Kyla's Gatsby Blog by Kyla Velasco https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j en-us 2021-04-01 16:36:06 UTC 2025-10-16 17:16:14 UTC hello@padlet.com Chapter 1 blog: Tom Buchanan kvelasco2022_3 https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1405608677 "Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard moth and a supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body-"

In the first chapter of the Great Gatsby we the readers are introduced to the character Tom Buchanan. Tom is the husband to Daisy who is a distant relative of Nick Carraway, our narrator of the story. Nick is quite familiar with Tom as he states in the novel that they attended college together he also follows that with the statement“...one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savors anti-climax.” which shows that Tom had peaked in college. This gives some sight into his personality as an adult. The quote I chose above to highlight was how Nick describes Tom. Nick uses words such as sturdy, supercilious which means one who thinks they are superior to others, arrogant, and aggressive these harsh words give perspective to the reader on who Tom is and how he presents himself. Nick even finishes his description with saying Tom has a cruel body. I think Nick didn’t mean that he physically had a cruel body but his aura was cruel. My impression of Tom Buchanan is he will be a challenger in the story to our protagonist Gatsby almost as if he is villain.
]]> 2021-04-12 03:25:35 UTC https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1405608677 Student Choice: 4/11 kvelasco2022_3 https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1408270749 I think the relationship between Daisy Buchanan and Nick Carraway is very interesting. They are second cousins once removed meaning their parents are second cousins sharing only the same great grandparents. What makes their relationship so interesting is how Nick thinks of Daisy as an old friend he barely knows he states “-i had no sight into Daisy’s heart...”  and “And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all.” Daisy however in the first chapter confides in Nick with her thoughts on her daughter's birth, relationship with her husband, and even plays matchmaker for Nick and her friend Jordan Baker. Nick however doesn’t discuss much with her he just listens. I think this relationship will be crucial throughout the novel.]]> 2021-04-12 16:35:20 UTC https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1408270749 Chapter 2 blog: Setting kvelasco2022_3 https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1431410854 In the second chapter of the Great Gatsby we are introduced to 2 new settings, The Valley of Ashes and New York City. With these two now introduced it completes the 4 main settings in the novel: East Egg, West Egg, Valley of Ashes, and New York City. The settings however don’t just represent a place, they represent those that live there. The Two “eggs” is where the upper class is said to take residence, it’s the suburbs east of New York City. The West egg is known to be less fashionable, this is how Nick Carraway describes it stating “I lived at West Egg, the-well less fashionable of the two though this a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them”. The difference between the two eggs is the era in which they gained the money meaning new and old money. New money or the West Egg is exactly what it sounds like people who have come into new money; this is where Gatsby lives. Old money or East Egg is money that has been passed down, people who didn’t have to work for money but were born into it such as Tom Buchanan. The Valley of Ashes however is very different; it's described as gray and bleck. Throughout this novel there have been many connections between colors so for Nick to describe The Valley of Ashes as gray i figured that means it’s dull and lifeless.  New york city is the final setting, is where myrtle tom's mistress and tom “live” there. The City is a city that never sleeps; “Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual 
watcher in the darkening streets” Nick says this as looks out of myrtle and tom’s apartment.

]]> 2021-04-19 04:35:16 UTC https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1431410854 Student choice: 4/18 kvelasco2022_3 https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1474865221 There is a billboard that stands above the Valley of Ashes, standing tall overlooking all it’s subjects, watching, waiting; these are Doctor T.J. Eckleburg eyes. “The eyes of doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no, but , instead from a pair  of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose.” This is the description given that struck me, those eyes were just a billboard it was put there for business so someone could make a profit by attracting clients that would pass it every day. But what are those eyes, just looking, they are watching seeing who comes in and out of the city. These eyes are just a billboard, they are just a sign that hopefully someone will see and doctor T.J. Eckleburg will get business, it is just a passing billboard at first glance. But those deep blue eyes and yellow spectacles are not just a billboard, they are eyes watching looking down. These eyes give color to the gray land; they are big and blue with yellow spectacles that rest on a nonexistent nose of doctor T.J. Eckleburg. ]]> 2021-04-29 17:03:39 UTC https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1474865221 Text to self kvelasco2022_3 https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1605558793
While reading Scott F. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby I felt most vulnerable. I had never understood emotions in a character so well as I did gatsby;  the desire, pain and love. Gatsby was madly in Love with Daisy who was confused and so drawn into herself that she could only see money. But that isn’t the reason I, a 17 year old girl, related to gatsby. I found myself intertwined with Gatsby in the sense of falling for someone so hard, someone that isn’t fully yours and the desire to change in order to achieve some kind of love from that person. Falling further and further into an illusion that maybe someday you can be together like gatsby i was thinking if i had changed maybe then we would be together if i become who they always wanted me to be. The one part in the novel at the hotel when Gatsby could see for a split second that he was losing Daisy to Tom. i Felt Gatsby's fear and pain. I think when Nick stated “he looked as if he had killed a man” it wasn’t only a feeling of anger coursing through Gatsby's body but of pain he knew that in that moment he had lost daisy. And i know that pain all to well understanding that you have lost them, realising that even though you did everything to be what and who they wanted i was still not enough 

]]> 2021-06-14 16:43:24 UTC https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1605558793 Text to text kvelasco2022_3 https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1610346437 Another story that reminded me of the Great Gatsby was Romeo + Juliet, the movie produced by  baz luhrmann. The connection so prominent is love. But for me I didn’t see the cute warm love feeling that most get when watching the movie or reading Romeo and Juliet or the great gatsby. I saw the connection of obsession. In the great Gatsby when daisy and Gatsby first meet he states the exact time period it was been since they had last seen each other and also later in the novel is brought to the attention of the readers that he had thrown those big parties in hopes one day daisy will one day wonder inside. And in the film Romeo + Juliet there was that same obsession obviously with a more tragic ending romeo hears that juliet has died and so without thought nor question he descesides he must died as well when it is revealed she actually wasn't dead but it was a ploy inorder to be with her true love that she barely knew after awakening to romeo being dead she produces to kill herself. Both show obsession in love and how these men did everything and the ending result was in tragedy. ]]> 2021-06-16 16:15:02 UTC https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1610346437 Text to World kvelasco2022_3 https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1610380775 The connection I made between the text and the world was the idea of the American dream. The American dream is making your life as successful as possible from before ur past is not ur future. Throughout Gatsby you see he has tried to achieve that American dream he has always wanted to be better than his past. Gatsby did that he became better than his past; he was able to own a house, nice shirts, and throw extravagant parties, but yet he was stopped short of his dream because he died throughout Gatsby I feel as if the Fitzgerald had a pattern those achieving the American dream and those just about to all had a tragic ending Dan Cody, Myrtle, Mr. Wilson, and Gatsby. The common denominator between them is the are all dead. But also the greediness within them. For example Gatsby had achieved the American dream. He was more successful than his past self,  but he still wanted Daisy. He couldn’t be satisfied with what he had; he needed Daisy to be fully with him. Even through all the materialistic items in his possession he still longed and wanted daisy this goes to show that just completing the American dream is not enough there is always something people want more showing that the American dream is just a false ideal used to keep drive.]]> 2021-06-16 16:32:28 UTC https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1610380775 Great Gatsby movie reviews kvelasco2022_3 https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1610423871 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nRhXLAatcE4jrrZNAh6UJUQAhFFI3c2YUusbB9eXoTA/edit]]> 2021-06-16 16:53:14 UTC https://padlet.com/kvelasco2022_3/k4uv8vudao0ah29j/wish/1610423871