the-great-gatsby-review

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Item No. 1 - Short Written Reflection

I chose this novel because I heard really good reviews about this book. In my Grade 12 year of high school, I did not get a chance to read this book in our curriculum. I heard other students read it and watch the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio but did not get the chance to read the novel. This interested me to start reading the novel. When I saw the book in the selection in ENG4UL, I did not hesitant on which book I wanted to read. I made up my mind. I read the synopsis to make sure I would enjoy it. The Great Gatsby follows Gatsby throughout his journey to the American Dream. The novel tells a tragic story about Gatsby finding true love which leads to his death.

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Item No. 2 - Character Development

In the first third of the novel, it seems that Nick Carraway does not have his own voice in what is happening around him. He does not make his own choices about the things he wants to do. In chapter 1, he is coerced to meeting Tom’s mistress. In this situation, he does not have a say in what he wants to do. He sits back and let Tom control the situation. He tries to escape some situations but unable to due to the influences around him. Another example is when Calloway first meets Jay Gatsby, he follows Gatsby everywhere. When he is invited somewhere by Gatsby, he does not question where is going. In this case, he flows with his environment. In the first half, Jay is put in the spotlight as the mysterious man who lives beside Nick. He invites Nick to one of his parties. Nick sees him as the cooler version of himself. Jay is rebellious and has a glamorized life.

In the second third of the novel, Nick gets an opportunity to make a decision. In this decision, he can choose to make a difference in Jay’s life. He steps up from being a background character and controls his environment. Nick decides to do Jay a favour by inviting his cousin, Daisy over to meet Jay. Jay has not seen Daisy in five years and is still in love with her. They meet and start to hang out. Jay changes from being the rebellious, and “cool” character to showing his affection towards Daisy. He gets extremely nervous when she comes by. He starts knocking things over and acting differently from what he did in the beginning of the story.

In the third part of the novel, Nick controls himself towards the end. He becomes silent during everything around him. He does not get involved in what is happening around him. In this part, another side of Jay is shown. He becomes controlling of others. He starts to manipulate the people around him. He tries to manipulate Daisy into staying with him. He becomes the evil character. He become angry at Tom because Tom does not agree with Jay manipulation of Daisy’s emotions. Tom is confident that Daisy will stay with him no matter what. This gets Jay angry because he is not getting the reaction he wanted from Tom. He was not in control of the situation which made him angrier and made him put his hands on Tom, scaring Daisy away.

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The Great Gatsby (2013)

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Item No. 3 - About the Author

The author of The Great Gatsby is F. Scott Fitzgerald. He was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota and died on December 21, 1940 in Hollywood, California (Mizener, 2021).  He was an American short-story writer and novelist. He was most famous for his book The Great Gatsby written in 1925. Fitzgerald wrote other novels such as the Tender is the Night in 1934, The Side of Paradise in 1920 and The Beautiful and Damned written in 1922. Fitzgerald was the only of his aristocratic father and energetic provincial mother (Mizener, 2021). Fitzgerald had a romantic and wild imagination about the “promises of life”. He attended St. Paul Academy and Newman School from 1908-1913. He was unpopular throughout these years. He attended Princeton University. He became the prominent figure in the literary life of the university and made lifelong friends with John Peale Bishop and Edmund Wilson. John Peale Bishop was an American Poet and had close associate with the American expatriate writers in Paris (Britannica, 2020). Edmund Wilson was an American Critic and was labelled as one of the leading literary journalists of his time (Britannica, 2020). Fitzgerald became a leading figure in the Triangle Club, a dramatic society that was elected as one of the leading clubs at Princeton. He ended up falling in love with Ginevra King and flunked out of Princeton. He returned the next fall but did not have all the positions he acquired in the previous years. In 1917, he left to join the army, He was stationed near Montgomery, Alabama where he met Zelda Sayre and fell in love. He was determined to achieve success in order to marry Zelda in New York. He found an advertising job at paid $90 a month. Zelda broke the engagement off due to financial reasons. Fitzgerald went to Minnesota to write his second novel he had begun at Princeton. In 1920, he married Zelda. He finished the second novel, “The Beautiful and the Damned”” in 1922. It describes a beautiful wife and handsome young man who gradually move to the shopworn middle age while they wait for the young man to inherit a large fortune. Fitzgerald and his wife had a daughter named Scottie Fitzgerald in 1921. They moved to France while Fitzgerald completed his brilliant novel “The Great Gatsby.” It follows the main character Jay Gatsby as he chases the “American Dream.” This novel is based on his life with Zelda. In the next decade, Fitzgerald became unhappy and disorderly while Zelda began ballet dancing day and night. In 1930, she has a mental breakdown and another in 1932, which she never recovered from. He finishes his next novel “Tender Is the Night” in 1934. The book follows the story of a psychiatrist who marries one of his patients, who slowly recovers. He explains the main character as “un homme épuisé”, meaning “a man used up.” This story explains his life with Zelda. The book does not become commercially successful leading him to become an incurable alcoholic. In 1937, he starts a job as a scriptwriter in Hollywood where he falls in love with Sheilah Graham and marries her. He becomes bitter and violent with his occasional drunken spells but lives quietly with Sheilah. He occasionally visited his daughter and Zelda. Fitzgerald’s final attempt to create his “American Dream” began with writing his book called The Last Tycoon. He only completed half of the book and died of heart attack (Mizener, 2021).

