6 Degree of Separation: from The Turn of the Screw to All the Pretty Horses

I've been meaning to post more of 6 Degree of Separation - a monthly meme hosted by Kathy - and only waiting for a book which I have actually read, and is interesting enough. The time has finally come, here it is...

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

In this gothic story, a young woman (a governess) is placed in a country house, where she experiences mysterious and supernatural things which threatens to shatter her sanity. A similar condition is experienced by another young woman in...


The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ratcliffe

Emily St. Aubert, a young heroine of this (another) gothic tale, also experiences mysterious apparitions, and even more than that, while staying in the Castle of Udolpho. These misfortunes befall her after the death of her father that made her an orphan. There is another (more) misfortunate young lady, who is left alone in the world after the death of her father. She is the heroine of...


The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper

Judith Hutter might be stronger and braver than Emily St. Aubert, but she lacks Emily's pure innocence. She is cocquetish and regarded as too liberal at that era (18th century). Notwithstanding her diligent efforts to redeem herself from her follies, the society stamped her fate as fallen woman. This particular aspect of The Deerslayer is too much in common with the main theme of...


The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Lily Bart must have, perhaps, worked harder than any woman of her time to get a husband. Why? Because, after her family's ruin, she belongs to the working class. She hates poverty, so she desperately (though not too diligently) worked to belong to the higher class - the same case as in....


The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Poor Jay Gatsby... For a man to love a girl from a class higher than himself, is almost an impossibility. You're not alone, old sport, in this struggle. Another hero shares your agony in this book:


All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

Grady Cole is a ranch worker who has the audacity to fall in love with the rancher's daughter. His fate is very similar to that of Jay Gatsby. This is the sixth book, and at this point I have to stop the chain.

Interestingly, Kathy has set a freebie theme for November, picking the last book on October chain to start next month's. See you then!

The Great Gatsby Readalong: Update #4

Chapter five – Gatsby’s offer to “pay” Nick for his favor made me think that apart from his choice of getting rich, Jay Gatsby is quite a nice person. He is very polite, hate of asking favor from friends (his intricate ways in asking Nick to arrange meeting with Daisy), and he is the only one who doesn’t drink. And when he loves a woman, he respects her, and is loyal to her to the end.

According to Careless People, T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land has major influence in Fitzgerald’s ideas for writing Gatsby—not the plot, but the general theme and atmosphere. I have never read Eliot, and this can be my good excuse to mark him.

Now, I have mentioned in my previous post about Gatsby as a “novel noir”. So We Read On dedicated a chapter titled Rhapsody in Noir to discuss this; and it’s very interesting. First of all, the origin of Gatsby’s real name “Gatz” is gat—a slang for ‘gun’ in the twenties. There are at least three deaths caused by gun in this story. And don’t forget the car crashes that happened too many in such a short story (including Tom Buchanan’s which then revealed his affair with a chambermaid only a week after his marriage with Daisy!). Add it all with the desolate valley of ashes, the abandoned billboard of the oculist, and Wilson’s shabby garage. Yes… this is not a romantic story of unrequited love or the lost of illusion; it is the gloomy image that Fitzgerald felt was happening in America—emptiness and deadliness. Corrigan even questioned about Myrtle’s accident: “Who can say for certain whether Daisy’s hit-and-run murder of Myrtle, her husband’s mistress, is just an accident or a subconscious homicidal drive realized?” Yeah… that has made me shiver a little! And horrifyingly, it made sense to me.

Gatsby-Daisy’s reunion is full of emotion. Daisy was crying, but for what? Remember when Gatsby thrown his colorful shirts and Daisy cried? Of course she’s crying not because she has never seen such beautiful shirts before, but I think, because she lamented her faith of being a wife of the brutal man: Tom. If only she had waited for three more years, she would have had a rich AND loving husband: Gatsby. But after their trip, where Tom confronted Gatsby, and Gatsby persuaded her to flee with him, I think Daisy got so confused… and drunk. I think she realized that Gatsby would never fit in her circle—no matter how she loved him, her husband would always be Tom. But then seeing his mistress on the road… I don’t know whether she knew about Myrtle or not—probably she did—but that is enough to lead her to Corrigan’s homicidal theory.

I am still wondering about the history of Gatsby’s mansion which Nick told us, particularly this passage: “Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry”. To what exactly did Fitzgerald want to allude with it? What do you think?

The Great Gatsby Readalong: Update #3

Chapter four and five are awesome! Chapter five, especially, as this is where Gatsby-Daisy reunion took place. They are short, but hey!...there are so many interesting things I want to share, that I decided to only pour out my thoughts on chapter four in this post, and will write another post for chapter five. Here are my personal notes from the book itself and two companion books that I am reading along with Gatsby.

Chapter four -- The big question that arose from Gatsby’s and Nick’s chatting on their trip to New York for lunch is whether Gatsby was boasting or telling the truth, when he told Nick about his background. Fitzgerald never told us the truth (what is exactly Gatsby’s business, for example?); Gatsby remains a mystery. I think some of what Gatsby told Nick might be true, but the way he boasted it made Nick think he’s lying. Fitzgerald also boasted often in parties he was invited. It’s rather touching to see them—“nobody from nowhere”—in their struggles to climb the social ladder, not to be regarded as nobody.

