Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby - notes
Scribner, c. 1995
Notes
Lost Generation
Hemingway and The Somme
Disullusioned
Judgement & Nick: 5-6
Has its limits (6) (Ex. race)
Race / Racism
Eckleberg: Fitzgerald choice? No nose. God
Wolfshiem: 4:73
African-Americans in car
Race structure is self-destructive
Nick unhappy in the end?
Tom's race speech is foolish
Wolfsheim used Gatsby (179).
Tom: 17, Goddard v The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy (1920),
by Lothrop Stoddard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rising_Tide_of_Color_Against_White_WorldSupremacy
Tom: 137
Blacks in NY: 73
Class
Class structure is self-destructive
Valley of Ashes // West Egg
Empty, desolate
Wilson on foot: 168
NASA study, society collapse
School integration study: NEA magazine, 2014
Gatsby wants to repeat he past because he wants reclaim innocence
No forgiveness?
Coming of age story
Nick turns 30 when Gatsby is revealed.
Theme: See / be aware what’s in front of you?
Nick reevaluating all below
Eyes of Dr.: see what's in front of you
Nick turns 30 when Gatsby is revealed.
Maturation
Nick watches everything, then judges a year later (6)
Hero Story
Fairy tale, Grimm's
How did you feel about Daisy going with Tom?
She has to live with the guilt that she killed Gatsby
Non-judgmental narrator
Crap hits the fan
Seductress
Nick Deuces his girfriend
Doppelganger: Owl eyes (IX: 183)
Glasses
Truth v illusion
Unity: outside and in
Water
Hero: Nick
Who is the hero of this story?
How do we know he cares now?
Book
Theme: Don't chase illusions
Don't chase your dreams (Griselle)
Don't recreate the past (Last page)
What symbol at the end of the novel contradicts Gatsby's fervent belief that one can
escape his origins and rewrite his past?
Ending: "Most of the big shore places... So we beat on, boats against the current, borne
ceaselessly into the past."
Green *3
American dream = green light
Water
Killed by the machine: Gatsby, Myrtle
Daisy kills Gatsby
Class envy
Did Gatsby change? (Kyra)
Had never gone in the pool (161, 8).
Doesn't enjoy his life.
Decides to let go of Daisy.
(Going w/ the flow // Moby, Ishmael)
Relaxed
Thinks he's got Daisy?
Water
House becomes like Valley of Ashes: darker (see descriptions).
The error in Gatsby's thinking?
"Of course you can [repeat the past]!"
Gatsby all right in the end
Gatsby Tragic: 6
Movement: trains, cars v Wilson
No movement for Wilson (social)
Theme: American dream is dead
Cars
Wilson will never own one.
Gatsby's illegitimately-earned, yellow (gold) car gets him killed
Buried with Gatsby
// Negotiations between Wilson and Tom.
Gatsby killed by corrupted American dream
Get rich quick by any means
Pd. 1 2013-14
Growth of the stock market + people not enjoying fruits (Butterfield)
Gatsby, Daisy, Myrtle, Wilson
Wilson
Tom's car is a symbol of a false American Dream
Wilson will never be able to buy it.
Synthetic happiness (// Daisy description, 1st meeting with Gatsby, see Illusion)
Back then it was easier to work your way up.
Now harder, more competition
Monopolies created.
To get rich you just need a good idea.
Back then there were openings for people like Carnegie, and they closed them.
Tom rich and dumb (17)
Theme: American dream
Why was Gatsby great?
Gatsby notebook (181)
// Horatio Alger stories
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps
Theme: Illusion
ex. Gatsby's house dissasembled
Was Gatsby a big money baller?
Gatsby not rich
Chapter VII, pgph 2
VIII, pgph 4, also “It was nine o-clock...”
IX: “Young Parke's in trouble...”
Green light: the grass is always greener; $
Women putting on airs
Gatsby killed by corrupted American dream (Andrew)
American dream is false
Daisy lied to husband?
Title page poem: falseness, winning woman
Theme: Falsity
Theme: Winning woman
Was Daisy the same person Gatsby left?
Gatsby tries to force Daisy to say that she never loved Tom.
Why did she settle for Tom? Race and class.
Should have gone to the funeral.
Names
Gatsby
Daisy
Illusions
Nick the Pigeon
Daisy uses Gat to get back at Tom
Color:
Gold: poem, car
Green: 111 (Daisy), Gatsby
"For the Love of Money" lyrics
Nouvoe Riche v old money
Daisy torn / new roles of women
Daisy really love Gatsby?
