What Is Nick's Response To The Great Gatsby
Brian Wang
AP Lang & Comp period 5
Thesis: No matter the person nor source or origin, one can search and work for the “American Dream” if one puts in hard work and respectful ethics.
Narrative
My grandfather emigrated from China in the 50’s. At the time, Communist regimes, China’s Civil War, and the Cultural Revolution were plaguing most of the region. My grandfather’s family help establish the Republic of China in Taiwan, made of mainly the Chinese Nationalists right after the communist party took over mainland China. However, my grandfather, his wife, and some other family members made the effort to find solace in a safer place. At the time, it was hard for someone in the world to not hear about America. Although they didn’t come by …show more content…
boat and have their named changed in Ellis Island, they humbly came and started in Tennessee so my grandfather could get a B.S. Although I’m sure they experienced some amazing things in country, I think the story really begins when they moved to New York. They started out in brownstone.
Poem
If you pull it at the thread it’s going to tear at the seams.
It’s everything that you want it to be
But are you ever going to find a way find a way to break free?
America, you’re the altar that We pray to
Punch the clock
Adjust your tie forget the punch and touch the sky
I’m making history
Brian Wang
AP Lang & Comp
Period 5
Found Poem: First Impressions
I must have stood for a few moments, listening to the whip and snap of the curtains
Daisy, made an attempt to rise- the younger of the two seemed stranger to me
I looked back, she began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice
“Do they miss me?”
“I’m paralyzed”
You ought to see her
“How you ever get anything done is beyond me.”
“You make me feel uncivilized”
Expression of unthoughtful sadness
After an infinitesimal hesitation, there was something pathetic about his concentration, as if his complacency went from bad to worse her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention
It made me uneasy
Brian Wang
AP Lang
20/10/14
Chapter 2 Analysis
“He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body — he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage — a cruel body.
His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked — and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.” (7)
Sturdy weak Strong, well built supercilious content overbearing, pompous arrogant earthly
Highly, above, dominance cowardly power, mastery effeminate manly womanly, feminine, gruff smooth scratchy, tough
The first impression of Tom that we get is a man with a large, well built body, but also someone that comes of as a “jock”. We learn that Tom inherited his money, but he comes off as a boisterous and arrogant man with a dash of racism. In Nick’s perspective, Tom likes to dominate the conversation, always believing that he is correct. There is almost not sensible character within Tom, and yet he is almost considered successful. Maybe Fitzgerald put Tom in the story to show that there are people who don’t work for their lifestyle and can have almost anything why want, all because they can. This could be a flaw within the American society that presents itself as unfair to many other people who work for it.
“We’re getting off,” he insisted. “I want you to meet my girl.”
I think he’d tanked up a good deal at luncheon, and his determination to have my company bordered on violence. The supercilious assumption was that on Sunday afternoon I had nothing better to do.
I followed him over a low whitewashed railroad fence, and we walked back a hundred yards along the road under Doctor Eckleburg’s persistent stare. The only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of the waste land, a sort of compact Main Street ministering to it, and contiguous to absolutely nothing… Cars bought and sold. — and I followed Tom inside.”
luncheon starving meal, lunch, foodish determination motivationless assurance, bold, tenacity supercilious kind arrogant, stuck up, cocky whitewashed visionary blanch, washed over persistent slacker bossy, constant, tenacious, steady, stubborn wasteland vineyard nothing, barren, dark nothings ministering employee bossy, running it, in charge contiguous distant adjacent, right next to
After Nick and Tom get off the train, Tom orders Nick around and announces what it is they are going to do, they go ahead to George Wilson's repair garage. Nick knows nothing about Wilson, but Wilson will never be anywhere but the lonely and empty wasteland of the valley. He is common, "blond," "spiritless," "anaemic" and only faintly handsome. Wilson’s business walks unsteadily on the edge of failure, and he seems to be oblivious of what goes on around him. It is unlikely that he is, in Tom's words, "so dumb he doesn't know he's alive," but he does seem trapped by an unnamable force. Fitzgerald probably includes George to show the working aspect of American society where the lonely, small time workers cannot go anywhere.