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Item No. 4 - Resilience

In the Great Gatsby, Gatsby grew up as poor. He decides to leave his life and family behind to become who he is meant to be. He joins the army and becomes an officer in Louisville during World War 1. He does not let his past stop him. He accomplishes his goal to become wealthy by being part of an organized crime. He does this to build is wealth and status in society. The main theme in The Great Gatsby is the American Dream. The American Dream deals with class, gender and nationality. The American Dream stands for independence and the ability to make something through hard work. In the novel, it shows materialism and selfishness because Jay realized he is not happy with the life he is living. He looks for happiness and love through Daisy which money cannot buy. He gets angry when he realizes that Daisy does not love him back. Jay tells Daisy that the house and lifestyle is made for her and the reason he bought the lavish lifestyle was for both of them to live it.

There are many themes observed in the novel. This includes “The Hollowness of the Upper Class”, “Class”, “The American Dream” and “Love and Marriage” (SparkNotes, 2021). The hollowness of the upper class is seen through the sociology of wealth. The new millionaires are different from the old aristocracy which has the country’s richest families. West Egg represents the newly rich in the country and East Egg represents the old aristocracy in the novel. The old aristocracy includes Daisy and Tom while the newly rich includes Gatsby. The author describes the newly rich as vulgar and lacking social taste and graces. The example of Gatsby wearing a pink suit and living in a monstrously sized mansion is used to explain the misuse of money. The aristocracy are portrayed as having taste, subtlety and elegance. The East Eggers are “careless” and “bullies” who use their money to get rid of their problems. For example, the aristocracy can get away with more things than the newly rich using their money. When Daisy crashes into Tom’s mistress, Gatsby takes the blame because he loves her. At the end, when Gatsby dies, Daisy does not attend his funeral. She moves away from the city with Tom to start a new life, just because they can. The Hollowness of the Upper Class shows resilience because the rich stay with each other and the other classes stay with each other. The upper-class associate with each other to keep the wealth between them and the newly rich stick with each other to grow together. The upper class do not allow themselves to marry other classes because this means a loss of money, status and wealth.

In the Great Gatsby, class has a huge influence on the characters and how they act. The difference between class keeps Gatsby and Daisy away from each other. Gatsby makes sure that he has a large fortune before he pursues Daisy. The different classes determines which marriage survives, Tom and Daisy, which one is destroyed, George and myrtle, and which one will never come to be, Gatsby and Daisy. The only couple that stays together is the one that has a similar class, Tom and Daisy. This is due to their belief that they are immune to the consequences of their actions (SparkNotes, 2021).

The American Dream is the most important theme in the novel. According to Investopedia, the American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they are born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society (Barone, 2021). The characters in the novel are driven by the American Dream. The book criticizes the notion of the American Dream and Gatsby spends his whole life trying to achieve this lifestyle. He believes that if he works hard enough, he can make enough money and obtain wealthy possessions, it will erase his lower-class life and become one of the aristocracies. Gatsby gets the wealth and possessions, but he is not accepted by the upper class. Fitzgerald reveals through the novel that the American Dream is unattainable due to the class differences between the old money vs. new money. This causes resilience because the American Dream allows for people to strive for the status they want. People work harder to achieve the lifestyle they dream of.

