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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rV8yLCXgCAqAcARU-58a0fDS3X-KjLbCu4K60Ak3BG8/edit?usp=sharing

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The Great Gatsby takes place in the 1920s, so it’s pretty amazing that we are in the 2020s, one-hundred years later. However, I don’t think everything has changed completely. Many people still have dreams of becoming rich. People still spend their money in useless, excessive, and extravagant ways. In the 1920s, Gatsby spent his money on crazy parties in his house with lots of alcohol, and now people still spend their money on crazy parties in their house with lots of alcohol. I think materialism might have even gotten worse-- there are more luxury items that people can buy these days. People can buy flatscreen TVs, fancy smartphones, private jets, and drones. If Gatsby was alive now, I bet he’d buy all of these things to impress Daisy. I think 2021 Gatbsy would be a bigtime Instagram influencer or a Youtuber who would always be showing off his lifestyle. Another thing that is the same between the 1920s and the 2020s is inequality-- in the Great Gatsby the author shows a lot of contrast between the East and West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes.Unfortunately, in 2021 wealth inequality is still a problem.

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The Great Gatsby takes place in the 1920s, so it’s pretty amazing that we are in the 2020s, one-hundred years later. However, I don’t think everything has changed completely. Many people still have dreams of becoming rich. People still spend their money in useless, excessive, and extravagant ways. In the 1920s, Gatsby spent his money on crazy parties in his house with lots of alcohol, and now people still spend their money on crazy parties in their house with lots of alcohol. I think materialism might have even gotten worse-- there are more luxury items that people can buy these days. People can buy flatscreen TVs, fancy smartphones, private jets, and drones. If Gatsby was alive now, I bet he’d buy all of these things to impress Daisy. I think 2021 Gatbsy would be a bigtime Instagram influencer or a Youtuber who would always be showing off his lifestyle. Another thing that is the same between the 1920s and the 2020s is inequality-- in the Great Gatsby the author shows a lot of contrast between the East and West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes.Unfortunately, in 2021 wealth inequality is still a problem.

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I want to compare The Great Gatsby with A Raisin in the Sun.  I think the stories are somewhat similar. The characters in both novels are motivated by their own dreams, and work very hard to achieve them.  However, the dreams of the characters are different, in A Raisin in the Sun, the Younger family dreams of escaping poverty to a reasonable socioeconomic status, while Gatbsy dreams of becoming unreasonably wealthy. In a way, these characters, all from poor backgrounds, are pursuing their American dream. The American dream is difficult for Gatbsy to achieve because of his class and difficult for the Younger family to achieve because of their race. Both Walter and Gatsby want to make their money quickly, Walter by trying to open a store with an untrustworthy friend, and Gatsby by working in illegal business. The settings are almost opposites-- a poor neighborhood in A Raisin in the Sun vs. an extremely wealthy neighborhood in The Great Gatsby. However, neither set of characters is happy. Perhaps in comparing the two stories we can conclude that both very poor and very rich people are unhappy.

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Only three people show up at Gatsby’s funeral.Those three people are his dad, Owl Eyes and Nick. Gatsby hosted very huge parties, but none of the guests came to his funeral except for Owl Eyes. It turns out he didn’t have many real friends. This is just sad. This shows that his pursuit of Daisy was empty because he was left with almost no one in the end. All the people who came to his parties didn’t actually really care about him. It reminds me of this quote from the song “All by Myself” by Eric Carmen The lyrics that stand out to me are, “living alone/ I think of all the friends I've known/ But when I dial the telephone/ Nobody's home” (I’ve attached a link to the song). This relates to Gatsby because he had all these ‘friends’ who came to parties but none of them show up to the funeral. The same way Eric Carmen’s friends aren’t there when he wants to call them, Gatsby’s friends weren’t there to honor his life at his funeral. I think he had so many fake friends because he only focused on Nick, Daisy, and Tom. He was so obsessed with Daisy he didn’t make any other genuine connections.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN9CjAfo5n0

