The Idea of Daisy

“No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (Fitzgerald, 96).

Gatsby, in my opinion, is in love with an idea.  Was he at one point in love with Daisy?  Yes. However,  now, he has built her up too much in his mind.  So much so, that the girl he is actually in love with never existed.  Upon seeing her again, of course he will be completely taken with the mere sight of her.  Even so, I think within only a short period of time, Gatsby will realize that life with her may not be the fairytale he has imagined.  For one, she’s married and, morally, he should not love her which, overall, makes him love her more.  However, this presents a major problem.  She moved on after he left.  Obviously, he did not.  Fitzgerald utilizes this to make The Great Gatsby a shade darker and more heartbreaking.  Additionally, she is now a mother which I think always changes a woman and makes her stronger.  This gives her a strong connection to this family she has created making it difficult for Gatsby to get her to break apart.   
      

The Beginning of the End

“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired” (Fitzgerald, 79).

I think with this quote Fitzgerald points out a major theme in The Great Gatsby.  This absolute can be applied to particular characters from the novel.  Daisy Buchanan represents the pursued, who, in most cases, have no idea they are being pursued.  There is the pursuing, Jay Gatsby who appears like Daisy’s stalker in various sections of the novel.  A life of pursuit also presents a depressing characteristic to Fitzgerald’s novel that has quite a sense of weight behind it.  Tom and Myrtle are the “tired” who have given up on being happy with life which is also gives a darker aspect to the novel.  Then, there are the “busy” who do not have time to do anything which sounds paradoxical and confusing.  Additionally, I am not positive this group is represented well in Fitzgerald’s novel.  Gatsby is busy; however, much of that busy aspect constitutes making everyone believe a lie which, to me, is also a paradox.

Alone in a Crowded Room

Solely based on the title, The Great Gatsby paints a very grand, almost royal scene.  However, Fitzgerald’s development of Gatsby paints a different image that the one I had in mind.  With the background knowledge and amount of people who recognize the name Gatsby,  I half expected people to be bowing at his feet during the party.  Yet, this was not the case.  Jordan Baker point out, “He’s just a man named Gatsby” (Fitzgerald, 48).  No one seems to even attempt to make their way towards Gatsby during the festivities either, with the exception of “the new guy”, Nick Carraway.  This could put Gatsby in one of two places.  Either people think he is too holy and perfect to go near, or no one actually knows him.  I believe all signs point to the latter.  Gatsby leads a very crowded but empty life.

:)

As I have stated previously, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is largely dialogue-based.  Therefore, I find it humorous that his “shining star”, Mr. Jay Gatsby, seems to have trouble with words.  He’s speech is choppy, and he seems to have trouble masking his emotions when needed.  His observations are crass.  Basically, he has no verbal filter and regard for how people may feel to what he has said or asked never enters his mind.  Based on this, his possession of this grand lifestyle filled with garrulous people seems highly unlikely.  This must be where that famous smile has come into play.  Upon meeting Gatsby for the first time, Nick remarks that Gatsby’s smile “face--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.  It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that , at your best, you hoped to convey.  Precisely at that point it vanished--and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd” (Fitzgerald, 48).  I think this enchanting smile has helped Gatsby get more than just friends; it has helped him get everything he wants and possibly everything he doesn’t.

Mrs. Wilson

“‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,’ she said finally” (Fitzgerald, 34)

One of Fitzgerald’s most dynamic characters in the The Great Gatsby is Myrtle Wilson.  She must have boarded the crazy train at some point in her life.  Nothing she does or says makes sense.  She says she married her husband because she thought he was a gentlemen, and this turned out to be untrue.  Why, then, does she begin a relationship with a coward?  Honestly, this man Tom, if I can even call him a man, took very little shame in punching her in the face in front of a group of friends.  Fitzgerald gives Myrtle an air of carelessness and not just simply about her marriage.  She, along with Tom, seem to have no regard for the feelings of others.  However, I do not believe things were always like this; I think Fitzgerald indicates they lost sight of the point of caring before the novel opened.  I believe this careless way of dealing with life foreshadows trouble to come for their relationship.

Fitzgerald vs. Wharton

I have encountered a large contrast between the writing styles of Wharton and Fitzgerald.  Wharton spent much time painting the background, while in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald jumps into situations and allows the reader to be immersed in the environment in an electrifying manner.  For example, Nick Carraway’s first encounter with Jordan Baker jumps into a discussion about Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan’s affair.  “‘You mean to say you don’t know?’ said Miss Baker, honestly surprised... ‘Tom’s got some woman in New York’” (Fitzgerald, 15)

 His utilization of dialogue throughout the novel helps grasp the reader’s attention.  Each conversation offers some sort of insight into how each character has gotten into the position they are now; Fitzgerald wasted no time with empty, meaningless chatter.  In The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton creates a large society that is hard to join.  While in The Great Gatsby, the dialogue conveys a mood of intimacy in between the conversing character.  In the novel, only about six characters contribute significantly to the development of the story.  Everyone of these characters is somehow connected; therefore, a type of clandestine clique is created.  

Without a Name

So, I have yet to learn the narrator’s name; therefore, assume that the “he” used throughout this particular blog entry refers to this unnamed narrator.  In the opening of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald paints the life of this man whose life has a sort of transparent quality to it.  To specify, many aspects or happenings in his life acquire a temporary sentiment.  For example, the man who was supposed to live with him in the city leaves; he had a dog, a car, and a girl.  Apparently, none of these things hold much significance for him; however, the audience quickly learns what is important to him: being a leader.  He receives some sort of rush from being viewed as a man who has the answers.  I think this rush initiates a craving for more that will lead him to attempt to abandon his current average-joe life.  When describing the location of his home, he says, it “was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it have been overlooked,” (Fitzgerald, 5)  I feel as if this could utilized as an explanation for his life as well.  His life is not as shiny and glamorous as all the others but that doesn’t seem to bother anyone because his life is somewhat insignificant to them.