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Blog post 1:

“Beautiful Little Fool” a tragic Irony

Daisy expressed her wish for her daughter to be a beautiful little fool, let’s unpack why she says that and what she means by it. In Chapter 1 Daisy says the popular phrase “Beautiful Little Fool” that has got writers deducing the meaning of that phrase. In the twenties, women had one job, and that was to sit and look pretty. They were meant charming, frivolous, and dainty. Having goals and aspirations for the future was not a very common thing. So why would she want a life like that for her daughter?

She wants a life where her daughter could hypnotize men simply by her beauty and not worry about anything else. Had this been in the future, Daisy might have been more progressive and would’ve worked for a more independent life. That’s the irony of when the novel is set. The potential of the women in this time was strongly shunted by the gender partial mindset of the society.

Blog post 2:

Is Nick Carraway the right narrator for “The Great Gastby”

Fitzgerald used the third person namely Nick Caraway who was just the perfect amount of involvement with the characters but also an outsider to the New York lifestyle to give the readers an interesting point of view. Nick caraway is a creative way for Fitzgerald to deliver first-person narration. Nick caraway tells us the story as he experiences it, although flawed his narration hooks the readers to the book even if it means doubting his credibility. Nick is related to Daisy but not too involved in their lifestyle in New York. He is also super close to Gatsby and so the narration feels a little biased it makes sense. He is not just the narrator, he also has a love interest in the novel, Jordan Baker. Perhaps the story would look different if we heard it from Daisy’s point of view, you know having been involved with the two big characters of the book!

Readers think Nick is unreliable due to the fact that he never says the whole truth, he only tells us what he wants us to know. But some would say that’s a genius move to get the readers to doubt him but in turn, think about the book even when they are not reading it. Maybe the reason why we are still talking about this book 100 years from when it was written!!

Blog Post 3:

Was Nick and Jordan’s relationship even real?

This is the one relationship in the book that felt the least genuine. As we know Nick was fascinated by the fancy lifestyle of the west egg residents. He was surrounded by the lavishness of gatsby, his Rolls Royce, fancy clothes, and not the forget his huge mansion.

Jordan is a part of that lavish lifestyle and an interesting character as well, she is boyish, self-centered, beautiful, and most importantly dishonest. But none the less she belongs to the popular west egg culture as she belongs to old money and is most definitely spoiled. To readers, it seems like Nick didn’t have anyone else to choose from and it seemed very convenient for him to choose Jordan to go on a date with and build a relationship. That way he would automatically get involved in the lavish lifestyle that his friend Gatsby had. Pretty selfish and shallow in my opinion because if he saw her as a ticket into a better lifestyle that would reveal a lot about his character. Nick as a narrator and as a character is pretty questionable.

Blog post 4:

The Tragedy of Gatsby and Myrtle

In this book where Gatsby is clearly an embodiment of the American Dream while never really mentioning it, he was poor and worked hard to get to the wealthy status he is in now. It was his love for Daisy that made him money-driven. I think he did achieve the American dream at some point but he lost it when he started chasing Daisy and failed. Nick talks about all his prized possessions from his expensive shirts to the cars, fancy books but especially his house, Nick says in Chapter 1 “The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard – it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion”. This really shows us how Gatsby was sort of successful in his chase for money and luxury. But his dream is inevitably unachievable when in the end Fitzgerald says “I heard a taxi go up Gatsby’s drive and immediately I jumped out of bed and began to dress- I felt that I had something to tell him, something to warn him about and morning would be too late.” (Fitzgerald, pg. 154) this shows us the writer foreshadowing Gatsby’s death. Gatsby dies never really winning Daisy’s love and faces a tragic lonely death.

Myrtle Wilson is another embodiment of a failed attempt to chase the American Dream as she aspires to attain wealth and privilege. She believes in marrying into a wealthy family. She thinks that that is the way to happiness. She decided to marry Tom and being a part of high status such as that was her way of attaining the American Dream. The book uses foreshadowing to show us how Myrtle Wilson’s American dream was unachievable, she says “Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself. ‘I hope I never will,’ she [Jordan] answered. ‘I hate careless people. That’s why I like you.’” (Fitzgerald, pg. 63) Fitzgerald is foreshadowing when Daisy Kills Myrtle Wilson due to reckless driving, this is quite ironic that her dream was ended in the hands of Daisy the wife of the man she loves. A parallel can be made between Myrtle’s and Gatsby’s life. They are both somehow having an affair with the same married couple. Resulting in the ironic fate they both face at the end.

Blog Post 5:

Why does Tom and Daisy’s marraige work at the end?

