Icarus and Gatsby comparison- Jessica

Icarus and Gatsby comparison

In some aspects Gatsby and Icarus can be compared to one another but they also have their differences. Both Gatsby's and Icarus' ambition was the cause of their downfall and they both had dreams that could never be reached. Icarus desperately wanted to fly close to the sun causing his wings to burn and leaving him to fall into the sea and drown. Gatsby intensely desired the standing the the upper class would give him. He had everything that would give him the ability to be in the upperclass, the money, the wealth, the power but the one thing he didn't have was the last name. 

However they differ because Gatsby didn't have the voice of reason and the mora compas that icaurs had. Icarus' father repeatedly told him not to fly to close to the sun because it is dangerous yet he ignored him. Gatsby did not have this. Nick was one of his few friends in the novel and he actively encouraged Gatsby to pursue Daisy, which was Gatsbys way in to the upper class. She was Gatsby's sun. 

Shafia-Why Daisy cries over the shirts.

In the chapters I have read so far, I have been able to deduce that Daisy wishes to portray herself as a materialistic person and she succeeds in doing so at first. However, I think she longs for more than materialistic items but chooses to hide this to avoid getting hurt like she has done in the past. She may have chosen to do this as a defence mechanism.

 Her tears over Gatsby’s shirts and claim of never having seen “such beautiful shirts” in her life are indeed false. She is married to the very wealthy Tom Buchanan so we know that this cannot be the case. I think that the shirts hold some sort of sentimental value for her as they represent everything that she once had but can no longer have (at least not openly and freely) as she is a married woman.

Daisy’s tears may also be of regret at not pursuing her relationship with Gatsby when she was free to do so and for settling for a man who is almost his equal in terms of wealth and status but who cannot provide her with the one thing she longs for-love. Tom’s shirts are described as being “shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel” which have been brought from “a man in England” who buys his clothes. Daisy’s tears could also be as a result of her realisation of the sharp contrast between Tom and Gatsby. Tom is an uncultured and ill-informed brute of a man whereas Gatsby a sophisticated gentleman and his shirts act as a symbolism of how cultured he is.

Daisy is not a “beautiful little fool” yet she wishes for her daughter to be so that she may be saved from the complexities and harshness of reality. However, if her daughter is a fool, she would not be intelligent so she may not have the capability to imagine and therefore long for things such as a greater meaning to her existence. She wishes for her daughter to be content with materialism, although she is not and that is the reason for much of her sadness and anger at her life with Tom.

Thought piece 3 - Jessica

In the ending of chapter five, when the three characters Daisy, Gatsby and Nick are at Gatsby’s mansion they go into a cupboard where Gatsby begins throwing his shirts around the room. This causes Daisy to cry at claiming she has never seen ‘such beautiful shirts before’. Daisy does this because she is broken although the she is clever she has been hurt and has never fully recovered. Her character is unique because she knows how to hold the power in relationships whether it be friendships or more, there are only few she sees as her equal. Daisy cries because she regrets aspects of her life such as her marriage to Tom and ignoring his betrayal. She regrets not going and being with Gatsby when she received the letter on her wedding day. Although it can be argued that Daisy has the lifestyle that was idealised in the 20’s so she should be happy. However, she does not have what she truly wants and that's to love unconditionally and be loved and adored in return. 

When she says that ‘it makes me sad because I've never seen such – such beautiful shirts’ she blatantly lies, because her lifestyle with Tom, it provides her with the ability to the same kinds of shirts in a daily basis. However it presents the regret she has of not going to Gatsby when she received his letter. The shirts that Gatsby throws around the room show his now higher social standing, he throws shirts made of ‘sheer linen and thick silk’ around the room with no such thought to them ripping. He doesn't need to worry about them ripping because he can just buy more. He's rich enough to not care about these pieces of material. She didn't go to him because he was of a lower social standing to her and although they were ‘in love’, as some suggest, it would have been unacceptable. The traditions of the period were that you could only love and marry someone of the same social standing. Daisy regrets not waiting because then she could have married the man she believes she truly loves. Therefore I think her tears are in fact tears of regret.

Thought piece 2 - Jessica

I agree that Fitzgerald achieved his goal of writing something ‘extraordinary and beautiful’ and one of the ways he did this was making the majority of the characters he wrote unpleasant. He makes the audience acknowledge that they are horrible characters but they all individually highlight the problems of the age such as the belief of their own superiority and the lack of priorities. He has characters such as the three ‘Mr Mumbles’ that are only present when talking about Gatsby and the rumours that help make his name. Fitzgerald only identifies these characters to either drop in some information to add to the story or they are simply background noise for the setting. The characters however frustratingly pretentious and arrogant they are, are still part of what makes the writing brilliant. 

Fitzgerald wanted to write something new for the age, a novel that represented what it was about. The Great Gatsby does this perfectly . He presents the characters to be unpleasant because throughout the 1920’s that's the way people were. They idealised class social standings and the materialistic lifestyle of ‘the American Dream’. Mannerisms were simply overlooked, if they had enough money treating people with respect was not necessary.  He tested the boundaries of the presentation of people but subtly he never bluntly says the characters are crude and annoying but they are.

