Great Gatsby Post 4

It is difficult to see in many places how Gatsby changes in the novel, seeing as the changes happen in sudden mannerism alterations, but despite the scarcity of them, they are highly significant. First, he is a larger than life filthy rich man who has an incredibly interesting backstory, but as the novel progresses, he becomes more like a normal person. That is why it’s confusing how he changes, because as he becomes more familiar, we understand him more as a human than a construct. First, we are introduced to him as a mysterious, almost improbably interesting character. Everyone speaks of him admirably and with some feeling of awe. Rather quickly, however, we learn his motive for doing everything he does: Daisy Buchanan. As Nick tries to set him up with her, he starts to break down. His nervousness is on full display, and his use of “old sport” starts getting erratic and strange, it’s not just an expression, it’s a way to express his anxiety. The breaking point is the hotel scene, where he, rather stupidly, expresses anger and entitlement when he, to Tom’s face, tells his she’s having an affair with him. By the end, he is not flawless, he’s a mess who lied about his past and has issues controlling his nerve, but he’s most certainly an interesting mess.

Great Gatsby Post 3

The central conflict in this book is difficult to pin down and is very much open to interpretation, but I think that it revolves around Tom. Tom was very much the center of this, he married Daisy, he had an affair with Myrtle under Wilson’s nose, and he had a rivalry with Gatsby. All of this points to an external conflict with a minor antagonist who is completely justified in their later actions. It all stems from one mistake, the affair with Myrtle. This affair would come to justify much of the hatred towards Tom in the novel, as well as set the unfortunate events in motion. His affair was made known to Daisy, who subsequently had an affair with Gatsby, leading Gatsby to confront Tom in their visit. This then led to Daisy driving with Gatsby, running over Myrtle whilst escaping her husband, who found out her affair and began to act cruelly. This led to Wilson, in maddening worship of the gold spectacled deity, to kill Gatsby (at least that’s what the book seemed to say, I’m still confused on this matter), whose car he saw speeding down the road. Tom Buchanan’s bad decision started these conflicts, culminating in Gatsby’s death.  

Great Gatsby post 2

The weather symbolism is rather obvious in the meeting, so much so that I curse it for possibly having to do with the “sad stuff happens in rain” trope gaining popularity. Of course in this case, it’s not just “oh the rain symbolizes tears, innit that clever?”, it’s more of a “rain on your parade” type of rain. Gatsby is extremely nervous about this meeting, and quite understandably so. His whole dream rests on him impressing a married woman enough to attract her interest. The rain is less of a “depressive” and more of an “anxious” rain. At any moment, lightning could strike and destroy everything. Things go well, however, so well that the sun appears bright in the sky again, yellow glow illuminating more color symbolism and signifying that the meeting went well and there will be another. Although I despise the use of rain, I will say that it is done quite well in this book and in a new way that I haven’t seen particularly often. Considering that this is an extremely popular book from the 20s, I’d expect the symbols to be more obvious and stale due to overuse today, but I actually did enjoy them here despite my indifference to symbolism in general and my hatred of the rain trope.

Great Gatsby post 1

Nick Carraway initially claims to not be a judgmental person and then proceeds to spend the next few chapters passing judgement on almost everyone he meets. Considering his place in the story, this makes perfect sense. He is the narrator, we see the world through him and we see the characters through him. If he does not judge the other characters, we would not get as detailed a description. Tom to us is the sleazy scumbag who cheats on his wife, throws awful parties, and will never be as cool as he was at 21. We would not get quite this much information had Nick not immediately passed judgement and we wouldn’t be as familiar with the character. Him immediately denouncing Jordan as dishonest gives her a flaw and gives us more insight into her character and making us interested in her story. If he wasn’t so judgmental, we wouldn’t have as vivid a world as we do.