Starting with the meeting between Gatsby and Daisy, I think the first thing to comment on is the idea of the alarm clock. You see that preceding the meeting with Daisy, Gatsby is incredibly nervous, and proceeds to knock the clock off its mantle. If you’re to go with the idea that the clock is perhaps a symbol of the lost/shared time between Gatsby and Daisy, then when it’s dropped, its almost putting out a question to readers … is it possible to reclaim this lost time/the past? When Gatsby catches it, its as though he’s openly defying the notion that the time lost cannot be recovered. It indicates, however, the fragility of this moment that the two are sharing together (that at any second, something may occur and the ‘ship’ – the potential of them having a relationship once more – sails. Indeed, the characters are convinced for a second that the clock fell on the ground (or at least, Nick states that everyone is convinced for a second that the clock fell on the ground) – Nick perhaps representing an outside perspective in this situation where
While he managed to catch it in the end, the other characters are convinced (or at least, Nick states that everyone is convinced for a second that the clock fell on the ground).
