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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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?

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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?