- Should The Great Gatsby be classified as a tragedy? If so, what is the fatal flaw? If not, how should it be classified?
- How does Fitzgerald's selection of names enhance characterization? Select a character and explain.
- One of Fitzgerald's strengths is his imagistic style. Consider the moods created in his description of the Buchanan's mansion, Gatsby's mansion, etc. How do the moods contribute to the theme of new money vs. old money?
- Discuss the irony of the title for the book. Who actually names Gatsby? Suggest an alternate title.
- According to The Great Gatsby, what traits constitute the zeitgeist (spirit of the time) of the 1920's?
Monday, February 27, 2012
Gatsby Discussion Questions
As a closing activity to Gatsby, address one of the discussion topics, below. (You do not need to respond to classmates' blogs.) Responses should be a minimum of 250 words and should make frequent references to the text. No more than FIVE students should respond to any one prompt. Assignment must be posted by Thursday, 3.1.12 at 7:30am.
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Question #3
ReplyDeleteFitzgerald utilizes the setting as a tool of characterization for the characters that he created in the Great Gatsby. He describes the settings before having established his characters fully and uses the settings to provide the emotion that the characters are feeling and the situations that there are in. Buchanan’s mansion is described in such a way as to reflect their marital status and the image that both Tom and Daisy portray to the outside world.
From the description of Tom and Daisy’s house, it is evident that the author was surprised by the fact that their home was so extravagant. It almost seemed like the author was expecting less from Tom and Daisy even though the narrator does not know about their failing marriage which he does not see until he visits them. The mansion is beautiful almost majestic at first glance yet it holds all the ugliness inside exactly like their marriage. Gatsby’s mansion is described as being a castle something out of the ordinary. The author purposely describes the mansion as being over the top and gaudy even for being in West Egg. Much like Gatsby the mansion is part of the new money and Daisy and Tom are from the old money. The contrasting moods created between the description of the mansions and the characters contribute to the theme of new money vs. old money because Gatsby is part of the new money and he is competing against the Tom whom is part of the old money.
- Jasmine Berrios :)
The Great Gatsby should be considered a tragedy. This is because the ending isn’t happy for the main character and characters die and suffer throughout the story. The suffering isn’t spared any main character. More than that, the eponymous Gatsby loses everything that he wanted and had a chance at. Gatsby, due to his fatal flaw, lost his chance at being with Daisy. This fatal flaw was his obsession with her. Gatsby wanted to have Daisy as if all of their years apart had never happened. This obsession led to his doing whatever it took to make enough money to be, as the expression goes, in her league. His reputation and connections with crime caught up with him and Daisy found out, leading to her distance from him, which eventually resulted in Gatsby being killed in revenge for a crime that he did not even commit.
ReplyDeleteMore than just Gatsby’s suffering, Daisy also suffers as she discovers that the man she is falling in love with again is not what he had seemed to be. Also, Tom realizes that his wife is cheating on him as he was doing to her, which completely blindsides him. During the story Nick reaches age 30, which is in his view past his prime. He was comforted about this by Jordan, but after Gatsby’s true past is revealed, he is so disgusted with the entirety of high society that he cannot help but not even accept her attempts to comfort him. In the end there is no relief from the pain or catharsis.
This is for Question 1.
DeleteQuestion 5:
ReplyDeleteAccording to The Great Gatsby the main traits that constitute the zeitgeist of the 1920’s are selfishness and materialism. The trait of selfishness is show throughout the book and is a defining trait of almost all of the characters, the exception being Wilson.
Tom is probably the most selfish character in this book. He has been having an affair with Myrtle for a long time but when he finds out about Daisy’s affair with Gatsby, he wants to keep her with him at all costs. Not because he really loves her, but because he wants to be able to keep complete control over his life and hers. Tom is not a man who looses very much in life and if he lost Daisy it would be a blow to his “manliness.”
