gatsby60-5-4


 * //The Great Gatsby//** F. Scott Fitzgerald
 * Chapter 1-2:** //If these chapters were short stories, what would be their theme? (What insight do they give to human life? What do they tell us about how people act?) Have you noticed any symbols? What do you think they represent? What are you thinking about the characters we've been introduced to so far?//

I am not quite sure about what the theme, but i think that it has something to do with money and the way its spent because so far in the story it seems like they are always throwing parties and just having a great time. **(Is there anything in the text that makes this seem positive or negative?)** It also seems like they don't have any distractions so all they do is party. there are also lots of symbosl used but i having a hard time understanding this book and really can't figure out what they symbolize. **(Where do you see these symbols?)** The characters here are all very different from one another. Tom for example is kind of racist and starts talking about how the other races will take over and takes it so science talking about it is proven that the white race is the ones that are put here to be in control and what not. He also has another girl on the side that he went to see in New York (her name is Myrtle) she has a husband but is still kicking it wit Tom spending his money and stuff. **(Do you think these are Tom's personal issues, or do they say something about all people from his background?)** This book is crazy boring..!!


 * Luke,

I think you are on to something in this post. You notice that money is prevalent in the story. Are there things in the story that make you think money is depicted as being good, bad? If there are, how do they do that?

When you come across what you think is a symbol in the story, think about how it makes you feel, the picture that forms in your mind. I think this technique will be more useful to you than trying to figure out what they mean to the rest of the story. You are good at pinpointing details in the story that connect to the larger themes. Go with your gut!

-Rachel**

Chapters 1-4
//Well, so far we've seen three crazy parties that Nick has shared with us. What stuck out to you about each of them? What do each of them tell us about the characters we've met and how they relate to each other? Jordan is talking to Nick when she says, “And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy” (Fitzgerald 52). How does this quote reflect each of the gatherings in the first three chapters?//

The thing that stuck out to me about the parties was the fact that they always drunk and drunk, **(Whoa! What do you make of this?)** but the party that Gatsby hosted the thing that stuck out the most was the fact that he had thousands of people over. it was like he was feeding the homeless or something. Each of them tell us that the characters like to have fun the same way because they all ways end up finding each other at every party they go to. **(Do you think the differences in how the people are partying mean anything?)**

this quote relates to the gatherings in the first three chapters because in the first three chapters the parties were filled with thousands of people so if you wanted to leave or ditch someone you couldn't because you'll be noticed **(What d you think of these types of parties?)** and at the parties with lots of people you like walk away or go and no one will see you because its so crowded and you can hide yourself. **(So do you think Gatsby had friends at his party, or was** **he surrounded by people who wouldn't notice if he left?)**


 * Luke,

I can tell that you are seeing the different types of behavior that are particular to the rich characters in the story. Write more about how these behaviors make you feel about the characters and I think your posts will naturally fulfill the prompts Ms, Lange is giving you.

-Rachel**

//The point-of-view that a novel is told in frames the entire story. How would// The Great Gatsby //change if if it were told in another character's perspective (like Jay Gatsby's point-of-view?) Why do you think Fitzgerald chose Nick to be the narrator?//
 * Chapters 1-4**

The Great Gatsby would change if it were told in Gatsby’s point of view because we would probably only see things the way Gatsby saw it. Not much of the views of the other characters would be shown and we would only be told about the East Egg. I think that the Fitzgerald chose to tell the story in Nick’s point of view because Nick is like the only characters without problems like Gatsby for example wants to be with Daisy so if it was told from his perspective we would only be told about Gatsby and what he wants. **(Is there nothing else Gatsby's perspective could add to the story?)** Telling the story in Nick’s point of view puts everything together so we see the other characters sides and how they relate to one another.

//Apply Marxist Criticism to the first four chapters of// The Great Gatsby//. How is wealth portrayed in this book? How does the characters' wealth affect their lives and their choices? PLEASE, USE EXAMPLES FROM THE TEXT TO SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER.// Wealth is portrayed as hiving more power or the more money you have the better you are known. Gatsby for example is shown so far as the richest man and he is known everywhere. The more money you have the more power you have. Gatsby gets stopped by an officer and gives him a white card and is released this shows that he is known. The character’s wealth affects their lives and choices because they stay having good times and nothing seems to bother them, no hunger or anything. It also seems as if they don’t care about what is going on around them. **(What example of this is in the book?)** All they want to do is enjoy themselves hanging out and partying. I’m sure there are people around them that are having hard times finding food and you see Gatsby and the rest of his buddies throwing parties and relaxing not worry about the world around them.

//Fitzgerald makes use of timepieces in several parts of chapter 5. What do these clocks and watches represent? Explain why these symbols are especially important in this chapter. Find one to three quotes that would serve as an example of a timepiece being a symbol, and explain what they represent.
 * Chapters 1-5**

The American Dream shows up as theme in many writings and discussions over// The Great Gatsby//. How do you define the American Dream? Does it have any influence in your life? Is the American Dream attainable to everyone in the United States? Find one to three quotes from the text that you believe makes a connection to the American Dream and explain why.//

//Gatsby and Daisy haven’t seen each others in five years, so I think Fitzgerald used the clocks and watches in this chapter to show the time lost between Gatsby and Daisy. **(Excellent connection!)** These symbols are especially important in this chapter because this chapter is about Gatsby and Daisy’s reunion and Fitzgerald is using these symbols here to show us this. “Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers and set it back in place.” Gatsby was so nervous that he knocked the Nick’s clock over when talking to Daisy. This shows his clumsiness to try to stop time and try to work things out with Daisy. // //I would define the American as own a car, house and having a good job and maybe having a family. No, it does not have any influence in my life, well not right now but maybe in the future because I think in order for it to happen you have to be independent. **(Do any important people in your life live the American Dream? If so, or if not, how does this affect you?)** No, I don’t think its attainable to everyone in the United States because not every one in the United States own a car or house // **(Why not?)**

