facade/illusion vs reality Flashcards
Ch3: owl eyes ; “they’re absolutely real”
- The metaphor of gatsby, he’s an artifice but there is a real person beneath.
- owl eyes sees beneath gatsby questioning the legitimacy of his wealth
Ch3 “it was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance… elegant young rough neck”
- He sees hope in Gatsby and feels less alone.
- But hope isn’t fulfilled as the juxtaposition of his neck shows he is an act and is still James Gatz beneath.
Ch3 “but the eagerness in his manner tightened abruptly into formality
Shows the facade of gatsby, he has 2 different personalities, he puts on an act at his parties
ch5 “only wind in the trees which blew the wires and made the lights go off and on again as if the house had winked into the darkness”
- demonstrates the fragility of gatsbys wealth.
- the deterioration of his facade is is exemplified in his house.
ch6 “the truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself. He was a son of god”
- he is aware of a perfect version of himself. Godlike but it could be mythical and show Plato’s conception shows the ideal can never be fulfilled eg. the dream of daisy
- His link to Jesus shows he creates his own identity and is the ultimate american dream symbol. Created Eden which is the perfect reality
ch6 “his eyes were bright and tired”
- tensions between fantasy vs. Reality exhausts him
- putting on a face everyday drains Gatz underneath.
ch6 “‘cant repeat the past?’ He cried incredulously ‘why of course you can!”
- he cant accept reality. The past is immutable but gatsby wants to beat the laws of physics
- he’s trying to recreate the happiest time of his life in a delusional fantasy
“The words seemed to bite physically into gatsby”
Tom “she’s not leaving me!” Toms words suddenly leaned down over gatsby”
Physical = reality as it is physically becoming apparent to gatsby that his dreams are deteriorating.
- Words are personified to show the physical belittling of gatsby showing his physical realisation
ch7: “that unfamiliar yet recognisable look was back again in gatsbys face”
“He looked… as if he had killed a man”
“Only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away”
- gatsby has been defeated by tom and feels small and helpless - like James gatz again.
- Gatsbys facade is dead and has been revealed. Circular narrative of him restoring the past but in an alternate way to what he had hoped
Ch8: “‘jay gatsby’ had broken up like glass against tom’s hard malice”
- Gatsby has realised that his facade is crumbling and his fantasy is over.
- ‘Glass’ symbolises fragility compared to a hard malice BUT also, glass is clear like eckleburgs glasses implying gatsby now perceives the world through reality. He is broken and defeated by tom.
Ch8 “he must have looked up to an unfamiliar sky through the frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass”
Now sees the world in a pessimistic way.
- The rose symbolises love. It transports you to the imagination (love) even when the rose is in front, in reality. Gatsby realises reality and no longer sees the romanticised version. Now raw, like the sunlight.
“There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of the water…little ripples…small gust of wind…slowly, tracing…thin red circle of water”
- Gentle death as gatsby is already dead, james gatz has died and ends as the child. an anti-climactic death
- Death of gatsby’s dream is reduced to a circle of water to emphasise the failure of his facade.
ch2 “the eyes of doctor TJ Eckleburg are blue and gigantic”
AO1: the eyes watching over the VOA show corruption of wealth perceiving the foundation of capitalism.
AO2: “Blue” represents dreams but his “yellow spectacles” show the juxtaposition of reality as yellow=corruption of wealth.
AO3: The eyes could be a symbol of god emphasising the breakdown of religion, now turning to consumerism and illusions.
AO4: ‘The Waste Land’ by T.S Eliot
Modernist poet. He could have inspired Fitzgerald as it could be an allusion to the valley of ashes. This is a criticism of modernity and WW1 which he believed ruined nature.
‘A heap of broken images’ could be used in the novel with the billboard of doctor T.J Eckleburg’s eyes. ‘Blue and gigantic’ vs ‘yellow spectacles’ reinforces the corruption of dreams.
AO5:??
ch6: “a pervading harshness that hadn’t been there before…i was looking at it again, through daisys eyes”
- Reinforces old money (tom + daisy) bringing reality to gatsbys dream land
- the depressive spectacle shows the reality daisy seeing society’s isolation and superficiality
Ch7 “we were all irritable now with the fading ale…doctor T.J eckleburgs faded eyes came into sight down the road… gazed hollow-eyed at the car”
- Semantic field of perception (eyes) fading, things are becoming more clear and the reality of gatsby is being shown.
