Great Gatsby # 9

Dear AP students:

Daisy and Jay Gatsby finally meet in Chapter V. It's an unusual/awkward scene. What are your thoughts on this scene? What do we learn about Gatsby? About Daisy? About both of them?

There is a memorable passage in this chapter that goes like this....

After the house, we were to see the grounds and swimming pool, and the hydroplane and the mid-summer flowers--but outside Gatsby's window it began to rain again, so we stood in a row looking at the corrugated surface of the Sound.

"If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay," said Gatsby. "You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock."
Daisy put her arm through his abruptly,but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now again it was a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.

What's going on the above passage? What's with the green light?

Related to the above, what's going on at the beginning of the chapter when the narrator arrives home at night to find Gatsby's mansion lit up like "the World's Fair." Gatsby informs Nick that he has been "glancing into some of the rooms." He then asks Nick if he wants to go to Coney Island, or go swimming in his swimming pool, which he hasn't used all summer long.

This is a somewhat bizarre scene, but I think it reveals something about Gatsby. What are your thoughts?

P.S. Take a look at clip from 1974 Great Gatsby movie, located under You Tube video in right hand margin of blog

Great Gatsby # 8

Dear AP students:

Did you know the character of Daisy Buchanan is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda?

Fitzgerald met his wife when he was in the army--just like Gatsby met Daisy. Zelda initially refused to marry Fitzgerald because he wasn't wealthy or successful, just like Daisy refused to marry Gatsby. Zelda didn't marry Fitzgerald until he became a successful novelist.


Zelda and Fitzgerald had a glamorous but ultimately very stormy marriage. They became celebrities that typified the Roaring 20's. She was emotionally unstable, and it didn't help that both husband and wife drank quite a bit. As his career lagged, she eventually ended up in an insane asylum. Feminists in the 1970's portrayed her as someone who had been the victim of her husband's bad treatment.

You can read about Zelda at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelda_Fitzgerald

Great Gatsby #7

Dear AP students:

In the previous entry I explained that The Great Gatsby is able to express a great degree of cynicism by using the 1919 World Series as an example of corrupted American institutions/way of life. But one other thing that fueled this cynicism is the American experience in World War I. America went into the war in a very idealistic fashion--we were going to make the world safe for democracy. College students like F. Scott Fitzgerald dropped out of college to join the army so they could fight in what they considered a just war. But these army veterans came back from the war very disillusioned by all the deaths that occurred during this horrible war. They came to the conclusion that these deaths were meaningless. Writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway are known as The Lost Generation because they lived (and wrote) in the 1920's feeling lost/disillusioned/cynical as a result of their wartime experience.

I see quite a bit of this kind of cynicism at the end of Chapter 3, where Nick Carroway says after listening to Jordan Baker talk about the original love affair between Daisy and Jay Gatsby..."There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired." This statement doesn't say anything about real affection, or about self-expression, or or people helping other people, or trying to do the right thing. There's absolutely no idealism in that statement. Can we see examples of Carroway's quote in The Great Gatsby? Who is pursued? Who does the pursuing? Who is too tired? Who is too busy?

Related to the above,, what are we to think of Jay Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy? What do you think about a guy who goes so far as to make enough money to buy a mansion across the bay of Daisy and her husband so he can continue wooing her five years after their original relationship?

Next, there is much mention of the the "mist" in the bay. What does the mist symbolize?

Another color we see in this story, besides "gray", is "pink"--what does this color symbolize? Where does it show up? Who wears "pink" clothing?

Great Gatsby 6

Dear AP students:


One major character that is introduced in the second 60 pages of the Great Gatsby is Meyer Wolfsheim--a big time NY gangster that Jay Gatsby is associated with. In the book, Gatsby mentions to Nick Carraway that Wolfsheim was involved with the 1919 World Series gambling scandal.

The character of Wolfsheim is actually modeled after the real big time gangster Arnold Rothstein. In real life, Rothstein played a central role in rigging the 1919 World Series, in which several players on the Chicago White Sox team accepted bribes to throw the World Series games. This caused an enormous scandal for major league baseball. The scandal continues to have repercussions today. The one thing major league baseball does not want to be associated with is gambling, because nobody wants to think that the integrity of the game can be undermined so easily again. Major League baseball does not want its fans to think that an All-American game like baseball and everything that occurs on the field can be manipulated by criminals--people would lose their idealistic vision of baseball and think its corrupt just like many other large institutions. This is why Pete Rose is banned from the baseball Hall of Fame. No one wants a repeat what happened during the 1919 World Series. Fans won't spend their money on a known corrupt institution.