On the same trip to New York, Nick laughed when “some negroes in limousine rode passed them with haughty rivalry”. This is the second time I noticed a bit of racism in this book, but maybe at that time, it’s not counted as racism. It’s just to show how Fitzgerald—or the American—felt that the nation was on the brink of changes, and that “everything is possible”. The hearse that also passed them creates a dark atmosphere into this story—something I have not realized until Sarah Churchwell labeled Gatsby as “noir novel” in Careless People. And to think of how many tragic deaths that had happened or told in the story; not only of Myrtle, Wilson, and Gatsby, but also “Rosy” Rosenthal—apparently a real person—of whom Meyer Wolfshiem witnessed the shoot.

Careless People revealed to me that Gatsby and Daisy are inspired by Fitzgerald’s (unrequited) love story. Young Scott was in love with Ginevra King, one of the rising debutantes in pre-war Chicago. Ginevra rejected him and later married a wealthy young man from her own circle. Fitzgerald took it that she discarded him because he was poor. Only on my second careful read of Gatsby that I realized how Daisy’s feeling about Gatsby and Tom. On her wedding dinner she was torn between love and money (she chose love when “drunk like a monkey” but eventually picked money after cooled up and could use her logic).

I wonder about the final paragraph of chapter four: “Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs...” What does it mean?

The Great Gatsby Readalong: Update #2

The last few days having been hectic, and I didn’t have time to write about second chapter. So, this time (and maybe until the end of this readalong) I will compile few chapters in one post.

Chapter 2 is all about the green light and ash heaps (the valley of ashes).

Sarah Chuchwell, in Careless People, argued that the green light, toward which Nick has seen Gatsby stretched his hand, was probably inspired by the confusing new traffic signal in New York in 1922. The traffic signal tower that had newly been built on Fifth Avenue used “green” to indicate “stop”, while in any other railroad signals, green always the sign for “go”. This eventually led to many accidents. Fitzgerald could have used this phenomenon to write the famous gesture of Jay Gatsby’s stretching hand towards the green light—it might be that Gatsby misread the green lamp as permission to proceed, when in reality it told him to stop. What do you think?

Fitzgerald’s the valley of ashes might have been inspired by the Corona Dumps, the mountainous mound of fuel ash on a swampland beyond New York City—it was halfway between New York and Great Neck. These dumps, I imagined, created a contrast between the glamour of Manhattan and the grime of ashes, refuses, and even manure. The 1922 was said to be the age of advertising, when billboards could be seen throughout the city. And in the midst of these ashes Fitzgerald has placed the Dr. T.J. Ekcleburg billboard. Until now I have assumed that the giant eyes are the eyes God, but Sarah Churchwell offers other possibility: it could represent the new “god” that the New Yorkers worships: advertisings. It is indeed in accordance with the whole theme of Gatsby: illusion. I don’t know… I still have to think about it.

Chapter 3… finally, we met the enigmatic Gatsby! Nick attends Gatsby’s glamorous party and has been curious about his host. But when finally meeting him, Nick is surprised to learn that Gatsby is not what he expected. From the glamorous party, Nick expected Gatsby to be a “great” man, but in reality he is just someone who wants to look great—“an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd”.

The party reflects the heart of the Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties. After the depressing war, people are restless; they do not know what to do; just want to be amused. Just what Daisy is in chapter one—laying on the sofa with Jordan, and later on when Gatsby visited the Buchanans. But the same restlessness leads to carelessness. Jordan’s reckless driving, for example, and that is the portrait of New Yorkers at that time. Nick himself is restless when moving into Long Island—maybe partly to avoid having to break his engagement?

Chapter two of So We Read On (Corrigan do not follow Gatsby’s structure) is about how New York City has attracted dreamers. It promised success and glamour, something greater and different, but it often ended up bad, and even destroying. There is also a sense of change in the air—cultural change. Immigrants were coming (for Tom: “Civilization’s going to pieces), and Americans does not know how to react or where it would be heading.

The Great Gatsby Readalong: Update #1

I am participating in this exciting readalong at Hamlette’s. It officially started on June 1^st, but I have had an early start about ten days ago. It is that I will be moving to a new apartment during June, so my reading pace might be slower this month. Another reason, my new books (two accompany books of The Great Gatsby) were so tempting, that I couldn’t stop myself from reading it! So, yeah, I’m stealing the start—sorry Hamlette! J

Following recommendation in the preface of Careless People, I decided to read The Great Gatsby, Careless People, and So We Read On simultaneously. Following Gatsby, Sarah Churchwell also divided Careless People into nine chapters, developing her investigation of events around Fitzgerald, following the story development of Gatsby. She even titled the chapters according to Fitzgerald’s original outline list for writing Gatsby. I had also taken a glimpse of So We Read On (the Introduction)—it provides another side of background history of how Gatsby was produced. But for Gatsby, I decided to put double efforts. First I will read first chapter of Gatsby, then consulting the same chapter of Careless People, and some pages of So We Read On. Then I will use the insight information from both books to go back to Gatsby again. That way I hope to be able to understand more on the making of The Great Gatsby, and what has made Gatsby that great.

Summary of 1^st Chapter

In this part, I will share what I got from Careless People and So We Read On, or any new perspective on Gatsby, which I have got from both book.

Careless People

Nick Carraway is personification of Scott Fitzgerald in Gatsby. The resemblance is uncanny—in personal character (judgmental); in their way of thinking (luxury lovers, but also moralists who criticize its damaging effect).

