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https://docs.google.com/document/d/19b_SFZqtsQ7qmsxcKAYvrgG838m4D9kcEx2KGPklK68/edit

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When thinking of how the book The Great Gatsby relates to my life, The first thing that comes to my mind is wanting to relive the past. Like Gatsby I too have some things In the past that I would like to recapture in my own life today, I sympathize with that part of Gatsby in the book. The carefree easy life I once lived where the only thing I ever had to worry about was school, the relationship I wish I strengthened and built back then, the things I wish I did, hang out with friends more, try out new things and new sports and many other things. All that I wish I could relive and have that now, but life moves on and you have to too, that’s something Gatsby never realized and that’s something I’m working towards, to not dwell on the past, to live in the present, because who knows. Maybe one day I’ll get so stuck in the past I’ll forget to appreciate what I have right now, and by the time I realize what I have is just as amazing as what I had, it’ll be too late, like it was for Gatsby, when he couldn’t enjoy the things he already had

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When I began to think about this question of text-to-text I started to think back on what we’ve done together in class, and the first thing that came to mind was the play “A Raisin in the sun”. The American Dream, as we all know, is at the heart of "The Great Gatsby." When most people think of Americans, they imagine them to be carefree and possessing whatever they desire. The American Dream was also depicted in the classic “A Raisin in the Sun.” With “A Raisin in the Sun,” however, it was a little more practical; everyone was portrayed starting from the bottom and working their way up, in the great Gatsby it showed our characters already at the top. Both "The Great Gatsby" and "A Raisin in the Sun" depict status issues. The family in “A Raisin in the Sun” was evaluated based on their skin color, therefore they were viewed differently. In “The Great Gatsby,” however, Gatsby was evaluated differently because he was new money and that he came up from poor. They both struggled to achieve their American Dream but both had the will and the hope to chase after it in the first place, that’s how I see these two relating.

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Gatsby's story is as important today as it was when it was written, despite being a critique on a different era and individuals. Because it covers universal themes like human folly, societal pessimism, and man's struggle with time and fate. The Great Gatsby is full of small morsels of wisdom thanks to Fitzgerald's observation on America. For example Gatsby appears to be wealthy, powerful, and important to the general public. In truth, he was born into poverty and made his money via deception, people are still preoccupied with impressing others by reinventing themselves now to this day. Gatsby at that time was basically a 1920s Catfish; he goes to great measures to win Daisy by constructing a well crafted character. Another example of the Great Gatsby relating to the modern world developing real connections with people, Throughout the novel, Nick Carraway meets a variety of individuals, including Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom's acquaintances. Despite being exposed to their darkest secrets, Nick only has a superficial relationship with everyone but Gatsby, and Nick is ultimately repulsed by the others' selfishness. Today, social media fosters similar superficial bonds, redefining the term "friend" as a process of adding somebody to a network rather than a personal relationship. A social media user might follow an acquaintance's status updates in the same way that Nick monitors Tom and Daisy's companions' personal life.

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This chapter just absolutely sickens me, to see all of Gatsbys “friends” and all of the people who basically took advantage of this mans hospitality and for NONE of them to show up to Gatsbys funeral, for Nick to be the only real friend that Gatsby ever had and for daisy to not even send ONE FLOWER, for her to just leave like that, a man she claimed she loved and wanted to be with just died, she led him on she played and toyed with his emotions AND SHE LET GATSBY TAKE THE BLAME FOR A MURDER SHE COMMITTED, for her to just go on a vacation and not say or do anything for Gatsby, it’s all just completely sick, what awful people, if I was nick i would be sick of New York and all those selfish people. The Buchanan’s are the worst, I hate them, and everyone one else who just completely abandoned a man who was nothing but good to everyone, who did nothing to any of those people.