I think its interesting that when the narrator asks Gatsby why Wolfsheim rigged the 1919 World Series, he says non-chalantly..."He just saw the opportunity." What I find interesting about this quote is that if you look around today, there are so many people making money, legally, illegally, and unethically, who can base their decision to make money on the idea that if the opportunity is there, they should take it, no matter if it might hurt other people. So many people put aside such idealistic notions like "Will it help other people, or hurt them, or damage the environment, or ruin relationships with friends?" They just see the opportunity to make money. Perhaps this has become the real American dream. Just a look at what led to our country's current financial plight reveals the fact that so many of our country's corporate and financial leaders thought to themselves "I see an opportunity" and then took advantage of other people's trust to make lots of money.

Is this what The Great Gatsby is teaching us? Looking at this from the historical perspective, F.Scott Fitzgerald was telling us that the excess of the Roaring 20's might lead us down the road to ruin--and of course, we now know that that decade was followed by the Great Depression. We today are suffering from the Great Recession after all the excesses of the past ten to twenty years. There are so many financial scandals from the past few years--are they all a result of people who just saw opportunity? I guess they all thought they were following the Great American Dream!

The Great American Dream used to be about hard, honest work propelling us to a better condition, but maybe it's really about just grabbing opportunity however you can? I for one take comfort in knowing that major league baseball is still an ideal place where no one cheats...where no one takes chemically enhancing drugs to boost their home run production (sarcasm!) even if it means ruining your body and having everyone call you a cheater all for the sake of dollar signs when it comes to contract time. Thank God for major league baseball, where guys like Adrian Gonzales would never leave his hometown team to make more money someplace else--thankfully, he's not just about taking the next opportunity. He really cares about the hometown fans (sarcasm).

Different subject--looking from the feminist perspective, what are we to think of Jordon Baker, the golfer that befriends the narrator Nick Carraway?

Great Gatsby Entry # 5

Dear AP students:


In addition to using the Marxist perspective to help analyze this novel, let's also apply the Feminist perspective.

Remember, the Feminist perspective recognizes the traditional dominance of males over females that has led to gender inequality, identifies with female characters and thereby challenges the traditional male centered outlook of authors, values women's experiences, and examines women's social roles, and promotes women's rights and issues. As such we look for the following in a novel: gender inequality/discrimination /oppression/sexual objectification/patriarchal relationships/and stereotyping.

I think we can easily spot these features in the Great Gatsby. All the women in this novel are subservient to men, and are definitely treated as objects to be obtained. Give me your thoughts on this matter. Give me some examples.

Of course, the 1920's (the Roaring 20's) is seen a time when women started to become liberated. The "Flappers" wore their hair in a certain way and were allowed to seen in public drinking and smoking. They started to wear the latest fashions which were a bit more risque that in the past. Things were starting to loosen up. Some had actually started to work in factories during World War I when the men were off to war.

Remember, when we apply a different literary perspective or lens we notice things about a novel we ordinarily wouldn't see. What do we see in the Great Gatsby using this Feminist lens?

Regarding the Feminist perspective, I once read that Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy enjoyed reading The Great Gatsby--and he felt sorry that he was too young to have enjoyed living in the Roaring 20's decade. He thought he had missed the good times, so he tried to recreate this era by starting Playboy magazine and the whole aura that goes with the Playboy lifestyle, ie. the Playboy mansion and the parties. I think he sees himself as a modern day Jay Gatsby who has parties that everyone wants to attend. Of course, if you are a feminist, your arch enemy is probably Hugh Hefner because of his desire to objectify attractive females.

Great Gatsby # 4

Dear AP students:

So if there is one thing we can all agree upon it's that we Americans all want to live the Great American Dream. To many of us that means working hard and then making lots of money. Of course, both "working hard" and "lots of money" are relative terms. They mean different things to different people. But we generally agree on what those terms mean. A college education, a nice job, a nice car, a nice house, the money to go on a vacation or two, etc.

The Great Gatsby is about achieving the Great American Dream--but the story reveals the darker side of that dream.

First of all, most of the characters in this novel don't achieve the Great American Dream by living up to the traditional Puritan ethic of hard work. The Buchanan's inherit their wealth. In fact, they don't even work for their money. They are considered "old money." Tom graduated from an Ivy League school--Yale. He represents America's traditional elite. He sees himself as very "sophisticated," as other old money/high society people thought of themselves. He is used to being around other old money types.

Second, Jay Gatsby doesn't work hard at a legitimate job. He makes his money illegally.

