Transcript Foul Dust Floating in the Wake of Dreams: Why The Great

Under the Red, White, and Blue
- or Foul Dust Floating in the Wake
of Dreams: Why The Great
Gatsby is an Incredible Book
Feraco
American Literature
25 March 2008
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
--“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously.
“Why of course you can!”
Perhaps It Explodes


Gatsby’s dream has been
deferred long enough for
it to seem impossible;
he’s literally pursuing
the past in the present
Gatsby pines for Daisy
for years after he loses
her to another man
through marriage; it’s
worth noting that he
leaves for an extended
period of time, only to
come home and find the
love of his life has
entered into said
marriage
However, we see him on the
precipice of realizing his
“impossible dream” – his
American dream, his girl
from Louisville, with a voice
like money
 What is the cost of chasing
this dream? What’s the cost
of realizing it?

Quick-Write!
 Have
you ever wanted to relive a moment
from your past, to redo it? Describe the
situation. How and why would you
change the past?
 You have five (intense!) minutes! Make
the most of them!
 After this, we’ll take a look at the
characters and their dreams – for each is
inextricably tied to his/her failed hopes
The Object of His Affection

“[Gatsby’s] entire heart and
imagination are utterly
 Did he
consumed with his romantic
mention
image of Daisy Buchanan, a
“married”?
selfish, silly, giddy
creature…for what is Daisy,
dreadful Daisy, but his dream
and the American dream at
that? [Fitzgerald] seems to
make no bones about it.
[Daisy is] vapid, vain,
heartless, self-absorbed…”
- Louis Auchincloss
‘Til She Cries,
“I Must Have You!”
Though Daisy is all of these,
and more, she still captures
Gatsby’s heart in a way that
nothing else does
 An otherwise falsely genial and
remote character, Jay Gatsby
is so captivated by Nick
Carraway’s cousin that he
attempts to construct an
identity that will render him
respectable enough to win
Daisy’s affections
 He throws everything he has
into the charade, buying new
clothes and new property as he
tries to assimilate into Daisy’s
modern world of higher
society

The Wrong Side of the Bay
He buys an elaborate,
empty white palace to
impress her, but he
purchases one on the
wrong Egg.
 This strands him so far
outside of her world that
he is reduced to
watching the pulsing
green light of her island
under the cover of night,
arms outstretched to
embrace something he
cannot seem to hold.


It’s an empty
identity, an empty
existence – an
attempt to pursue
a dream that’s
nothing more than
an “illusion…all
gush and twinkle.”
The World Divides Us
His desperate pursuit of his
ideal woman – a figure who
lies on the opposite side of the
divide between the old world
and modern society – reflects
the clash between oldfashioned, traditional
passions and a changing world
that alienates and pulls people
apart
 Old vs. new – old money vs.
nouveau riche – inheritance
and legacy vs. people without
pasts

The Eggs Are Decaying
East Egg, West Egg, and the
Valley of Ashes all represent
different “existences” in
America – and none of them are
populated by morally
upstanding types
 The Valley symbolizes moral
decay, and the eyes of Dr. T.J.
Eckleberg symbolize the eyes of
God – seeing all that happens in
the land of the liars and sinners

The Space Between Us



This is not a world
that is friendly to
romance or love – or
even to manners
Ironic, considering
that it’s the nouveau
riche who are
supposed to be vulgar
Tom cavorts with
Myrtle Wilson as
Daisy observes
passively.

The Buchanans seem
almost eager to
broadcast their
problems to an
audience.
Nick the Narrator


As the narrator, Nick recounts his experiences in a
variety of situations – most of which are exclusive to
himself.
He never goes anywhere without being respected, at
the very least – there is no one in the story who
dislikes him.


Other characters (Gatsby, Tom, Wilson) are resented and
trapped within their own spheres of influence (or lack thereof).
People confide in Nick – see Daisy and the butler’s
nose, Daisy’s speech about how “sophisticated” she is,
Jordan Baker’s revelation of the history between Daisy
and Gatsby, and Gatsby’s own confession of how he
constructed his identity (in Chapter VI)


He has “privileged glimpses into the human heart” (page 6)
Nick sees marital discord within his own family (Daisy and
Tom) and outside of it (George and Myrtle)
Quick-Write II
 Have
you ever had a dream that
failed, or that you never realized?
Have you ever been deeply
disappointed by something? Did you
have trouble accepting what had
happened? How did you react to
disappointment?
Speaking of Marital Discord…
and Privileged Glimpses into
the Human Heart
Daisy’s wedding speaks volumes about the type
of person she really is
 Has Daisy ever been happy while married? She
greets her wedding day with tears and alcohol:


‘Here, dearis.’ She groped around in a waste-basket
she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string
of pearls. ‘Take ‘em downstairs and give ‘em back to
whoever they belong to. Tell ‘em all Daisy’s change’
her mine. Say ‘Daisy’s change’ her mine!’ She began
to cry – she cried and cried…She wouldn’t let go of
the letter. (Fitzgerald, 81)
The Pearls in Her Eyes


The pearls – which Daisy notably tries
to cast away – represent the “pomp
and circumstance” that Fitzgerald
focuses on in his description of Daisy’s
marriage. Daisy marries a man who
uses his wealth to throw her a wedding
that holds true to the conventions of
high modern society – in other words,
all glitz and empty glamour.
The pearls he gives his new wife are
not described in terms of their beauty,
but in terms of their monetary worth.
This underscores the superficial
nature of the present. Tom buys the
necklace not because he thinks Daisy
will actually love the gift, but because
it is clearly the most expensive object
he can give her.
An Impersonal Marriage
It is a gaudy and impersonal affair for Daisy,
while Tom ships “a hundred people [to the
wedding] in four private cars” (Fitzgerald, 80).
 While he constructs a scene in which the
young Lieutenant Gatsby and his love sit in a
car “so engrossed in each other that she didn’t
see [Jordan] until [she] was five feet away”
(Fitzgerald 79), Fitzgerald offers no hint of an
old-fashioned romance between Tom and
Daisy. For that matter, there is not even
evidence of a friendship between the two.
 Compare this to the Wilsons’ wedding

So, To Recap…
 Love
is dead
 Morals have decayed
 People are unhappy and separated
 Why is this book great again?
 And what does it have to do with the
American Dream again?
Reason #1: The Characters
 Every
one of the seven main characters is
fully-fleshed-out, vibrant, and real.
 We may hate Tom, but we understand
his feelings of frustration and
disappointment at the same time


He has everything, yet nothing
He, too, is in search of the past in the
present
Reason #2: The World
Fitzgerald has created a feverish, compelling
America, a land of excess and distance, of
deceit and dreams
 Everything from the Valley of Ashes to Gatsby’s
mansion is described in full sensory detail –
it’s an illustrator’s dream
 You understand Gatsby’s world – and why he
is so desperate to move into Daisy’s – because
we understand George’s world, and how it’s
something everyone is trying to flee
 In other words, the settings reinforce the
book’s themes and content

Reason #3: The Surprises
I’ve tried to be very, very careful about
revealing the ending
 I’m looking forward to re-introducing
some of these ideas once I can talk about
them openly!
 For now, rest assured that Fitzgerald does
an excellent job of dropping surprises
into his text – even if they’re made up of
little moments, like Tom’s almost
subdued attack on Myrtle

Reason #4: The Way It All
Comes Together
 As
Anthony pointed out, we’re
drawn to stories where things lead
up to a conclusion, where the world
we’ve been studying is united – and
where everything “comes together”
in a moment of transcendent
greatness
Reason #5:
Form + Content = Classic
Fitzgerald’s prose is active; his narrator’s
language is pompous and inflated because it
fits the narrator (how do you expect a Yale
graduate from the 1920s to speak); his story
loops through time repeatedly to drive home
the idea that the characters are chasing
something they’ve already lost
 His characters, settings, and themes all unite
to serve the story – and the story itself does not
disappoint, as Chapters VII and VIII are
perennial favorites of the book’s readers

Reason #6: The Dream
Gatsby can never enjoy what he seeks, and this
makes his dream all the more tragic
 The world is increasing in complexity and
modernity; Gatsby and Nick just fought a war
for control of it
 The passionate, old-fashioned frontier
romance that he seeks, to run off with his love
and simply be with her, is an obsolete dream
that can no longer be realized


Daisy is no longer the girl he loved; when Daisy
marries Tom after “changing her mind,” she
sacrifices who she is for the sake of convenience,
wealth, and all sorts of other trivial things
Under the Red, White, and Blue
Perhaps that’s what the American Dream
is about
 Pursuing the things we want


Daring to pursue them
Pursuing the things we’ve lost –
traditions, simplicity, familiarity
 Pursuing love and greatness and wealth,
stability and independence and happiness
 Is that the American Dream? A pursuit?

Quick-Write III!
 Gatsby
completely overhauls his
identity in order to win Daisy’s love.
What do you think of his decision?
Are you impressed with his
dedication, angry with his
foolishness, or somewhere in
between?
That’s All for Today!
 Study
these notes again after you
finish the book – and before we can
discuss it again!