Thought piece 1 - Jessica

The first chapter sets the rest of the novel up beautifully as it introduces the characters that will have an impact on the story. It only presents the basics of each character such as Tom’s ‘woman in the city’. In the beginning that is all she is known as. Fitzgerald only tells us that she is Tom’s other woman as it hides the rest of her identity. He doesn't give her a name, while in contrast to her is Daisy, Tom and even the omniscient narrator in the character Nick. With these characters Fitzgerald shares so much detail about each of them like the way Daisy talks in a ‘low, thrilling voice’ she used to draw people in. Fitzgerald keeps his character ‘Mr Gatsby’ as a mystery to everyone,  not just the characters in the book who know Gatsby as the man with the lavish parties but the readers as well.

Fitzgerald sets the scene and the mood in the chapter through the intricate detail he uses. When describing the surroundings he uses personification of simple things such as the garden to draw the reader in closer and keep their interest. While the mood of the first chapter is both elegance yet inferiority highlighted by Nick. The elegance that Fitzgerald presents is held by the Buchanan’s living on the better side of the bay, and the way their lifestyle is presented. But in contrast to them is Nick, although he is living on the opposite side of the bay, he is superior intellectually but his lifestyle presents his inferiority to the Buchanan’s.

The Buchanan's are the representation of the idealised ‘American Dream’, which consists of having a big, beautiful house full of materialistic objects, a wonderful happy family and the money to pay for it all. Yet Fitzgerald realised the idea that was the basis of so so many individuals aspirations was in fact a lie and that nothing would ever be ‘perfect’. Fitzgerald does this through Tom’s affair and Daisy's blatant ignorance towards it. Daisy is often labelled as silly and childish, however she is quite clever and so puts on the front of being fragile and ‘innocent’, but when she talks to Nick about her daughter saying that ‘the best thing for a girl to be is a fool’ her intellect begins to shine out. She knows that her life is not perfect and that it has flaws but she ignores them to keep herself happy. She acts the fool when in fact she is quite the opposite.

Mrs Baker is the strength and knowledge of the novel. Her masculine structure that was idealised throughout the ‘roaring 20’s’ presents he strength. She is also the fountain of knowledge for Nick as she brings him in on the secrets that ‘everyone knows’ except him. She tells him about Tom’s woman in the city and the mysterious Mr Gatsby. She is the light that guides Nick through his confusing new surroundings.

Emma- Why does Daisy cry?

Daisy has lived a life of luxury, so to see her cry over some shirts is very odd. There obviously are some subconscious feelings that Daisy has to make to cry ‘stormily.’ As soon as she met Gatsby for the first time in five years a lot of emotions and memories would have returned to her. The amount of emotions that she would have had to deal with and control, as she was in Gatsby’s and Nick’s presence could have pushed her to break down.

Daisy knows that she is the only reason of Gatsby’s happiness and excitement in that moment, without her presence Gatsby would not have any unreasonable joy. She knows how much she means to him, and maybe she knows that she will not be able to live up to the very high expectations that Gatsby has of everything, especially her but even his shirts as even she who has lived this life of luxury has ‘never seen such beautiful shirts’.

Gatsby could also be seen as messing up Daisy’s life, as the shirts could represent the many beautiful fixed factors of her life, which became unstable the minute she met Gatsby again. She knows there a chance that they would run away together meaning she would have to leave her old life (the shirts) behind. She would have leave the now ‘coloured disarray’ of her life behind. She knows she has to choose between the many people, her home and basically her whole life or choosea man who she used and still loves. Anyone would cry over a decision like that. Also she knows from that very moment her life will be different. Huge life changes causes a build-up of emotions good and bad and we are shown in a short period of time from Daisy the effect that these emotions have, which is basically crying over beautiful shirts.

Why does Daisy cry? - Nafeesa

Daisy is clearly not crying because the shirts are 'beautiful', she is crying because she cannot believe that she is with Gatsby again and by Gatsby coming into her life again it has made her realise the life she could have had with Gatsby.

They way Gatsby is chucking his different coloured shirts 'throwing them, one by one' shows how  Daisy is missing out on something and that his style of shirts is bringing back memories of the past. The quality of the shirts, 'thick silk, fine flannel'  shows how Gatsby is wealthy and his shirts are made out of expensive materials. This frustrates Daisy as she could have been living with Gatsby in this mansion as the Gatsby she knew five years ago couldn't afford all these expensive shirts.

Daisy realises that with Tom she only has one thing which is money, before their wedding day he bought her some pearls 'valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars'. But with Gatsby she can have 2 things which is love and money and she could have had a purpose in life with Gatsby.  Daisy is overwhelmed by Gatsby’s mansion as it 'drew from her well-loved eyes'.  This shows how Daisy is now loved by Gatsby and this is now expressed through her eyes.  However Daisy knows that her relationship with Gatsby is just a fantasy now and in reality she is with Tom therefore she is crying because of this.