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The way this book depicts the American dream is such an toxic way, everyone’s “American dream” in this book is different. For Gatsby, his dream is to be with Daisy, but before he met daisy he believed he was destined for greatness. He chased after that dream a poor boy who came from nothing as meyer wolfsheim put it  "I raised him up out of nothing , right out of the gutter.  I saw right away he was a fine appearing gentlemanly young man and when he told me he was an Oggsford I knew I could use him good."and once he grabbed ahold of it, he didn’t feel like he was enough, he felt the need to lie instead of being his true self because he knew how cruel this world is. After obtaining the riches he wanted the girl, his dream was daisy, he thought money would bring her to him but he ends up losing her in the end and dying and his money did nothing to save him form that. Gatsby tries to recover the past, a past that is long gone from him now, as nick states in the final words of the book “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.  It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past“  We rely our perspective of the future on events and people we have left behind as we sail the river of life. We eagerly "stretch out our arms" toward a future in which we might finally be able to grab the "green light" that symbolizes all of our hopes or Gatsbys American dream but which will always be out of reach since it is linked to a past that no longer exists.

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What if Nick stayed with Gatsby and went swimming with him, could he have prevented Gatsbys death? What if one of Gatsbys servants saw George and stopped him, could that have prevented Gatsbys death? There’s so many things that could’ve happened that would have prevented his death, it’s honestly just a really awful moment that kind of breaks my heart a little bit. Reading that just made me feel extremely sad I know Gatsby wasn’t the best guy but by no means did he deserve that, I guess I just have a lot of empathy for a man who has the courage to chase after his dream and have so much hope that he can accomplish that, it sucks that all the hope in one man was taken away just like that.

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The cover is one of the most important pieces of this book and the first thing we see before diving into the story but what does the cover represent?
The way I see it is that those eyes are the eyes of T.J Eckleberg or “the eyes of god” the eyes which witness virtually everything that happens in this book. But when i look closer I see in the eyes, that there’s a woman reflected in the irises, I believe that is a representation of Gatsby and how he views daisy and his dream. The lights on the bottom represents Gatsbys parties or even just the roaring 20s with their roaring lights. The blue represents sadness, the sadness of Gatsbys death and the sad realization that nick has at the end of the book about rich people and the careless of people, sadness is what I believe the blue represents.

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I wanted to touch on is the confrontation between Tom and Gatsby, Gatsby's fixation with resurrecting a happy past drives him to try and force Daisy to say that she has never loved him. Gatsby needs to know that she has always loved him and is and has always been emotionally committed to him. Similarly, when pleading with Daisy, Tom evokes their personal history to remind her that she has affections for him. I believe Nick's view that Gatsby's dream is dead is confirmed by Tom's confidence in sending Daisy back to East Egg with Gatsby. This scene might be crucial to seeing where Gatsby and Daisys relationship will end up.

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Love is a crazy thing in this book, Typically in books the characters see love as the same thing, but the characters in these express love very differently. Let’s start with Gatsby, Gatsby thinks he loves Daisy, but as you look more into you can see that he is not in love with Daisy but he is in Love with idea of Daisy. He’s in love with this idea in his head of who Daisy is and what kind of life he can have with a woman that he doesn’t even know anymore, Gatsby is in love with an idea. Daisy is complicated, I do believe Daisy loves Gatsby in a way and that she loves Tom in a way, but in all I believe is a materialistic person and is in love with whom ever could give her what she wants, big expensive things. She may have loved Gatsby once, like real love, I’m sure she’s capable of that affection, but all I see is her putting her selfish wants over everyone else. I believe Tom does love daisy, but he just wants to go and sleep around and do whatever with whom ever and come home to a sweet loving wife, he loves Daisy he doesn’t love Myrtle, Myrtle is an object to him, I believe he loves his wife even if he treats her very poorly.

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I think it’s worth noting that the book never shows the reader a single moment  from Gatsby's affair with Daisy. Nick is the protagonist of the story, and he never sees Gatsby and Daisy alone together, except when they renew each other's acquaintance. Nick's connection with Gatsby may be the reason for his refusal to show their affair, it may be motivated by a wish not to condemn him. The book  left the facts of their affair to the reader's imagination, and I think this point is very interesting, that the book is really sticking to the fact that this was written by Nick and through Nicks eyes.