Another selfish character is Gatsby. Throughput the book his main goal was to win back the love of Daisy. When he finally gets this love in the form of her affair, he feels that it is not enough. Gatsby wants to erase everything that happened to Daisy between the time they first fell in love and when the start seeing each other again; Gatsby wants to erase Tom. He tries to make Daisy admit that she never loved Tom at all. “Just tell him the truth – that you never loved him – and it’s all whipped out forever.”
The trait of materialism is also portrayed by these characters. These super rich, both the old money and the new money, flaunt their wealth as if it was nothing. Gatsby’s main life goal was to become rich and he stepped into the criminal world to achieve that. Now he holds excessive parties where everyone is only concerned with drinking and who has the money. People even liked to show off possessions that they didn’t even own. When Tom took Gatsby’s car to the city he was bragging to Wilson that it was his car.
This and the fact that Gatsby would do anything to get rich, shows just how materialistic and selfish the society in The Great Gatsby is.
Question 1
ReplyDeleteThe Great Gatsby contains all elements of a tragic novel. The overarching conflict between Tom Buchanan and Gatsby culminates in bloodshed, in which, despite his flaws, the reader feels sympathy for Gatsby. Indeed, that fatal flaw that leads to his death was his unrelenting obsession with Daisy. For him, it was not enough to simply steal Daisy away from Tom; he needed to erase any and all relics of this relationship. He tries to force her to tell Tom she never loved him, which puts her in an uncomfortable position. She is little more than an object to vie for to both Tom and Gatsby, which does not change at any point in the story. Gatsby’s fatal flaw becomes just that; he is shot by Wilson, who believed he was avenging his recently deceased wife. Wilson is soon found dead at the scene, though the exact details of his death are made intentionally unclear. In reality, Gatsby was not responsible for Myrtle’s death, which makes this bitter end all that more tragic.
The dead are not the only tragic characters. Daisy is now aware that Tom has been cheating on her, and is now forever trapped in an abusive relationship with little hope of escape or help. Even our narrator feels the pain of the plot, feeling he is “past his prime” at only the age of thirty. He becomes so disgusted by the wealthy criminal underworld that he loses a degree of faith in people. The novel has no clear happy resolution of conflict, and reveals few, if any, positive human characteristics.
-Josh Pelton
Based on the definition of a tragedy, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald should be classified as a tragedy. The definition of a tragedy states that, in order for a piece to be considered a tragedy, tragic events, an unhappy ending, and a tragic hero must be present. In this case, all of the factors are present. The events that occurred in chapters 7,8 and 9, classify this novel as a tragedy. When Daisy fatally hits Myrtle with Gatsby’s car, there was a change in tone in the novel. The tone changed from fairly casual to tense and bloodthirsty. This shift in tone creates the unhappy ending to the novel, due to the tragic events that occurred, especially when George Wilson brutally shoots Gatsby and then himself. Gatsby can be considered as the tragic hero with a tragic flaw. Gatsby’s tragic flaw that ultimately leads to his downfall is how he tries to hold on to Daisy and his past by changing factors within his own life and forcing Daisy to love him. This overtakes Gatsby leading him down a slippery slope of obsession that leads to his death.
ReplyDelete4. Scott Fitzgerald named the book The Great Gatsby to show the portrayal of the lavishly prosperous life that he appears to be living. Looking at the life he lives, he has a mansion which resembles a castle and a car “was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns.” Also, it may seem that the title fit Jay Gatsby’s life because he also hosted parties where he provided all of the guests’ first class treatment. He also is a local celebrity in whom, everybody rumors and have theories about how Gatsby attained his wealth. Through these attributes, it may seem like he is great with the dream-like life that he lives in but in reality, he is a phony. Even his name was created from a guy named Dan Cody in whom, he wanted to leave his old past behind (when he was poor) and live a new prosperous life. He is also a phony because he attained his wealth, due to the evidence provided, through selling liquor with the help of Meyer Wolfshiem and Klipspringer. When everybody finds out that he attained his money by getting his hands dirty, their adoration of him crumbles. The people that said that they were Gatsby’s friends did not even attend his funeral and seemed to use him for his wealth and generous personality. This book should be called “The Bittersweet Man” because he is a man that has a good personality with wealth but when you look at the core of where he attained his wealth, it is a bitter reality.
