Transcript The Great Gatsby Update & Chapter 5

Gatsby Update & Chapter 5
Summary of Events
• Nick introduces reader to the world of excess that
is the 1920s
• Image of Gatsby staring off across the bay at the
green light on a dock
– Green Light = hope, youth, forward momentum,
money
• Gatsby’s parties are a who’s who of NY society
• Gatsby & Nick have lunch with Wolfsheim
– Another indication that Gatsby is dealing in something
illegal
Summary of Events
• Gatsby shares his background with Nick but it
seems contrived until he shows “memorabilia”
of the events
• Jordan tells the story of Gatsby and Daisy
– Gatsby & Daisy in love
– Gatsby no money
– Daisy marries Tom b/c money
• Jordan asks Nick to invite Daisy to tea
(Gatsby’s request)
Important Events in Chapter 5
• Nick invites Daisy to tea
• Gatsby shows up an hour early (he’s way
vulnerable)
• Gatsby has been waiting, dreaming, hoping
for this moment for 5 years
• Once Daisy arrives, she and Gatsby and Nick
stand in the living room
– Gatsby leans against the mantle & almost knocks
down a BROKEN clock
Important Events in chapter 5
• Significance of BROKEN clock
– Clock is stopped at a point of time, trapped forever
– In a way, so is Gatsby’s life stopped at the point in
time when he realized he could not have Daisy b/c he
was poor
– He is also trapped by his dreams of ideal love with
Daisy
– Might also indicate that emotionally Gatsby has
stopped growing because he is chasing a dream rather
than living (frozen in time)
Important Events in Chapter 5
• Gatsby & Daisy’s emotional states change as they
become more comfortable with each other
– There is a “new well-being” radiating from Gatsby &
Daisy
• Gatsby wants to impress Daisy w/his house (he
does & re-values all material possessions in the
eyes of Daisy)
– Significance of shirt throwing: to show how much he
has amassed. Daisy cries b/c she is so overwhelmed
by his material possessions & she loves material
things
The Green Light
• Gatsby points out the green light @the end of
Daisy’s dock
– Each day he looks at the light (a ritual) now the
light no longer holds the significance b/c his love is
standing beside him.
– Gatsby’s goal (his entire adult life basically) must
change
The End (chapter 5)
• Nick offers this reasoning at the end of the
chapter:
– Gatsby may be dissatisfied with how his dream
has turned out
– Has Gatsby been in love with Daisy for 5 years or
just the idea of Daisy (how he imagines her to
be)?
Analysis Chapter 6
• Cloud of mystery surrounding Gatsby cleared
away
– James Gatz = Jay Gatsby (fiction)
– North Dakota raised - never really accepted his
Midwestern upbringing
• Gatsby’s story is rags-to-riches
– Man from middle of nowhere makes it big through
ingenuity & resourcefulness
• Money large part of American Dream
– Money is not enough - clear when looked @through
Gatsby’s experience
More Chapter 6
• Distinction btwn “new” and “old” money
– Regardless of how much $ you have, where it comes
from & how long you have had it are what counts
– Tom & Co. show up @Gatsby’s house - shows how
shallow and mean-spirited “old” $ can be
– Gatsby will forever remain outside the circle of “old” $
- they will never accept him
• Dreams are good but not when they consume the
dreamer (Gatsby stopped growing the day “James
Gatz” ceased to exist.)
Still More Chapter 6
• Daisy & Tom come to a Gatsby party
• Gatsby worries that Daisy did not have fun
– In his dream she would have had a good time
• Gatsby is like a knight searching for the grail
– He must continually return to the past to revise
and modify his dream.
– Sadly it will never be realized
Analysis Chapter 7
• Weather becomes oppressively hot (do not
overlook this)
• Gatsby & Tom go head-to-head
• To Tom, Gatsby is common and his existence
meaningless
• Gatsby, in all his years of dreaming, never
thought he wouldn’t get his way - when this
happens he doesn’t know what to do & is
exposed
More Chapter 7
• Meet the real Daisy
– Relatively few lines
– What lies underneath the surface isn’t good
– She has an affair w/Gatsby to get back at her
husband - she’s playing a game
The “Death” Car
• Daisy is exposed
• Her recklessness results in Myrtle’s brutal
death
• The reader has a sense that Daisy has run over
Myrtle on purpose
• Gatsby’s car symbolizes the clear and obvious
manifestation (sign) of American materialism
Myrtle’s Death
• Myrtle’s death is tragic but…
– Materialism brought about her demise
– She wants all the material comforts $ can provide
(isn’t this why she fell for Tom in his nice suit)
– In effect, she has been killed by her desires
– Materialism can only bring misery
Nick - Chapter 7
• Realizes it’s his 30th birthday (passage from
youthful idealism to reality)
• He sees clearly what Tom, Daisy and Jordan
are about
• Grows up enough to take a moral stand (no
longer reserves judgment)
Final Image - Chapter 7
• Gatsby stays @Daisy’s house to keep watch
– The dream continues…
– Funny, Daisy could care less about Gatsby’s
feelings
– So Gatsby holds on to the last vestiges of his
dream by standing watch
– Tom might be sad about Myrtle but she’s
expendable just like everyone who isn’t of his
social class
Analysis Chapter 8
• Nick is unable to sleep (premonition of bad
things to come)
• Gatsby becomes weaker, more helpless
– Refuses to acknowledge that the illusion of his
dream has vanished
• Gatsby (as a young man) tried to become
worthy of Daisy but cannot realize that his
drive to succeed is worth ten times Daisy
More Chapter 8
• Gatsby loved Daisy, Daisy loved Gatsby
– They each love the illusion they present to the
other
• If they are together they run the risk of
exposing the real “selves” to each other
• Daisy leaves Gatsby because she wants
whatever is easiest to determine the direction
of her life.
Still More Chapter 8
• Gatsby is a dreamer, has passion, genuinely
cares for something even if it is a dream more than can be said for the Buchannans or
Jordan
• Nick can’t stand to be with Jordan - he is
irritated by her shallowness - he is growing
seeing what society is really made of and
having the courage to stand against it.
And Finally…
• Wilson cannot be consoled - he is in effect a
wasteland, void of spirituality, void of life - he
believes the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg are the eyes
of God & God sees everything
• Overcome w/grief Wilson kills Gatsby thinking
he is the one who killed Myrtle
Final Image - Chapter 8
• Gatsby’s Death in the Pool
– His death is a rebirth (removes him from mortal
life and allows him to go to a better place)
– Gatsby remains the dreamer - his dream is
completely dead
– By doing nothing to protect himself, Gatsby dies in
Daisy stead (chivalry at its finest)
Chapter 9 Analysis
• Reader comes face-to-face w/ugly side of the
American Dream
• Gatsby’s Funeral is Center Stage
• No one is interested in planning Gatsby’s
funeral so Nick makes the arrangements
• Gatsby’s father shows up to fill in the rest of
Gatsby’s story
More Chapter 9
• Nick heads back to the Midwest where morality
and kindness still exist
• Nick learns that Tom sent Wilson to Gatsby’s
house and feels “entirely justified” in doing so
• Tom & Daisy are careless people - in essence like
children
• Green light - hopes and dreams of society
– Gatsby lives on despite his death
– Is there futility in chasing dreams?
– “boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into
the past”