The Great Gatsby, Post 1, Pd. 1, Discussion Director
Be prepared to read a very long post! I know that we only read two chapters so far, but I’ve found a lot of things to discuss. Plus, if you’ve read any of my other posts/comments you know that I write long, rambling, and confusing things. 
To start I’d like to talk about a few things on the first page. One thing in particular is the very first quotation in the novel. The quote is, “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” I think this is quite obvious to figure out – hold your tongue. But that’s not why I’m bringing it up. Instead I’d like to talk about how this relates to Fitzgerald’s introduction to the narrator, Nick Carraway. There are significant parts to this quote. The first issue it brings up is Nick’s moral values. He has always been taught not to judge which makes him very different from the rest of the characters in the book. For example, Tom blatantly states that he is a racist in the first chapter when he says, “It’s up to us who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will have control of things.” (He’s speaking about the book The Rise of the Colored Empire which I find particularly funny.) These moral values of Nick leads the reader to trust what he says and therefore makes him a reliable narrator. This one quote gave us all that insight into Nick. Can you find any other deep and/or revealing quotes in the text? Explain how they give us insight to Nick’s world.
The whole rest of my post is going to talk about Fitzgerald’s unique writing style. This is probably what makes the book the most interesting for me. One of the techniques Fitzgerald used is foreshadowing in the first chapter. He writes, “…it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.” This leads me to believe that Gatsby is in danger by someone or something. What are your opinions about this? Does anyone have specific predictions?
Another intriguing item found in the novel was that the book itself is supposedly being written by Nick. Here’s the quote: “Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book…” Usually books are being told as if they are actually happening or being remembered, not the narrator writing a story about it. Now why would Fitzgerald chose to have Nick writing down his experiences with Gatsby? And Nick’s not even a writer – he’s in the “bond business”. What do you think about this odd choice of perspective?
One thing that was very prominent in Fitzgerald’s writing is his use of oxymorons. There are so many of them, both obviously placed and hidden subtly. Here are some examples:
Pg. 1: He didn’t say any more but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that.
Pg. 10 – 11: And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all.
Pg. 20: Among the broken fragments of the last five minutes at table I remember the candles being lit again, pointlessly, and I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at everyone and yet to avoid all eyes.
Pg. 23: I knew now why her face was familiar – its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me from many rotogravure pictures of the sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach.
Pg. 40: I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.
And those are just a few examples! Why do you think that Fitzgerald uses so many oxymorons in his writing? How does he use this technique via the characters?
And yes, there is still more. As well as using oxymorons, Fitzgerald also likes to use ironic phrases/descriptions. Here’s one for you: “So Tom Buchanan and his girl and I went up together to New York – or not quite together, for Mrs. Wilson sat discreetly in another car. Tom deferred that much to the sensibilities of those East Eggers who might be on our train.” How is this section ironic? How does Fitzgerald use irony when describing the characters?
This is the last part, I promise. The thing I’d like to discuss is how Fitzgerald introduces each character. When Nick is telling the reader about a new person he has met he tends to lean towards describing the physical traits rather than their personality. But in a way, the properties being described give the reader an insight into what the character is really like. I know how the two correlate. Do you? Choose one character and explain how the physical attributes describe their personality as well.
Recap:
- Can you find any deep and/or revealing quotes in the text? Explain how they give us insight to Nick’s world.
- What are your opinions about Fitzgerald’s foreshadowing on pages 6 and 7? Do you have any ideas about what will happen to Gatsby?
- Why would Fitzgerald chose to have Nick writing down his experiences with Gatsby? What do you think about this odd choice of perspective?
- Why do you think that Fitzgerald uses so many oxymorons in his writing?
- How does Fitzgerald use opposites via the characters? (How are the characters opposites?) Name a set of characters and explain how they are completely contradictory.
- How is the quote about Nick, Tom, and Mrs. Wilson on the train ironic?
- How does Fitzgerald use irony when describing the characters?
- How do the physical characteristics of the characters seem to correlate to their personality? Choose one character and explain how the physical attributes describe their personality as well.
Wow, that was long! You guys just love having me in your group, don’t you?
Have fun!
Erin B.
P.S. – I think this blog deserves a little extra credit. Don’t you?
Category: Discussion Director 5 comments »
March 20th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Erin, you over-achiever.
Extra credit. Haha.
=D
March 21st, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Ok that was long, but there was a lot of information in there, as for the extra credit… ummm…. =p
Anyway, I agree that Fitzgerald uses a lot of forshadowing that really brings the story to life. It causes susupense to build up and keep the reader interested. My opinion on the sort of warning on Gatsby is unsure. I some what think that Gatsby will get in trouble with Tom because he is in love with Daisy (even though he has another woman). But yet I think it might have something to do with the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy after she got married when Gatsby went off to war. I really think that this quote and the forshadow will drive the book and will tie into the ending.