Brian Wang
AP Lang
22/10/14
Chapter 3 Analysis
“The apartment was on the top floor — a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath. The living-room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles. The only picture was an over-enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock. ... Mrs. Wilson was first concerned with the dog. A reluctant elevator-boy went for a box full of straw and some milk, to which he added on his own initiative a tin of large, hard dog-biscuits — one of which decomposed apathetically in the saucer of milk all afternoon.”
crowded lonely, solem cramped, full tapestried bare drapery, carpeting, curtains continually once constantly, frequently blurred vivid not clear, reluctant brave afraid initiative follower starter, taking the role decomposed living dying, rotting apathetically sympathy no remorse
The party that Myrtle wilson decides to throw with Tom is considered an upscale party, and the apartment fills up people. However, Nick doesn’t really enjoy the atmosphere of the party. Each of the guests are superficial and are pretending to be wealthy, while they gossip about Nick’s neighbor, Gatsby. The apartment itself is a small, cramped apartment that tries to show Tom and Myrtle's “expensive” taste. Here, they are trying to portray wealth that they don’t have. Nothing in the apartment fits, and the barbarism is outlined when Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose because she became too drunk and chanted Daisy’s name. Fitzgerald shows that Myrtle is just illusioning her as a wealthy person, someone who aspires the American dream, but doesn’t try.
Brian Wang
Period 5
Analysis of Chapter 4
The Great Gatsby is a novel that follows the story of Nick Carraway, but also seemingly tracks a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby. The novel is shrouded by colourful language that pinpoints and snaps Fitzgerald’s characters that gives extraordinary physical detail, but it isn’t until we see the character's action that we see real emotional development that fill the shell Fitzgerald sets for them.
In this passage at the end of the chapter, we see the main character, Nick, and Jordan on a date. On this date, Nick comes through a realization due to recent events between his cousin, Daisy, and Gatsby himself. To most people, Gatsby is a mysterious character, where others come and gossip about the man and wander in and out through his summer parties. He never really invites anyone, so anyone can come in and enjoy the party. We see him as a generous person, but also a lonely person. We begin to learn that all he really wants is Daisy. He had thrown those parties hoping she would come, and in some ways, she is the only thing Gatsby really wants.
But in this passage, we see Nick as a growing character with an aspiration to love. We also see more of Jordan, where Nick describes Jordan as “clean, hard, limited person” and Gatsby as a person who is trying to find some purpose, like love. His interest in Daisy involves Nick because of their family relationships, and when would like to use Nick to try to curve his own interests. The chapter's ends in a scintillating complexity where we begin to see more of Gatsby and what he really wants in the book. Jordan tells Nick that “Daisy ought to have something in her life," and Nick acknowledges Gatsby’s motives and Nick places himself in a position in which he will have to help deceive Tom while bringing Gatsby's fantasy to life. Nick, too, is becoming more and more involved with Jordan and this, perhaps, clouds his judgment. As Chapter 4 ends, Nick comes to the realization that both Tom and Gatsby are linked by their pursuit of their respective dreams. Nick, feeling empty at the realization he has no such dream, pulls Jordan closer to him, ending the chapter with a kiss. “There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired” are the characters Fitzgerald embodies as the ones who are searching, and the one who are being searched for. In this novel, Gatsby and Tom search for the “pursued”, Daisy and Myrtle. However, there can be many more example of who is pursuing, like Myrtle herself, who strives to be a richer and wealthier person. Daisy can be considered the “busy”, who at this point in time, doesn’t know about each person’s aspirations.
Brian Wang
Gatsby’s Perspective
I had made my decision, that the only way I knew Daisy would appreciate a man of my taste would to show her my own house. I was grateful for Nick’s hospitality, but I couldn’t stand it any longer in that hole. I invited Daisy and Nick to join me in a tour of my house, being that Daisy never came to one of the countless parties I held, hoping in delusion that she would come.
I checked with Nick if the status of my house was pleasing and appropriately lightened.