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We know that Gatsby’s dream is similar to the, “American dream,” the pursuit of wealth and success. This dream became tangled up with his desire for Daisy, as Daisy represents wealth and status. While reflecting on Gatsby’s death, Nicl begins to imagine the first Dutch colonists to reach New York, thinking,  “man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired...face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.” It is a description of the beginning of the American dream, and if one replaces ‘continent’ with ‘woman’ and ‘history’ with ‘his life,’ could also be a description of the first time Gatsby met Daisy, and therefore representative of both dreams.I found this painting of Columbus coming to America for the first time. He seems triumphant, like he’s conquering something. Gatsby seems to have this attitude about Daisy, which might be why their relationship is doomed- you can’t conquer a person. Because Gatsby never achieves the full extent of his dream, I think the story is showing us that some dreams, even the American dream, can’t come true regardless of how hard you try. The end of the story reinforces this when Nick says, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” The American dream, as symbolized by Gatbsy’s dream, fades in front of us, never quite in our reach.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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In Chapter 8, George Wilson seeks revenge for Myrtle’s death. When I thought about revenge for the death of a loved one, I was reminded of the movie Big Hero 6. In this movie, the main character Hiro Hamada seeks vengeance for the death of his brother, Tadashi. However, the fate of George Wilson is very different from the fate of Hiro. George first kills the wrong person (it was really Daisy driving, not Gatsby), then kills himself. Hiro doesn’t kill anyone, he gets the villain arrested and ends up with a robot best friend (I have linked the ending scene of this movie). Maybe the lesson to be learned in the comparison of these two stories is that you should not kill in revenge. However, we must consider that Big Hero 6 is a children's movie, and the Great Gatsby is a gritty novel for adults. The Great Gatsby’s portrayal of revenge might be a little less family friendly but a little more realistic. My personal opinion is that nothing justifies killing in revenge; it’ll only make the situation worse. You would probably get arrested and charged for murder, and end up ruining your own life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwU8i4MiIm0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFw4FIf8DHw

Big Hero 6 is one of my favorite movies. You should watch it if you haven't already.

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When I looked at the cover, the first thing I noticed was the large face. The eyes remind me of the eyes of T.J Eckleburg, which are a powerful presence throughout the story. In Chapter 8, Wilson, who seems to be severely distressed by the death of Myrtle, mistakes them for the eyes of God. The sad-looking eyes are always watching the characters, and the cover represents this clearly.  I also noticed two people inside of the eyes. I think these could be Gatsby’s eyes seeing Daisy, who is with another man. However, the lips of the face look like they belong to a woman, so it could also be Daisy seeing women Tom is cheating with. Either way, the face is sad and crying a greenish tear (it doesn’t look super green on our image, but when I look at other pictures of the cover, it appears to have a green tint), which might represent jealousy and also the green light; maybe Gatsby is looking at the green light so it’s reflected in his tears. I also see a city in the bottom corner, which I believe is New York City, where Gatsby and Tom’s confrontation takes place. The color blue on the cover also represents the sadness of this story and Gatsby’s tragedy.

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This chapter highlights two loveless marriages-- the marriage between Daisy and Tom, and the marriage between Myrtle and George. I think there are many reasons why someone might marry someone without actually loving them. In some countries, women are forced to be married regardless of their feelings for the man. It’s possible for people to be in love when they get married, but then that feeling fades. I think if Gatsby and Daisy married each other, Gatsby would be a completely different character. Gatsby has been obsessed with Daisy for so long that if they got married it might not be what he had imagined it would be like. In this chapter, Gatsby says that Daisy’s voice is, “full of money”, and since Gatbsy has been pursuing money for so long, I wonder if he loves her for the wealth and status she represents, rather than her personality, which might not make for a happy marriage. The description of Daisy’s voice being full of money suggests you know her status just by hearing her talk. It kind of reminds me of this meme. Maybe Daisy’s speech is the 1920’s version of whomst’d’ve on the internet.