In 1922 (the year Nick moved to Long Island), Scott Fitz also moved from Middle West to Manhattan. Several months later, there was a scandalous murder of an adulterous couple (Hall & Mills), which, Sarah Churchwell believes, has inspired Gatsby. Other events that might have inspired Fitzgerald: a car crash which has killed Charles Rumsey (celebrated Polo player—an “old money”), and the arrival of a shady businessman called Tommy Hitchcock who has moved into their neighbourhood. Seems familiar, eh? J

Interesting point: What does the green light represent? Dream? Hope? Or the color of money? We might have more suggestions on next chapter.

So We Read On

There are so many themes one can find in Gatsby. This time (following Corrigan’s lead in the introduction of So We Read On), I will dig deeper into these specific themes:

- Social class

- God no longer exist

Speaking of social class, Gatsby IS other (half?) personification of Fitzgerald. Gatsby and Fitzgerald are both victim of social class distinction—they were “Mr. Nobody from nowhere” who struggled to belong to the “old money club”. Gatsby has got the money (through very hard working, and even bootlegging), yet not the breed.

1^st chapter of So We Read On also speaks about water references or symbols throughout the book. When combined with Sarah Churchwell’s investigation about the confusion on the green traffic light around 1924, the famous ending of Gatsby’s 1^st chapter—Gatsby reaching for the green light—could have a new meaning. I’m not too sure about this, but let’s see.

The Great Gatsby

Reading the above two books has helped me to understand more on what Fitzgerald has tried to tell us through this masterpiece, for which he had given his total effort. I began to see why Nick put Gatsby above all the rest, that “in the end, Gatsby is all right”, and furthermore, why “The Great Gatsby”. I have been wondering all this time, what is Gatsby’s greatness? He has a dream, works hard to achieve it—through shady businesses—but in the end still cannot reach it. Many people do that, even more honestly! But now I believe that the greatness lays more in the values that Gatsby (and Fitzgerald) believes. This is only my momentary reflection; I will come back to this later after completing the book. But this revelation excited me to delve deeper into this gem, and I can tell you that my admiration to Mr. Fitzgerald keeps increasing along the chapters!

How far have you been?

Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby: Character Thursday (64)

Being a rather outsider from Gatsby-Buchanans circle, Jordan Baker is one of the most interesting characters in this book—well, apart from Jay Gatsby, of course. Jordan is a professional golfer, and this makes her being in the circle of those glamorous wealthy people. She often attends Gatsby’s parties, and befriends with the Buchanans. But unlike Daisy Buchanan, she is not a kind of drama queen who is always fluttering, sighing and whispering. Jordan is firm, strong and self-esteemed (maybe her career makes her like that).

Her quality first appears when Nick arrives at Buchanans resident, where the wind blew up the white curtains, while Daisy and Jordan’s white dresses were fluttered and rippled by the breeze. I can imagine Daisy in this condition with her dreamy expression, while Jordan—through Nick’s eyes—was portrayed as “extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall.”

Later on it is also revealed through her relationship with Nick that Jordan has a tendency of cheating. That’s why she was attracted to Nick: “Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage.” So I guess, Jordan is only attracted to Nick because with him she doesn’t have to wear her masks all the time. She might be the kind of person who always seeks for acknowledgment from others, she needs to be accepted in the sophisticated circle of wealthy and famous people. I don’t think Jordan really falls in love with Nick, she just need someone with whom she can be herself. Maybe she is a bit tired of being hypocrisy; wearing ‘mask’ all the time is a tiring job, isn’t it?

Moreover, Jordan is selfish and indifferent. We can see this when she is driving with Nick—who criticizes her of being a danger for others with her careless style of driving. But she merely says that it’s not her business, and it seems never occur to her that her driving should relevant to others than herself. I guess that’s why Jordan—despite of being a bit uneasy with Myrtle accident—keep continuing her normal life after that. Maybe the need to emerge to a glamorous life makes Jordan abandoning her own conscience. And I think Nick is right by breaking her up, she shares the amoral qualities of Daisy and Tom.

That is my Character Thursday of this week, an analysis of book character of my choice, who is yours?... Just put your post URL in the linky below. Do you like to join us in discussing characters from books you read? See the details of Character Thursday first.

[Classics Movie] The Great Gatsby

I don’t know which one is the truest; rereading the book for the second time has given me an advantage to enjoy the movie, or watching the movie has intensified my emotion as well as my understanding of the book. I believe it’s more of the second than the first one. The film has vividly showing the real emotion of all scenes from the book, which makes it easier for me to (more) understanding the book. Overall, the latest 2013 Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby IS indeed Great!

Castings

I have no complaints for the main characters. First of all, Leonardo diCaprio is superb! He could perfectly transform into Jay Gatsby’s enigmatic character. Although his portion is perhaps three quarters of the whole film, I can feel the strong charisma of Gatsby distinguished from others. Gatsby as the glamour and lavish parties host; Gatsby as an awkward lover (who was between excited to reunite with his long-time lover and anxious that there would be anything wrong that could break his bubbles of hope); and Gatsby as a fragile man full of hope. And let’s not forget those ‘rare understanding smiles’ that Leo has presented dashingly while raising his glass: “He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.”

Carey Mulligan fits Daisy Buchanan’s character; she could represent the dreamy, spoilt and indifferent style of Daisy convincingly. Joel Edgerton is also good in performing the rough and brutal Tom Buchanan by his gesture and the way he speaks. Jordan Baker is the one who quite surprised me; Elizabeth Debicki performs beautifully as Jordan. Now I see why Nick is attracted to her. She is the most fasionable one here, and really...I love her stylish hats! 