Out of a moment of stupidity and arrogance, I stated that it took me 3 years to conjure the money to purchase my house. But I felt that I had to honestly tell Nick what I had to do to earn my money, even though I already told him I had inherited my influences. I switched my attention from my house towards the Old Sport. I then wondered what he knew about my businesses. I had been so caught up with my antics that I had to tell him what i really did to earn my fortune. I had wanted to ask him if he was still interested in my business offer, but before he could answer, Daisy came out and awed with the size of the house. When she asked how I don't get lonely, I couldn't tell her that I always do, so insisted that I can always humour and joy with the people I bring in.
As we walked the perimeter of the postern, all that I was hoping for was Daisy to be enchanted with everything that I worked towards. the gardens looked dreadful if you asked me. the gardener did a rubbish job. I tried to switch our interests to the interior of the house. we passed through the music room and took our interests towards upstairs. perhaps the imported bedspreads could be a bit more impressive. Why wouldn’t it be? But what I knew would really impress her would be my own room. I knew I had stashed a bottle of chartreuse somewhere. was that weird? it wasn't even dinner time, and we still had glasses of this stuff. she didn't seem to mind.
When I tried to speak, I lost myself in the beauty of Daisy, and all I could do was stutter. I caught myself in mid-thought. Was this all real?
The next thing I knew I was shoveling my linen and silk shirts out of my closet into a pile. I barely knew what I was doing. The pile grew and grew. Then Daisy started crying, but I couldn’t tell if it was terror or happiness.
Brian Wang
AP Lang & Comp
Period 5
Chapter 7 Analysis
This passage is in George Wilson’s perspective where he suspects his wife, Myrtle Wilson, might be cheating on him with another man. George has fallen ill and wants to move somewhere else, away from New York and the Valley of Ashes. But instead of reason, George locks Myrtle in the drug store/gas station. Their neighbor, Michaelis, hears Myrtle cry out towards her husband and watches her run outside and get run over. From this passage, myrtle seems to be portrayed as desperate or delusional, running and shouting outside, right before getting hit. Later in this chapter, we find out that it was Daisy and Gatsby in his car that ran over and hit Myrtle, but before we find out who was driving the car, we get hints from the passage that it was Gatsby’s car. There were hints of it being “light green” and being extraordinarily fast, or having to do with the mixes of color. Color is an aspect of this story that resembles and represents different aspects of American culture and society. Earlier, Gatsby’s car was a yellow color and so are the glowing parties that shine a gold light out through each window, showing his obvious wealth. However, green is described in the book as dreams. The green light on Daisy’s dock is green, and so are the dreams of people with goals. The car itself is a manifestation of how dreams and what you have can go by so easily, not stopping for anyone.
I can assume from Fitzgerald that the reason he killed Myrtle was to create and bring out the complete and “pure” characters of the story. The setting was also ironic in the way she died. Earlier, Myrtle wanted to be carried away in Tom’s car, which was actually Gatsby’s, and she thought Tom was there to sweep her up and take her to New York. But she died by the hands of Daisy, which is rather ironic, and in the Valley of Ashes. We can see Fitzgerald symbolize the Valley of Ashes, and an inescapable prison where she wanted to rise up and get out of there, but as a product of the Industrial Revolution, it is almost impossible to get her way out. So in some sense, the American dream is resembled in the setting and in the Characters. Myrtle is the worker trying to aim higher and get to a better place, out of the Valley and into the City. But in this passage, Fitzgerald’s message about the American Dream conveys the flaws of society and City. However, what she thought would be her chariot out of the Valley, instead was her death bringer. Now, more than ever, characters and the setting really try to resemble Fitzgerald’s message of the flaws of the American dream. how it will ruin some people.
Brian Wang
AP Lang & Comp
Period 5
Final Journal
In the last passage of The Great Gatsby, the story focuses on Nick due to Gatsby’s death.