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I think it is clear that Gatsby loves Daisy. He’s been obsessed with her for 5 years, and even plans to take the blame for Daisy after she kills Myrtle, which suggests that he values Daisy’s happiness above his own. It seems like Daisy loves Gatsby but not as much as he loves her. She tells Gatsby that she loves him but it’s unclear whether she really is ready to leave Tom. Daisy says of Tom, “I loved him once,” but now it doesn’t seem like she doesn’t love him due to his repeated cheating. I do not think Tom loves Daisy because he has cheated on her multiple times. When Tom suspects that Daisy loves Gatsby and that Myrtle will leave he realizes that, “his wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control.” which suggests that Tom likes to have and control Daisy, rather than to truly love her. Nick spends time with Jordan; maybe he is interested in her but it doesn’t seem like he loves her. I think Fitzgerald is saying that relationships don’t always involve love. All the characters are in relationships for different reasons, but it seems that these reasons barely involve actual love. This reminds me of BTS’s song, “Fake Love”. There’s a line in the chorus that goes, “I'm so sick of this fake love, fake love, fake love.” I think Tom knew that Daisy was faking the love so he cheated on her.

Here is BTS "Fake Love" Live 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LB4JWRnyrM

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It seems like Gatsby doesn’t want people to know the truth about his upbringing and family. Gatsby's parents were poor farmers from North Dakota and he never got any inheritance from them. This is different from what he told Nick because he claimed that he had inherited the money from a family in San Francisco. Gatsby claimed that he came from money, but we can see that he earned his money by himself, and fairly recently. Gatbsy wanted to live a lavish lifestyle even when he was poor, when he was falling asleep, “ a universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain.” Gatsby is a determined person, he tried different roles and jobs, like being a student and a manual laborer, but he seemed to always want to rise to something greater. It was this desire that led him to Cody, he was attracted to Cody’s boat because, “to the young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, the yacht represented all the beauty and glamor in the world.” Gatsby was motivated by the promise of a wealthy lifestyle. I found this picture of a gaudy mansion, which I imagine is the type of house Gatsby would like because it seems like he likes to be showy with his money.

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Just like Gatsby was motivated by the promise of a wealthy lifestyle, I am motivated by the promise of a lifetime of touring after forming a band. I want my life to be like the picture below. I have always dreamed of performing live in a big concert venue with a band, maybe in the same way that Gatsby always dreamed of having an extravagant lifestyle. However, I think there are many differences between Gatsby and I. For instance, he doesn’t seem like he does much whereas I have to practice everyday in order to get where I’d like to be. Another difference is that Gatsby seems to be motivated to become rich because he cares what other people think of him. I think my motivation comes from my dad who also had a band in Korea and performed; he plays guitar. I want to be like my dad, but I don’t really care that much about whether other people think I’m cool or not. When I was little, my dad would always show me a bunch of bands, Korean or American, performing in large concert venues and I really liked what I saw. Gatsby wanted to distance himself from his parents and be different from them, however, I like my dad and would like to play music like he did.

You can follow me on Instagram @ jake._.song. or subscribe on Youtube via this link

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGi3HJ00Tu1-1qbaf4zUdww

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I think Daisy married Tom just for the money and social status. This might be why Gatsby is also trying to pursue her with money, because he sees that his rival, Tom is very rich. When Gatsby showed her all of his shirts, I think he thought he could impress her with these expensive things. Daisy ended up crying which I thought was very strange. Trying to impress people is normal but probably not to that extent. I think most people would try to impress someone they liked by showing them something cool they can do or with knowledge. Maybe Gatsby showed her all of his clothes because he has nothing cool he can do.

Gatby’s situation reminds me of this meme. I think this meme is trying to say that there’s a right way to impress a girl, but I really think it depends on the girl. This meme seems rather judgemental of people who have twitter accounts, guitars, or fancy cameras. We don’t really know what Daisy likes or if she really is into guys with fancy shirts. The modern day equivalent of fancy shirts might be a really nice DSLR camera.

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Gatsby notes that the green light is always on at Daisy’s dock, telling Daisy, “you always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.” He does not explicitly state what the light ‘stands for,’ however Nick’s narration provides some context. We can guess that to Gatsby, the green light signified Daisy and how close she was, as Nick says of the light, “compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon.” I think the green light represents Gatsby's hope of possibly getting back with Daisy. They both could see the green light from their houses and so it's a connection between them, a connection that Gatsby hopes will grow. It might also symbolize jealousy as green is the color of jealousy; Tom is married to Daisy and Gatsby is jealous of that. Green is also the color of money. Gatsby knows that Daisy comes from a rich background. Perhaps he thinks that he can win her over if he is rich, and this is why he lives such a lavish lifestyle. The green light might symbolize his pursuit of money, which is connected to his pursuit of Daisy.