I was first curious about how Amithab Bachchan would play as Meyer Wolfsheim. Apparently, he can perform quite convincingly, if you don’t take quite seriously of the fact that Wolfsheim is a Jewish, of course! :D

Story and Plot

Thank God Baz Luhrmann chose to stick mostly to the original story and plot of the book. And even if there are slight alterations here and there to make the movie smoother, I think they just make the story more convincing. In the scene of Gatsby’s murder, I know very well that—from the book original version—he was really alone at that time and no phone call was coming. However in the movie, a phone call comes when Gatsby is swimming, and when he is reaching his hand to pick the receiver, the deadly gunshot arrives. Both scenes emphasize both tragedy and irony of Gatsby’s death, but the movie version emphasizes them in a more dramatic way which suits well for a movie which gives Leo room to express his mixed emotion—from hope (of a call from Daisy); satisfaction (from thinking that it was from Daisy, while it’s in fact from Nick); to surprise, disbelief, disappointment, and maybe fear in few seconds before he finally collapsed to death. [Confession: my eyes were wet on this scene… :( ]

One particular scene has confirmed my suggestion; it’s when Nick is eavesdropping Tom and Daisy as Tom is convincing Daisy that everything is going to be alright, after the accident. This scene confirms my idea that Daisy has admitted to Tom that it was her who actually drove the car; and that’s why they suddenly flee from their mansion (and the butler’s lie to Nick seems to point out Daisy’s selfishness to only seek security on top of everything); a really brilliant alteration of the scene that’s just emphasizing the meaning.

Setting and Costumes

I think the costume designers have done a great job to put the 1920s fashion into the movie. I like Jordan Baker’s style the most from the women, and of course….Gatsby’s suit from the men (except the pink one!). And of course Gatsby’s mansion and all the parties are gorgeous and entertaining, but still, my favorite is the characters and their emotions.

So, is it surprising you that I am giving this 2013 version of The Great Gatsby movie adaptation a 9.5 of 10 rating, old sport? :) Oh, and I think the idea that Nick has first typed his original script’s title as “Gatsby” and then later on adding “The Great” in handwriting is just topping all my feelings after the movie ends. Gatsby is great, the book is great, and this movie is great! Well done, old sport! ;)

~~~~~~~~

I watched this for Books Into Movies Monthly Meme #5

The Great Gatsby [Final Review]

If there are books I would love to read over and over again, The Great Gatsby must be one of them. This was my second read and I gained much more than my first one, and I have a feeling I would still find more in the future reads. Reading The Great Gatsby is really like peeling an onion, you must peel layer by layer to get what is inside. This book is full of metaphors, and Fitzgerald does not always reveal everything straight forward; he likes to speak his ideas in broken sentences, challenging the readers to catch the hidden meanings. And that is why this book provides never-ending debates and discussions, which make me love it more.

As I have done many chapter posts and tasks for WEM, I won’t waste time by writing what Gatsby is about. In short, it’s about Gatsby’s false dream—how a poor man fights persistently to win his dream lover, becomes wealthy by disrespectable businesses and ready to snatch the woman from his husband; but after an accident that has killed a woman, he finds that she is only an empty idea, and that lavish prosperity in the end only leaves traces of moral corruption [taken from my first level inquiry post].

I have also peeled many aspect of the story in my three levels inquiries, that I have almost nothing left now to make a decent review (LOL). But instead, I have challenged myself earlier to ask one important question, which I also invited others with whom I read this along to answer.

Do you think Gatsby is really ‘Great’? If yes, why? If no, why did Fitzgerald put it in the title?

--My answer--

First I must think about the criteria of ‘Great’; what do people usually mean when they say that someone is great? Success would be the answer. Great people are they who succeed in their fields. Now let’s apply this to Gatsby—does he succeed? A big no; he worked hard to reach his dream, not knowing that it has vanished. It’s not only failure; I can say he’s pathetic. So Gatsby must be far away from being great—although in a way, I admire his discipline, focus, and persistency to reach his dream. If we want to label him as ‘Great’, he is certainly great in accomplishing a personal target. Nonetheless, he is failed in the end; and one’s greatness is always defined by the result, right? Yeah, we are result-based generation. I can talk about this forever, but for now, let’s get to the second part of the question.

If Gatsby is not great, why is the book given The Great Gatsby as its title? What did Fitzgerald want to say to us? It came to me that maybe Fitzgerald wanted to emphasize that our way of defining greatness has been wrong. Maybe one’s greatness should not be valued only from the visible quality of success; it is merely the outer aspect of men; our old concept of success. I think Fitzgerald wanted us to look deeper into the inside of humanity. From the beginning Nick has been writing about morality: “A sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.” –(Chapter 1); so it makes sense that that is what Fitzgerald wanted to say to us through The Great Gatsby: morality. Morality is far more important than physical achievement.

American first dream was about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness [from Sparknotes]. However, the rise of stock market post-war had created a sudden euphoria, where people started to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. With that, unfortunately, morality started also to decay and corrupted. In Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald wanted to show two different things.

First, the empty pursuit of dream; in Gatsby, American people should see that their first original dream had been vanished, and replaced by the moral corruption (Daisy is no longer the fresh-innocent girl Gatsby used to know, she had been…you know what). Second, the good morality; although Gatsby gained his wealth in disrespectable ways, he still have pure conscience in him (he stood up to take the blame of Myrtle Wilson’s murder although he did not do it). Between the two, while the empty pursuit of dream won’t make one great, I believe the good morality will.

At the end I think, Fitzgerald wanted to say that it is great of Gatsby to do what he did at the end of the story. It is also what has made Nick complimenting him: “They’re a rotten crowd; you’re worth the whole damn bunch put together”.

But most of all, I think, The Great Gatsby itself is a great literary work by Fitzgerald; maybe not the greatest one, but obviously one of the greatest… ;)

Five whole stars for The Great Gatsby, a novel I will certainly read and read again in the future.