I really do not understand why this book would be written through Nick’s view but yet I think it makes the book intersting. I think that he choose to put it into Nick’s view because we can see a variety of actions and emotions through Nick that the others can not see. We get to know about Tom and his other woman through Nick and we also get to see an insight to Daisy through Nick and finally we also may get to see an insight to Gatsby as well. I really believe that the point of view in which the story is told will affect the story, what goes on and all of the information we as the reader can get through Nick’s view.
~Lauren Gress~
March 22nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
The answers to my blog are as follow:
For the foreshadowing, I think that something about Gatsby’s lifestyle might infuriate the others around him. It might be that he is “new money” and flaunts it or it could be that his love for Daisy will bring about some misfortune on him. Either way, I think that some people will be plotting against Gatsby later on in the novel.
I’m not really sure why FItzgerald would chose to have Nick writing a book about his time in West Egg. I could see a journal or a letter, but a book is very odd. Even without Nick writing the book it still could have been in first person so I’m not really sure what Fitzgerald was getting at. The first person choice was a very good perspective to use. Using Nick as the main character rather than say, Daisy, allows the reader to travel to many different places – the garage, Gatsby’s house, Tom’s house, the apartment, etc. I guess Nick would be almost like an omniscient narrator in the idea that he goes almost everywhere.
I think that Fitzgerald used all the oxymorons in his writing to perpetuate some sort of theme in the novel that has not been revealed to the reader yet. The one thing I was thinking about was perhaps the differences between the two Eggs and/or the difference in Gatsby’s wealth vs. Tom’s wealth. That is to say Gatsby just recently acquired money while Tom’s family has been in the upper class for quite some time. Something I inferred about Tom is that he is very proud of his heritage, therefore he might look down upon Gatsby because he has just appeared in the upper class.
The two characters that I thought were very opposite in nature were Myrtle and Daisy. Myrtle is described as: “…in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face…contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering.” (Pg. 29 -30) Whereas Daisy is described by Nick as: “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth – but was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion…” (Pg. 13 – 14) Daisy and Myrtle are also very different in their lifestyles. While Daisy is accustomed to living a luxurious life, Myrtle’s husband runs an old garage that does not seem to be doing very well in business. Also, while Daisy is mostly soft-spoken and flighty while Myrtle is loud, obnoxious, and demanding. The only thing they have in common is Tom. I found it strange that Tom would chose two people that are so different as the objects of his affection, which is why I chose to write about them.
The irony about the train is that Tom wants Myrtle to take a different car so any East Eggers on the train won’t see them together. Tom takes such precautions, but everyone in the East Egg already knows he is having an affair.
One example of Fitzgerald’s irony in the characters is when he is building the character of Mr. McKee. Mr. McKee considers himself to be an artsy fellow. He and his wife continually brag about all the “studies” he’s done of different places. He defines himself by what he does and that is all we really know about him. However, it appears that Mr. McKee is anything but artistic. He calls his photo studies things like “Montauk Point – the Sea” and “Montauk Point – the Gulls”. Correct me if I’m wrong, but those aren’t very imaginative titles.
As for the final question, I’m not going to answer that one. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of Fitzgerald’s unique style of developing characters throughout the novel, so I’ll leave you guys to figure that one out for yourselves. I’ll give you a hint though: the most obvious example of this is Tom. Go back to how he was described in the first chapter and then how he behaves towards the end of the second chapter with Myrtle. That should be enough to help you figure it out.
Erin B
March 22nd, 2009 at 8:08 pm
I think that Gatsby may be getting himself into trouble with his money. I think that he may be mugged or robbed later on the book because people will recognize his money due to his flaunting of it.
I’m not sure why the book is being written from Nick’s perspective. I think that when a book is written in first-person, it makes the the book more interesting because you know how the character feels about everything. The inly down-side is that you may get a biased view on situations, but un general I prefer first person.
I don’t know why the author uses so many oxymorons. Sorry. ???
I think that the irony in the train scene was that Tom was trying really hard to make it unapparent that he had anything with Myrtle, but everyone already knew that they were having an affair.
I haven’t noticed much irony in the book yet, but I get where Erin’s coming from.
I think that the way that Gatsby is described and how he is portrayed corrolate very well. In my log I used the quote of how Nick is describing Gatsby’s smile. I think that just the way Nick describes his smile shows us how prestigious and high-up Gatsby feels about himself. Also the ways that Gatsby is described about carrying himself, very tall and proper, makes him sound important and like he has money, (which he does).
-Maddie Zinn
April 10th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Erin-Wow. I might have to consider a little extra credit for how much time and thought you obviously put into that post…though, you might want to ask fewer questions so your group members can respond with more depth. When you have so many questions, you tend to get more superficial answers.
Lauren-Make sure you address all the questions asked.
Maddie-Make sure you spend more time looking into the questions asked, go deeper!
A couple things: Many stories that have as a central character someone who is larger than life, mysterious and so forth, the writer will choose to have another character narrate the story. One example is Moby Dick. It allows the author to maintain the air of mystery and keeps that central character from overwhelming the story.
Tom is a great example of the physical description denoting personality traits…good job!