In this last passage, we can see the similarities and allusions Fitzgerald makes between his book and the American dream. Nick does not offer a large role in the entire plot, and instead we see him more as an observer than a main character. Gatsby, on the other hand, and the other characters around him make up the story of the “great” American Dream. When Nick, “... thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock”, he alluded towards the mystery and the goal Gatsby, and in other words, society tried to reach. The decay of the light and the diminishing of his house were allusions and references of the dream that will end in destruction and nothing. Gatsby's dream that “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.”, were like immigrants, traveled across the blue ocean to find a better life upon the new world, America. Nick then talks about the line between reality and the dreams we are able to look upon. Society , or Gatsby’s house “...had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity …show more content…
for wonder.” The dream that he once held was really him chasing illusions and ignoring the reality of the situation. The more that Gatsby reached for his dream, the more he wandered from reality, like the setting of his own house in Nicks perspective.. Gatsby had hope and believed in the bounty of what was ahead, but it brought him face-to-face with his own destruction, and similarly to society, Gatsby was creating his own destruction. Not because it was luck against him, but that it was not meant to be. And that doesn’t just go for Gatsby. Although Nick is a very solemn character that doesn't really develop within the entire story, the rest of society and the other characters like Tom, Daisy, the Wilsons, and the other side characters, all strive for something. Although their ambitions are different from each other, they still seek for for things that will eventually destroy them. Daisy lost Gatsby because all she wanted was to be rich, Tom lost Myrtle because he couldn’t keep more than one love, and most other characters couldn’t accept the reality they were given. The more they reached, the more they separated themselves from their own reality. No one is an exception to this dream and reality, where everyone will somehow suffer the consequences. Nick comes to the conclusions that society are "boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." We would all like to believe that our happiness is achievable, but once that dream flexes the line between reality and separation, we often cannot distinguish that line any more, and we strive farther and farther from our true selves. Fitzgerald has Nick embody the importance of the past, while Gatsby is what happens if we ignore the past and aim for goals that will end in ignorance. His materialistic wealth and complexion shows the decline and unworthiness of 20’s ideals of the “great’ American dream, where they are ruined by money and monetary pleasure. In conclusion, the settings and the characters of Fitzgerald story embody his ideas and ideals of the decay of the American Dream. Brian Wang
AP Lang & Comp
Period 5
Letter to Fitzgerald
Dear Mr. Fitzgerald,
How can I start a letter to one of the most creative writers I have ever had the joy of reading from.
I feel as if your book was very thought-provoking in your way of describing the American Dream from the 1920’s time period. In my opinion, the start of the 1900’s began to show exponential growth in technology and luxury, all that is still happening today. I believe that there is still a connection between your message from the early part of the 20th century and now; almost a hundred years later. Although we have come a long way from the old timey entertainment and settings that you grew up in, we still hold many of the same values of the American dream and of our society. In the very beginning of your book, you start off with a quote from the main character's father, "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one . . . just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had" (1). That statement is still true today, although not many people still see it as advice. Many people in affluent settings, (and even in my own community) do not feel that it is important to keep in mind that not everyone was raised in an equal setting. Many of us cannot imagine the struggles or the hardships some families or individuals had to overcome to get where they are. The American dream is not prevalently flawed in this sense, where if everyone kept in mind that dreams come from aspirations from different sources, than each dream should be treated equally.
However, this does not mean each dream will come out with the same result. There is a strong sense of equality in America, where we should all be treated with equal dignity, but this does not mean equal results. That is where the dream is flawed. Then Nick’s self realization of, "'A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: 'There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.'” (79). Although Nick seems more like an observer in the story compared to the other cast of characters, Nick does help point out some realizations of the morals and messages in the story. This passages does help categorize some of the main characters, like how Gatsby used to be the “busy”, but now he is the “pursuer”, striving for love that is inevitable out of his reach. This personifies the American dream, giving each aspect of it a representative through your characters. Here, I try to understand the struggles and the dreams each character tries to reach for, while their respective realities become distorted by what they really want. Finally, when Nick thinks to himself about Gatsby in, "Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.” (88). While we can strive to be the best we are willing to be, we will admit that we are willing to do whatever is necessary, however, we will never convey that we do it though “peasantry” because we think we are never bound to a lord, but a society. We see Gatsby’s workers slaving at the work the Gatsby has put up for them, but they act as if they don’t care. All that they seemed to care about was doing the job they were assigned. In this metaphor, they are the serf, obeying and working for Gatsby, their lord. Americans would rather work like serfs, but not called peasants. The American dream seems obvious that we cannot strive for something impossible, but instead, strive for something we can appreciate realistically. But could we receive what we dream if we dreamed hard enough? Or is that within itself, too difficult to achieve?
