Live Blogging! Chapters 8 and 9 of Gatsby
Please see reminders in the post below. Enjoy!
posted by Kristin L | 11:52 AM
Kakos' 6th Hour
Reactions and comments from my sixth hour Honors American Literature class.
About Me
- Name: Kristin L
My favorite place in the world to be is underwater. My second favorite place is the front of a classroom.
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23 Comments:
Gatsby was doomed from the start. Perhaps his death wasn't inevitable but his unhappiness was inevitable. He never really discovered how to play the game of love.
Gatsby was obviously made a tragic hero. Fitzgerald sacrifices him to show how shallow and superficial the 20's were, and with out his death nothing would be accomplished. His death was inevitable.
I agree with Aarn here because the twenties was so false and the theme involved lying and cheating on your spouses. The decade was really shallow, and Gatsby's death signifies this.
I will agree with the idea that Gatsby's death was inevitable because of the fact that he had banked his whole life on the need to be with Daisy. Since he could no longer have hope that he could be with daisy, Gatsby's life was in ruins and his death was inescapable. As ryan said in the inner circle, Gatsby was "past the point of no return". There was really no sense in him living once he had lost Daisy.
aaron, what exactly is accomplished by Gatsby's death? Mr. Wilson killed the wrong man, so he didn't really get vengance. Daisy and Tom continued to live their fake lives even after Gatsby's death, so it seems improbable that Gatsby's death would signal the end to the fakeness of the 20's. I think it's more the lack of lamentation of Gatsby's death that illustrates best the fakeness of society, so the purpose of Gatsby's death was more likely to illustrate this.
AS for Ryan S's comment, I don't necessarily think the twenties were false and the theme was to cheat on your spouse. It's easy for us to say that now, since we are almost a century after this time period. I think people just wanted to live life more and not be caught up in careers or the idea of simply surviving.
(sorry this comment is coming so late - computer issues)
I disagree with Brian's comment that Gatsby "never really discovered how to play the game of love". By the end of the book, I don't believe Gatsby really loved Daisy, and didn't want to - not in the sense that we think of the term 'love'. What he felt for her was a selfish obsession in my opinion, and a desire to possess her for his own sake.
I do agree, however, that Gatsby's unhappiness was inevitable, but not because he couldn't have Daisy as his prize. His inevitable unhappiness was a function of his inability to create a mental disconnect between money and self worth.
Why do you think nobody wanted to come to Gatsby's funeral?
By saying that Gatsby "never really discovered how to play the game of love" I meant that he never truly understood love. He had heard about it and how great it was but he never really comprehended how to experience it.
I think gatsby never treated anyone well and used them for his own benefit so when he died no one felt like he deserved the respect of them coming to his funeral.
Nobody wanted to come to Gatsby's funeral because nobody truly cared about him. People came to his parties just for social status but no one cared who went to his funeral.
Once again I disagree Brian - I believe he did truly love Daisy once, and thus did understand true love.
Last line-what does Nick mean?
He still died and he helped a lot of people with his parties and his "false" kindness. He deserved more than no one coming.
To address hannah's question, the fact that no one wanted to attend Gatsby's funeral illustrates the superficiality of the culture. This kind of shows how the countless people that supposedly interacted with Gatsby at his parties only used him to benefit themselves. This relates to how Gatsby sort of used Nick to get to Daisy. It seems like their is just a cycle of backstabbing and false relationships in this novel.
in response to Hannah's question, I think that no one wanted to come to Gatsby's funeral becasuse both that no one actually knew him for what he truly was and that people felt that it was pointless to go to a man's funeral that they never met
How did his parties help people?
I agree with Ryan that Gatsby deserved people at his funeral. Gatsby had an effect on the man with the owl-glasses because it showed him that not all rich people are superficial. Gatsby effected many people and he deserved to have them at his funeral.
He obviously didn't understand true love beacause true love goes both ways. Daisy had to truly love Gatsby for Gatsby to experience true love. As we see later on in the book Daisy didn't know if she wanted to be with Tom or Gatsby and therefore never truly loved Gatsby.
I think that they made people feel secure in their lives but it was a false sense of security. they felt like they had friends but no one wanted true friends
Gatsby really did not have so many close friends and it is hard to honor a man you did not know very well.
Because the parties were a false sense of security I think they hurt people more than helped them.
Gatsby's parties only helped people in their own, selfish ways. Again, people seemed to only do things that will help themselves out.
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