Dear AP students:
Let's do a little Close Reading Analysis. Here is a passage from the beginning of Chapter VIII.
His house had never seemed so enormous to me as it did that night when we hunted through great rooms for cigarettes. We pushed aside curtains that were like pavilions, and felt over innumerable feet of dark wall for electric light switches--once I tumbled with a sort of splash upon the keys of a ghastly piano. There was an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere, and the rooms were musty, as though they hadn't been aired for many days. I found the humidor on an unfamiliar table, with two stale, dry cigarettes inside. Throwing open the French windows of the drawing room, we sat smoking out into the darkness.
What's going on in this passage? What words, literary devices are used to support the theme of the novel? What does the passage say about Gatsby or Nick Carraway?
7 comments:
What is going on in this passage is that Nick is comparing his memory of the Gatsby's house to how it did the night before by using imagrey. He's rememboring "great rooms... curtains that were like pavilions... and a ghastly piano" in the house of Gatsby as if he speaking of a mansion's inside. The literay word that supports this is within the first sentence; 'enormous'. Then Nick starts to point out how dusty his house was, when compared it seems like an old house that has not been cleaned in years. "Dust everywhere...rooms were musty." To my extent, I believe what Nick is saying about Gatsby is that besides him needing to clean his house up, he seems not to care about it at the moment because he has Daisy on his mind, their present, future, and now possibly the excuse for them not to end.
I agree with Toni about her belief of what is going on in Nick's head when he is takling about this passage. It seems as if Nick has a lot going on in his head that the not-so-little things are very rare to him like the enormousness of Gatsby's house for example. Knowing they both have the same house Nick has not cared to explored it, but not like he ever needs to know the width, length, etc. about his house. But the diction he uses to describe Gatsby's house seems to be the first time he has ever been in his house. "We pushed aside curtains that were like pavilions, and felt over innumerable feet of dark wall for electric light switches..." The passage says that Nick is very aware of Gatsby's surroundings and residence to evaluate how it affects his mood; lonely and in love. I feel that if Daisy were to were to live with Gatsby his mood would change big time. He would, for one, keep his house clean on a daily basis, but also feel whole; complete. All he wants is Daisy, and without her he seems to not care about how messy, dusty, and dark his house is. This shows how close he's come to obtaining Daisy for life, but also how close he is to losing her possibly for good.
Mr. Rodriguez, I dont know which one is the other CRA, and in case you sent it by email I did not receive it.
The use of imagary is obvious in this text. I think the house is used to symbolize the waste displayed in the extravagant lifestyles in this book. The money cannot be used by one man, the house is too grand for one person, the life has too much to be used. This is showing the waste of Gatsby's life by going after nothing but money to impress others.
I also agree with Andrea and Toni in how strongly used the imagery is in this passage. I believe that nick is obviously showing some sort of interest into Gatsby and his house. I also believe that because Gatsby "involved" with Daisy and somewhat in to her you can say that maybe he is feeling unfocused and not really caring about his surroundings.
ciara Santos
Nick here is taking time to embrace the fact that Gatsby's house is so big. There is a sense of loneliness and careless lifestyle for the house because of the way that the house is described. For example, when the narrator describes the keys for the piano being incredibly dusty that implements to the reader that Gatsby has to big of a house to take care of on his own. Maybe it says that he just hasnt had his mind in taking care of his house but it haas been other things filling his mind into thinking of other more important things than cleaning and caring for his house. Another perspective that is possible is that the people that naturally took care of his house were not allowed into that dark room. Its as if that room was full of secrets and of darkness because there was no light and no fresh air to breath from which indicates that it was time for a new fresh start. Letting someone into his secret room was like letting someone into his heart which was Nick which probably explains why he was so close to Nick because Nick was so understanding and wise to not speak badly of anybody even though he knew what the wrong things in life those people were doing. Back then the smoking scene was kind of an example or time to just share and nobody was different from anybody that inflicts to the reader that Gatsby was just like any other human in the world at those times that every now and then stopped to just admire the beauty of life in a way or stop and analyze the kind of life they had.
Sunny Avila
I agree with Adrea. The use of imagery is very strong. This piece of literature symbolizes not only the beauty of life but also in my opinion how we all think dofferently but at the same time it's all the same
-Grecia Esquivel
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