The Great Gatsby (Assigned)

Passage:

A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting-before he could move from his door the business was over. The “death car” as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment, and then disappeared around the next bend. Michaelis wasn’t even sure of its color-he first told the policeman that it was light green. The other car, the one going toward New York, came to rest a hundred yards beyond, and its driver hurried back to where Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick dark blood with dust. Michaelis and this man reached her first, but when they had torn open her shirtwaist, still damp with perspiration, they saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap, and there was no need to listen for the heart beneath. The mouth was wide open and ripped at the corners, as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long.

Analysis:

          In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the most important scenes to take place is the scene where Myrtle Wilson is killed. I chose to elaborate on this scene from the novel because if Myrtle Wilson hadn’t been killed, the rest of the events in the novel wouldn’t have unraveled the way they did. If Myrtle hadn’t died, then her husband wouldn’t have killed Gatsby and himself, and he and Myrtle would have moved out west to start a their lives fresh. However, while in the middle of an argument with her husband, Myrtle ran into the street and was struck by a car and killed. This car happened to be Gatsby’s car, and it was being driven by Daisy. Once Myrtle was killed, Wilson sought revenge from Gatsby, killing Gatsby and then himself. This once particular scene in the novel brought about the end of three lives and a tragic finish to that summer.

          I chose to represent this scene in the form of a book. Each page in my book represents a different point in that scene. The first page is a picture of Myrtle running off into the sunset, into the street, in order to get away from her husband. I interpreted this as Myrtle running off into the end of her life, just like the setting sun is the end of the day. As Myrtle runs toward the setting sun, she is running toward her death. On the second page, I drew the “death car”. This car is yellow because it is Gatsby’s car, but also because Daisy has control over the car. I drew Daisy as the grim reaper because she took Myrtle’s life without looking back. On the third page, I drew the blood gushing from Myrtle’s body mixing in with the dust like described in the novel. This represents Myrtle’s life gushing away from her, and it is too powerful so she has no way of stopping it. On the last pages I drew Myrtle’s grave. This grave shows the finality of Myrtle’s death and how she really isn’t coming back. I drew Daisy’s covering her grave because, in the end, it was Daisy who took the life of Myrtle and covered any vitality that she had left.

          I chose to play the song Oh! Darling by the Beatles because I felt that this song correctly represented how Wilson felt at the time of Myrtle’s death. The lyrics,  “When you told me you didn’t need me anymore Well you know I nearly broke down and died” demonstrate when Wilson felt that life wasn’t worth living without Myrtle. This feeling ultimately lead to the murder of Gatsby and Wilson’s suicide.

 

Gatsby’s Tea Party Assigned

I feel that a very significant part of the story is when Daisy is invited over to Nick’s cottage for tea.  This is the point in the novel when Gatsby tries to recreate where he was five years ago.  A happier time, before he went into the military.  Gatsby wants things to be just how they were before he left.  Gatsby takes great comfort in seeing Daisy’s porch light on every night.  It makes him feel close to her.  Gatsby still loves Daisy and he wants Daisy to love him again.  So, Gatsby comes up with a plan.  Nick, Gatsby’s friend, lives right next door.  Daisy is Nick’s cousin.  Wouldn’t it be convenient if Nick invited Daisy over for tea and Gatsby happened to be there too?  Although things looked promising, what Gatsby did not understand is that you can never recreate the past. 

When Nick calls up Daisy he tells her that she should not bring Tom, her husband.  Instead of asking why not, she responds with “who is Tom?” Daisy does not truly care if he is involved in this tea or not.  Inside, Daisy still has some type of feelings for Gatsby.  If she did not have such strong feelings for Gatsby, she would have wanted Tom to come with her.

The day that they are scheduled to have tea is a very rainy day, which sets the mood as gloomy.  This weather is nerve racking for Gatsby and he thinks that Daisy is not going to show up.  As the day progresses, the weather begins to clear up.  As the weather clears up, the tea party seems to get better, and the day turns out great for Gatsby.  The tea party goes exactly how he wanted it to go.

