'GATSBY' & 'GRAPES' CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS Flashcards
T__________ : (Gatsby’s Lifestyle)
- “His _______________ house and ___________ parties are an..”
Tanner : “His ostentatious house and expensive parties are an elaborate advertising display designed to impress Daisy”.
P_____________ : (Daisy’s Voice)
- “Daisy’s voice seems to promise exciting times to come… it is just like…”
Parkinson : “Daisy’s voice seems to promise exciting times to come… it is just like Gatsby’s dream of her, which contains no present reality, only past and future ecstasies”.
P________________ : (Portrayal of Daisy)
- Fitzgerald reduces her to “a shining ____________ of Gatsby’s ________________, the centrepiece of…”
Parkinson : “a shining radiance of Gatsby’s construction, the centrepiece of Tom’s wealth, rather than a woman with a personality of her own”.
P________________ : (Daisy)
- “Fitzgerald allows Daisy to exist only in…”
Parkinson : “Fitzgerald allows Daisy to exist only in the images men create of her”.
B____________ : (Nice vs Buchanans)
- “Nick himself exemplifies loyalty to people and ideas, while Daisy and Tom have freed themselves…”
Berman : “Nick himself exemplifies loyalty to people and ideas, while Daisy and Tom have freed themselves from troublesome conscience - and from even more troublesome self-awareness”.
P_______________ : (Myrtle)
- “Myrtle represents overt…”
Parkinson : “Myrtle represents overt, unconcealed sexuality’.
P_____________ : (Nick’s view on Myrtle)
- Myrtle’s “‘lower class pretensions appear comic to Nick because…”
Parkinson : Myrtle’s “‘Lower class pretensions appear comic to Nick because he judges them from a position of social superiority, but her overt sexuality impresses him”
T___________ : (Tom)
- “Tom certainly has the worst kind of ‘colonizing’ mentality - all…”
Tanner : “Tom certainly has the worst kind of ‘colonizing’ mentality - all others exist only to satisfy his needs and appetites”
T____________ : (Desecration of the American Ideal)
(Myrtle’s breast ‘swinging loose like a flap’.
- “Fitzgerald … wants to show America…”
Tanner : “Fitzgerald … wants to show America desecrated, mutilated, violated.”
G___________ : (Why Gatsby loves Daisy)
- “Gatsby loves Daisy because she is…”
Golden : “Gatsby loves Daisy because she is his point of access to a dominant class.”
F__________ : (Daisy’s Seduction)
- Daisy is ‘the girl who lures her…”
Fielder : Daisy is “the girl who lures her lovers on, like America itself.”
In______________ : (Money)
- “Money is a shield between the careless wealthy and the…”
Innoncencio : “Money is a shield between the careless wealthy and the consequences of their actions”.
M______________ : (Myrtle & Gatsby)
- “Their fruitless attempt to belong to…”
McGowan : “Their fruitless attempt to belong to a class that will never accept them.”
C_____________ : (Gatsby & Myrtle)
- “Myrtle and Gatsby are each others mirror images … they both think a…”
Churchwell : “Myrtle and Gatsby are each others mirror images … they both think a rich Buchanan will get them what they want.”
C______________ : (Gatsby & Myrtle)
- “Gatsby has a more appealing version of the story while…”
Churchwell : “Gatsby has a more appealing version of the story while Myrtle is more degraded.”
C______________ : (Gatsby’s Failures & Flaws)
- “The question the novel forces us to answer is whether Gatsby’s failures and…”
Churchwell : “The question the novel forces us to answer is whether Gatsby’s failures and deep flaws are redeemed by his idealism.”
C_______________ : (What the novel is about, Gatsby)
- “It is a novel about how reality is…”
Churchwell : “It is a novel about how reality is inevitably disappointing”.
M_______________ : (Nick’s Construction)
- “Nick constructs a romance novel that…”
McGowan : “Nick construct a romance novel that he wants, Gatsby has to be great.”
T__________ : (Who Nick is)
- “A spectator in search of…”
Tanner : “A spectator in search of a performer.”
T___________ : (Green Light)
- “The green light offers Gatsby a…”
Tanner : “The green light offers gatsby a suitably inaccessible focus for his yearning.”
M____________ : (Daisy)
- “Daisy represents a blank canvas that men…”
Morton : “Daisy represents a blank canvas that men can project their desires onto.”
L______________ : (Women)
- “Daisy is…, Jordan cool and…, Myrtle…”
Lavender : “Daisy is superficial and affected, Jordan cool and aloof, Myrtle coarse and vulgar.”
L______________ : (Myrtle)
- “A pathetic figure desperate to escape her…”
Lavender : “A pathetic figure desperate to escape her conflicted circumstances.”
L______________ : (Daisy)
- Her superficiality is “a mask for feelings of…”
Lavender : “A mask for feelings of loss and despair”.
F_______________ : (The Great Gatsby)
- “As the American Dream and the…”
Forward : “As the American Dream and the corruption of its original pure ideal.”
Mc____________ : (Daisy)
- “Daisy is merely a prize for…”
Mcmechan : “Daisy is merely a prize for Tom and Gatsby to fight over.”
F_______________ : (Gatsby)
- “Always seems…”
Forward : “Always seems alone despite hordes of guests.”
S_______________ : (The Great Gatsby)
- “Fitzgerald intended ‘The Great Gatsby’ to…”
Scrimgour : “Fitzgerald intended ‘The Great Gatsby’ to warn us against the attempt to deny reality”.
St________ : (Gatsby)
- “Gatsby’s desperate striving for respectability is…”
Staveley : “Gatsby’s desperate striving for respectability is fatally undermined by the way in which he made his money.”