Thought piece: Why does Daisy cry?

Thank you for your responses so far - don't forget to get your blogs in to discuss in Monday's lesson. Why does Daisy cry over those shirts?

'Why does Daisy cry?' - Saira

Gatsby creates a “coloured disarray” of his shirts to possibly impress Daisy with his mass of wealth, Daisy is quite a materialistic person and therefore, he feels like gloating about his wealth would impress her.

Daisy had cried earlier in the chapter when she spoke to Gatsby, “her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of unexpected joys” with use of a triadic list, Daisy’s true feelings towards Gatsby are exposed.

However, at this moment Daisy supposedly cries “stormily” over “such beautiful shirts”, but in reality she could be mourning for the love and wealth she could have attained if she was not a married woman. Daisy hides the tone of her voice, “muffled in thick folds” because the tone of her voice would give away the way she feels for Gatsby, of which Nick already had a sort of idea, unlike Gatsby who is ignorant to her feelings.

It is evident that Daisy is not a “beautiful little fool”, to some extent she understands and reciprocates Gatsby fervent, fabricated love. Perhaps, this makes her acknowledge the emptiness of her life with Tom, and the reality of not being able to attain Gatsby’s ‘love’ and wealth. It may even be that Daisy feels overwhelmed by the naked truth of people treating her as if she is a frivolous luxury/ possession that can be bought by a great amount of wealth.

Why is Daisy crying? - Abbi

Throughout 'The Great Gatsby' everything we see is from Nick's eyes and through his words - we don't know why Tom is having an affair, and wouldn't know about it at all if Jordan hadn't told Nick, we don't know how Gatsby's works out the connection between Nick and Daisy and we do not get any of the thoughts of the other characters about the events described by Nick. Because of all this, the novels perspective on the world is narrowed and our understanding of the characters tainted.

In previous chapters, Nick has presented Daisy as ditzy and fluffy - yet hinted at the greater available depth of her character. Daisy seems to be a woman who knows her place in society, her place in the world as something greater than her - she's aware of her husbands affair, her failure of having borne him a daughter and her growing powerlessness within her home life.

However, in chapter five, Daisy is thrown into emotional turmoil with her being re-united with Gatsby. The reader, like Nick, knows nothing more than what has been told to us by Jordan Baker in the previous chapter - so Daisy's situation is controlled by Gatsby more than anything; however, this is reversed upon her entrance, where upon Gatsby falls to pieces, 'fumbling' and 'trembling'.

After all the emotional turmoil of the afternoon - is it really surprising that Daisy cries over something so meaningless? She hasn't seen Gatsby in 5 years, probably thought she'd never see him again, and then, suddenly, he makes this reappearance back into her life.

In short, it can be argued that Daisy's tears over 'shirts' while, on the surface, seem to fit the persona she has displayed in earlier chapters, 'artificial', could actually be hinting to some greater and deeper emotional heartache and confusion.

Thought thingy - finally! - Abbi

1) As a novel, ‘The Great Gatsby’ accomplishes Fitzgerald’s goal perfectly and, it could even be argued that Fitzgerald even surpassed it. ‘The Great Gatsby’ is unique and it is easy to see why it had become the classic that haunts A Level students across the globe. It meets all the set criteria – it’s ‘extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned’. ‘The Great Gatsby’ is so exceptional, such a one of a kind, that it is easy to understand why critics of the day simply did not get it – because I’m not sure they were supposed to get it. Fitzgerald wrote it to be ‘new’ – things that are new, aren't always built for the audience who get them to understand.

2) People never like the way they’re described by other people; viewing ourselves from other people’s perspective highlights aspects of our character that we are blind to. Wilson’s description of the characters as ‘unpleasant’ shows Fitzgerald’s genius within ‘The Great Gatsby’ – Fitzgerald presents a view on society that haunts the reader, with its honesty. For all Nick’s biased, and sometimes slightly confusing, narration – his obsession with Gatsby, his disgust of Myrtle Wilson and the sense of him not fitting in with the East – we see his view of a society in total flux, a ‘white chauffeur’ driving ‘rich blacks’ – the class system being broken down and re-built, the foundations of America and the American Dream being completely rocked and all through Nick’s eyes. Being asked to argue this is impossible, because, as the reader, you aren't supposed to like yourself – no matter how much you wish to – because Fitzgerald has presented all the ugly aspects of human nature and wrapped them up in something ‘beautiful’ and ‘intricate’ and, as much as you can love the novel, you simply can not love yourself.

Shafia-thoughts piece 2

Based on my reading of the novel so far, I believe that Fitzgerald succeeded in creating a piece of magnificent literature that was, and still is “extraordinary, beautiful, simple and intricately patterned.” The novel has a simple plot but the sheer amount of detail which is it put into the piece of work is what it gives it the exquisite edge over other novels of its kind. Fitzgerald manages to pack symbolism into every sentence, that is, each sentence is carefully crafted to ensure that it is essential to the storyline.

