The Great Gatsby is heavily based on the past and ideas of living in the past. Gatsby is obsessed with the idea of restoring the past throughout the entire novel. This dream has a death grip on him but also represents a general theme of the novel and how you cannot change fate no matter how hard you try. Gatsby says in the novel “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can”; however, even after all of his efforts he still could not restore the past and his desire to do so ultimately led to his demise. Additionally Gatsby kind of rose to wealth through fate; however, he did not earn his wealth through legal and fair means which meant that fate would ultimately run its course and would crumble eventually. The ending of the novel sums up the idea of fate perfectly as Gatsby’s death is brought about by his illusion and deceptions, his blind faith in his dream of restoring the past caused Gatsby to throw all logic out of the window. Even as the novel progresses Gatsby never realizes that he is powerless against fate and cannot change it. Fitzgerald uses this to demonstrate how powerful fate is and why the American Dream is an illusion that tries to cover up and disguise fate.