Thinking Activity: The Great Gatsby

Hello Monks,

I am Riddhi Bhatt. You know...what is today's blog ?This blog is about Thinking Activity on The Great Gatsby. This task is assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavnagar University (MKBU). As a part of the syllabus, students of English department are learning the paper The Twentieth Century Literature: 1900 to World War II (paper-106). So, let’s start making this wonderful blog task. But before we start I want to give short information about what kind of things we see here…

So first we see brief introduction of F.Scott Fitzgerald. Scott

Fitzgerald was a short story writer and novelist considered one of the pre-eminent authors in the history of American literature due almost entirely to the enormous posthumous success of his third book, The Great Gatsby. Perhaps the quintessential American novel, as well as a definitive social history of the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby has become required reading for virtually every American high school student and has had a transportive effect on generation after generation of readers.

At the age of 24, the success of his first novel, This Side of Paradise, made Fitzgerald famous. One week later, he married the woman he loved and his muse, Zelda Sayre. However by the end of the 1920s Fitzgerald descended into drinking, and Zelda had a mental breakdown. Following the unsuccessful Tender Is the Night, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood and became a scriptwriter. He died of a heart attack in 1940, at age 44, his final novel only half completed.

Here I am giving the questions asked by our professor. And yes... also I putting blog link to know more about ‘THE GREAT GATSBY’.

1) How did the film capture the Jazz Age - the Roaring Twenties of America in the 1920s?

Jazz music became wildly popular in the “Roaring Twenties,” a decade that witnessed unprecedented economic growth and prosperity in the United States. Consumer culture flourished, with ever greater numbers of Americans purchasing automobiles, electrical appliances, and other widely available consumer products.Cubed The achievement of material affluence became a goal for many US citizens as well as an object of satire and ridicule for the writers and intellectuals of the Lost Generation.

More than any other author, F. Scott Fitzgerald can be said to have captured the rollicking, tumultuous decade known as the Roaring Twenties, from its wild parties, dancing and illegal drinking to its post-war prosperity and its new freedoms for women.Above all, Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby has been hailed as the quintessential portrait of Jazz Age America, inspiring Hollywood adaptations populated by dashing bootleggers and glamorous flappers in short, fringed dresses.

2) How did the film help in understanding the characters of the novel?

This entire film gives a very clear idea about every character.And also give very clear idea about plot and novel.Here I want to interpret some movie scene and also give some differences between novel and movie.

The Great Gatsby is a text written by Nick that is not entirely original with Luhrmann—though the filmmaker takes this much further than Fitzgerald, showing Nick writing by hand, then typing, and finally compiling his finished manuscript. He even titles it, first just Gatsby, then adding, by hand, “The Great,” in a concluding flourish. (Fitzgerald himself went through many more potential titles.) As for that morbid alcoholism, Nick claims in the novel that he’s “been drunk just twice in my life,” but the movie slyly implies that he’s in denial, by showing him cross out “once” for “twice,” and then, in the frame story, suggesting that it was far more than that, really.

3) How did the film help in understanding the symbolic significance of 'The Valley of Ashes', 'The Eyes of Dr. T J Eckleberg' and 'The Green Light'?

• The Green Light:

Nick first sees Gatsby stretching his arms towards a green light at the end of Daisy's dock. Here, the green light is a symbol of hope.After meeting up with Daisy in chapter five, the light ceases to be the emblem it once was:

“the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever... now it was again a green light on a dock.”

This symbolises the destruction of Gatsby's dream. By the end of chapter seven Gatsby is watching over nothing.Green also has connotations of life, growth and fertility, as in the Dutch sailors' discovery of the "fresh, green breast of the new world", suggesting that hopes and dreams for the future are necessary for life.

• The Eyes of Doctor T. J Eckleburg :

A particular feature of the valley of ashes described at the start of chapter two (see the setting notes for further details) is the faded advertisement portraying a pair of blue and gigantic eyes looking through a pair of enormous spectacles.

The oculist who placed the 'Eyes' there has either gone out of business, or forgot them and moved away, but the huge eyes remain, staring emptily out over the wasteland.Later, in chapter eight, Wilson, although he is not a man with any religious faith, tells his neighbour Michaelis that:

'God sees everything'... Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.

• The Valley of Ashes :

First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley of ashes also symbolizes the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result.

4) How did the film capture the theme of racism and sexism?

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the discourse of racism is unveiled through the voice of the old millionaire Tom Buchanan. Tom Buchanan tolerates racist ideology. His speechreveals the truth of the 1920s. From Foucault’s perspective, Tom Buchanan is a “parrhesiates” who “opens his heart and mind completely to other people through his discourse”Tom Buchanan advances racist remarks.While in New York with Jay Gatsby, Tom’s opinion about race is revealed through his speech with Daisy Buchanan; “Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and familyinstitutions, and next they'll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white” (136). He disapproves of the intermarriage of races. Gatsby is “Mr Nobody from Nowhere”, and therefore, he constitutes a danger to the aristocracy (136). Even though Gatsby acquired wealth, he is still inferior to the old money because of his poor background.

Indeed, Tom’s racism and power constitute a hindrance to Jay Gatsby’s dream of Daisy. Accordingly, power promotes some people’s desires like Tom Buchanan, and at the same time oppresses and confines others and their wishes like Jay Gatsby. The persistence of Jay Gatsby to break the social structure and his endeavor to confront and resist that power lead him to demise. This is when George Wilson acquiesces to Tom’s attest that Gatsby killed Myrtle Wilson. This proves that Tom’s support of power leads George Wilson to accept his assertion without question. Thus, truth, or Parrhesia, should be related to power to be accepted. Furthermore, Fitzgerald does not side with Tom Buchanan and his racist ideology; he argues against Tom Buchanan’s racism and criticizes his infidelity and arrogance.

5) Watch the video on Nick Carraway and discuss him as a narrator.

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." (1.1-2)Nick Carraway is The Great Gatsby's narrator, but he isn't the protagonist.

This makes Nick himself somewhat tricky to observe, since we see the whole novel through his eyes. How can you watch the narrator? This difficulty is compounded by the fact that Nick is an unreliable narrator—basically, a narrator who doesn't always tell us the truth about what's happening.In this post we will explore what we objectively know about Nick, what he does in the novel, his famous lines, common essay topics/discussion topics about Nick, and finally some FAQs about Mr. Carraway.

Since Nick gives a roughly chronological account of the summer of 1922, we get to see the development of Gatsby from mysterious party-giver to love-struck dreamer to tragic figure (who rose from humble roots and became rich, all in a failed attempt to win over Daisy). If Gatsby was the narrator, it would be harder for Fitzgerald to show that progression, unless Gatsby relayed his life story way out of order, which might have been hard to accomplish from Gatsby's POV.

The novel would have also been a much more straightforward story, probably with less suspense: Gatsby was born poor in South Dakota, became friends with Dan Cody, learned how to act rich, lost Cody's inheritance, fell in love with Daisy, fought in the war, became determined to win her back, turned to crime. In short, Fitzgerald could have told the same story, but it would have had much less suspense and mystery, plus it would have been much harder to relay the aftermath of Gatsby's death. Unless the point of view abruptly switched after Gatsby was shot, the reader would have no idea what exactly happened to Gatsby, what happened to George Wilson, and finally wouldn't be able to see Gatsby's funeral.Plus, with a narrator other than Gatsby himself, it's easier to analyze Gatsby as a character.

THANK YOU.....