Love and marriage is another theme in the book. It centers on two marriages, Tom and Daisy and George and Myrtle. These marriages are loveless because they are both broken. Tom cheats with Myrtle and Daisy cheats with Gatsby. The day before Daisy and Tom’s wedding, Daisy almost backs out of the wedding with Tom because of Gatsby, she ends up going through with the marriage. Tom ends up having an affair within a year of their wedding. These two are perfect for each other because they are in the same class as each other and share the same beliefs. Myrtle explains that she married George because she thought he would raise her class status. This represents resilience because marriage is a union between two people who love each other. Tom and Daisy decide to still be together after cheating on each other because they still love each other.

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The Great Gatsby (2013), dir. Baz Luhrmann

His Smile was one of those rare smiles that you may come across four or five times in life. It seem to understand you and believe in you just as you would love to be understood and believed in.

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Item No. 5 - Socio-Economic Lens

In the Great Gatsby, the socio-economic lens is used. The “socioeconomic status is the social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income, and occupation (American Psychological Association, 2012). The main characters are divided into three social classes; the wealthy elite social class, the nouveau riche and the working class. The wealthy elite social class are the people whose families are riche from birth. These families have a great of deal of money and are passed down to the children. Daisy and Tom fall into this class. The nouveau riche are the people who recently got rich and were not rich their entire lives. This includes Jay because he did not grow up with a rich family. This is what causes Jay to not reach out to Daisy for five years. Jay was not rich when they met and built his life to be with Daisy in the future. The working class is the people who work in society. This includes Nick because he has to work for his money. He did not come from wealth and continues to work as a writer to make money.

Using the feminist criticism in The Great Gatsby can be used to analyze gender roles in a patriarchal society. In the novel, women are valued by their husband’s status. Men have control over women and women are seen as less in society. Women are portrayed as emotional and men are shown as strong and fearless. In Chapter one, Nick quotes "the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I'd known Tom in college (Fitzgerald, Chapter 1).” Nick calls Tom and Daisy “Tom Buchanans” because he acknowledges that Daisy has no control and Tom is in charge of both of them. He degrades Daisy by not mentioning her name but by Tom’s last name. Another important quote is 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.' In this quote, Daisy explains that in order for a girl to survive in this society, they have to be stupid and clueless. She needs to be pretty and let the men control and make decisions without questioning them.

The importance of money and status are important in a contextual lens. Society puts pressure on everyone to earn as much money as they can and strive to become someone with great status. The money earned determines where you live in the future, your hobbies, ability to travel around the world and which jobs you work. If you do not strive for these in society, you are seen as the lesser. As first generation African Canadian, there is unspeakable pressure to either become a doctor, lawyer, or a businessperson. It is seen that the only to survive in this world is to become an important person with lots of money. This can relate to The Great Gatsby because Gatsby fights to become a person with high status. He works hard and gets into criminal activity in order to achieve this status. It shows that people will do anything to gain power and status because of the pressure put onto them by society. When Gatsby gets his material possessions, he believes that he can obtain love from Daisy, this is not the case because no matter how much he earns, he cannot get everything in life.

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Item No. 6 - Text-to-Text Connections

The Great Gatsby can be compared to Hamlet in terms of the socio-economic lens. Gatsby and Hamlet are both driven by power. Gatsby works his whole life to gain power and status and Hamlet avenges his father to gain more power. One similarity in both stories is that Gatsby and Hamlet put on an act. They are shown very differently in each story, but they still put on an act. Hamlet puts on an act to take the attention away from what he is doing. For example, he starts to act mad to take the attention away from his plan to kill Claudius. Gatsby puts on an act by showing Daisy that he has money. He buys a mansion, throws parties and flaunts his wealth to get the attention of Daisy. He puts this act on to prove to Daisy that he is different from his past and has changed.

Hamlet and Gatsby are tragic heroes. Throughout both stories, the reader is rooting for them. The reader wants Hamlet to kill Claudius to get revenge and the reader wants Gatsby and Daisy to end up together. This is what leads to their death. Hamlet’s hesitation to kill Claudius every chance he gets. If he had killed Claudius, he probably would have succeeded. Gatsby’s tragic flaw was his obsession with Daisy. He decided to take the blame for the death of Myrtle which leads to his death by George. His love for Daisy was his downfall.