Many readers and critics of Gatsby have found the characters to be too superficial, too unpleasant and have found they are unable to relate to any of them. Although I cannot relate to the glamorous Daisy, nor the eccentric Gatsby, I would not go as far as to say that either of these characters are unpleasant. In fact, I find both to be quite amusing and Daisy is intriguing. Her comment on her wishes for her unborn daughter to be a “beautiful fool” makes me wonder whether she has been the victim of her intelligence. Perhaps she believes her own intelligence to be one of her greatest downfalls and maybe this is why she chooses to present herself as a beautiful, superficial woman. Although Tom is inherently racist and arrogant, I find myself fascinated by him also. Purely because he was born into his social class, he is the most powerful man in the novel and the wealthiest too. I was curious as to whether Fitzgerald would create a great downfall for this cruel and egotistical character.

Shafia-Chapter one

Chapter one of ‘The Great Gatsby’ lays for the foundations for the rest of the novel as it introduces the main themes and characters of the book. Although some characters, such as Gatsby himself, are not physically introduced to us, we are made aware of their existence through the narrative voice of Nick. Through Nick, the reader receives a biased but humorous portrayal of Tom, Daisy and Nick.

The chapter begins with a witty commentary by Nick on a small piece of advice which was given to him by his father: “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone [...] just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” This introduces the theme of social class and wealth. Nick also suggests that how moral you are as a person is dependent upon your social class. I think that this is a very interesting remark.

On the second page, Nick begins to tell us about Gatsby and claims that he represents “everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.” He paints Gatsby as a hero of some sorts and perhaps a victim when he ambiguously describes something which “preyed” on Gatsby. It is only at the end of the chapter where we actually meet Gatsby. His reaching out towards the light is symbolic of his yearning for Daisy, for desire, for wealth and power and ultimately, the motif of ‘The American Dream’.

Nick then proceeds by introducing the characters of his cousin Daisy, and her husband Tom to us. He makes us aware of just how ridiculously rich and powerful Tom is by telling the reader that it “was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.” Considering that Nick himself is also very wealthy and attended the same, prestigious university (Yale) as Tom did, we are made to understand that Tom is able to purchase anything he would like and whenever we would like to. Nick appears to be very bitter and reproachful towards Tom. He makes his existence appear shallow and meaningless too. His power is also reinforced when Nick uses narrative techniques to show how Tom is able to stop the movement of the wind.

Both Daisy and her friend Jordan are dressed entirely in white. This could suggest the purity of the two women in the novel but it could also portray a sense of dullness or a lack of character. As the conversation sparks, we soon realise that Daisy is in fact, smarter than she appears. However, we soon realise that she believes her intelligence is one of her greatest downfalls and perhaps this is why she chooses to present herself as a pretty but superficial woman. We are made aware of this when she says “I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” This is the first insight that the reader gains into the true nature of Daisy’s character. We realise that she may be undermining herself and putting up defenses to protect herself.

The chapter ends on a cliff hanger, introducing Gatsby to us but not giving much away in terms of his physical appearance. As a reader, I think this had a profound effect as it left me anticipating some action and also left me intrigued, to know more about the character of Gatsby, whom Nick spoke so fondly of. It made me wonder whether Gatsby was more genuine and had more of a meaning to his existence than the other characters appeared to have.

rhys2

I think Fitzgerald did create something ‘beautiful and simple and intricately patterned. The plot, while simple, is rendered exquisite by Fitzgerald and each of the initial chapters are enticing and necessary in themselves while forming the basis for a greater narrative.

The characters would be unpleasant were it not for our unique insight into them; Nick. To spend an evening with either the ignorant Tom Buchanan party or the insufferable Myrtle Wilson party would be agonising but Nick’s narration makes their absurdity almost comedic. ‘She came in with such proprietary haste, and looked around so possessively at the furniture that I wondered if she lived here.’ Rather than disliking them because of their unpleasantness - the superfluity of Myrtle and the awkwardness Tom radiates due to almost everyone around him being more intelligent - I actually want to better get to know them through the eyes of Nick/Fitzgerald, who orchestrates their every move with a perceptive and eloquent wit. Their unpleasantness is determined by the reader; I find them delightfully ludicrous. 

Thought Piece 2 - Saira

1. Based on your reading of the novel so far, do you think Fitzgerald accomplished his goal?

The Great Gatsby was and still is something very new and extraordinary, especially for the period of literary readers at the time of 1925, they got a new outlook on the jazz age through The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald kept his word, when he said he was going to write something “beautiful and simple and intricately patterned” and even though, I have been through only three chapters I can certainly say that Fitzgerald has made this book very detailed and intricately patterned, so much that you can almost visually imagine what Fitzgerald is trying to show us. It doesn’t matter what he’s talking about through Nick, whether it’s the settings around him, "the front was broken with by a line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold and wide open to the warm windy afternoon", past knowledge on any of the characters “a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence…”, conversations with characters, “’is it a boy or a girl?’ she asked delicately, ‘it’s a bitch’ said Tom decisively…” or even what the characters are doing at the moment in time in the book “the large room was full of people. One of the girls in yellow was playing the piano, and beside her stood a tall red haired young lady from a famous chorus, engaged in a song.”