ReplyDeleteVerbal Irony is defined as irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning. This applies greatly to the title of “The Great Gatsby” (read Great sarcastically). In no way is Jay Gatsby or James Gatz, Gatsby’s real name, great. He attained his great wealth through sketchy business dealings with a noted gangster, bootlegging, and inheritance based on a lie. His very name and personality is a lie which he made up. After attaining his wealth he becomes just as shallow and materialistic as Tom, the man he tried to woo Daisy from. He even gets into a fight with Tom over who Daisy really loves and even though this sounds nice the fight comes off as petty and really a fight over who owns Daisy. In the end Gatsby dies alone and only his father, Nick, and Owl-Eyes show up to his funereal, hardly the attendance a Great man could conjure up. The name “The Great Gatsby” was bestowed upon Jay by Nick Caraway furthering the ironic tone because Nick is incredibly judgmental and even acknowledges Gatsby’s shortcomings.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to rename the Great Gatsby I would give it the title The Great Grifter. This new title would reflect how Gatsby’s life has become a basic con trying to convince those around him, especially those belonging to old money, that he is one of them when he clearly is not.
Question 5
ReplyDeleteThe traits that constitute the zeitgeist of the 1920’s is the grandness and quality of the show you put on for people. The society of the rich is like a series if circus acts. The appeal of the circus is a big striped tent, good food, performances that nobody has seen before, dazzling, and the sparkling performers that only want to catch your attention.
The circus is the mystical place where animals are dressed up and paraded around and acrobats wing from great heights to catch your eye. The rich hitch up the biggest “tent” they can get to show it off and invite people inside, as if to say, “oh you think it looks wonderful on the outside? Just wait and see what tricks and performances we can show you inside!” The orchestra, in all its grandeur and glory provide musical entertainment, and the performances begin. Men arrive with dates whom they do not love, Tom with Daisy and Nick with Jordan. Everyone pretends to care about each other, but in reality can barely hear what the other person is saying. All of Gatsby’s guests pretend to know him so personally that they know everything about his background, but where were these friends when Gatsby died? Even Gatsby himself is in on the act, pretending to know each and every person at his party when majority of them were not even invited. Infact, Gatsby only speaks to a handful of people at his own party.
At dinner time, the guests, like a kid who just saw the cotton-candy making machine with the towers of colored cloud-like candy, are showered with the best food, and so much of it! (Gatsby had hundreds of oranges delivered to his mansion at the start of every week to make fresh orange juice, even with there were no parties.)
Like the performers, the women dress up in seductive, brilliant dresses, with bare-backs and plunging neck-line. They would also, in theory, adorn themselves with expensive gems so huge, one can only speculate that they are fake, like the ones that performers wear. Outside of parties, they parade around their dressed up dolls they call daughters or sons much like a show animal. They are a material item to dressed up and shown off, like everything in the lives of the rich. This includes marriage, a mans wife, cars, mansions, and especially reputation (East Egg vs. West Egg).
Question #2:
ReplyDeleteFitzgerald’s selection of names enhanced the characterization particularly of Daisy because her name is representative of the Daisy which of course is beautiful to look at, but in the end is just a flower, rooted in the soil. In Daisy’s case, her soil is her money, the “old money” of generations pass keep her deep-rooted in East Egg and materialistically holding on to Tom. The whole reason why she had left Gatsby when they were first in love was because he had not a cent to his name, but what kind of love is that? When the reader first meets Daisy in Chapter One she advocates to Nick, “…that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” In other words, she knows what goes on around her, but she chooses to lead the shallow life and keep her love life with her bank account. To be a “beautiful little fool” is to be numb to everything that is going on around you, and it is clear through the retelling of the eve of her wedding night, on which she had to intoxicate herself to keep composure the next day, and her almost permissive attitude to Tom’s double-life. Gatsby realized this sad truth about his beloved fantasized Daisy when she retracted her love for him after finding out that, though Gatsby might’ve been aesthetically pleasing, it was all dirty money. This realization made it clear to the reader and Nick that Daisy was best to be evaluated at face value, because beyond that her pride and morality was sickening.
