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Copyright April 17, 2008 Marie M. Furnary All rights reserved.
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"For the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions." (p. 2)
"I never saw this great-uncle, but I'm supposed to look like him -- with special reference to the rather hard-boiled painting that hangs in father's office." (p. 3) >>> People, especially in rich society, seem to create lies about their character to reach society's high expectations, which includes family expectations.
"Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe -- so I decided to go East and learn the bond business." (p. 3) >>> Nick moves from this homey Midwest to the east and then sees a side of life that is completely different. Because of his strong moral upbringing, he becomes turned off from high society, and moves back home. In the beginning though life in the Middle West seems so small and cut off from the rest of the world that this "new life" seems exciting and worthwhile.
"They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall." (p. 8) >>> Resembles a picturesque southern summer, but it also seems too superficial to be reality. These women are living in high society and therefore seem artificial, by the ways they act and by their stiffness: "...and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it, which was quite likely to fall. If she saw me out of the corner of her eye she gave no hint of it -- indeed, I was almost surprised into murmuring an apology for having disturbed her by coming in." (p. 8)
"Before I could reply that he was my neighbor dinner was announced; wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square." (p. 11)
>>> Fitzgerald compares people to checker pieces to display that their life is like a game. The people are not steady and stable in their life but constantly moving and changing. Daisy and Tom flee Long Island after Myrtle's death and they are gone without any notice, as if it were a game. >>> For people who live in high-class society, life is a game. Everything they do is a game, especially Tom Buchanan, who manipulates people in a negative, fatherly way.
"The idea is if we don't look out the white race will be -- will be utterly submerged. It's all scientific stuff; it's been proved...we've produced all the things that make civilization -- oh, science and art, and all that. Do you see?" (p. 13)
>>> Tom expresses his ideas as if they were proven fact, which they are not. This shows that his character is very ignorant and set in his own ways. Throughout the story Tom is stuborn and Daisy describes him as a "brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen." (p.12)
"Miss Baker and I exchanged a short glance consciously devoid of meaning." (p.14) >>> This statement reveals that both Nick and Miss Baker look at each other without any passion or sincerity. The fact that they "consciously" look at each other this way reveals how disconnected everyone at the party really is. The people in this high society seem to have all the money and glamour that people hope for, yet they are alone and isolated.
"I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at every one, and yet to avoid all eyes." (p.15) >>> When made uncomfortable by a particular event, people try to avoid the situation all together.
"'You mean to say you don't know/' said Miss Baker, honestly surprised. 'I thought everybody knew.'" >>> Fitzgerald continually presents the point that people in higher class societies, especially women, resort to gossip for entertainment. Putting down others makes humans feel more accomplished.
"And I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool...And I know. I've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything." (p. 17) >>> The less a person knows about a hurtful situation the better. Ignorance is bliss. >>> Daisy realizes that by being too knowledgeable she gets hurt and therefore it is better to know very little. She also feels that her life is over and that she has done all in it that she can, even though she is only 20 years old.
"We heard it from three people, so it must be true" (p.19) >>> The wealthy people on Long Island are overwhelmingly concerned with gossip and juicy stories. They seem to spend more time talking about others than actually living their own lives.
'Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart." (p 20) >>> It almost seems that Tom has so much, has everything material he needs, that he turns his mind to ignorant ideals and notions to satisfy his happiness and mind.
(15) "'Tom's got some woman in New York.'
(32) "'I told that boy about the ice.' Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. 'These people! You have to keep after them all the time.'"
(34) "'I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,' she said finally. 'I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe.' >>> It's ironic that Myrtle feels entitled to upper-class treatment because she is Tom Buchanan's mistress: to a person like Nick Carraway, who is, in fact, related to & part of the upper-class, this just makes Mildred seem cheaper than if she were only known as the woman married to some unsuccessful husband in the valley of ashes.
"This is a valley of ashes -- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air." (p. 23) >>> This is a barrier between New York and the privileged and is a stark contrast to East and West Egg. The dark contrast of these two societies shows the contrast between reality and illusion.
"With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment." (p. 30-31) >>> Mrs. Wilson changes her personality and character because of her outfit change. She feels more wealthy in a fancy dress and consequently she changes the way she acts to play the part of a society woman, instead of the house-wife living in the valley of ashes that she is. >>> This portrays how money or the prospect of having money changes and transforms people.
"What I say is, why go on living with them if they can't stand them? If I was them I'd get a divorce and get married to each other right way." -- Catherine (p. 33)
"Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with is open hand." (p. 37) >>> As part of society, Tom needs and relies on Daisy: his being together with her has more than to do with love and therefore he can't just leave her. Tom does not truly care about Myrtle: she seems to be a mere sexual attraction, while Daisy represents their marriage and a socially-acceptable and high class marriage.