Fitzgerald has without a doubt accomplished his goal, with each chapter comes more detail which makes this story extremely extraordinary, as something different is going in every chapter. Even in this period nothing like the Great Gatsby has been written again.

2. How far do you agree with Wilson's comment that the 'characters were unpleasant?' Is there any way to argue against this?

Personally, I agree with Wilson and do find some of the characters quite unpleasant, however when it comes to Nick I don’t feel like he’s a unpleasant character as he is very likeable and easily connects to the audience but at times I find it a little disturbing that we barely know anything about him, yet we believe everything he tells us.

Tom, Daisy and Jordan are an unpleasant bunch but they’re much better than Myrtle, Tom’s mistress and her bunch. In my opinion, Tom is a very unpleasant character because he’s a very inhuman character he shows no emotions at the start of chapter two till the end of chapter two, where he “broke her nose with his open hand”, something that makes him seem animalistic. When it comes to Daisy, I don’t know what to think anymore, especially because I don’t know if she’s actually dumb or she’s actually pretending to be dumb. However, when it comes to Jordan in the first chapter I really thought that she was an unpleasant character, however in the third character we see Jordan in a different light, she’s no longer ‘stiff’ and her own party becomes “too polite” for her.

When it comes to Myrtle, the “other woman” and her bunch, I can absolutely agree that they’re very unpleasant. Especially when it comes to Myrtle, it’s obvious that she’s only with Tom for  the luxuries of life but when she speaks of herself, she gives herself great importance and thinks she’s above everyone else. She’s also a very hypocritical character, “all they think of is money” when truly that’s all she thinks of. Catherine, Myrtles sister is also introduced to us as “beautiful by people who ought to know” and when Catherine speaks it reflects onto Myrtle, both sisters are very alike, hypocritical, misinformed liars. The bunch of people associated with Myrtle are very loud and artificial, which immediately makes the mood unpleasant and the obvious vulgarity of the bunch, the way they converse and act with each other shows how greatly they think of themselves.

Even though I agree with Wilson, I believe that these unpleasant characters show different social class and different styles of characters, they bring variation into the book and make it more interesting.

Thought piece 2- Nafeesa

1)Based on my reading of the novel so far,  I do think that Fitzgerald has accomplished his goal because he creates a love story but with a twist, as he includes other themes such as wealth and status. He presents the novel through Nick's eyes as a first-person viewpoint. From reading only 3 chapters of the book it makes me want to read more from how Fitzgerald describes the east and west egg characters and makes me want to read on to know what is going to happen next in the story.  In Chapter 1 Nick describes Gatsby as a one in a million character which makes me more eager to meet gatsby and to know more about gatsby and to see for myself if he lives up to the expectations.  On the other hand chapter 2 is completely different in the form of writing style as Fitzgerald almost writes ugly about the West egg in comparison to the east egg which he describes with glamour and beauty.  They story has only just begun as in chapter 3 we finally meet Gatsby, so the first 3 chapters gives us an insight to what all the other characters are like and what they've heard about Gatsby before Fitzgerald introduces Gatsby himself.  I agree that the novel is something extraordinary because if it wasn't then it would not be recognised today as nearly everyone knows about The Great Gatsby and the uniqueness of this novel and the author who wrote it. 

2) I agree to some extent with Wilson that the characters are quite unpleasant.  For me they all seem to be not living their lives but are living for other purposes such as money or power.  The east egg characters Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Tom seems to only care about his power and does not care for his wife because if he really did love Daisy he would not be interested in having a mistress, while on the other hand Daisy seems to have no purpose in life.  Myrtle and the West egg characters are also unpleasant as their attitude to life seems like they do not care about what is going on in their lives or what they are going to do about their lives.  Myrtle is clearly only using Tom for his money and his status of being rich and all the other characters seem artificial.  Nick is not as unpleasant as the other characters as he is the narrator.  The way Myrtle and her 'friends'  talk to each other is also unpleasant as they do not seem to talk about anything important or anything interesting.  She clearly does not care about the puppy and even makes a list of what she wants because she knows that Tom would get anything for her, it is almost like she's a little child always wanting to buy stuff.  For me Jordan Baker is an interesting character as she is not that unpleasant as the others but she seems to know what Tom, Daisy and Gatsby are like, she is the only character who seems to be living as she is doing something with her life.  However there is something dishonest about her she may be hard but she is clever in the way she deals with men. 

