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.

~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~

Tom Tulliver in The Mill on The Floss: Character Thursday (62)

Tom is the older boy of the Tullivers, not good as a student, but grows up as a determined young man to accomplish family’s wish. When he was only a teenager, the Tulliver had a crisis that forced young Tom to leave school and his youthful to bear huge responsibility. Tom has a sister Maggie who loves him very much; and I’ve been thinking whether Tom ever truly loved his sister.

When they were children, Tom bought Maggie a fish-line from his saving; he said he had quarreled with his friends because he wanted to save money to buy the lines (for him and Maggie). At first I thought, it’s so sweet of Tom to do that for his little sister; I found it sweet for a boy to love playing with his little sister, instead of ignoring and teasing her with other boys (like boys used to do to their little sisters). But then, when Maggie made mistakes (and it’s a huge one in Tom’s eyes), he scolded Maggie and refused to play with her. So, I was thinking, does Tom purely love Maggie? Or does he love to play with Maggie? Love her presence?

Later on Tom always forgives Maggie and get on well with her again. And Maggie does a lot of mistakes indeed, that I can’t really blame Tom for getting annoyed at his sister. When they were grown up, Tom gets angry with Maggie when she disobeys family’s restrictive orders and acts on her own; he wants his sister to be respected by others. So I think, Tom really loves Maggie with his own way, which is a rather selfish and authoritative love, but it’s love all the same.

Tom gets so rigid and stubborn when he’s grown up; he only focuses in the business and ignores his conscience to be more humane. I think it’s because Tom must bear a burden before he’s prepared for it. And as the only man in the family other than the invalid father, Tom had been brought up with a passive obeisance to his father, so Tom—with his limited talent and imagination—must bear a huge responsibility to fulfill his father’s wish, although he doesn’t think it right. Because of that, he also set up a high expectation for his sister; he expected Maggie to sacrifice her dreams just like he had done it, because all he did is also for her own good. There’s selfishness there, but again, Tom was brought up by unfriendly circumstances and society.

I don’t think I’d be able to hate him, I just pity on him. I’m proud that at least he had succeeded to pay the family’s debt and brought back their honour. Now I’m wondering what Tom would be if his life is convenient, would he be better than he was, after all?

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 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?

~~~~~~~

Classics of the Month: The Classics Club May Meme

If only every monthly meme questions would be this easy… :) This is the task for The Classics Club’s meme for May:

Tell us about the classic book(s) you’re reading this month. You can post about what you’re looking forward to reading in May, or post thoughts-in-progress on your current read(s).

This month I am planning to read these three:

The Great Gatsby

I’m reading it right now together with some friends (including Melisa and Melissa—yayy to you girls!) in anticipating the forthcoming Baz Luhrmann’s movie adaptation. I’m also doing some tasks for WEM self-project for this book; so far, I have posted several chapter posts for Great Gatsby. This is my second reading of Great Gatsby, and so far I’ve been really enjoying it; it’s like finding new romantic sparks with your old lover… ;)

Romeo and Juliet

Let’s Read Plays theme for this month is tragedy, so I picked no other than one of the most popular tragedy from Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet. I will read the ebook right after finishing The Great Gatsby. This would be my first time of reading this play, and although I’m not a fan of romance, I’m quite intrigued with Romeo and Juliet, would I like it? Let’s see…. :)

In Cold Blood

The last piece of classics I’ll be reading this month is Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. This is my first Capote’s, and I’m going to read the Indonesian translated version for Blogger Buku Indonesia’s challenge (reading 20th 0r 21st century classics). Being a psychological-crime novel, it intrigues me, and I’m also curious how much I’d like Capote.

That’s my classics reading schedule for May, what’s yours?

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?

~~~~~~

Absurdity & Moral Corruption: The Great Gatsby Chapter 2 – 3

This is part of chapter posts I make for WEM Self-Project. You can find the first chapter here.

Meeting Myrtle and attending Gatsby’s party

Tom brought Nick to meet his mistress Myrtle Wilson, wife of the owner of a small garage, and went together to New York to the couple’s luxury apartment. There and during the journey Nick witnessed the hedonic lifestyle they had, the shameless way Tom showed off his infidelity to public, and how rich women thought any men who were not wealthy and success were too “low” for them. The day was closed by the brutal scene when Tom broke Myrtle’s nose from being too noisy about Daisy.

Nick sensed emptiness and loneliness in the absurdly-luxury parties at Gatsby’s mansion, and in the metropolitan bustles of New York. There was a vulgar indifference in how strangers kept coming to and enjoying Gatsby’s parties without being invited or knowing the host, but even spread bad rumors about him. Nick also sensed the same vulgar indifference in Jordan Baker’s taking so lightly that she was endangering others by driving carelessly.

“(They) came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission.” ~p. 43.

The infidelity

The shameless affair of Tom and Myrtle is a product of moral decay of the society. Not only that they take it very openly, Myrtle’s sister thinks it’s all right. Myrtle thinks her husband is “lower” than her; but chooses Tom whom she takes as a “gentleman” because he is both rich and success. I only feel pity on Myrtle who takes “gentleman” as rich + success. Anyway, only a very foolish woman who calls her man gentle after he broke her nose….

Valley of ashes

I found quite a lot of metaphors in chapter two. First the valley of ashes; this is a quite dejected area where Wilson’s garage is; a land which is: “…so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land.” At first I thought it represents people who lost the battle of success, displaced by the new wave of wealth. However, considering the straight next metaphor, I changed my mind….

Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg

“The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic. (…) They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose. (…) (The eyes) brood on over the solemn dumping ground.”

When I first read this passage, I instantly remembered a drawing made by a child who is asked to draw about his imagery God. And the child drew Him as a pair of enormous eyes looking down from a pair of enormous glasses; he imagined God as an observer who sees everything human does. So, I instantly thought that the Doctor T.J. Eckleburg billboard is probably representing God. The billboard is somehow overlooked, dejected, forgotten, and the eyes that “brood on over the solemn dumping ground”, I perceived, reflecting that God is observing sadly the moral corruption in His people, but on the other hand, these moral-corrupted people has also been abandoning God to pursue their new gods (money and leisure).

The yellow color

From chapter two alone, I have met quite a lot of things in yellow, cream or golden color; the Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s spectacles, the yellow brick house where Wilson’s garage is, the dress of two girls in Gatsby’s party, yellow cocktail, dark gold turkeys, Myrtle’s cream-coloured dress in New York apartment (where her personality changed under the influence of the dress), and yellow windows of that apartment.  Browsing about the Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, I got to learn that Fitzgerald did use several colors metaphor to represent moralities in this book. From all the yellows above, it’s not hard to guess that yellow here means moral decay or falsity.

Confusing passages

“Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes, but after a certain point I don't care what's founded on” –I didn’t find any satisfying answer over the internet, but I perceive it means that it doesn’t matter what an action had been intended for at first, the only think is important, is only the end result. If the result is the same, well….just ignore whether the first intention was right or wrong. Are you agree?

“… I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands. Beauty and the Beast … Loneliness … Old Grocery Horse … Brook’n Bridge…” –Although there are many sites or blogs that suggest that Nick is either gay or bisexual, I think this only reflects what Nick had vaguely remembered about that brutal night in Myrtle’s apartment, which he left in a drunken state; small pieces of disgusting senses that had troubled him when he was awaken from sleep at McKee’s house. Or else, McKee—as he is a photographer—has taken photos which showed the proofs of those disgusting moral decay. What do you think? :)

~~~~~~~