Question #2
ReplyDeleteThe names of each character in The Great Gatsby have a connection to their traits through symbolic meanings. It is most obvious with characters such as Dr. Eckleberg, and Owl Eyes, both of which represent omniscient viewpoints within a heavily biased story. Also, the name Wolfshiem accurately represents the sinister man who fixed the World Series, and essentially leeches his wealth from other people. In this sense, the impression received based on the character’s name adds to his or her personality.
Daisy Buchanan is a perfect example of this. Buchanan is a surname derived from a location in Scotland. This is a parallel from the old world and new world, to east egg and west egg. This European last name in itself characterizes both Daisy and Tom as part of the old wealth. The fact that buth means “house” accurately reflects on their materialistic lifestyle within their wealthy mansion.
Daisy being named after a flower is symbolic in her manner of appearance and behavior. “Daisy took her face in her hands as if feeling its lovely shape, and her eyes moved gradually out into the velvet dusk” (15). The symbolism of a pretty flower adds to the description of her apparent attractiveness. The daisy also symbolizes innocence, love, and simplicity, all qualities that Daisy shows. While she does kill Myrtle Wilson, she is arguably one of the more innocent characters in the story when compared to Gatsby and Tom. Her mixed relationship between her husband Tom and lover Gatsby is strengthened by the fact that her name is Daisy, which turns her into an object while the two fight over her. Her simplicity is shown when she says to Nick, “And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (15-16). The fact that she wants to live an ignorantly bliss life for herself and her daughter shows her desire for a simple, easy life.
Sources:
http://genealogy.about.com/library/surnames/b/bl_name-BUCHANAN.htm
http://livingartsoriginals.com/flower-daisy.htm
~ David Roccapriore
Q #5.)According to the Great Gatsby several traits that constitute the zeitgeist of the 1920’s were an egotistical and materialistic mindset. All of the characters excluding Wilson posses this 1920’s personality. They are all encompassed in their own worlds where they feel superior and untouchable.
ReplyDeleteMany of the characters posses a very materialistic persona. This is specifically portrayed in the character of Gatsby and his idea of being able to obtain what he wanted through money and objects. Gatsby felt that he could win Daisy over by flaunting his wealth and showing off his meaningless possessions. This idea of building up a facade of wealth illustrates the fact that many people in the 1920’s lived a corrupt artificial life.
Gatsby is oblivious in his own world of false happiness and lost love. As Nick looked back on Gatsby he perceived him in a manner such that, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic 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.” Gatsby was driving forward in life without facing the consequences; the light finally changed meaning it was time to let go and move on. This exemplifies the “American Dream” of the people during that time period and the idea of moving forward without reconciliation of what may result in their actions.
In addition, the characters are extremely egotistical. Tom specifically had a very immoral and selfish personality that mirrored the characteristics of society in the 1920’s. Tom is the type of man who does whatever he wants to get what he needs. As illustrated in his affair with Myrtle Tom only cares about himself and disregards society. Tom is a man who rarely loses and who will do anything to keep his pride. When tom accuses Gatsby of bootlegging, “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter.” he his trying to deceive Daisy to be with him even though he cheated on her. This aspect of selfishness and immorality represent the zeitgeist of the 1920’s and society’s oblivious and greedy personality.
