Gatsby Flashcards
Summary of Gatsby
- Yearns for Daisy and wants wealth so he can be enough for her
- Represents a dream that is unattainable due to the changing American dream
- Self made man, took a new identity
Themes for Gatsby
3x
- Disillusionment
- Classism/Capitilism
Masculinity
Four moments for Gatsby
- Plaza hotel
- Strict regime
- Gatsby’s parties
- Gatsby’s death
Plaza hotel
Tom belittles Gatsby and makes him feel unworthy for Daisy
“Nobody from nowhere”
- Grew up poor -> new money
“I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him”
- Prohibition of alcohol
“Common swindler who would have to steal the ring he put on her finger”
- Gained wealth illegally
- not viewed as a traditional/moral way
- Exposed for the first time
Strict regime
His perseverance and determination to make something of himself. Brings hope
“Hopalong Cassidy”
- Represents frontier spirit
- At the heart of what he does
- Cowboy figures who always win
“06:00AM - 09:00PM”
- The hard work
“Jimmy was bound to get ahead”
- Equates hard work to success
- Many believed this
“I tried to think about Gatsby then for a moment but he was already too far away”
- His beliefs are gone
- Shows how dreams are unattainable - past
Gatsby’s parties
Symbol of new wealth in West Egg, everything is over the top - convos and laughter = superficial
“Girls came and went like moths”
- Dehumanisation, the attraction of materialism and hedonism
“Came and went without having met Gatsby at all”
- Lack of care, only there for pleasure
“Lemons left in his back door in pulpess halves”
- Ruined, excessive nature of 1920s America
Gatbsy’s death
Death of his dream -> still hope as he dies still believing
Idylic nature as he is not punished because it is a moral dream
The fault is with the corruption in America not Gatsby = victim
“A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts breathing like air”
- East coast was viewed as a land of dreams = lie and unattainable
“He found out what a grotesque thing a rose is”
- Found out the truth about many things but not Daisy
- Nick is transcending Gatsby above (unreliable narrator)
“Paid a high price for living too long with a single dream”
- Indulged in parties -> death