~~~~~~~

I read the Penguin Classics hardback edition

This book is counted for:

6^th book for Turn of The Century Salon

4^th book for Back to the Classics 2013

10^th book for What’s in A Name Reading Challenge 2013

43^rd book for The Classics Club

6^th book for The Well-Educated Mind Self-Project

Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby: Character Thursday (63)

Nick is the narrator of The Great Gatsby; he came from a conservative family in the West. His father has planted high morality and honour in him since he was very young, which Nick keeps dearly in his heart when he’s grown up. After the war, Nick leads to the East, studying at Yale, and gets a good carrier in bond in New York. But not after his summer in West Egg, that he seems to realize that his real talent might be in writing.

Nick is fascinated with Jay Gatsby, an enigmatic, wealthy young man who lives in a luxury mansion next door. It might be that Nick has been adoring Gatsby from the first moment he saw him, and his judgment towards Gatsby is more or less affected by the charisma Gatsby possesses; despite of the ‘reserving judgments’ quality Nick always admits proudly to hold.

I imagine Nick to be an innocent man who has been molded by his family to almost become a puritan. But his adventure in the East has given much more than his father ever taught him, I think. Nick came to West Egg with a concept of high morality (he even dreams of uniformity of human morale). Nonetheless, Nick is quickly fascinated by the wild parties held by Gatsby. Little by little he gets used to this new life style; he often has a relationship with Jordan Baker, one of the Buchanans’ friends. When Tom Buchanan takes him to see his mistress, Nick doesn’t seem to be able to refuse, and he’s kind of dragged by this new fascination; although he still feels uneasy with this vulgar affair (he feels that the Dr. T.J. Eckleburg billboard is following him with its gaze when he passes it in Tom’s car).

Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway

The longer he spends time with his new friends, his feeling is mingled between disgusting and fascinated. He helps Gatsby to arrange a meeting with Daisy (Tom’s wife), which means he is part of the cheating. However he begins to feel disgusted by Tom’s rough and brutal manner. Everything becomes clear for him after Myrtle’s accident takes place. Only then that Nick can finally make his fair judgment of them all. He can see now how the ‘Eastern’ (Tom, Daisy, Jordan) are lack of conscience, selfish and arrogant; and how Gatsby stood upon them all by his latest action towards the accident.

I’m glad that Nick breaks up with Jordan at last, for although she might not be as severe as Tom and Daisy, she is too indifferent to scold her friends’ actions, and just stays at their house that night after the accident, which means she more or less approves them.

The talks about whether Nick is a gay or bisexual is I think have been exaggerated. I don’t see anything wrong with him, and I think he builds a healthy relationship with Jordan, he’s attracted to her as a woman. The incident in McKee’s bedroom (which some indicate it a sign of Nick being gay) is nothing but a portrait of how Nick has been doubly dizzy by alcohol and the brutality he has just witnessed. It was when Nick is vaguely remembers the whole things, but McKee’s portfolio of the chaos has reminded him again.

That is my Character Thursday of this week, an analysis of book character of my choice, who is yours?... Just put your post URL in the linky below. Do you like to join us in discussing characters from books you read? See the details of Character Thursday first.

The Great Gatsby: Third Level Inquiry

This is the third and last level of inquiries (and the most difficult!) for WEM Project, following my first level and second level inquiry posts.

Do you sympathize with the characters? Which ones, and why?

The only one character I sympathize with is Jay Gatsby. As his father told Nick, Gatsby is a rare person; in his young age, he has been applying the very way of achieving success: focus and discipline. If only he did not attracted to Daisy, he might have paved his way to success more decently. If only he had not been obsessed to Daisy, he might have had a better life. I think Gatsby is genuinely an innocent and straight forward person, it’s so pity that he dreams of the wrong person, and be mastered by the wrong master.

What does the setting of the book tell you about the way human beings are shaped?

Emerging from World War I, America became the wealthiest country in the world in the 1920s, when people suddenly had money to spend, and stock market boomed. There’s also a revolution in the society when women take part in work force and started to feel the freedom. Then Jazz Age added in the euphoria; lavish parties like Gatsby’s and free sexuality became a new trend. After the depressing war, people wants to break free, they often do crazy things just to release the years of burden from the war. In times like that people pursue easy money and high pleasure; while morality and ethics are abandoned, let alone religious.

What exactly is the writer telling you?

Fitzgerald criticizes the wildness of the Jazz Age that led to moral decays. On the other hand, he also warns us to not falling into a false dream. Everything should be achieved with hard working, focus and discipline (like Gatsby did). Gatsby has done the later, but failed in the previous (false dream), and that’s how he ‘falls’. But above all, we must maintain our morality always in the right path; God never sleeps! (and in this aspect, Gatsby wins from the other).