The novel can be compared to Shakespeare’s Hamlet because of the socio-economic lens applied to both stories. Different characters are treated by the social status. In the Great Gatsby, Nick was described as poor multiple times because of his social status. In Hamlet, Polonius was made fun of by Hamlet due to his social status. In the Great Gatsby, Gatsby brings up the fact that Nick is poor multiple times. He forgets that the fact that he grew up poor and did not always have the same wealth. There is a divide between the aristocracies, the newly rich, the middle class and the lower class.

There are four film adaptations to the novel. There is a 1926 silent film adaptation for the book. The trailer of this film is the only surviving footage of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. Another adaptation starring Alan Ladd was created in 1949. It focuses on the large parties hosted by Gatsby. In 1974, another adaptation was created starring Robert Redford. The latest film hit theatres in 2013, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

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Item No. 7 - Sentence Starters

I was surprised that Gatsby was shot to death in the end. I was not expecting this because I did not think the mistresses’ husband would find him and kill him. I was rooting for Gatsby and Daisy to end up together and live happily together. Gatsby went through so much to earn the love he wanted from Daisy. He builds this new life to impress Daisy. He makes money, buys a new mansion, host parties to fit into her world. It was easy to blame the antagonist, Tom for the downfall of Gatsby. Tom was seen as controlling with Daisy, he tells her what to do all the time. Gatsby felt like he would be better with her than with Tom. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is very hopeful that he will end up with Daisy. He is very persistent with showering Daisy with love.  

I was also surprised by the fact that it was Daisy who killed Myrtle instead of Gatsby. This was a dramatic plot twist. The reader assumes that Gatsby is the one who is driving but it is Daisy. This part is well written because there is an instant assumption of who is driving the car.

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Item No. 8 - Questions to Consider

Some other possible titles for this book might be…

The Road to West Egg is a possible title because the novel looks at Gatsby’s previous life to moving to West Egg. The novel explains the struggles of living in West Egg and finding his place in society. It shows his struggles of fitting in with the aristocracies as a newly rich person.

- Finding Love in Happiness is a possible title because Gatsby is looking for love whilst looking for happiness. He realizes that even though he does have everything such as the money, a mansion and life, he is still unhappy. He only achieves this lifestyle because he wants to be loved by Daisy. He believes that this will bring him happiness but it does not due to Daisy not feeling the same.

- Trimalchio is a character in Satyricon by Petronius, written in the first century AD. The character is a free slave who becomes rich through devious means (Bruce, 2016). “It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night—and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over” (The Great Gatsby, Chapter 7). After Gatsby meets Daisy again, he does not attend or host parties like he used to. The quote explains that he is not longer a Trimalchio because he is not trying to prove society his worth to attract people like Daisy.

- The Impossible Love is another possible title because Gatsby and Daisy could not be together because of their class differences. When they first met, Gatsby did not have enough money to be with someone from the aristocracy society. He increases his status to newly rich in society, but this was still not enough for Daisy. No matter what Gatsby did, he could not end up with Daisy

- Old Sport is a possible title because Gatsby uses it quite a lot with Nick. Old sport is used widely between the upper class. He uses it because it shows he is part of the community.

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Item No. 9 - Alternative Responses

The choice of food that best represents this book is champagne because they are fancy. This drink would most likely be served at one of Gatsby parties. Champagne is served on special occasions such as parties, weddings and holidays. “The tradition of drinking champagne to mark celebrations originated in the royal courts of Europe in 1789” (Melina, 2010). Champagne is a status symbol. Champagne symbolizes overflows in abundance and joy. The bubbly, light-colored wine has historically been associated with luxury and the parties of the royal courts and aristocracy of Europe, said Kolleen M. Guy, associate professor of history at the University of Texas at San Antonio and author of "When Champagne Became French" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). Just the act of opening a champagne bottle is enough to mark a celebration in some cases.

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Item No. 10 - Sentence Starters

I think the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is interesting because Gatsby built a life in order to impress the girl he wanted. When she did not respond how he wanted, he got upset and tried to manipulate her into falling in love with him. He expected her to be impressed with all the materialist things he had instead of working on their relationship and love. He wanted her to tell Tom about them and break up with him, but she was very hesitant about it.