**Chapter 1-6 **  //There is sometimes a question about who exactly the protagonist is in The Great Gatsby. Is it Nick or Gatsby? Who then would be the antagonist? Explain your answer using at least three events from the story to defend your thinking.//

I would pick Gatsby to the protagonist because he is basically the main character. Nick just tells the story but Gatsby is the main person. The action follows him. **(good)** He wants Daisy which is a problem because she is married and he tries to do everything in his power to get her to like him again. The antagonist then would be Daisy because she is causing problems for Gatsby. **(what are these problems? use examples from the story)** He wants her so he gets Nick to invite Daisy over to his house for tea and then he shows up and they start talking. Gatsby then also invites both Nick and Daisy to his house and shows them around. I’m guessing he’s trying to impress Daisy or whatever doing what he can to get her to like him.

//What theme(s) are becoming apparent in The Great Gatsby by this point in the book? Support your answer with at least three examples in the text up until this point.//

A theme that would be appropriate for the Great Gatsby, I think, would be “if a person a person has money, then he has power.” I think this because Gatsby has lots of money and he is also known everywhere. He gets stopped by the cops and gets released after show the cop a white card that he had. This shows that his wealth gave him power. Another example of this would be when he was talking to Nick about setting up a reunion for him and Daisy and then he offers to have someone come cut Nick’s lawn. If he didn’t have the money he probably wouldn’t have made that offer. **(this is a good observation. Does Gatsby have complete power through money? Does money give him any problems?)**

//Who is the most dynamic character in this book? How (and how much) do they change? Would he/she be considered round or flat? Support your thinking with examples from the text.//
 * Chapter 1-7**

//The most dynamic character in this book would be Gatsby because at first he was shy to reunite with Daisy when he asked Nick to set up a meet between the two of them. He also told Nick straight up with his relationship with Daisy he was afraid at first but then finally got it off. //**(what causes this change in his thinking? Are there other events that make him change?)** //Gatsby would be considered a round character because many sides of him are show. For example when he and Nick got into that argument over Daisy, we were shown his mean side by the way he insulted Tom. Another side of him was also shown and I would say its caring because when Daisy hit Myrtle with his car he told Nick that Daisy did it but he will take the blame. //

Who would be considered a foil in The Great Gatsby? Why would the author use these characters to show differences? By applying structuralism and looking for binary opposition, what values are considered important in this book? //I would consider Jordan and Daisy to be foils to one another because Jordan for example, doesn’t have a husband and isn’t running around with other guys like Daisy. Daisy has a husband and still likes Gatsby. She keeps Gatsby away from her husband but they still meet at places and keep this to themselves but then they reveal it later on. Jordan seems like a innocent person and cares about life **(where in the story do you see this?)**, but it doesn’t seem like Daisy cares about hers because she’s spending a lot of time with Gatsby and really doesn’t with her husband. Values that are considered important in this book would be being honest because Daisy and Gatsby keep their relationship secret and then let it out at the last minute and this also goes for Tom too because he is also cheating on his wife and not telling her the truth about what’s going on. //

//Choose one of the following symbols and explain what they represent. Then find three quotes in the text where this symbol appears – use MLA formats to avoid plagiarism. • Ashes and Dust • Cars and Drivers • Colors • Houses and Owners • Photography and Lenses • Flowers// Colors are used a lot by Fitzgerald in the Great Gatsby and I think he uses them to show different things. He uses the color green when describing the light that Gatsby stared at coming from Daisy’s dock to describe Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future with Daisy. Another color that he uses a lot was the color yellow. Gatsby’s car was always referred to as the Yellow Car and they never gave the name of it. Yellow was also used when Myrtle died so I’m inferring that it’s a sign of death or something bad because it was also used to describe the valley of ashes which symbolizes poverty and moral decay unlike East Egg and West Egg.**(Awesome!)** Fitzgerald uses colors to show differences in the character’s lives. He uses bright colors to show happiness and warm feelings and dark to show sorrow or death like feelings. Fitzgerald writes, “He reached on tiptoes and peered over a circle of heads into the garage which was lit only by a yellow in a swinging wire basket overhead” (145). Fitzgerald writes, “Involuntarily I glanced seaward-and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (26). Fitzgerald writes, “The eyes of Doctor T.J Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high” (27).
 * Chapters 1-9**

//Answer definitively what the theme of The Great Gatsby is. Find three quotes in the text to support your thinking.// I think the major theme of the Great Gatsby is the American Dream. I think this because it is shown in the story that the wealthy people really didn’t care about what was going on around them. All they wanted was to enjoy themselves they didn’t care about the people who had the least money. It was as if they didn’t exist. They throw wild parties and drunk and just drunk having good times not really worried about what’s ahead of them. Gatsby had all the money in the world, he could have anything he wanted, but to fulfill his American Dream, he was missing something he wanted Daisy. **(Does this sacrifice say anything about the American Dream?)** Even though she was already married he still wanted her. His selfishness cost his American Dream to corrupt. He had everything in the world and just like that he lost his life trying to fulfill his American Dream not caring about the things that could go wrong.**(Is this a moral? Does this tell you what things are necessary to accomplish the American Dream?)** Fitzgerald writes, “Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water and the history of summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to dinner with the Tom Buchanans” (10). Fitzgerald writes, “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like months among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (43). Fitzgerald writes, “To young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamor in the world” (106).