"There was music...[they] went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne adn the stars." (p39) >>> This quote reminded me of TheRed Pony and how things with glamour and riches, which the lights symbolize, attract people.
"...I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table -- the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone." (p. 42) >>> Although the party scene seems perfect on the surface, there is still an element of being self-conscious and alone at these parties. People are placed into this artifical lifestyle and the bar is a place of refuge for the dateless man.
"Absolutely real -- have pages and everything. I thought they'd be a nice durable cardboard." (p. 45) >>> The books in Gatsby's library are proof of reality...tangible evidence that everything in the illusion is real. Also, they symbolize the sincere effort he's put into his house to impress Daisy. He buys all the alcohol and covers all expenses for the parties and presents a house filled with opulence and wealth to win Daisy's heart.
"It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life...with an irresistible prejudice in your favor." (p.48) >>> This is the kind of smile everyone wishes people would associate with their own smile. Gatsby has an alert and honest look about him that contrasts with those of the other people at the party. The others are very introspective and socially competitive, and Nick notices that they look at each other without passion or sincerity. The reader also feels more compassion for Gatsby and about his desire for Daisy because he is more "real" than the other rich & want-to-be members of Long Island society.
"'Anyhow, he gives large parties,' said Jordan, changing the subject with an urban distaste for the concrete. 'And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy.'"(p 49) >>> I thought this qoute was really interesting and true. At large parties you can escape into the privacy of small conversations and get lost in the large crowd. But in a small group you are almost obligated to talk with the group or cannot really get away from the people in your presence.
"'suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself.'
"What part of the Middle West?" I inquired casually.
(64) "[The 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." >>> Gatsby's Rolls-Royce epitomizes everything that makes him symbolic of the "new-rich" citizens of West Egg. While his car is extravagant, everything -- from his clothing to his ornate home -- is also exaggeratedly wealthy-looking too. This desire to show off one's money is the key characteristic of a West Egg local, whereas residents of East Egg, symbolic of the old rich, possess subtlety and elegance.
(80) "Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs, and so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms. Her wan, scornful mouth smiled, and so I drew her up again closer, this time to my face." >>> Because Nick has not created some vision that he needs Jordan to live up to, he is able to just appreciate her as she is. But because Gatsby and Tom hold on to some perfect illusion of what Daisy was like in the past, they are only setting themselves up for failure as it is impossible for anyone to live up to someone else's fantasy.
"He hadn't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes." (p. 91) >>> Gatsby is utterly engulfed with Daisy and her impression of him and his belongings. This quote makes Gatsby seem innocent and youthful because he reassesses everything he owns by Daisy's reaction. Gatsby is vulnerable because he is so dependent on Daisy's decision to be with him or to stay with Tom.
(95) "...Gatsby's face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Almost five years! 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." >>> Again, it is made obvious how by imagining the perfect future he will someday have with Daisy, Gatsby is really putting too much faith on the idea that she will be exactly like the way he pictures her in his dream.
"he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end." (p. 98) >>> Society forces Gatsby to create a person which he is not; in a way he is successful at creating the "American Dream".
"Tom was evidentially perturbed at Daisy's running around alone, for on the following Saturday night he came with her to Gatsby's party." (p. 104) >>> Ironically, Tom is not okay with the idea of his wife's cheating, however he is accepting of the fact that he cheats on her.Ê It is very hypocritical and a double standard.
(110) "'You can't repeat the past.'
"The room, shadowed well with awnings was dark and cool. Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols weighing down their wan white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans." (p. 115) >>> This is almost like the description of these two women in the first chapter, before they met and started spending time with Gatsby and Nick. It is interesting that because these two women are so into their social status and image, that even though they have spent a considerable amount of time around two men, who aren't, that they are still the same way they were in the very beginning.
"'You resemble the advertisement of the man,' she went on innocently.Ê 'You know the advertisement of the man --'" (p.119) >>> Gatsby is refreshing to Daisy and he takes her out of her element.Ê He is a breath of fresh air.
"She told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw. He was astounded. His mouth opened a little, and he looked at Gatsby, and then back at Daisy as if he had just recognized her as some one he know a long time ago." (p. 119) >>> This is important because Tom now sees that there is a deeper connection between Daisy and Gatsby. When he says that he now recognizes Daisy as she once was long time ago...it makes me think that he sees that she loves and that there is a new stimulating quality to it.
"'Her voice is full of money,' he said suddenly.
"'An Oxford man!' He was incredulous. 'Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.'" (p. 122) Gatsby isn't truly of high society, instead he tries to act as though he is so that Daisy will like him, but because this is only his attempted illusion and not reality, she won't give up Tom for Gatsby. While Jordan, Tom, and Daisy are all wearing white, Gatsby is wearing pink, which Tom regards as something that a high society person would never wear.
