The Mind's Impact on the Adoption of Cyclical Behaviors

The Mind’s Impact on the Adoption of Cyclical Behaviors SAHAR MALEKI '23

Throughout the story of The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is known as the elusive, wealthy character who lives a dream life, or at least that is what outsiders perceive his life to be. This, however, is far from the truth because in reality, Gatsby's life consists of a never ending cycle of hosting parties that he gets no pleasure from, but continues to host, expecting a different outcome each time. Gatsby keeps up this process of organizing and hosting extravagant events and meaningless parties, hoping that his love interest, Daisy Buchanan, would eventually attend one of them. His efforts, however, prove futile time and again, and the outcome always disappoints him. Although the main theme of the book is to draw parallels between Gatsby’s wealth and the American Dream of wealth and success, the story goes further and outlines how Gatsby, striving to be with Daisy, based his whole life on a dream that never materialized but instead resulted in his untimely death. This might be a familiar experience to most of us, as repeating mistakes in the hopes of a different, more positive outcome, is part of human nature.

In our modern society, we are exposed to a variety of different views depending on our environment, media, and the people that we surround ourselves with. All these exposures help shape our ideals and beliefs, and force each of us to build an image of what our lives or even our bodies should look like, and how we should behave. For instance, pick any coming-of-age movie, book or programming or talk to any teenager and they would tell you that your teenage years are supposed to be filled with a group of friends who accompany you to different parties every week, and are with you on this adventurous journey called highschool, while you experience the “best four years of your life” and figure out who you are and what you are passionate about, before going to college. While this may be true for some teenagers, for others, these “quintessential” high school experiences are both overrated and hyper romanticized, and the pressure to participate deprives them of the opportunity to explore their own interests, burdening them with the repeated suggestions that they will regret missing out on these moments. As a result, the majority of high schoolers follow the same path even when they don’t get any pleasure from such experiences, or worse, when it becomes harmful to their mental or physical health. As the fall season begins and Friday football games, dances, and organized group photos consume the minds of teens around our nation every year, one tradition, homecoming, becomes the epitome of the “American highschool experience.” Starting highschool, I was aware of these events but never inherently interested, preferring to spend time participating in basketball games or competing in speech and debate competitions, as well as finishing my school work on Saturdays in order to have a relaxing Sunday before the start of a new week. While I was secure in my decision not to attend the freshman year homecoming, I was often faced with discussions about who would be going to what dance and with whom or where everyone was planning to have dinner before or after the event. These plans seemed, quite frankly, exhausting to organize and not worth the hassle, but I found myself sucked into such conversations anyway. It was inevitable, homecoming seemed to be all anyone talked about around that time of the year. Even though I was certain of my choice to skip the dance, my friends were adamant, “You need to go, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity! You’ll never get back your freshman year homecoming dance experience and you’ll regret missing out!.” My mind however, was made up and I am pleased to say that I have not regretted my decision yet, as I spent the evening comfortably lying on my bed, enjoying a new book, and feeling the serenity that can only be gained from a quiet, relaxing night at home with no more work to complete.

Studies have shown that humans often repeat their past behaviors and experiences, hoping for better results. They do this either out of curiosity to test and see if repeating the same behavior might change the outcome, or out of familiarity because we are creatures of habit, and we tend to repeat what we have been exposed to over our lifetimes. The cycle of repetitive behavior is something that has been closely studied by psychologists and sometimes even referred to as Einstein’s insanity, as he was quoted saying “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” (Wilczek 15). The futile cycle of repeating the same behaviors while hoping for different results, might explain why people repeatedly get into toxic relationships, or why they make the same career or personal mistakes over and over again despite being unhappy with the results. Even though this might seem like an easily fixable problem, psychologists tell us that our brains are wired to suppress unpleasant memories to preserve our emotional and mental stasis. These “hidden memories” are often inaccessible in our normal state of consciousness, and remembering those moments requires being placed into the same situation and experiencing the same emotional state as before, or more simply, repeating the ordeal yet another time (Northwestern 15) . Without active access to those negative memories, humans are often unable to analyze and comprehend the reasons as to why they should not repeat old behavior, or to recognize that the repetition of such behavior can lead to an identical negative emotional response. Thus, they repeat the same old, familiar behavior, and end up in the same situation that they were previously in, unable to change or advance.

In the story of The Great Gatsby, despite Jay Gatsby’s wealth and social status, he prefered solitude, and though he constantly hosted fanciful parties, he rarely attended them and never enjoyed himself. In fact, Gatsby would often disappear into thin air when speaking with others or surrounded by acquaintances, demonstrating his desire to escape social situations,“‘I’ve been having lunch with Mr. Gatsby.’ I turned toward Mr. Gatsby, but he was no longer there” (58), and, “When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness” (19). As is evident by these examples, Gatsby was an introvert who took no pleasure in prolonged conversations or social interactions with strangers but still, he continued to host events and parties for the sole reason of keeping up appearances and in his pursuit of his unattainable love for Daisy.

While Gatsby’s guests had the time of their lives at his parties, he himself chose to be alone rather than spend time with those he had invited. In fact, his main wish while throwing all the parties was to get a chance to spend time with Daisy. An effort that proved unsuccessful, time after time. Even though Gatsby’s actions may seem romantic on the surface, in reality Gatsby was spending his time, money, and energy on a seemingly hopeless endeavor that had brought nothing but agony for him in the past, “He came back from France when Tom and Daisy were still on their wedding trip, and made a miserable but