AP Lang & Comp period 5
Thesis: No matter the person nor source or origin, one can search and work for the “American Dream” if one puts in hard work and respectful ethics.
Narrative
My grandfather emigrated from China in the 50’s. At the time, Communist regimes, China’s Civil War, and the Cultural Revolution were plaguing most of the region. My grandfather’s family help establish the Republic of China in Taiwan, made of mainly the Chinese Nationalists right after the communist party took over mainland China. However, my grandfather, his wife, and some other family members made the effort to find solace in a safer place. At the time, it was hard for someone in the world to not hear about America. Although they didn’t come by …show more content…
boat and have their named changed in Ellis Island, they humbly came and started in Tennessee so my grandfather could get a B.S. Although I’m sure they experienced some amazing things in country, I think the story really begins when they moved to New York. They started out in brownstone.
Poem
If you pull it at the thread it’s going to tear at the seams.
It’s everything that you want it to be
But are you ever going to find a way find a way to break free?
America, you’re the altar that We pray to
Punch the clock
Adjust your tie forget the punch and touch the sky
I’m making history
Brian Wang
AP Lang & Comp
Period 5
Found Poem: First Impressions
I must have stood for a few moments, listening to the whip and snap of the curtains
Daisy, made an attempt to rise- the younger of the two seemed stranger to me
I looked back, she began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice
“Do they miss me?”
“I’m paralyzed”
You ought to see her
“How you ever get anything done is beyond me.”
“You make me feel uncivilized”
Expression of unthoughtful sadness
After an infinitesimal hesitation, there was something pathetic about his concentration, as if his complacency went from bad to worse her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention
It made me uneasy
Brian Wang
AP Lang
20/10/14
Chapter 2 Analysis
“He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body — he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage — a cruel body.
His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked — and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.” (7)
Sturdy weak Strong, well built supercilious content overbearing, pompous arrogant earthly
Highly, above, dominance cowardly power, mastery effeminate manly womanly, feminine, gruff smooth scratchy, tough
The first impression of Tom that we get is a man with a large, well built body, but also someone that comes of as a “jock”. We learn that Tom inherited his money, but he comes off as a boisterous and arrogant man with a dash of racism. In Nick’s perspective, Tom likes to dominate the conversation, always believing that he is correct. There is almost not sensible character within Tom, and yet he is almost considered successful. Maybe Fitzgerald put Tom in the story to show that there are people who don’t work for their lifestyle and can have almost anything why want, all because they can. This could be a flaw within the American society that presents itself as unfair to many other people who work for it.
“We’re getting off,” he insisted. “I want you to meet my girl.”
I think he’d tanked up a good deal at luncheon, and his determination to have my company bordered on violence. The supercilious assumption was that on Sunday afternoon I had nothing better to do.
I followed him over a low whitewashed railroad fence, and we walked back a hundred yards along the road under Doctor Eckleburg’s persistent stare. The only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of the waste land, a sort of compact Main Street ministering to it, and contiguous to absolutely nothing… Cars bought and sold. — and I followed Tom inside.”
luncheon starving meal, lunch, foodish determination motivationless assurance, bold, tenacity supercilious kind arrogant, stuck up, cocky whitewashed visionary blanch, washed over persistent slacker bossy, constant, tenacious, steady, stubborn wasteland vineyard nothing, barren, dark nothings ministering employee bossy, running it, in charge contiguous distant adjacent, right next to
After Nick and Tom get off the train, Tom orders Nick around and announces what it is they are going to do, they go ahead to George Wilson's repair garage. Nick knows nothing about Wilson, but Wilson will never be anywhere but the lonely and empty wasteland of the valley. He is common, "blond," "spiritless," "anaemic" and only faintly handsome. Wilson’s business walks unsteadily on the edge of failure, and he seems to be oblivious of what goes on around him. It is unlikely that he is, in Tom's words, "so dumb he doesn't know he's alive," but he does seem trapped by an unnamable force. Fitzgerald probably includes George to show the working aspect of American society where the lonely, small time workers cannot go anywhere.