In what sense is the book true?

All that Fitzgerald says in this book is the reflection of modern civilization. Where hedonistic begins to grow, there would be a moral decay. God, moral, conscience would be abandoned, and replaced by the new gods: money and pleasure; and these are very relevant in our today’s civilization.

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The Great Gatsby: Second Level Inquiry

[source]

Following the first level inquiry, these are my answers for the second level Inquiries.

What does Gatsby want? What is standing in his way? And what strategy does he pursue in order to overcome this block?

Gatsby is crazy in love with Daisy; he’s fascinated by her innocent and glamour image. But Daisy comes from a very rich family, while Gatsby is only a farmer son. Tempted by the idea of prosperity, Gatsby works hard to achieve success in the quickest way. He is a focus and persistent young man, and American vast economical growth gives him chance to do disrespectable business. He succeeds at last, and in five years becomes a wealthy and charismatic man. Gatsby bought a mansion in West Egg—only a bay across to Daisy’s resident—and throws lavish parties every Saturday night only to prove to Daisy that he is worthy for her.

Which point of view does the writer choose to use? What does he gain and lose through it?

The story is narrated by Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor and (in the end) his best friend; so it’s told from third-person limited point of view. I think Fitzgerald doesn’t lose anything by doing that. If he wants to make Gatsby distinguished (and thus great) from others, he must point out the irony between the ‘old money’ who gain money respectably but their moral is corrupted, and the ‘new money’ (Gatsby) who becomes rich from disrespectable business but has more conscience. That’s why Fitzgerald uses Nick. Because Nick is neither the ‘old money’ nor ‘new money’, he can judge both sides more objectively and thus presented what Fitzgerald wants to criticize.

Further challenge from this question is to do an experiment…

Retell a crucial passage in the novel from a different point of view. How does this change the story?

The most crucial passage of this story is Myrtle’s accident; now let’s pick Gatsby’s point of view. He would have told the accident more vividly, but he won’t be able to describe the chaos in Wilson’s garage after that in intense emotion as Nick tells it. Also, because Gatsby didn’t know that Myrtle is Tom’s mistress, he won’t be able to let us guess why the victim bursts suddenly to the car.

Images and metaphors

There are a lot of images and metaphors here; I think this is a book with the most metaphors I’ve ever read.

Green light—on the East Egg’s dock, to which Gatsby stretch his hands in the first night Nick sees him—symbolizes the dream that Gatsby (and Americans) is longing to reach.

Valley of ashes—where Wilson garage is and where Myrtle died—symbolizes moral corruption. People usually pass this valley of ashes on the way to New York, as if symbolizes that on the way to rapid prosperity, there’s a risk of moral corruption.

The eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg—a billboard with a pair of enormous eyes looking through a pair of enormous glasses—symbolizes God who sees everything. Wilson points out the billboard when saying to Myrtle that she can fool him (about her affair with Tom) but she can’t fool God. Nick feels the eyes are following him when Tom is taking him to see Myrtle, because he knows that it is a sin. The billboard’s location in a desolate place can also symbolize how people have been abandoning God and morality in their pursuing of money and pleasure.

Yellowish color—in Gatsby’s car, Wilson’s garage, Myrtle dress, etc—symbolizes moral corruption. The accident is caused by the yellow car, Myrtle’s manner changes completely after she changed to cream-colored dress. To contrast it with purity and innocence, Fitzgerald uses white color (Daisy’s dress when she’s young, Daisy’s car by which Gatsby takes her out, etc.)

Other colors—there are several other colors used throughout the book, including pink—Gatsby’s pink suit; grey—the valley of ashes; and blue. They all symbolizes different things (which I haven’t got time to study :P).

Beginnings and Endings

Fitzgerald opened his book with a hint of mystery. Through his narration Nick already hinted that there would be something that would be disgusting him in the story he would tell, but nevertheless he thought Gatsby was an exceptional at the end: ‘Gatsby turned out all right at the end; 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 shortwinded elations of men.’ This passage intrigued me at the beginning; what happen to Gatsby? What makes him great? And what makes Nick very disappointed?

The ending of this book follows ‘logical exhaustion’ style. There is an infinite repetition in how Americans is portrayed of pursuing false dreams and falling into moral decay. And this situation is still (and will be) going on when Nick ended the story (and that’s why he moved to the west, to his home). In that Fitzgerald wanted to warn us that having a target and working hard to achieve it is good, but there would be a negative excess of moral decay when we become greedy. So, to answer the last question for this second level inquiry:

Do you agree with that philosophy?

I would say: yes, I certainly agree. Modernization does not always walk simultaneously with civilization, there is always the excess of moral decay with it.

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The Great Gatsby: First Level Inquiry

I have enjoyed re-reading The Great Gatsby for WEM project, and there is so much to discuss about, that I think I am going to do the tasks more thoroughly than I’ve ever done with previous books. This is the first level inquiry, I’ll post the second and third separately.

Actually I have done part of this level; it was the chapter posts I have done last week, they’re part of the tasks—to summarize each chapter and jot down what we are thinking or questioning through the reading. You can read them here:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 –3

Chapter 4 –5

Chapter 6 –7

Chapter 8 –9

Next we are required to summarize the story by creating our own title and subtitle (which is different from the book’s). But before that, we must conclude this one….

Is there some point in the book where the characters change? Does something happen that makes everyone behave differently?

