The Wire2002

D'Angelo Barksdale:
He's saying that the past is always with us, and where we come from, what we go through, how we go through it, all this sh*t matters. I mean, that's what I thought he meant.

Book Group Leader:
Go ahead.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Like at the end of the book, you know, boats and tides and all. It's like you can change up, right, you can say you somebody new, you can give yourself a whole new story. But, what came first is who you really are and what happened before is what really happened. And it don't matter that some fool say he different cuz the only thing that make you different is what you really do, what you really go through. Like, ya know, like all them books in his library. He frontin with all them books, but if you pull one down off the shelf, ain't none of the pages ever been opened. He got all them books, and he ain't read near one of 'em. Gatsby, he was who he was, and he did what he did. And cuz he wasn't ready to get real with the story, that sh*t caught up to him. I think, anyway.