Extra Credit Great Gatsby Post

Before "The Great Gatsby" was a major motion picture by Warner Bros., it was a great American literary classic about the roaring twenties. A time before the stock market crash and subsequent depression, where the rich liked to have fun, and the poor knew to stay out of their way.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most highly distinguished, and appropriately rated writers of our time. He has this ability to turn ever line of his novels into extremely eloquent sophisticated poetry. He turns the roaring twenties into a beautiful, yet doomed era, brought to an abrupt halt by the depression.

The novel itself is class commentary on class and the shallow-seeming lives of New York elite. The protagonist Nick Caraways lives in a fictional borough "West Egg" across the pond from his cousins Daisy and Tom, who live in the most prestigious "East Egg". Which is possibly be a reference to the Manhattan/Brooklyn split. The difference between the two, being old money and new. But perhaps West Egg is becoming more fashionable due to gentrification, and college kids; like it's counter part.

The character of Tom, Daisy's husband is both racist, and pseudo-intelectual (I can't decide which quality is worse). Tom's misogyny aside, it's clear though that these are not the views of the author. He's assigned these terrible traits to Tom because he's establishing how awful he is. Tom is the closest thing we have to a villain in the novel. Unless one's consider's Daisy's flippancy, Myrtle's disgruntled husband, or perhaps the American Dream.

The character of Myrtle is similar to Daisy in that they two both love Tom - or should I say money. Myrtle's husband owns an unsuccessful auto-shop in Queens. Myrtle regrets getting involved with him because of his financial situation. In many ways Myrtle could symbolize what would have happened to Daisy had she not married Tom. It seems that when one is only interested in chasing money they'll never be happy. Even if they're successful like Daisy, or unlucky like Myrtle. both women are treated poorly by Tom, who chooses to break Myrtle's nose after she refusing to stop saying Daisy's name. Myrtle differs from Daisy is that she stands up to Tom a bit more, and seems to be more spirited.

All in all, at the heart of this novel is a love story. One between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby- wait no, I mean money.

The Great Gatsby

Going from readings about the perspective of populations facing social inequalities, to the privileged few is an interesting change.  Everybody in Nick's world appears to be so materialistic and concerned about reputation.  Tom and Daisy are an interesting example.  They are married and can obtain any materialistic need imaginable, and yet they are unhappy together.  However they stay together anyway because of their status. 

Another interesting character is Gatsby who is slowly introduced into the story, and towards the later chapters it is slowly revealed how tenacious and calculating he is in order to obtain his dream. Just because of all of early signs of how overly-calculating he is, I am not convinced that he loves Daisy at this point, rather he is in love with the idea of being in love. 

He spent 5 years or something like that building the scenario for an idealistic reunion where he has enough money, and perhaps even sabotaged her marriage with Tom?  A lot of the finer details are still missing, so I have high hopes for Gatsby when those are filled in since he is probably called great for a reason.  


A total aside, but I found it a little interesting about how Gatsby's early introduction reminds of the count in The Count of Monte Cristo if anybody has ever read or seen that.

The Great Gatsby

In the first Chapter of the Great Gatsby, and more importantly in the first pages, Fitzgerald points out the whole theme of the book : a materialistic decadent way of living in the United States during an era of decline of the American Dream which it actually provoked. Nick is both excited and disgusted by Gatsby's lifestyle, and even though it represents everything he hates about New York, he still admires Gatsby. Fitzgerald starts to depict a materialistic America and slowly point out the reasons of such a decline through Nick's disgust of the excess of American way of living.

To Fitzgerald, these excess are just a facade that tries to hide an inevitable fall of the American Dream. Indeed, the East Egg scene is a perfect representation of the mask : Tom and Daisy's beauty and wealth only hides a more important hidden emptiness, corruption and even unhappiness.

How Great is Gatsby?

The character of Jay Gatsby is quite an enigma to say the least. Upon meeting the character of Gatsby the reader cannot help but notice an unmistakable elegance and charm that radiates from his being. Chapters one through five gives the reader little insight into Gatsby's mysterious background but lets the reader know that he is a man of great wealth and as the story progresses is hopelessly in love with Daisy. I personally feel that Gatsby was never able to pursue his love interest with Daisy due to his murky background that is undivulged to the reader. It seems as though Gatsby is constantly having to phone individuals on business related matters, and as we learn he deals with some somewhat shady individuals such as the man who fixed the 1919 World Series of baseball.
     Does Gatsby have something to hide from the outside world that he does not allow others to see? I cannot help but wonder if there is a deeper darker secret behind the wealth that Gatsby possesses. Thoughts and opinions?

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The Color Yellow

Throughout Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator becomes progressively more obsessed with the wallpaper over the course of the 3 months she spends in the room. She focuses on the color in the first entry, describing it as "repellent, almost revolting;  smoldering unclean yellow...lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others," (1531). This negative description gives the reader a feeling that the color is drab, dull, and insufferable which is ironic because the color yellow is typically associated with happiness, light, and possibly clarity.

As the narrator writes more entires, the reader learns more about the her life as well as her developing issues with the wallpaper. Now it is not only the color that vexes her, but also the pattern because "it slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream," (1536). At this point, the reader begins to realize that the narrator may have some more psychological issues than just bad nerves. The narrator begins seeing images such as a lady behind bars who creeps around, and faces with bulging eyes. Through the multiple descriptions of the wallpaper, the reader witnesses the deterioration of the narrator's mind. What seems like a normal, slightly anxious woman in the first entry, turns into a woman trying desperately to escape both her physical and mental situation. In order to do this, she gives in to her hallucinations of the trapped woman within the wallpaper and tries to free her by tearing it off the wall. It then becomes apparent that the lady trapped within the yellow wallpaper is symbolic of how the narrator feels. When the horrendous yellow wallpaper is shredded and torn off the walls, the narrator feels free, just like the woman trapped within them.

Free at last

Ms. Charlotte Perkins Gilman has demonstrated through The Yellow Wallpaper how the unequal power of gender affects her sanity as well has her writing. Through her tone and vivid descriptions of her summer confined in a bedroom, Gilman desperately tries to balance sanity with reality. She notes that her husband cares for her health and tries to provide a domestic life for Gilman. John, however, does not fully understand that Gilman is indeed descending into psychosis. Because of this, she is deemed an unreliable narrator- a powerful convention that plays well in the short story. And because John forbade her to go outside, Gilman deliberately disobeys and keeps a journal. Isolated with barely any companionship, her writings are fruitful as she talks about the inanimate objects of the mansion: "I never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing before, and we all know how much expression they have (1533)!" As the summer progresses, she focuses more on the dreadful wallpaper. With every entry, she discovers something new about it which displeases her enough to believe there is an actual woman on the wallpaper creeping upon her. When she is freed from the bedroom on the last day, she also frees the woman on the wallpaper by tearing it off. Metaphorically, she has also freed herself from her husband and his practice as a physician.