities and calls Tom the polo player. Daisy dances with Gatsby, then slips away with Tom at supper while the table turns ugly.

After they leave, Gatsby tells Nick the party failed because Daisy did not enjoy it. What he wants is larger: Daisy must tell Tom she never loved him, erase four years with one sentence, then marry Gatsby in Louisville as if no time had passed. Nick says you cannot repeat the past. Gatsby answers, Why of course you can. He describes the night five years ago in Louisville when he kissed Daisy and wed his dream to her breath, the incarnation complete. Nick almost remembers an old phrase tied to that story, but it will not come.