O’____________ : (Gatsby)
- “The distorted dream of…”
O’Keefe : “The distorted dream of a mere fraudster”.
St___________ : (Gatsby)
- “Like America itself, Gatsby has lost sight of his…”
Staveley : “Like America itself, Gatsby has lost sight of his original ideals and strives instead to… an impossible perfection”.
LJ P__________: (Gatsby)
- “No woman, no human being, could ever…”
LJ Person : “No woman, no human being, could ever replicate the platonic ideal he has invented”.
K________ : (Daisy)
- “Becomes as essentially vulgar and…”
Kazin : “Becomes as essentially vulgar and inhuman as her husband”.
LJ P__________ : (Daisy)
- “Daisy is more a…”
LJ Person : “Daisy is more a victim than a victimiser”.
F_________ : (Jordan)
- “The cynically…”
French : “The cynically amore socialite”.
K___________ : (Jordan)
- “Jordan in particular resists social…”
Karlsson : “Jordan in particular resists social pressure to obey feminine norms and traditional gender roles.”
M___________ : (MYRTLE)
- “Because of the misery pervading her life…”
Maurer : “Because of the misery pervading her life, Myrtle has distanced herself from moral obligations”.
V_________ : (George Wilson)
- “George has been socialised to…”
Vogel : “George has been socialised to admire men like Tom Buchanan.”
K____________ : (Women)
- “Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are presented as…”
Karlsson : “Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are presented as stereotypes in a patriarchal narrative, rather than complex, realistic women”.
C_______________ : (The American Dream)
- “Fitzgerald detected the ephemerality, fakery and…”
Churchwell : “Fitzgerald detected the ephemerality, fakery and corruption always lurking at the heart of the Great American success story”.
B___________ : (Myrtle & Tom)
- “Myrtle buys her dog and…”
Berman : “Myrtle buys her dog and Tom buys her.”
H______________ (Gatsby & Daisy)
- “It is not the girl he wants but what she…”
Hollister : “It is not the girl he wants but what she represents - redemption and the fulfilment of his dream”.
B_________ : (Casy & Tom)
- “Jim Casy is a secular…”
Bloom : “Jim Casy is a secular Jesus Christ and his survivor, Tom Joad, is a kind of St Paul of social rebellion”.
B________ : (Jim Casy)
- “Casy’s radical and naturalistic humanism has clear…”
Bloom : “Casy’s radical and naturalistic humanism has clear sources in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s vision of the Oversoul”
B________ : (Gender)
- “The women of The Grapes of Wrath…”
- “_________________” of RoS and Ma.
Bloom : “The women of The Grapes of Wrath are stronger than the men”.
- “endurance” of RoS and Ma.
B___________ : (Ma)
“We come to believe that the Joads go on…”
Bloom : “We come to believe that the Joads go on mostly because of her firm matriarchal will”.
Steinbeck : (Greed)
- “I want to put a tag of…”
Steinbeck : “I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this”.
S_________________ : (Tom Joad)
- “Tom subdues his sharp retorts by leaning on…”
Shillingshaw : “Tom subdues his sharp retorts by leaning on others: on Ma, on Casy, on lessons learned in prison, and finally on his awakened conscience”.
S_______________ : (Tom Joad)
- “Tom learns to contain his…”
- “becomes a crusader for…”.
Shillingshaw :
- “Tom learns to contain his wrath and channel it to something larger and better than himself”.
- “He becomes a crusader for justice”.
S_____________ : (Anger)
- “I think anger is the…”
Steinbeck : “I think anger is the healthiest thing in the world”.
L_______ : (Hope vs Hopelessness)
- “Out of the profoundest depth of…”
Lisca : “Out of the profoundest depth of despair comes the greatest assertion of faith”.
H_________ : (Ma)
- “Ma Joad, the…”
Haslam : “Ma Joad, the family’s core”.
C__________ : (Nature)
- Steinbeck feels “outrage at the violation of…
Collins : “Outrage at the violation of the bond between man and the soil”.
Y____________ : (Hope vs Hopelessness)
- “Steinbeck does not want us to lose hope; but to…”
Yuhas : “Steinbeck does not want us to lose hope; but to get angry at those who would strip hope away from us.
F_________ : (Tom)
- He has an “education of…”
French : Tom has an “Education of the heart” throughout the novel.
B__________ : (Individualism vs Collectivism, GoW)
- “Picks apart the wilful optimism of…”
Blades : “The novel picks apart the wilful optimism of the pioneer and questions the limits of individualism”.
O________ : (Disillusion, GoW)
“A tale of…”
Owens : “A tale of dashed illusions… and betrayed promises - all strung on a shimmering thread of hope”.
S____________ : (Rose of Sharon)
- “Not a love symbol…”
Steinbeck : “Not a love symbol… but a survival symbol”.
(LINK : Daisy is more superficial/submissive, but still ‘survives’ by playing society’s role for her).
Sp____________ : (American Dream)
- “Steinbeck has smashed…”
Spangler : “Steinbeck has smashed the notions of the American dream”.
W___________ : (Rose)
RoS is “the inheritor of Ma Joad’s…”, her miscarriage “c_____________” the image of her as a “coming of…”
Williamson : RoS is “the inheritor of Ma Joad’s matriarchal wisdom and power”, her miscarriage “complicates” the image of her as a “coming of age matriarch”.
H__________ : (Community, GOW)
- “Explores the human spirit and conception…”
Haslam : “Explores the human spirit and conception of a new human community formed from the wreckage of an old one”.
L________ : (Joads)
- Joads “possess an unyielding…”
Lewis : Joads “possess an unyielding perseverance”.
F_____ : (Casy)
- “his messages… considerably broaden…”
Fan : “his messages… considerably broaden man’s sense of spiritual community”.