Thought Piece 2- Emma

I believe that from what I have read Fitzgerald has accomplished his goal. Everything I have read has a reason for being in the novel. The chapters that I have read gives just enough away to make me want to read more. The detail that Fitzgerald put into the scenes and the people gives the reader clear visual imagery of both the beautiful, like Daisy’s home in chapter 1, and the complete contrast of valley of the ashes in chapter 2. Each chapter seems to tell a short story in itself which makes the novel even more extraordinary and shows the novel to be intricately patterned. Even though the novel is very detailed the story line at the moment is very simple, Fitzgerald makes the novel beautiful by the words that he uses to describe.

I believe that he wrote something new and still today is very unique.

The characters are in my opinion unpleasant, from just the three chapter we have met two different social classes, the upper classes (daisy, Jordan and Tom) all seem unhuman, for example Daisy asks ‘What do people plan?’ as though she is not a person. This seems very unpleasant because these people want to isolate themselves from humanity which shows them to be very hostile. The other class that we see is the Wilsons, Catherine etc. from what I have read these characters think they are better than they actually are, for example Catherine thinks she is beautiful because someone who should know told her once, from this I think she is very full of herself which would make her a unpleasant person to have in their company. Even the way Myrtle treats the puppy shows her to be an unpleasant person, as the puppy is more of a fashion object to her than a pet. Although, to argue against this Mr Wilson in my opinion is not a unpleasant character because he seems like all he is trying to do is create a life for himself and his wife, he even seems like a nice person, as he goes and fetches other people chairs without even being asked twice. Also, while I believe the lower class people are very unpleasant people, Daisy, Jordon and Tom could not be seemed as unpleasant because they have been brought up to be people who live in luxury so they may not know any different.  I am unsure about Nick because I don’t find him unpleasant but I don’t know if I like him, I think this is because he is the narrator so we only get to see what he thinks of others and not what others think of him.    

Thought Piece 2

Read the following:

'Three years before the novel was published by Scribner's, Fitzgerald said that he planned to write "something new - something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." His old friend, Edmund Wilson, read the book immediately. He told Fitzgerald it was the best work he had done, although he thought the characters were unpleasant. T.S. Eliot told him it was the best new novel he had read in years.' - From The Writer's Almanac, MPR.

1. Based on your reading of the novel so far, do you think Fitzgerald accomplished his goal?
2. How far do you agree with Wilson's comment that the 'characters were unpleasant?' Is there any way to argue against this? (TRY)!

Nafeesa - chapter 1

Saira - Chapter 1

Chapter one is like the foundation of the book, where we have Nick as a narrator setting the scene and the characters. Nicks description on the both the Egg’s, with regard to wealth and social class tells me that maybe Fitzgerald wanted the readers to have a some background information on what could be the main themes for the novel, wealth, power and social class.

Nick is a perfect fit for the narrative voice because he can really easy to connect with the reader and this makes him very likable. The way Nick likes to describe his settings to us, the little intricate and fine details of his surroundings and even of the people and their personalities, makes it much more interesting to read this chapter, especially with Nicks witty comments in between ‘a partial view off my neighbors lawn and the consoling proximity of millionaires’.

Nick starts of the chapter with a very formal and reserved tone, this may have been because Nick was speaking about himself and I've realized that when he speaks about himself his tone seems to be much more cautious, as if he doesn't enjoy speaking of himself.

Then we have Gatsby, the eponymous hero of our novel whom so far has only been mentioned through others, especially through Nick. When Nick speaks about Gatsby his tone seems to enlighten, Nick seems to think of Gatsby as ‘gorgeous’, ‘extraordinary gift for hope’ and he also implies that Gatsby is a kind of person that one will rarely ever meet, this makes me think that Nick must either look up to Gatsby as a role model, he may be a very close friend of Gatsby’s or maybe he’s just in awe of the ‘Great’ Gatsby.

When we arrive at the home of the Buchanan's, it radiates wealth and power. Through Nick we first meet Tom, whom seems to be very dominating, controlling and quite rude as he directly insults Nick by calling him weak and implying that he is immasculine. We are almost told to dislike Tom with Nick’s description ‘hard mouth’, ‘arrogant eyes’ and ‘aggressively forward’ which makes Tom sound almost animistic. Tom is obviously the ‘typical’ white man of the period and therefore it isn't much of a surprise when we find out that he has ‘some woman in New York’.

However, Daisy is the complete opposite to Tom, she’s very carefree and light, which makes you think why are is he even with Tom? Nick description of Daisy as ‘charming’, ‘bright’ and ‘passionate’ make the reader feel like Daisy would be a victim in her relationship with Tom, if anything were to happen. However, sometimes I feel like Daisy tries to play off how clever she actually is and she hides this by acting dull and by agreeing with almost everything Tom says.

‘I woke up out of ether with an utterly abandon feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was girl, and so I turned my head away and wept’ - ‘the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool’ - Nick tries to console her and she immediately changes and goes on ‘in a convinced way’, this makes it very hard to understand Daisy as she plays the character of a dull wife so well, you can’t tell if she’s always acting or if it’s actually her true feelings.