Gatsby wants the day to be perfect.  Gatsby is concerned that Nick’s house is not good enough to impress Daisy.  So, Gatsby sends his gardener over to Nick’s house to groom Nick’s lawn.  Gatsby sends over flowers so that Nick’s garden would look pretty.  Gatsby wants to make sure everything is perfect for Daisy.

Gatsby comes to Nick’s cottage dressed elegant and but he is very worried.  Gatsby wants to make sure he does everything right in order to impress Daisy.  He really wants to impress her. Gatsby has been awake and stressed out about recreating the past, and making everything perfect, he has had no time to sleep.  When he first gets to Nick’s cottage he has big bags under his eyes.  He is so tired that when Nick talks to him, he cannot even pay attention and stares blankly.  If Gatsby was not so worried about impressing Daisy and had gotten some sleep, he would have been able to function better at the tea party.

Gatsby tells Nick that he read in the newspaper that the rain was supposed to stop.  Gatsby’s greatest concern is that the afternoon goes right.  He wants to make sure that Nick has the highest quality tea and cakes because he is so concerned about impressing Daisy.  His main goal after all is for Daisy to leave Tom and come back to him.

The Grass Isin’t Always Greener on the Other Side

The “Great” Gatsby

 

 

Excerpt:

“Who is he?” I demanded. “Do you know?”

“He’s just a man named Gatsby.”

“Where is he from, I mean? And what does he do?”

“Now you’re started on the subject,” she answered with a

wan smile. “Well, he told me once he was an Oxford man.”

A dim background started to take shape behind him,

but at her next remark it faded away.

“However, I don’t believe it.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know,” she insisted, “I just don’t think he went

there.”

Something in her tone reminded me of the other girl’s “I

think he killed a man,” and he had the effect of stimulating my

curiosity. I would have accepted without question the infor-

mation that Gatsby sprang from the swamps of Louisiana or

from the lower East Side of New York. That was compre-

hensible. But young men didn’t-at least in my provincial

inexperience I believed they didn’t-drift coolly out of

nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Sound.

“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.

Analysis:

In this scene, Nick has just finished talking to Gatsby and meeting him for the first time at his party. Their conversation was cut short when Gatsby had to take a phone call from Chicago. This excerpt comes in when Gatsby leaves. Nick is asking Daisy about Gatsby and who he is. I picked this excerpt because I thought that this scene is an important scene in the story. The scene is an important scene in the story because it shows the characterization of Gatsby in many ways.

            One way this scene shows the characterization of Gatsby is that this scene takes place at one of Gatsby’s many extravagant parties. At these parties, anyone is invited. Anyone can just walk in. In fact, Klipspringer attended one of Gatsby’s parties and never left and that is why he is known as “The Boarder”. This represents that Gatsby is generous because he let Klipspringer stay at his house, and it also illustrates that Gatsby will giving anything to anyone.

            Gatsby is very smart. He went to Oxford. However, in this scene, Daisy mentions that she doesn’t believe Gatsby went to Oxford. This scene starts to demonstrate Gatsby’s “secret past”. There are also many rumors going around about Gatsby, for example, that he killed a man, which is also mentioned in this excerpt. Although these rumors and opinions of Gatsby may not be true, it still displays that Gatsby does have a secret past. And in this secret past is Daisy. Gatsby is still in love with Daisy. That is the reason for these extravagant parties. Gatsby hopes that Daisy will just walk in one day. This is also the reason that Nick lives right next door to Gatsby and got invited to Gatsby’s party. Gatsby knew that Nick knew Daisy, so he made sure Nick lived right next door to him and he hoped that Nick would walk into his party so he could talk to him. But, when Nick never showed up, he sent him an invitation. The fact that Gatsby went through all of this just to meet with Nick demonstrates that Gatsby is very smart and it illustrates again that he will do anything for someone. Gatsby is also very smart because he bought a house across the lake so he can see Daisy’s green light from his house.  

            Another rumor that is going around is that Gatsby is a bootlegger. This is true. Gatsby is friends with Meyer Wolfsheim, who is a criminal. Gatsby got into the criminal business because he needed to make money. Daisy is from a world of money and he believed the only way he could get her love is to become wealthy like Daisy.