Brian Wang
AP Lang
22/10/14
Chapter 3 Analysis
“The apartment was on the top floor — a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath. The living-room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles. The only picture was an over-enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock. ... Mrs. Wilson was first concerned with the dog. A reluctant elevator-boy went for a box full of straw and some milk, to which he added on his own initiative a tin of large, hard dog-biscuits — one of which decomposed apathetically in the saucer of milk all afternoon.”
crowded lonely, solem cramped, full tapestried bare drapery, carpeting, curtains continually once constantly, frequently blurred vivid not clear, reluctant brave afraid initiative follower starter, taking the role decomposed living dying, rotting apathetically sympathy no remorse
The party that Myrtle wilson decides to throw with Tom is considered an upscale party, and the apartment fills up people. However, Nick doesn’t really enjoy the atmosphere of the party. Each of the guests are superficial and are pretending to be wealthy, while they gossip about Nick’s neighbor, Gatsby. The apartment itself is a small, cramped apartment that tries to show Tom and Myrtle's “expensive” taste. Here, they are trying to portray wealth that they don’t have. Nothing in the apartment fits, and the barbarism is outlined when Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose because she became too drunk and chanted Daisy’s name. Fitzgerald shows that Myrtle is just illusioning her as a wealthy person, someone who aspires the American dream, but doesn’t try.
Brian Wang
Period 5
Analysis of Chapter 4
The Great Gatsby is a novel that follows the story of Nick Carraway, but also seemingly tracks a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby. The novel is shrouded by colourful language that pinpoints and snaps Fitzgerald’s characters that gives extraordinary physical detail, but it isn’t until we see the character's action that we see real emotional development that fill the shell Fitzgerald sets for them.
In this passage at the end of the chapter, we see the main character, Nick, and Jordan on a date. On this date, Nick comes through a realization due to recent events between his cousin, Daisy, and Gatsby himself. To most people, Gatsby is a mysterious character, where others come and gossip about the man and wander in and out through his summer parties. He never really invites anyone, so anyone can come in and enjoy the party. We see him as a generous person, but also a lonely person. We begin to learn that all he really wants is Daisy. He had thrown those parties hoping she would come, and in some ways, she is the only thing Gatsby really wants.
But in this passage, we see Nick as a growing character with an aspiration to love. We also see more of Jordan, where Nick describes Jordan as “clean, hard, limited person” and Gatsby as a person who is trying to find some purpose, like love. His interest in Daisy involves Nick because of their family relationships, and when would like to use Nick to try to curve his own interests. The chapter's ends in a scintillating complexity where we begin to see more of Gatsby and what he really wants in the book. Jordan tells Nick that “Daisy ought to have something in her life," and Nick acknowledges Gatsby’s motives and Nick places himself in a position in which he will have to help deceive Tom while bringing Gatsby's fantasy to life. Nick, too, is becoming more and more involved with Jordan and this, perhaps, clouds his judgment. As Chapter 4 ends, Nick comes to the realization that both Tom and Gatsby are linked by their pursuit of their respective dreams. Nick, feeling empty at the realization he has no such dream, pulls Jordan closer to him, ending the chapter with a kiss. “There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired” are the characters Fitzgerald embodies as the ones who are searching, and the one who are being searched for. In this novel, Gatsby and Tom search for the “pursued”, Daisy and Myrtle. However, there can be many more example of who is pursuing, like Myrtle herself, who strives to be a richer and wealthier person. Daisy can be considered the “busy”, who at this point in time, doesn’t know about each person’s aspirations.
Brian Wang
Gatsby’s Perspective
I had made my decision, that the only way I knew Daisy would appreciate a man of my taste would to show her my own house. I was grateful for Nick’s hospitality, but I couldn’t stand it any longer in that hole. I invited Daisy and Nick to join me in a tour of my house, being that Daisy never came to one of the countless parties I held, hoping in delusion that she would come.
I checked with Nick if the status of my house was pleasing and appropriately lightened.
