Essay on fixations with the past relating to Gatsby and Hamlet !

I am writing an essay for my english class about people being fixated on the past and how this can essentially hurt your future. I need to compare Hamlet and Gatsby to this. My main point for Gatsby is that he couldn't let go of Daisy, which ended up leading to his death. My main point for Hamlet is that his obligation to avenge his father essentially led to his death as well. What I need help with is brainstorming more things to aruge about each character relating to their obsessions with the past. I appreciate your time, thank you.

This is a great approach. "Holding on to the past" is a broad theme, and I predict that you will narrow the theme of the paper based on the examples you find. Just start writing body paragraph. Write a paragraph that begins with a paragraph topic sentence. For each paragraph, you have a topic sentence that shows the folly of clinging to the past.

After writing a lot of body paragraphs, you'll write an intro paragraph that ends in a thesis statement that expresses the unique kind of clinging to the past that occurs in Gatsby and Hamlet.

In the conclusion, you will go beyond that theme and add "something extra" for the reader to take away.

Do not brainstorm. Skim through the readings and wait for ideas to come to mind. Skim through the readings with the theme of the essay in mind, and you will notice every example -- and some good quotes, too!