Miss Baker represents a typical 1920’s flapper girl, whom is very tall with small breasts which out of context could almost sound like describing a man. Personally, I found Miss Baker to quite a uncomfortable character because she’s always very stiff with etiquette when she’s around both Daisy and Tom, however as soon as they leave she likes to snoop around the life of others.

At the end of chapter one we see Gatsby in person, after all the character build up on him all we see is his figure, we don’t get to see how he looks, how he speaks and we don’t even know why he was stood out alone in the ‘unquiet darkness’.

Abbi - Chapter One

The end of chapter one marks a closure to the setting of the book – Fitzgerald making use of his opening chapter to well-establish Nick as our narrator, Gatsby as our protagonist and Daisy as a character of intricate importance to the story in its entirety.

Nick's narrative during the first chapter is fluid - each line leads into the next and there seems no moments where there is a pause needing to be filled, or an explanation to a connection, with each piece of information leading into the next. This fluidity in the narration adds a sense of the era, of Nick’s education and view on the world, in its entirety – without focusing too greatly, yet still having an awareness, of its intricacy and structure.

The style of the chapter seems to setting the scene, for which the rest of the story will use as its grounding foundations. With Nick’s detailed description of the situation on both Egg’s, as well as their location with regards to social status, as well as wealth, it is as if Fitzgerald hoped to fit the reader into the story itself, and to educate them on life there, within the novel.

By not having any direct interaction with the novel's namesake, 'Gatsby', Fitzgerald is able to direct the reader’s interest - throwing in the odd bit of information, ‘You must know Gatsby’, to feed the interest and, at the close of the chapter, the introduction of the physical being ‘Gatsby’ – as a real character and the ability to, finally, put a name to a face.

With regards to the other characters and how they are introduced to us, as the reader, through Nick’s narration are very telling with regards to Nick’s view on the world around him. As we are introduced to a number of other characters by a biased narrator, we are almost told to dislike Tom Buchanan – seen through Nick’s eyes as ‘sturdy’ ‘with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner’. With Nick’s description of his eyes as ‘arrogant’ and the ‘enormous power’ of his ‘cruel body’ – there seems to be little to be found in him, through Nick’s eyes, to appeal – and therefore, the reader dislikes him. This is found to echo through when we discover that Tom has ‘some woman in New York’ – giving the impression that the skills Nick spoke of earlier in the chapter, ‘unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret grief’s of wild, unknown men’, are solidly grounded through his, correct, first impressions of Tom.

It is within this opening chapter that we are introduced to the fierce boundaries within the novel, and the idea that wealth cannot overcome good breeding – or a good marriage, however unhappy. It is through this chapter that Fitzgerald brings to the forefront of the consciousness of the reader, the characters which will determine a story that has already happened – the outcome already written, literally. And it is through this chapter that Fitzgerald sets out the domino effect of events that will lead us through Nick’s narration, to the end of the book.  

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Nick as a narrator is very likeable, turning his attention to extraneous detail into a poetic and readable form. ‘‘Ten o’clock’ she remarked, apparently finding the time on the ceiling’. He is often funny and makes what could have been a very tense dinner (Tom getting a call from his mistress, the casual racism, Jordan being generally intimidating) into something much less ominous. ‘As for Tom, the fact that he had ‘some woman in New York’ was really less surprising than that he had been depressed by a book.’

Daisy is sarcastic and funny – obviously more intelligent and humane than her husband, which makes you question why she is with him. Her ‘everything’s terrible – god I'm so sophisticated’ speech is done convincingly and then, after waiting for his reaction, she looks at Nick with ‘an absolute smirk on her face’, mocking her husband in a way to dry for him to understand - '...as though she had asserted her membership in a secret society to which she and Tom belonged.' She is obviously unhappy in the relationship. 

‘Tom was god knows where, I woke up with an utterly abandoned feeling, I asked right away if it was a boy or a girl. The nurse told me it was girl, and so I turned my head away and wept’ - Nick tries to comfort her and she immediately reverts to sarcasm and goes on ‘in a convinced way’. Hard to tell when she’s being serious, she masks her true feelings by trying to be funny as seen in her interactions with Nick. Unsure about her character after only the first chapter.

Tom is typically ignorant – racist, sexist (not unusual attitudes for an upper-class white man at that time.) When he says Jordan’s family ‘oughtn't let her run around the country this way’ Daisy questions  him ‘coldly’, suggesting that she is actually quite forward thinking and doesn't agree with many of his views, though she probably often pretends to for the sake of keeping him happy.

The ending of the chapter gives us a glimpse of Gatsby, him reaching out towards the light at the end of the dock, and in this brief encounter the whole foundation upon which Gatsby’s character is based is summed up. His yearning, for Daisy, or for the status he desperately wishes he had inherited.

Emma- How I feel at the end of Chapter 1

At the end of Chapter one I feel as though nothing really exciting has happened but enough has been told to the reader which makes me want to know more about the characters and how they are connected to Gatsby.