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At the beginning of the chapter, Gatbsy’s party guests suggest that Gatsby is a bootlegger, which gives us a hint that Gatsby’s wealth may not have been made through legal means. The meeting with Wolfsheim also implies that Gatsby might engage in criminal activities. Gatsby seems to do business with Wolfsheim and Wolfsheim engages in criminal activity, most notably fixing the World Series. Since we don’t know where Gatsby got his money from, this association with a known criminal suggests that Gatsby really could be a bootlegger, or doing some other illegal work with Wolfsheim. Gatsby does not present himself as a criminal, he tells Nick that he inherited his money, he went to Oxford and he received many honors in the war. It seems he wants to present himself as a hard worker and hero, which is basically the opposite of a criminal.  However, we do know that Gatsby is telling some lies, because he says he grew up in ‘San Francisco’ in the midwest. San Francisco is not the midwest. On the other hand we know he isn’t always lying because he shows Nick some proof of his stories, like the medal from Montenegro, and the picture from Oxford. It remains unclear whether Gatbsy is a simple, hardworking guy or a lawbreaker.

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In this chapter we hear what is most likely Gatsby’s real story-- how he used to have a relationship with Daisy. Jordan Baker says that Gatsby moved to this area to be close to Daisy, even after all these years and despite the fact that Daisy is married. I think this shows that Gatsby is obsessive regarding certain things or people. On a smaller scale he has a lot of fancy material things and he has weird mannerisms like calling everyone ‘old sport.’ However, it seems like his strongest obsession is with Daisy-- moving near a married woman you haven’t seen in years is extreme. Some obsessive people live in denial of reality and I think Gatbsy refuses to believe that Daisy is married and has moved on from him. He just likes to do what he likes, regardless of what other people say or how they react. This reminds me of Monica from Friends. She is constantly cleaning and organizing the apartment regardless of what the other five say. She is an extreme perfectionist. This is related to Gatsby because the obsession of both characters makes them act irrationally.and affects their social relationships.

Here are two clips from episodes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se0agPGEb9I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht0IbFNbfSY

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Chapter 3: Student Choice 4/29/21 Continued

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Chapter 3: Student Choice 4/29/21 Continued

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I had two pictures but I couldn't upload both in one post.

In movies and TV, a lot of times fake books are hiding something. Even in real life, Anne Frank’s family was hidden behind a revolving bookcase. Books and bookshelves can often hold secrets. The fact that Owl Eyes thought the books might be fake suggests that people think Gatsby might have secrets. There are rumors that Gatsby has secrets such as he was a German spy during the war. However, when we see that the books are real, perhaps this suggests that Gatsby doesn’t have secrets, and what we see is what we get. However, we will have to continue reading the book to find out.

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I thought it was interesting how ‘Owl Eyes’ assumed that Gatsby’s books would be fake. It seems weird that anyone would have fake books. So why would ‘Owl Eyes’ be surprised that the books are real? Perhaps Gatby’s lifestyle is so over the top, that people might think it cannot be real. ‘Owl Eyes’ also seems happy that the books are real, so maybe he is used to people who are fake.

Here is a picture of a hollow book for hiding valuables, and some fake books used to open a secret door.

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“They’ll keep out of my way,” she insisted. “It takes two to make an accident.” (Fitzgerald 58).

Based on this quote, we get a sense of Jordan’s arrogance, which as we saw in Chapter `1, is common among rich people, especially the old-money rich people. As we all know, most of the characters in The Great Gatsby behave differently in different settings. Here, Jordan is acting like she is the queen, expecting everyone to get out of the way; almost like how we have to pull over for an emergency vehicle on its way to an emergency. I think that’s just ludicrous, and I agree with Nick that she is a terrible driver. It’s interesting that this scene takes place in Warwick, which is a village outside of New York City and Long Island. It seems when Jordan is outside of the East Egg she thinks that she is more important than other people. Her ‘old money’ social class might have given her this sense of superiority. Social class affects how characters act in different locations. I think that Nick is the character who is most likely able to ‘pass’ as a member of a different social class. He changes based on who he is spending time with, and seems to get along with most people.