Out of a moment of stupidity and arrogance, I stated that it took me 3 years to conjure the money to purchase my house. But I felt that I had to honestly tell Nick what I had to do to earn my money, even though I already told him I had inherited my influences. I switched my attention from my house towards the Old Sport. I then wondered what he knew about my businesses. I had been so caught up with my antics that I had to tell him what i really did to earn my fortune. I had wanted to ask him if he was still interested in my business offer, but before he could answer, Daisy came out and awed with the size of the house. When she asked how I don't get lonely, I couldn't tell her that I always do, so insisted that I can always humour and joy with the people I bring in.
As we walked the perimeter of the postern, all that I was hoping for was Daisy to be enchanted with everything that I worked towards. the gardens looked dreadful if you asked me. the gardener did a rubbish job. I tried to switch our interests to the interior of the house. we passed through the music room and took our interests towards upstairs. perhaps the imported bedspreads could be a bit more impressive. Why wouldn’t it be? But what I knew would really impress her would be my own room. I knew I had stashed a bottle of chartreuse somewhere. was that weird? it wasn't even dinner time, and we still had glasses of this stuff. she didn't seem to mind.
When I tried to speak, I lost myself in the beauty of Daisy, and all I could do was stutter. I caught myself in mid-thought. Was this all real?
The next thing I knew I was shoveling my linen and silk shirts out of my closet into a pile. I barely knew what I was doing. The pile grew and grew. Then Daisy started crying, but I couldn’t tell if it was terror or happiness.
Brian Wang
AP Lang & Comp
Period 5
Chapter 7 Analysis
This passage is in George Wilson’s perspective where he suspects his wife, Myrtle Wilson, might be cheating on him with another man. George has fallen ill and wants to move somewhere else, away from New York and the Valley of Ashes. But instead of reason, George locks Myrtle in the drug store/gas station. Their neighbor, Michaelis, hears Myrtle cry out towards her husband and watches her run outside and get run over. From this passage, myrtle seems to be portrayed as desperate or delusional, running and shouting outside, right before getting hit. Later in this chapter, we find out that it was Daisy and Gatsby in his car that ran over and hit Myrtle, but before we find out who was driving the car, we get hints from the passage that it was Gatsby’s car. There were hints of it being “light green” and being extraordinarily fast, or having to do with the mixes of color. Color is an aspect of this story that resembles and represents different aspects of American culture and society. Earlier, Gatsby’s car was a yellow color and so are the glowing parties that shine a gold light out through each window, showing his obvious wealth. However, green is described in the book as dreams. The green light on Daisy’s dock is green, and so are the dreams of people with goals. The car itself is a manifestation of how dreams and what you have can go by so easily, not stopping for anyone.
I can assume from Fitzgerald that the reason he killed Myrtle was to create and bring out the complete and “pure” characters of the story. The setting was also ironic in the way she died. Earlier, Myrtle wanted to be carried away in Tom’s car, which was actually Gatsby’s, and she thought Tom was there to sweep her up and take her to New York. But she died by the hands of Daisy, which is rather ironic, and in the Valley of Ashes. We can see Fitzgerald symbolize the Valley of Ashes, and an inescapable prison where she wanted to rise up and get out of there, but as a product of the Industrial Revolution, it is almost impossible to get her way out. So in some sense, the American dream is resembled in the setting and in the Characters. Myrtle is the worker trying to aim higher and get to a better place, out of the Valley and into the City. But in this passage, Fitzgerald’s message about the American Dream conveys the flaws of society and City. However, what she thought would be her chariot out of the Valley, instead was her death bringer. Now, more than ever, characters and the setting really try to resemble Fitzgerald’s message of the flaws of the American dream. how it will ruin some people.
Brian Wang
AP Lang & Comp
Period 5
Final Journal
In the last passage of The Great Gatsby, the story focuses on Nick due to Gatsby’s death.