Third, Jay Gatsby and the Buchanans are both into excess. Their version of the American Dream is far from most Americans. They want lots and lots more--and they aren't happy settling for anything else.

Fourth, Gatsby, though he is very rich, is not happy being what is referred to as "noveau" riche. (newly rich). These people were looked down upon by the old money families. No matter how rich they were, they weren't allowed to be part of upper class society, and were seen as unsophisticated. As we will find out, Gatsby doesn't just want to be rich, he wishes he had been rich all his life.

Being "old money" doesn't mean that much anymore in America these days. There are too many celebrities who have made lots of money. They don't care if they are not considered unsophisticated, as long as they are rich. In fact, many don't care if they make their money somewhat illegally/unethically...if they rip off people in the process, who cares, right? All that matters is money and fame! After all this is the country that idolizes Kim Kardashian!!! And Lindsey Lohan! They epitomize the fact that anyone with money can be a celebrity...or is it the other way around? But 1922, the setting of The Great Gatsby, was a pre-show biz or sports celebrity era. Movie stars and sports stars were just starting to become headliners. No one cares whether you are old or new money, or whether you are considered sophisticated or not.

Great Gatsby Entry # 3

Dear AP students:

First, let's talk about symbols.

What can we say about that scene at Gatsby's party in which the guy with the horn-rimmed glasses makes a comment about the books on the shelves being real books? He's astounded that they are real books, that "they have real pages and everything." He initially though they were made from "durable cardboard."

Yet, he's still skeptical--he merely thinks that Gatsby has showed "thoroughness" about this supposed deception; he still thinks Gatsby is trying to pull something with these books. He doesn't think Gatsby really likes books or is some sort of intellectual, or an avid book collector.

Nick Carroway, the narrator of the story, theorizes that the entire library of books had probably been transported complete from some "ruin overseas."

What do those real book symbolize? What are we to think of them?

And I want everyone to notice the reference to the "green light" mentioned at the end of Chapter One. He notices the "green light" appearing at the end of a dock. This green light is one of the most famous symbols in American Literature. Let's start to figure out what the green light is all about.

One more symbol....the color gray. The narrator uses that color to describe Jordan Baker's eyes. He also uses it at the beginning of chapter 2 to describe the color of cars and the land. Does he use anywhere else? If so, why that particular color?

Has anyone spotted any other symbols/motifs?

Secondly, did you catch Jordon Baker's paradoxical statement given at Gatsby's party in which she states "I like large parties.They're so intimate. At small parties there's no privacy."

Remember, a paradox seems to contridict itself, but also has some truth.. What's meant by this paradoxical statement?

Entry # 2

Dear AP students:

The narrator of the story--Nick Carraway--immediately establishes Tom Buchanon as a dark or negative character.

What words (diction) or descriptions are used to depict Tom as a bad guy?

P.S. go to the map on the right hand side of this web site to check out the literary map that establishes the setting of this novel. You can check out where East Egg and West Egg were located in Fitzgerald's mind, and where they are located in relation to New York City.

Great Gatsby entry # 1

Dear AP students:

Hope everyone is having a great vacation.

And I hope everyone is eager to read The Great Gatsby.

Here is the first thing I want you to think about as you read. I want you to constantly analyze the book from the Marxist perspective. See the text through this lens.

Remember what the Marxist perspective consists of...basically it involves the idea that the economic classes--the rich, the middle class, and the poor workers--are constantly struggling against each other. The rich exploit the poor, deriving proportionately more profit/benefits from the workers than what they pay for. Thus, the rich oppress the poor. Reading from this Marxist lens, we look for instances in which the rich hold too much power/sway over the other economic classes.

According to Marx, economic conditions determine society (to include religion, politics, culture).

Marx also said that religion was the opiate of the masses--meaning that religion is used by the powerful to keep the workers obedient.

Consumerism--a key facet of Capitalism--plays a big role in exploiting the worker. The workers and the middle class are kept happy buy allowing them to work harder and harder to buy stuff.

According to the Marxist perspective, the quest for wealth plays a prominent role for literary characters.

And the novelists'/characters' perspective reveals his/her class's view of wealth/economic conditions.

Based on the above, (putting on our Marxist perspective lenses) what do we notice in reading The Great Gatsby's first 30 to 60 pages? What questions arise? What does the novel hint about economic conditions of the 1920's? Of America? About the major characters in the novels? What patterns begin to emerge?

Dec 6

Dear AP Students:

1. Please study your AP words: quiz on Friday

2. Complete study guide for Act II, scene one of Macbeth

3. Complete study guide for Act I.