-Russ
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ReplyDeleteQuestion 4)
ReplyDeleteThe title of the book "The Great Gatsby" comes from the character Nick Caraway in the story and is in reference to the character Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is "great" because he manages to live a life of happiness and optimism simply by convincing himself that life is full of hope and goodness and by ignoring the corruption and darkness in the world around him. This makes him great because few people are able to ignore the bad things in life and focus only the good. In my opinion, I felt like F. Scott Fitzgerald meant to make the title ironic because although, Gasby is great he is also fake and impossible. And I thought that the title was called "The Great Gatsby" because Gatsby is great. Gatsby is great because he is larger than life in his optimism. This is very ironic, obviously, because it is this optimism that ultimately ended up killing him. If there was to be an alternate title I would say maybe, "She loves, she loves me not" to insinuate the pulling of flower petals and his love interest for Daisy.
- Marc Cortes :)
(Sorry, I messed up twice)
Question 4:
ReplyDeleteThere are several factors that result in the ability to view the title of "The Great Gatsby" ironically. The most obvious of which is that Jay Gatsby/James Gatz was not a great man. He was a rich man. He was a resourceful man. But he was not a great man. In his pursuit of his dream to woo Daisy by becoming someone acceptable for her to marry economically, he changed who he was on a personal level, something a great man with strong conviction and morals would not do.
In addition to Gatsby weak moral compass, at the end of the book Gatsby loses, to everyone. He loses Daisy to Tom Buchanan, he loses his life to George Wilson, and he loses his legacy to Daisy. Some would argue that he gave his legacy to Daisy, but the fact of the matter is that he dedicated his life to winning her affections, and when she chose Tom over him, he was left with nobody to remember him, with the exception of the three people who showed up to his funeral. Gatsby cannot be defined as "great", when he displayed so much inferiority.
Nick Caraway calls Gatsby, "The Great Gatsby", which itself is a piece of irony, considering Nick, the narrator of the story, admits that he only ever complimented Gatsby once ever; and spends a large amount of time judging Gatsby negatively.
An alternate title could be "The Price of a Dream". I draw this potential title from the narrators observation that Gatsby "paid a high price for living too long with a single dream". It is also a commentary on one of the over arching themes of the book, that all the overindulgence, and pursuit of individual wealth without acknowledging the consequences has a heavy price in the end.
5. The book The Great Gatsby translates many traits that are an echo of the zeitgeist of this time period. For one point, there is the disassociation with a true appreciation for what the characters have. We can see that Tom and Daisy display this well with their opulence. It is very interesting that one of the things most cherished by a couple is usually their offspring. However, in The Great Gatsby Tom and Daisy’s child is little more than a footnote in the text. It would not be completely untrue to say that the daughter probably has more of a mother in her caretaker, than in her own mother. This is also displayed in the ways that Tom and Gatsby fight for Daisy like she is a thing. In chapter 7 Tom drives Gatsby’s car, as if taking the car is some equivalent recompense to taking Daisy. These out of proportion value system are the very inconsistencies which lead to the Great Depression.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to this sentiment, the lack of a true moral compass is clearly relevant as well. Wilson, probably one of the characters with the strongest moral compass is the only one to actual mention God by name. Now although I am not saying that God directs your moral compass, in this time period and association with God was an association with a strong moral compass. With that said, it appears as if all the people in this book, save Wilson, have succumbed to greed and opulence. For instance, even with a wife and child, Tom feels it is necessary to have another lover and make an affair of a perfectly good marriage. This is move displays the greed and want more is inherent with all people, but the trick we have is the ability to keep it in check, and that is what allows us to survive.