First meeting (91)
Diction: artificial, horrible
Theme: obsession with material items
Opening poems
Neighborhood everyone rich
Gatsby shirt (mamey), car (banaaanaaa)
Jordan cheated
Fashion consciousness, Noveau Riche (9)
All midwesterners (10)
Tom cheats with cheap women
(See description of apartment, other woman)
Where do the noveau riche live?
East Egg
Reaction: Gatsby was a fool
Creation of the times
Dr. Eckleberg
Jewish
Who symbolizes God in this story?
A billboard
Or
Voyeurism
Myrtle (131)
Wilson: “God is always watching” (167).
Nick watching and judging because he feels compelled to tell the story about Gatsby,
how he was treated.
Watched Gatsby (Benjamin)
Gender: Women fools (21)
Suffrage was a recent win
Transition
Smoking, drinking
Dancing
Dress
Short hair: Jordan
Could the affairs had turned out another way? (Rojo)
Unfair, childish
Tom was having an affair
Apartment
(What does she think of herself?)
Thinks she is garbage
How do you treat others when you think you are garbage?
Does Wilson think he is garbage?
Author
Audience: racism
Text
Ethos: Racist book, patrician father of Nick
Pathos: Nick criticizes snobbery (p. 1)
Logos:
Student Discussion
Pd. 5
Who would you have stayed with?
Did Gatsby love Daisy?
What would have happened if Gatsby would have taken the blame?
Part of the book that stood out for you and why?
Did Gatsby change in the book?
Had never gone in the pool.
Doesn't enjoy his life.
Decides to let go of Daisy.
(Going w/ the flow // Moby, Ishmael)
What is the moral of the story?
Money not equal to morality
Money can't buy happiness
How did you feel about Daisy going with Tom?
She has to live with the guilt that she killed Gatsby
Fairy tale
Nick and judging
If Wilson would have killed Tom, would Daisy have ended up with Gatsby?
People would have judged her.
She didn't want to be around that.
Didn't want reputation ruined.
Did Daisy actually like Gatsby?
She used to love him.
Not any more.
Pd. 2
Did Daisy know about Tom?
Why is it ok for Tom?
Double-standard
Submission to aggressive behavior
Did she choose to get into this situation?
Chose Tom
Why did Nick like Gatsby so much?
Rich baller
Something Gatsby couldn't judge
Didn't judge
Tom is a cheater.
Mysterious
Loyal
Project Ideas
5
Play (2)
Movie(new) (All except Joanna)
Movie(Old) & write movie review (Infinity)
Watch old & new movie & compare (All except two people)
2
Watch the movie- Infinity
Compare the movie and the book- 2
Film reenactment- 9
Film analysis- 3
Rolls Royce and run someone over and Gatsby party- 7
Simulate Gatsby’s death- 9
Gatsby Jeopardy vs. AP- 12
Older movie + Review: 10
2013-14
Pd. 1
Why didn't people come to Gatsby's funeral?
Didn't like him
Had money
Found out had money from bootlegging
Thought he killed Myrtle
Nobody was his friend
Didn't know him
Tom asked around.
Jordan and Daisy asked around
Jordan says that she is engaged.
Wanted a show.
Didn't care.
Were characters confused about who killed Myrtle?
Encouraged by all
(Including Gatsby)
Did the optometrist billboard have a meaning or was it just there?
Watches over Valley of Ashes
Sees what is happening there (Benjamin).
(Voyeurism)
Did Nick have gay feelings for Gatsby?
Watched (Benjamin)
Admired up to a point
Could the affairs had turned out another way?
Unfair, childish
Tom was having an affair
Apartment
What made Gatsby great?
Great parties
Waited for Daisy
Made money
Was it love or obsession that Gatsby had with Daisy?
Love makes you feel
Love is between two people. Obsession is about one.
Who was the antagonist of the novel?
Tom trying to get the dirt on Gatsby
Did Daisy mention Gatsby's class?
Is this an accurate portrayal of the American Dream?
Growth of the stock market + people not enjoying fruits (Butterfield)
Gatsby, Daisy, Myrtle, Wilson
Wilson
Tom's car is a symbol of a false American Dream
Wilson will never be able to buy it.
Synthetic happiness (// Daisy description, 1st meeting with Gatsby, see Illusion)
Back then it was easier to work your way up.
Now harder, more competition
Monopolies created.
To get rich you just need a good idea.
Back then there were openings for people like Carnegie, and they closed them.
American dream is individual. Everyone's is different.
Period 7
What does Wolfshiem do?
Why does Gatsby hide his identity?
Why Daisy say she hopes her daughter a fool?
(Why would she settle for Tom?)
Used to it.
Comfortable.
Wealth
(Why settle for Tom?)