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As we learn in this chapter, Gatsby’s real life story wasn’t the same as the story he told Nick, the truth is he was dirt poor as a child. His mother and father were farmers and Gatsby always believed he was meant for more, that his parents weren’t his real parents and that he was destined for greatness. As far as education goes, as stated in the text he attended “St. Olaf in Minnesota, he dropped out after two weeks, loathing the humiliating janitorial work by means of which he paid his tuition.” In truth Gatsby lied about his childhood and upbringing, granted he did serve in the military so he has that going for him, but I can’t say I hold that against him, he noticed how the rich look down on the poor, maybe he has to lie, because he cares about what people think of him, for his own sake telling the truth about where he comes from might not be the best thing, so he destined to hide behind a mask and keep up this facade that is Jay Gatsby.

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Nick in this novel has been the secret keeper, he keeps Tom little meet up with Myrtle a secret and now, Gatsby and Daisy seeing each other again. Does this make him a bad person, I don’t think so, hell I don’t know what I’d do in Nicks shoes, he’s the secret keeper, but he also goes gives advice and Even helps those who’s secrets he’s keeping, he is stuck in the Middle of this triangle that is Daisy, Gatsby and Tom and all this secret keeping may be tearing away at him and might catch up with him and bite him in the butt. I’m curious to see how far Nick is willing to go to keep these secrets.

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The Green Light symbolism in The Great Gatsby is abundant. Green is the color of hope. Gatsby's dream has given him hope. Daisy, he has created his universe around a dream, a Dream that is him being with Daisy that is the driving force in his life. That is why the green light is so powerful. The steady evolution of green symbolism in The Great Gatsby is depicted in this quote.”You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock. . . .’ Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever.” Now green might be taking a whole different meaning, he saw that green light as hope as a Dream he’s reaching for, now that he’s reached it, what’s the significance? Nothing, it’s nothing anymore, I’m sure now that the lights meaning has changed, we will begin to see the change in Gatsby, or even the real Gatsby.

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I just want to touch on the lunch-in in this chapter, Gatsby introduces Nick to his friend  Mr. Wolfshiem which is not the best first impression of who Gatsby surrounds himself with. I just really like how this “scene” in the book really shows how Gatsby is the living embodiment of the 1920s era. Gatsby, throwing the most lavish parties of all and appears to be wealthier than everyone else, a larger then life character who is also involved with people who are in organized crime or bootlegging, there couldn’t be a more perfect symbol for the 1920s

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So far in the book we knew nothing about this Gatsby character, as far as I knew he some super rich guy who threw the best parties, buy as we got to see in this chapter there’s more to this character then we thought. Based on this chapter Gatsby doesn’t seem like a guy who could be trusted in my opinion, I mean I think he showed great hospitality towards Nick, but it’s definitely because he wants something from him, it’s almost as if he doesn’t make relationships with people unless he gets something out of it. Not to mention Gatsbys story about obtaining his wealth is something to take with a grain of salt, why was he so eager to tell this random neighbor of his, his whole life story, makes me wondering if it’s the truth or if he just saying it to win nicks trust into convincing him to help, either way I’m eager to learn more about him and what he has at play here.

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The author of the book waits until the beginning of Chapter 3 to introduce the novel's most crucial character, Gatsby himself. The reader has only seen Gatsby from afar, heard other people talk about him, and heard Nick's opinion on him, but he has not met him, we have not met him. This chapter is probably the biggest one so far since it finally introduces this mysterious man that we know virtually nothing about, I’m very excited to see what we learn about this character and his story

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In chapter 3 theme of social class becomes more apparent, we see at the beginning of the chapter when Nick describes the guests that show up at Gatsby as a bunch of wealthy people, wealthy businessmen, celebrities without a care in the world about what damage they caused  "conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks,". More specifically Jordan Baker who is an extremely careless driver "Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself." "I hope I never will," she answered. "I hate careless people. That's why I like you." She clearly has no interest in meeting people like herself, people who are careless and believe money will fix all the problems. That’s the excuse wealthy people have in this book, that money will fix all so they can do whatever they like. It’s how Jordan acts and it’s also his Gatsby seems to act as well, buying a a woman named Lucille a new dress after she broke hers at his part, stating in that chapter that Gatsby doesn’t want any trouble with anybody, so he thinks his money can fix any problem, that’s the way the wealthy lived.