Myrtle’s accident is the major turning point of this book. The accident—like any other life crisis—reveals the genuine qualities of each character. Daisy is the one who was driving the car, she knew what she had done. She might be panic at that time, nevertheless she never had any intention to admit it and let Gatsby took the blame. She didn’t even do anything when she knew Gatsby was murdered (and she definitely knew, he died because of the crime she had committed). Although it’s not mentioned in the book, I think Daisy told Tom that she was the one who hit Myrtle. Otherwise, they won’t be fleeting so quickly if Tom thought it was Gatsby.

Jordan Baker didn’t say anything although she was also shocked like Nick; and most importantly she kept staying with Daisy and Tom as if nothing had happened. On the other hand, Nick and Gatsby were suddenly in a different side with those three. Gatsby still had a concern for the victim although he didn’t know her, and he took the blame that Daisy should do.

Give the book your own title and subtitle

Gatsby’s False Dream – How a poor man fights persistently to win his dream lover, becomes wealthy by disrespectable businesses and ready to snatch the woman from his husband; but after an accident that has killed a woman, he finds that she is only an empty idea, and that lavish prosperity in the end only leaves traces of moral corruption.

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The Dream Has Gone: The Great Gatsby Chapter 8 – 9

I do this chapter post for WEM project; see also previous chapter 1, chapter 2 – 3, chapter 4 – 5, and chapter 6 - 7.

The revenge

Gatsby told Nick how he met and fell in love with Daisy; apparently Gatsby loved the ideas of Daisy more than the girl. He courted her and gave her false hope that he was at the same level with her. Gatsby went to war and tried to make him rich, but before he could come back, Daisy had decided to marry Tom Buchanan who could give her security. Nick is finally breaking up with Jordan Baker who he includes in the ‘rotten crowd’ together with Daisy and Tom. Meanwhile Wilson, who is still shocked from his wife’s death, finally concludes that it’s the yellow car’s driver who has killed Myrtle; he goes to Gatsby’s mansion and shoots him before killing himself.

The American dream

Despite of the crowd that always comes to Gatsby’s parties every weekend, nobody seems to care about his death except Nick, who takes care of the funeral preparation. Gatsby’s father comes, and completes the story of how Gatsby was always discipline and focus since he was very young. Nobody attends Gatsby’s funeral except his father, Nick and another person. Few months later Nick meets Tom, and from him Nick gets the final piece of Gatsby’s murder mystery. Apparently Wilson has come to Tom, as he thought Tom was the driver of the yellow car. Of course Tom said that it was Gatsby who drove the car, and that’s how Wilson had found Gatsby. Being disgusted of the Eastern moral decay, Nick finally decides to return home to the West, but not after he reflects Gatsby’s faith, in which Fitzgerald concluded how he thought about the American dream.

Illustration of Carey Mulligan as Daisy

Buchanans the cowards

It is so annoying to see how the Buchanans just ran away from the crime scene, and not even saying anything to Gatsby. I’m wondering whether Daisy told Tom the truth, that it is she who had driven, not Gatsby. I believe so, and that’s why they ran away so quickly (when Wilson came, they were just about to leave). And how could Daisy did not even call Nick to at least say her sympathy for Gatsby’s death? So, I’m very glad that Nick refused to shake hand at first when he met Tom; just let him know that he is a low-disgusting creature! 

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made….”

Favorite passage

This passage from The Great Gatsby has been one of my favorite ending quotes…

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

It is full of cynical expression and irony, yet melancholy and, in a way, beautiful. It is confusing at first, with the contradictions—future that recedes; we beat on but borne back ceaselessly. But in the end I realized that that was what Fitzgerald wanted to point out. I think it expressed how Fitzgerald saw his country at that moment. Just like Gatsby, Americans have been struggling to reach their dream, and when they thought they were about to reach it, it suddenly eluded them because they dreamed something pure that was already in the past; they did not realize that everything has changed to the worse. They pursued prosperity, but on the other hand, their moral have been corrupted.

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The Accident That Changed Everything: The Great Gatsby Chapter 6 – 7

I do this chapter post for WEM project; see also previous chapter 1, chapter 2 – 3, and chapter 4 – 5.

Gatsby and Daisy

Gatsby’s real name is James Gatz, a child of a farmer, who had too many imagination and ambition to be successful. He took several small jobs before meeting Dan Cody with his yacht and his successful business; who soon became his master. After Dan Cody’s death, Jay Gatsby emerged to the world with all he’d learned for five years from his master. One night Daisy and Tom Buchanan came to Gatsby’s party, where Daisy found new fascinates that she didn’t found in East Egg. She danced and had some moments alone with Gatsby, but Gatsby felt that he couldn’t convince Daisy to leave her husband; while Tom was determined to find out Gatsby’s real truth.

The contrast after the accident

Daisy invited Gatsby, Jordan and Nick to her house for lunch; where Tom saw for the first time that his wife was flirting with Gatsby. As it was a very hot day, after lunch the jealous Tom suggested them to go to town where they stayed in a hotel for a drink. Tom started to confront Gatsby’s identity and dirty business, while Gatsby persuaded Daisy to leave Tom, but he lost at the end. In the suffocating heat and real confusion, Daisy left New York with Gatsby in Gatsby’s yellow car; Daisy drove very fast and accidentally hit Myrtle Wilson to death. At the end of the day, Nick witnessed Tom and Daisy looked peaceful in ‘conspiring’ air while Gatsby decided to cover up for Daisy, testifying that it’s he who had driven the car.