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The four main settings of this book are the West Egg, East Egg, Valley of Ashes, and New York City. The West Egg is described as, “the less fashionable of the two” (Fitzgerald, 5) ‘egg neighborhoods’, and we get the sense it is more gaudy and ‘new money.’ The two characters associated with the West Egg are Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. The East Egg has a more classy, old money feel. Tom and Daisy Buchanan are associated with the East Egg. The valley of ashes is a working class industrial area between the West Egg and New York City. We can presume that the ashes come from factory pollution. The characters associated with this area are Myrtle and George B. Wilson. The last setting, New York City, seems like a place of excess and indulgence. The characters associated with New York are Tom, Myrtle and the McKees. I  believe that Nick changes in different locations. For instance, back in West Egg, he identified himself as a moral person, but now, in New York, he’s drinking all of a sudden and hanging out with people that are cheating on their spouses. He mentions that this is only the second time he has been drunk, "I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon....." (Fitzgerald, 29). So something about New York is making him act differently. It reminds me of this meme; I wonder what the characters would act like if they were all in the same room.

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Chapter 2: Indulgence and overconsumption 4/21/21

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Chapter 2: Indulgence and overconsumption 4/21/21

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In Chapter Two, the idea of excess and overconsumption in the big city stood out to me. Everyone is drinking too much, and Myrtle buys a puppy on a whim that she probably can’t take care of. As a person who has been to New York, I can testify that there are restaurants and shops everywhere. When I went to New York, I felt pretty overwhelmed. Consumption and materialism seems to be a part of city life. Even though this book was published almost a hundred years ago, New York still has the same feeling. This reminds me of the short film Happiness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9dZQelULDk). In the film the characters pursue happiness through buying things and drinking alcohol, much as Myrtle and friends do. However, it doesn’t seem like they’re truly happy. When people have lots of money, they can buy almost anything, which makes them want everything. But eventually, they will get tired of the item they bought, which means money doesn’t buy you happiness. I predict that Myrtle will not keep her puppy for a very long time and may abandon him when she realizes that taking care of a puppy can be a lot of work.

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Chapter 1: How wealthy people should think 4/14/21

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Chapter 1: How wealthy people should think 4/14/21

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Tom seems to think he is better than other people, sayings like, “now, don't think my opinion on these matters is final...just because I'm stronger and more of a man than you are" (Fitzgerald, 7). As I mentioned before, it might be Tom’s wealth that gives him such an extreme attitude, which I think is ludicrous. I think wealthy people should be sympathetic to others who don’t have as many opportunities. Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, for example, has his own charity called Kershaw’s Challenge which raises money for medical treatments for children in Zambia. If Kershaw had the same attitude as Tom, I doubt he would care about the children in Zambia-- Tom might think poor children are undeserving of the same luxuries that he has. Albeit Kershaw is a good guy, psychology has shown that wealth may sometimes be linked to arrogance. An article from UC Berkeley Social Sciences Matrix describes a study done by Paul Piff, which shows that wealthy people tend to, “feel more entitled than their lower class peers.” If Tom were a subject of this study, he would fit right in with the trend of the data, since he is very entitled.

https://matrix.berkeley.edu/research/are-wealthy-more-narcissistic

https://www.kershawschallenge.com/

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Chapter 1: Tom Buchanan Characterization 4/14/21

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Chapter 1: Tom Buchanan Characterization 4/14/21

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In describing Tom, Nick says that, “two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward” (Fitzgerald 7). Based on that quote, we already know that Tom is an arrogant and forceful person. Tom seems to think that he is better than other people; Nick notes that, “there was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked — and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts” (Fitzgerald, 7). He is also very rich, described as, “enormously wealthy — even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach” (Fitzgerald, 6). Perhaps Tom’s wealth is what causes his arrogance and sense of superiority.

Gold and red were the colors I noticed initially. To me, gold represents wealth, or royalty. Some of the other colors mentioned are also evocative of wealth, particularly, white, ‘frosted wedding cake’ and ‘wine-colored.’ Red could represent wealth as well (it reminds me of a red carpet), but it is also the color of anger and aggressiveness, hence the phrase ‘seeing red.’

This is a picture of the interior design of a palace which includes the three colors I mentioned, red, white and gold. Palaces represent familial wealth and heritage, which reminds me of how Tom comes from old money.