"The Great Gatsby" Reading Log - Chapter 9 "The End"

Chapter 9 was a depressing final chapter to "The Great Gatsby " for me. Finding that no one ended up coming to Gatsby's funeral was upsetting. The only people who come to Gatsby's funeral are Nick, the minister, Henry Gatz (Gatsby's father), four or five servants, the West Egg postman, and Owl Eyes (the man who attended one of Gatsby's parties). No one else came to the funeral for several reasons. Gatsby's business partner, Wolfsheim, did not come because he was a gangster and did not want to be publicly linked with Gatsby. Tom and Daisy did not come because they had left town to avoid any investigation into Myrtle Wilson's death and Gatsby's death. The hundreds of people who came to Gatsby's parties did not come because they had no relationship with Gatsby; they only came to his house to eat his food, drink his alcohol, and have a good time. They used him, in other words. Gatsby had no friends i suppose you could say. All he had was nick, and even Nick wasn't very fond of Gatsby but he admired him in several ways. Gatsby only really got close to Nick so he could have a chance with Daisy, so personally i wouldn't even consider them friends. nevertheless Nick still attended the funeral. Gatsby had everything, but he lived for one reason and one person, and getting involved ended up killing him in the end. His dream is what killed him. The American dream is to have a full well off family and to live in a good neighborhood with good food to eat and a sturdy shelter to live and the family is able to sustainably provide for their family. Did Gatsby live "The American Dream"? This version, he may not have, but he lived what we today strongly believe is "The American Dream". I believe the version people think of today is to be wealthy. With wealth came social status and generally good looks and luxury items. Usually one married into a rich family and would have a child together all this put together is the indirect definition of the main driving force behind the American dream. I believes that people are greedy and put them self’s first. Today or even back in the 20's If you have money, women and luxurious things you are living "The American Dream". Over all I found it be a great read! i'd consider reading it a second time to pick up on a lot of other details that I may have missed. Great short novel, look forward to seeing the new 2013 movie!

George Carlin on "the American Dream"

Viewer discretion advised!

"The Great Gatsby" Reading Log - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 is a big chapter for me. The most iconic and important one dies in this chapter, Jay Gatsby. Shot in cold blood in his own swimming pool by George Wilson. It wasn't completely unexpected that he was going to die somehow. Right when Myrtle was brutally killed  knew someone how something coming to them. Right from the beginning George Wilson didn't struck me as a person who would get revenge, little alone kill someone. I guess that's maybe why he killed himself immediately after killing Gatsby. Wilson knew he couldn't handle the guilty of murdering someone so he avoided it by freeing himself from it with a bullet. Even suicide seems extreme for Wilson, he never seemed to be that kind of person with the will power to be able to pull the trigger and end his own life. He must have really loved Myrtle and believed that he could be with her quicker that way. In the middle of the chapter Wilson explains the purpose of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg's enormous eyes. They are the eyes of God, and "God sees everything." So he was seen as a religious man i suppose. But if he was seen this why and he knew got see's everything why would he still get revenge and kill? Maybe it was something that he had to do because he had nothing else to live for, without Myrtle he had no purpose left in life and he must have figured there was one thing left for him to do; revenge. Fizgerald uses the weather to describe Gatsby’s house as gloomy, dark and dusty, this represents his loneliness in life. He also uses weather to foreshadow the death scene that is about to occur when he mentions the birds circling which usually infer death. This described Gatsby's mood and love life.  

Gods all seeing eyes.

"The Great Gatsby" Reading Log - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is an interesting chapter. We get clear indications of what Tom, Daisy and Gatsby are about. We finally get to the heart of the love triangle between Tom, Daisy and Gatsby. Its very apparent now that everyone is aware of the love that Gatsby and Daisy share. Tom made his move on Gatsby to make him look like the bad guy in front of Daisy, to make him seem like hes not all hes cracked up to be. A lot was said during the big confrontation between Tom and Gatsby. After Tom exposing Gatsby, Gatsby explains to Tom and everyone that Daisy is leaving Tom to be with him, he even tried to explain that she never even loved Tom, I felt almost bad for Daisy, being right in the middle of it. She seemed to be leaning more towards Tom near the end of the confrontation, but Daisy seemed to be agreeing with Gatsby at every comment he made, out of fear and distress. Maybe hoping it would help stop before it got worse. Even though Daisy admitted to never loving Tom i find that hard to believe. You don't just marry someone you don't love and Daisy doesn't QUITE seem like the kind of person to just marry someone for their money like Tom. As the chapter continues the real Daisy starts to emerge, she refuses to come to Gatsby's party thus in a way betraying and abandoning him, leaving him to deal with Tom and their dispute. Near the end of the chapter Daisy's innocence is no more. Her recklessness has caused Myrtles death, once could even believe that Daisy deliberately tried to kill Myrtle for obvious reasons. In all the shock they sped off, enough time for Wilson to see the colour of the car. Out of love to protect Daisy Gatsby took the blame for the hit and run of Myrtle.