Gatsby's yellow car

Judging Tom Buchanan

I’ve been trying to reason with myself, what a decent man must have felt when his mistress died brutally after being hit by his wife, and the wife didn’t even try to stop the car (I’m reasoning about Tom, of course). What would he do? I think the normal reaction would be raging. He’d be really angry with his wife for acting so cowardly, “Look at what you’ve done, you’ve killed her, and why, for God’s sake, didn’t you stop, at least to see if there’s something you could help?” If he really loved his mistress, for a moment he’d felt that way. But if he (still) loved his wife too, he should have calmed her down and taken her to the Wilson’s to tell him the truth; that it was an accident. I believe he—being rich—would be able to settle things in peace with his money or perhaps his connections. Of course he would have tried to safe his wife, but a decent man would certainly NOT ‘intimately conspiring’ with his wife to put the blame on another man!—like Tom Buchanan did. No, I think Tom just thought of his own safety, he won’t think it would lower himself if he put himself in Gatsby’s protection, the man whose wealth he insulted as ‘new money’.

Did Gatsby love Daisy?

In the beginning of chapter 7, I was wondering whether Gatsby really loved Daisy, or was it merely an illusory love? But if it had been that, it would have gone as quickly as he realized that he had lost the battle (with Tom), that Daisy had slipped from his grasp. It makes sense also to think that Gatsby—in spite of his real lost—still kept a slight hope to win again (in a way, I admire Gatsby’s persistency in pursuing his dream; if only he’d been pursuing a more valuable and real dream…). But by sacrificing himself in covering up for Daisy’s fault, it could mean that G still loved Daisy; even though he won’t win her heart, he’d sacrifice himself for her. So far, that’s what I think.

What made Tom suggesting to swap car with Gatsby?

What do you think? Tom is angry knowing that Daisy is flirting with Gatsby, he suggested them to go out, but he suggested swapping car with Gatsby, he’d drive Gatsby’s yellow car, and let Gatsby drive his coupé. Why? Did he want to taunt Gatsby of what the real ‘old money’ is (the coupé)? Whatever the reason, I think the car swap has been the earliest cause of the whole tragedy....

This has occured to me too...what, do you think, did Myrtle want to do by running to the yellow car? Did she want to tell Tom (whom she thought mush have driven it) that her husband forced her to move away with  him, and ask him to save her? Or, did she want to berate Tom's wife?

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Hope vs Reality: The Great Gatsby Chapter 4 - 5

See also the previous chapter 1 and 2 – 3.

Unveiling Gatsby and Daisy’s mysteries

Gatsby tells Nick his history: born rich, went to Oxford, gleaming career in military at war; he even shows off pieces of token proving his story. At lunch with Gatsby, Nick met the Jewish world gambler, Mr. Wolfshiem. On the other hand, Jordan also tells Nick Daisy’s history: how she fell in love with a young officer named Jay Gatsby, the separation, her marriage with Tom Buchanan, and how she reacted on her wedding day after receiving a letter that made her cried aloud. Then she had a baby, while Tom started cheating on her. It turns out that Gatsby had planned everything—bought the mansion, hosted parties—only to get closer to Daisy again, and now he needs Nick’s help for his plan.

The anticipated meeting

Gatsby puts big effort in asking Nick to invite Daisy to his house for tea, so that Gatsby can meet her there. He is so excited at the moment which he’d anticipated so much for five years; that the happiness of actually meeting Daisy at last doesn’t appear as he’d expected. Gatsby shows off the luxury of his mansion to Daisy; but his wealth suddenly looses its value in front of Daisy, and even the green light across the bay looses its sacredness once Daisy becomes reachable.

When hope is more real than reality

Why does Gatsby look confuse and restless when he finally meets Daisy? Out of shyness? Or is it because he is too excited? No, I believe it’s because he finds that the meeting he had imagined and planned for so long did not happen to be as he’d expected. This happens to us often, an event we’ve been anticipating for so long, that we’ve been working so hard to make it perfect, turns out to be just like that—not as special as we’ve expected. It’s because imagination is always better than realization. But does it mean that we ought not to have dreams? No, I believe we need to have dreams, as it gives us purpose to fight and work hard, it will guide us to achieve something. Although Gatsby seems to be a fool to have done absurd things to win Daisy, I think it’s not all his fault; he’d done that in the name of love, and love does make us foolish sometime.

Favorite passages

“He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his home according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. (…) He stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real.” ~p 97.

“A faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart.” ~p. 102.

They are perhaps just any ordinary passages for you, but I loved it so much, especially the second one. It seems to be distinguished from the others (particularly in chapter 4 and 5). I think it has made me officially in love with Fitzgerald’s writing!

Confusing passage

It’s from what Jordan Baker says to Nick about why Gatsby must ask Jordan to ask Nick whether he’d mind to do him a favor: “He’s afraid. He’s waited so long, he thought you might be offended. You see, he’s regular tough underneath it all.” ~p. 83

I don’t understand what Jordan means by ‘he’s regular tough underneath it all.’ Does she means Gatsby is thoroughly a violent person (tough = violent)? I think Gatsby is only too afraid of making the smallest mistake that would break his delicate bubble of hope. Or else he’s too sensitive about how people think of him; he doesn’t want Nick to think him as too pushy. Both my ideas doesn’t correlate with ‘tough’, so….what does that mean, can anyone help me?

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