The concept of past is intimately connected to our perceptions of identity and the question of whether we can ever escape this often intrusive and suffocating hold on our person is central to my thesis of whether or not the past of an individual defines who they are and who they will become.
Object: Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby will be applied to both psychology and philosophy.
Beginning with Psychology, specifically the work of Sigmund Freud to show how our identity is determined.
Turning to philosophy with Jean Paul Sartre, exploring his views on freedom which oppose those of Freud.
Finally Friedrich Nietzsche’s work on ‘becoming’ and ‘overcoming’, discussing the ability to overcome our pasts and celebrate them.