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In this chapter I really only had one take away and it’s that Tom and Myrtle are the worst, Let’s just say the act of betraying someone’s trust is something that I look down upon with anger and disgust as I have personally had people betray my trust in the past, I’m sure we all have. Based on how Nick in the future describes the events that happen in the novel, I can only assume that this little affair isn't the only time someone in this novel is betraying another persons trust. Both Tom and Myrtle betray their partners and are only doing it for selfish reasons, Toms being simply because he’s bored and finds it to be a nice break from his life, and Myrtles reason being he’s a rich man that can give her what she wants, considering she doesn’t make much money, both selfish, both disgusting.

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Chapter 2 goes on to expand on the setting or settings in great detail which really helps the reader envision the world that the characters are living in. There are 4 main settings that the book focuses on which are the East egg, The West egg, The Valley of Ashes, and New York City.

The East and West are notoriously rich areas, only rich people live in the East and West egg and there’s really only one difference between the 2 the East egg is homed to those with “old money” while the West egg is homes to those with “new money”. There was quote and chapter one that I really thought would fit in this topic of setting "I lived at West Egg, the-- well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them" he West egg is homed to Gatsby and Nick while the East egg is homed to Tom and Daisy. Now The Valley of ashes is almost the complete opposite of the East and West egg, this quote describes it the best This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.” Basically the Valley of ashes described as a “desolate industrial wasteland” which houses Myrtle and George Wilson. Lastly is New York City, the big city where people go to try and live out their dream, to make big money and party till they drop.

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In chapter 1 the most fascinating character in my opinion is definitely our narrator Nick Carraway, and what really drew my attention to him attitude towards the events that happened on him. He describes himself as an open-minded and accepting type of person, he views himself as having a better sense of decency then other people. He looks back at that time in disgust and regret and overall really negatively views all that happened and the only thing or person “exonerated” from that disgust is Gatsby, even though Gatsby is the literal representation of what nick hates. Nicks way of thinking is very contradicting to his “morals” and “values” which gets me thinking if we can even trust the story he’s telling, is telling the full truth of what happened at the Buchanan’s or was it an exaggerated take? My question is can he be trusted to tell us the real events that happened then.

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Tom Buchanan is the type of character that you see all the time, the man with the biggest ego in the world, who thinks everyone is below him because they’re not as rich as he is. A very arrogant, aggressive, temperamental, physically intimidating, assertive man

He’s an aggressive man which is supported by Daisy’s hand “Look!" she complained; "I hurt it." We all looked--the knuckle was black and blue. "You did it, Tom," she said accusingly. "I know you didn't mean to, but you DID do it. That's what I get for marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen of a----". Not only aggressive but the belief that he his above others is visible with these quotes, the way Nick describes the way he talks to people “His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked” and when nick talks about where he works "What you doing, Nick?"

"I'm a bond man." “Who with?" I told him. "Never heard of them," he remarked decisively. This annoyed me. "You will," I answered shortly. "You will if you stay in the East." The way Tom shuts down Nick when talking about his profession in such a decisive way, remarking that he’s “Never heard of them” insinuating that he knows nothing of this poor little “business” that you work for because he has know knowledge of what those “lesser” businesses are doing, which with that crude remark annoys Nick at least that’s how I saw that conversation.

Some colors I’ve noticed that appeared in the chapter were red, white, yellow, and gold, I believe Tom Buchanan was represented by the color red, red represents anger, rage, wrath, malice but also desire and lust and action. Now the desire and list part really hit it home for me because not only is Tom a representation of anger but also the lust for better, more specifically in women seen how he’s having an affair.

Overall I’m not very fond Tom Buchanan, the way he carries himself, the way he treats others and his own wife, he’s not a very good man and I’m definitely not rooting for him.