"The Great Gatsby" Reading Log - Chapter 6

In chapter 6 we're getting deeper into Gatsby, learning more about who he really is, where he comes from, and what he believes. The chapter starts out with  increased flurry of suspicion surrounding Gatsby. Much to his delight, the rumors about him are flying as furiously as ever, even bringing a reporter to investigate (although what, precisely, he was investigating he wouldn't say). Rumors about Gatsby's past abound by the end of the summer. All of New York was talking about the rumors of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is not all he claims to be, When Tom meets Gatsby for the first time at his mansion Tom claims to have done some research on Gatsby and reveals the true source of Gatsby riches.Tome said he'd done some checking into Jay Gatsby's past/present and discovered that Gatsby was into selling grain alcohol 'under the counter' and that was where Tim thought a large portion of Gatsby's money came from. So this meant it was most likely bootlegging that got Gatsby to where he was, and to me this made me think back the the shady character Wolfshiem. My best guess is that Wolfshiem was Gatsby's connection to the illegal bootlegging side of New York. When Tom released his information about Gatsby it obviously raised a lot of suspicion upon Gatsby. Daisy didn't seem to take much interest where Gatsby's riches came from, and this to me seemed interesting, i guess it meant her love for Gatsby may be more pure than i thought.

Some brief history on bootlegging, gives you an idea what Gatsby may have been into

A daisy with a heart, just to resemble her love for Gatsby

Bootlegging^

"The Great Gatsby" Reading Log - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 is a very significant chapter in which the whole novel pivots in a whole new direction. Daisy and Gatsby have been reunited and because of this the novels orientation has changed and is now beginning to focus on  the romance between Gatsby and Daisy. I cant help to think of the certain conflicts that this will bring to the novel. All because of Nick Daisy and Gatsby are now back together, after the awkward meeting between Gatsby and Daisy at first they quickly loosen up and begin to bond once again. Not long after meeting again Gatsby invited both Daisy and Nick over to his house, Daisy is overwhelmed with Gatsby's riches, she once new him as a poor war veteran, but now she has a new image of him. One part that stood out to me is why Daisy burst into tears when she saw all of Gatsby's English shirts. It may have been because it was a reminder of the love that they had. They were memories she had tucked away in fear of remembering him after she had married Tom and when she found them those feelings flooded back to her so suddenly it rendered overwhelming. Or it could have been something simple such as her just being overjoyed by seeing how successful he was. During that same time frame Gatsby had one of his friends start to play the piano, he played "Ain't We Got Fun?". One of the themes that were encountered in this chapter would have to be "love". What else? This chapter is chalk full of it, seeing already how strong the love between Daisy and Gatsby is it fits the part for this chapter.

The song that Klipspringer plays on the pianno

I wasn't sure which one it was so heres a Peggy Lee version.

Just one last final version of "ain't we got fun" just to be sure

"The Great Gatsby" Reading Log - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 reveals a whole new side to Gatsby and we learn what great meaning the green light posses to Gatsby. Jordan explains to Nick a lot about Gatsby, most of which she found out from Gatsby himself. Jordan was told of the love sought story was between Daisy and Gatsby before she was married to Tom. During the war Daisy fell in love with Gatsby, and when Gatsby left for the war she waited for him, but he never came back and only to receive a letter from Gatsby when she was married to Tom. Gatsby bought his mansion in West Egg just so he could live near Daisy. Hoping that maybe one day he could have the girl of his dreams back. This is the hopefulness that Nick originally saw in Gatsby and it was the one quality that Nick admired in Gatsby, and now he knew where it came from. Nick remembers the night he saw Gatsby stretching his arms out to the water and realizes that the green light he saw was the light at the end of Daisy’s dock. This gave the green light a whole new greater meaning to me. To me the light symbolized Gatsby's hope for him and Daisy to once again back together and rekindle their love for each other. Finding this out in the chapter made the green light probably the biggest symbolic item in the book. The other side of Gatsby that's seen earlier in the chapter is when Nick was introduced to Wolfshiem at the Cafe. When Nick saw that Gatsby had connections to people like Wolfshiem it made nick wonder if Gatsby really earned his money honestly or not.

"The Great Gatsby" Reading Log - Chapter 3 "new money"

Finally in chapter 3 we get a taste of the famous Gatsby, probably the most iconic character of the book and were just getting a feel for him in the third chapter. Why is Gatsby the most iconic character of the book? well to put it simply his name is in the title of the book so it must make him pretty iconic. Gatsby is a popular wealthy young man, he earned his popularity from throwing lavish parties every weekend that hundreds would attend(1). Gatsby’s parties perfectly captured the lifestyle of the roaring 20’s because this was the decade people learned to let loose and rebel against society. There were flappers, and bootleggers, and smoking which usually was not of the norm until the 20’s. New York is a large city with bright lights and a constant fast and unforgiving atmosphere (basically the lime life of the party city) whereas Gatsby’s parties which were constantly being thrown were a down scale version of the city it’s self. They were grand over the top and all the rage.  They reflected New York perfectly in the prime of the 20s. I also believe that Gatsby also wants to be accepted by the citizens of East Egg because he is considered to be “new money”, and is afraid of rejection of others so he throws the parties to have a false sense of friendship and popularity. Nick likes Gatsby, but he represents everything that Nick despises.

Lavish Parties

This is the kind of music I imagine they play at 20's parties