"'You loved me too?'...The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby." >>> Gatsby's illusion of Daisy is crushed when she explains that she loves Gatsby as well as Tom. Gatsby had an ideal vision of Daisy in his head and it was immediately crushed.
"'No...I just remembered that today's my birthday.' I was thirty.ÊBefore me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade.'" (p. 135) >>> Like America, the characters are coming into a new decade -- the depression.ÊAmericans began to conserve and were not as wild (as in the/their Twenties). >>> Nick is is turning 30 just as the America goes into the 1930's and the inevitable Depression. Nick is living the good life in New York with parties while the country is also in the jazz era and the roaring twenties where everything is flourishing before the stock market crash.
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness..." >>> Tom and Daisy rely on their money to fix their lives when things go wrong. They have no responsibility for their own actions because their wealth can repair anything. This is the ideal of the richest upper-classes; that they can act without considering the consequences.
"They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale -- and yet they weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together." >>> Though we are given the idea that Daisy and Tom do not love each other, we are now shown that there is a connection between the two; they are connected by the need to hold their position in society, yet there is also a deeper connection. This connection is the reason Daisy won't leave Tom for Gatsby.
"Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water..." >>> Once again; the ideal of the upper classes -- extravagance, sophistication, perfection. Gatsby spends his life chasing this ideal because this is what Daisy expects. He believes that if he, too, can provide for her illusion, she will love him as she loves Tom.
"'They're a rotten crowd,' I shouted across the lawn. 'You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.' I've always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end." (p. 154) >>> Though Gatsby had tried to act like the higher class, to win Daisy back from Tom, in Nick's eyes he was better than these people he has trying to fit in with, because he had done all of this for a dream. Gatsby cared about something so much that he did all that he thought possible to achieve his dream. This devotion and striving for something in his life is what set him apart from Daisy, Tom, and Jordan, and is the reason, in Nick's eyes, he is better.
"'I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him, called her instinctively and without hesitation. But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them.
>>> When Gatsby is murdered, Tom and Daisy simply flee the scene. Their wealth allows them to leave behind their troubles when it is convenient; they are almost detached from the real world of real emotion because they are so sheltered by their money.
"...he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass." (p. 161) >>> After Daisy does not choose to be with him, Gatsby finds the harsh reality in things and life is not as perfect as he made it out to be when he was under the illusion of Daisy's love. Everything was more exciting and brilliant when Gatsby thought she loved him.
"Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward." >>> Tom Buchanan is complacent in his wealth. He seems to challenge others to question his superiority, because he is so sure of his own dominance, and knows that if all else fails, his money will rescue him.
"It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment.">>> This is Nick's realization that everybody painstakingly crafts their own perspectives and ideals, and to look at things through other peoples' eyes is difficult. Gatsby strives to create the ideal lifestyle of glamour, but he ultimately views everything exclusively through Daisy's eyes, because her opinion is the one about which he cares.
"As the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes -- a fresh, green breast of the new world.ÊIts vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder." (p. 180) When the colonists came to America it provided them with a fresh start. It was unsettled and therefore the citizens were able to create this land into what they needed and wanted. It provided them with every opportunity: it was the "American Dream".
Copyright April 17, 2008 Marie M. Furnary All rights reserved.
'Got some woman?' I repeated blankly.
Miss Baker nodded. 'She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time. Don't you think?'"
' I hope I never will,' she answered. ' I hate careless people. That's why I like you.'" >>> Reinforces the idea that opposites attract. Also made me think that Jordan and Nick would have a romance on the side.
"San Francisco." [said Gatsby] >>> This reveals that Gatsby is not completely honest about his identity and his past. Nick wants to believe Gatsby but questions his honesty once he says he is from San Fransisco, which clearly isn't in the Mid-West.
'Can't repeat the past?' he cried incredulously. 'Why of course you can!' He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. 'I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before,' he said, nodding determinedly. 'She'll see.'" >>> Part of Gatsby's problem lies in his belief that the past is something that can be flawlessly recreated. But the way that people remember the past is always more idyllic and perfect than how it actually was even then; even if Gatsby somehow succeeded in making things precisely like how they were, it would still fall short of his illusion.
That was it. I'd never understood before...that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it." (p. 120) >>> Part of Daisy's appeal is the confidence and security she carries. Nick realizes money and wealth is crucial to her identity. Money and wealth is what shapes Daisy's life and her personality and her character. >>> Nick has a revelation about Daisy and how her entire personality and character is surrounded by wealth. Money is what makes Daisy who she is and thereforeÊshe seeks financial security in Tom over Gatsby.
'Left no address?'
'No.'
'Say when they'd be back?'
'No.'
'Any idea where they are?Ê How I could reach them?'
'I don't know. Can't say.'"
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