I like the narrative voice used by Fitzgerald because it is different from most of the novels I have read in the past, Nick I feel is perfect for the narrative voice, because he seems to have a very individual view of the time and the people that he interacts with, also I like the fact he has a clear view on each characters personalities, as from what I have read he never seems unsure about what he thinks of a person. I like Nick as a character as while is part of the story world he seems to have an separated view of the places and people he visits, Nick is more ‘down to earth’ than the rest of the characters introduced in chapter one, and I feel like he is able to connect more with the reader, I believe Fitzgerald has done this on purpose as most people do not live there life like Daisy and Tom. It seems more interesting to have a narrator which you can connect with and who tells a story about people that you have nothing in common with, as I believe being an outsider looking in is fascinating.

The tone that I got at beginning of the chapter was very formal and proper because Nick is speaking about himself as I feel he doesn’t like speaking about himself. We then see a more personal side of Nick when he speaks about Gatsby describing him as ‘gorgeous’ and ‘hope’ this makes me think that Nick has a very strong relationship with Gatsby. After the short description about Gatsby the tone becomes more formal as Nick is describing areas of his life, the setting and context of the novel in depth, when talking about himself the tone is formal and when he speaks of his past and how he ended up at the setting of the story the tone becomes more buoyant as though he enjoys speaking about his journey of meeting Gatsby.  When we meet Daisy and Tom the tone becomes uncomfortable as though you wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time in their company. Although I think that is mostly down to the tension between Daisy and Tom, as when we meet Daisy alone the tone becomes light and carefree, which is very much like the personality of Daisy, the way Nick describes her makes you want to meet the ‘charming’ ‘bright’ and ‘passionate’ women which I think Fitzgerald wants you to feel. Tom is a ‘typical’ man who is powerful, wealthy and someone who peaked in college. Fitzgerald made him like this so the reader would not feel any sympathy for him, as even when we met him there were no signs of any deep emotions which seem inhuman.      

Miss Baker is a smaller character of the other three that we have met and I think that shows from the characterisation that Fitzgerald created for her, she is described as very typical 1920’s flapper girl who is very tall with small breast which could almost be describing her as a man. I am unsure about her because all I really found out about her personality is that she is very inquisitive about other people lives including Toms and Daisy’s, from this I didn’t really come to like her because of the way she was snooping around other people’s personal lives.

At the end of the chapter there is a sort of cliff hanger moment when we get to see Gatsby not just mentioned but there in person, this was sort of a cliff hanger because we don’t know what he looks like, what he speaks like and why he was standing outside alone at night. I think Fitzgerald did this for a reason, because that moment made me want to find out why the eponymous character  is so allusive, and although there have been a few indirect mentions about Gatsby we don’t know what makes him Great and this is something I really want to find out.

Gatsby Chapter 1: Thought piece

How do you feel at the end of Chapter 1? Consider narrative voice; style, tone and mood; characterisation; plot.

Watch for the Fitzgerald Set (and because it's good).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atLg2wQQxvU&noredirect=1

The sort of romance every girl wants ...

There was something gorgeous about him...

Roaring Twenties, the Boom. Wild economic prosperity, cultural flowering and a shaking up of social norms. A defining era for Fitzgerald as a writer. He saw the peak of his fame with the publication of The Great Gatsby in 1925, as his book perfectly captured the periods moods and styles. America was ready for peace and prosperity that the 20's brought. The booming stock market helped the huge growth in consumer spending, as investors saw their wealth (on paper) soar. This infusion of new money handed a new morality for the young social set. Less concerned with upholding the traditional values of past generations and more interested in individualism and modernism. Policy changes in the U.S. unwittingly encouraged this new culture. Prohibition drove America's drinking population into speakeasies, underground clubs where people could enjoy their booze and the newly popular jazz music. Sexual norms loosened. Youth-centric culture flourished. Styles changed with women's now bobbed hair, floor-length skirts were traded for the flapper dresses that live on today as Halloween costumes. women were given the right to vote through the nineteenth amendment, and (probably more important to Fitzgerald's fiction) the speakeasies were the first place in America where it became acceptable for a woman who wasn't a prostitute to drink and smoke in public. Fitzgerald lived from 1920 to 1921 with Zelda in New York City, which became the setting for the 1922 novel The Beautiful and Damned Fitzgerald moved to Paris in 1924 to join a growing community of American artists and writers drawn to France for its inexpensive cost of living, liberal sexual codes, great bars, numerous presses and magazines willing to publish them. Both Zelda and Fitzgerald drank heavily, him more than her, and fought viciously. Both flirted with other people. Zelda too, was creative, pursuing both dance and writing, but her unique personality was starting to seem more unbalanced than charming. The couple, like the rest of the nation were living on borrowed time. In October 1929 the stock market crashed, bringing around the Great Depression. Six months later, Zelda suffered her first nervous breakdown. Things would never be so good again, for Fitzgerald or for his characters. In Fitzgerald's 1931 story "Babylon Revisited," was published.

- The Jazz Age Research

As good as it gets this morning...