--Brandon Harris
Great Gatsby should be considered a tragedy because of the tragic hero in the story, Gatsby. A tragic hero is a person that is primarily great but with one flaw. Gatsby is the perfect character that everyone looks up to in the beginning of the book. Like the houses owned by the rich people in the book, he has a facade that hides a flaw in his structure. Gatsby tries to erase and cover up his past even though it didn't matter anymore. He doesn't even recognize that he didn't love Daisy anymore. His flaw, his pride or the need to reinforce it, made him commit mistakes that ultimately lead to his death and the unhappy ending of the story. The perfect man Gatsby has everything yet he lost it because he is too caught up in the past. The story is describing all the unusually extravagant interactions in the 1920s which was not at all important to anyone. The purpose of flaunting the money around is to prove to everyone that status and the money a single person has over another. This is what Gatsby is doing. The reflection of the bad events of the time makes the story have a life lesson only to be learned by the destruction of the main character's life. If Gatsby lived and Nick prospered the book would lose its meaning because the message of over self indulgence would not be deemed as bad, instead the book would point out that overflowing ambition and lack of concern for others would lead to ultimate glory. The story ends without a happy ending for Nick as well. He is the foil for Gatsby, who brings out the message of the story by his keen views about the values and actions of people in West and East Egg which he viewed as bad.
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ReplyDeleteQuestion # 2:
ReplyDeleteThroughout the entire book of the Great Gatsby, it became more and more apparent that Fitzgerald selected the names of the characters carefully in order to further characterize the characters. An example of this would be Great Gatsby himself. However, Jay Gatsby was not his first name, but it was Jimmy Gatz. The name Jimmy Gatz in his early life basically represented his worth which was poor, unlike the other characters, but Gatsby was the only one who came from no money and then into money. As Gatsby took a boat out to Cody his life changed forever, this was characterized in the changing of his name to now Jay Gatsby. Not only was Gatsby changing his name from Jimmy Gatz to Jay Gatsby but this was an essential shift by Fitzgerald in order to further characterize Gatsby’s personality by changing his life views/ morals, changing from a bystander type of boy to a new man, and also his standards of living from poor to wealth and maintaining that wealth. Gatsby from that point on had obtained a taste for the other half, the rich, and because his characterization and morals have changed he would do almost anything to maintain that wealth. This included getting involved in crime and bootlegging, something Jimmy Gatz would not think of ever doing. The literal switching of the names created a new and different Gatsby, the life that Jimmy Gatz wanted but never had. Because of this switch it could also be interpreted that both Jimmy Gatz and Jay Gatsby are two different people/ characters in the story, and that Gatsby (as part of his characterization) has to fight with the morals of both realities ultimately causing a decent into chaos for his love of Daisy, and finally death as a result. The name switch is an important factor of the Great Gatsby in order to understand Gatsby’s previous and present struggles, and also the whishy wash of his nature.
-Brandon Simone
The most prominent traits of the zeitgeist of the 1920s are selfishness and materialism. While all the characters are selfish (except Wilson, really), Tom Buchanan takes the prize for "most selfish character". He has an ongoing affair with Myrtle, which to him is perfectly acceptable. However, when he discovers Daisy's apparant affair, he is enraged. He is being selfish in the fact that he wants to keep both his women all to himself (being unfaithful to one of them), but wwhen one of them tries to go off to have some fun, he is furious and claims that it's unacceptable. However, he does not want to keep Daisy because he loves her, but only because he wants to have complete control over every aspect of her life. Tom doesn't love Daisy at all. He just cannot lose her because that would mean that he lost something; a complete bash to a man's masculinity. Gatsby is also very selfish. All he wants is for Daisy to love him back; that's his only goal in the whole book. When he finally gets Daisy, he feels that it isn't enough. He wants everything to be like it was before Daisy and Tom got together. He even tries to get Daisy to say that he never ever loved Tom; that she only married him for his money. The trait of materialism is also present in both Tom and Gatsby. Between both East Egg and West Egg, residents flaunt their wealth because they can. Gatsby always dreamed of being wealthy and would do anything to get it; even dabbling in crime. To flaunt his wealth, he holds huge parties. Also, when Tom borrows Gatsby's car , he shows it off as his own car, not a borrowed car. It's through this that we can see that selfishness and materialism are prominent themes in The Great Gatsby.
ReplyDelete~Caroline