In this last passage, we can see the similarities and allusions Fitzgerald makes between his book and the American dream. Nick does not offer a large role in the entire plot, and instead we see him more as an observer than a main character. Gatsby, on the other hand, and the other characters around him make up the story of the “great” American Dream. When Nick, “... thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock”, he alluded towards the mystery and the goal Gatsby, and in other words, society tried to reach. The decay of the light and the diminishing of his house were allusions and references of the dream that will end in destruction and nothing. Gatsby's dream that “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.”, were like immigrants, traveled across the blue ocean to find a better life upon the new world, America. Nick then talks about the line between reality and the dreams we are able to look upon. Society , or Gatsby’s house “...had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity …show more content…
for wonder.” The dream that he once held was really him chasing illusions and ignoring the reality of the situation. The more that Gatsby reached for his dream, the more he wandered from reality, like the setting of his own house in Nicks perspective.. Gatsby had hope and believed in the bounty of what was ahead, but it brought him face-to-face with his own destruction, and similarly to society, Gatsby was creating his own destruction. Not because it was luck against him, but that it was not meant to be. And that doesn’t just go for Gatsby. Although Nick is a very solemn character that doesn't really develop within the entire story, the rest of society and the other characters like Tom, Daisy, the Wilsons, and the other side characters, all strive for something. Although their ambitions are different from each other, they still seek for for things that will eventually destroy them. Daisy lost Gatsby because all she wanted was to be rich, Tom lost Myrtle because he couldn’t keep more than one love, and most other characters couldn’t accept the reality they were given. The more they reached, the more they separated themselves from their own reality. No one is an exception to this dream and reality, where everyone will somehow suffer the consequences. Nick comes to the conclusions that society are "boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." We would all like to believe that our happiness is achievable, but once that dream flexes the line between reality and separation, we often cannot distinguish that line any more, and we strive farther and farther from our true selves. Fitzgerald has Nick embody the importance of the past, while Gatsby is what happens if we ignore the past and aim for goals that will end in ignorance. His materialistic wealth and complexion shows the decline and unworthiness of 20’s ideals of the “great’ American dream, where they are ruined by money and monetary pleasure. In conclusion, the settings and the characters of Fitzgerald story embody his ideas and ideals of the decay of the American Dream. Brian Wang
AP Lang & Comp
Period 5
Letter to Fitzgerald
Dear Mr. Fitzgerald,
How can I start a letter to one of the most creative writers I have ever had the joy of reading from.
I feel as if your book was very thought-provoking in your way of describing the American Dream from the 1920’s time period. In my opinion, the start of the 1900’s began to show exponential growth in technology and luxury, all that is still happening today. I believe that there is still a connection between your message from the early part of the 20th century and now; almost a hundred years later. Although we have come a long way from the old timey entertainment and settings that you grew up in, we still hold many of the same values of the American dream and of our society. In the very beginning of your book, you start off with a quote from the main character's father, "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one . . . just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had" (1). That statement is still true today, although not many people still see it as advice. Many people in affluent settings, (and even in my own community) do not feel that it is important to keep in mind that not everyone was raised in an equal setting. Many of us cannot imagine the struggles or the hardships some families or individuals had to overcome to get where they are. The American dream is not prevalently flawed in this sense, where if everyone kept in mind that dreams come from aspirations from different sources, than each dream should be treated equally.
However, this does not mean each dream will come out with the same result. There is a strong sense of equality in America, where we should all be treated with equal dignity, but this does not mean equal results. That is where the dream is flawed. Then Nick’s self realization of, "'A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: 'There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.'” (79). Although Nick seems more like an observer in the story compared to the other cast of characters, Nick does help point out some realizations of the morals and messages in the story. This passages does help categorize some of the main characters, like how Gatsby used to be the “busy”, but now he is the “pursuer”, striving for love that is inevitable out of his reach. This personifies the American dream, giving each aspect of it a representative through your characters. Here, I try to understand the struggles and the dreams each character tries to reach for, while their respective realities become distorted by what they really want. Finally, when Nick thinks to himself about Gatsby in, "Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.” (88). While we can strive to be the best we are willing to be, we will admit that we are willing to do whatever is necessary, however, we will never convey that we do it though “peasantry” because we think we are never bound to a lord, but a society. We see Gatsby’s workers slaving at the work the Gatsby has put up for them, but they act as if they don’t care. All that they seemed to care about was doing the job they were assigned. In this metaphor, they are the serf, obeying and working for Gatsby, their lord. Americans would rather work like serfs, but not called peasants. The American dream seems obvious that we cannot strive for something impossible, but instead, strive for something we can appreciate realistically. But could we receive what we dream if we dreamed hard enough? Or is that within itself, too difficult to achieve?