Let’s start off with Daisy and her personality. She is a beautiful woman but also fickle, materialistic, shallow, and bored. She is careless and expects everything to be fixed with money. Even when she was about to marry Tom, she was still in love with Gatsby but chose to go for Tom because of his status and money she marries him. All Gatsby had going on for him was his harbored dream that one day he will make a name and status for himself. She is so self-centered that her life revolved around pretty dresses and the west egg lifestyle. Now Tom being the businessman and egoistic man that he is, his arrogance and hypocritical self treat Daisy-like absolute “trash”. Even with these differences why do they still end up together? It just makes sense, doesn’t it? A beautiful woman getting her needs filled by an arrogant yet wealthy man. The irony of them having both their lovers killed in the end might also play a role in why they stay together. Not only is Daisy a Christian she and Tom didn’t want to disappoint society in a way and wanted to keep the facade of a happy marriage going. All for society and everyone else but them.

Blog Post 6:

Is Tom Buchanan the Hiram Loadge of The Great Gatsby?

Riverdale is a popular show that surrounds the life of the people of a small town “Riverdale”. Hiram Lodge is a powerful man with loads of money, influence, and power. Just like Tom, he mistreats his wife, whether it be beating her insulting her to throwing money at their marriage problem. However, to the rest of the world, they might as well be a happy, powerful family. They have a lavish lifestyle, with the mansion they live in the cars they drive, and the clothes they wear. Their lives look pretty similar to the ones we all are thinking about! Tom Buchanan lives a similar lifestyle. How did Fitzgerald write a character whose traits are constantly used in popular shows we have seen. Both Tom and Hiram Lodge are hypocrites and are on a power trip at all times. The similarity is uncanny!

Blog Post 7:

Is Gatsby a gangster?

Gangsters invent themselves around said identity. They have a certain way that they dress, to the baggy clothes, big jewelry, and way of speaking you can identify them from a mile away. There is an order, class, and ethnicity the author related a gangster to. The Achievement of a gangster can be measured by the amount of inventory of goods, possessions, and materialistic things they own. It doesn’t matter the combination of hard work, ability, good fortune, and ruthlessness they use, they are still judged by the number of things they own. when it comes to comparing the gangster to Gatsby as he shows signs of an early gangster in some sense. Gatsby uses criminal techniques to gain money and status. He dresses a certain type of way; he has expensive taste. Nick shows us how his materialistic possessions were highly expensive, from the cars to the clothes and the expensive mansion.

Blog Post 8:

The Great Gatsby- a forgotten generation’s heartbreak

Gatsby is the product of heartbreak that leads a man down the tragic path of validation and recognition. The man has sought validation and recognition to remedy a past relationship and upbringing that has left him scarred and void. The emptiness is never satisfied by the lavish lifestyle and only perpetuates the loneliness and heartbreak by furthering him from a real emotional connection (whether it be friend or romantic).

The attempt of drawing Daisy in with this lifestyle led to Gatsby further alienating himself which then led to his downfall at the very end. Regardless, Gatsby’s great love for Daisy caused his death while she enjoyed the love and money that Tom had instead.

Blog Post 9:

Gatsby as an icon of Self Invention

Jimmy Gatz or now Jay Gatsby is the definition of a self-made man, even though the route he took included criminal activities he did achieve his goals one way or another. Even his name is an invention of his own. His parents were unsuccessful farm people; his father’s business was meant to be his future if he let it, coming from this kind of background he yearned for prosperity and superiority. I feel like Gatsby has always had dreams to be financially secure because he came from such a poor background, what he couldn’t achieve at a young age he did after coming back from war. Till he met Daisy his motivation was to become wealthy.

I think that Gatsby refused to fall into that trap and worked hard to change his life around, although he did have another motivation; Daisy Buchanan, he reinvents himself to improve his lifestyle in order to be worthy of Daisy’s love. Although his motivation wasn’t the same throughout his life, Daisy only became the source of his motivation after he met her. Now his motivation has been shifted to becoming as wealthy as her and if not more!

Blog Post 10:

“Materialistic Myrtle Wilson”

Myrtle Wilson reinvents herself and her life. She married Wilson thinking he belonged to the high-status society she wanted to belong to. She says “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,” to me, this sounds like she is marrying to move up in class which proves to be her motivation. Clearly, she regretted her decision. She says “The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out. She looked around to see who was listening: ” ‘Oh, is that your suit?’ I said. ‘This is the first I ever heard about it.’ But I gave it to him and then I lay down and cried to beat the band all afternoon.” She wants to come off sophisticated and wealthy despite her humble roots, it looks tacky and desperate. The fact that a simple suit affected her emotion shows the importance of class and lifestyle to her. She has surrounded her goals around this upper-class lifestyle. She spends a lot of time commenting on clothes, mannerisms, and a sophisticated lifestyle. She has an affair with Tom after meeting him on the train, he happened to be rich, but what if he wasn’t? Would she still have had an affair? The first thing she notices about Tom is the way he dresses, and clothing to Myrtle shows class, she has a sense of what upper-class men wear and present themselves. In a way, I feel like it wouldn’t matter who the man is as long as he has expensive clothes and can provide a wealthy lifestyle.

Blog Post 10:

Tom’s toxic masculinity

Tom has a constant dissatisfaction with the women in his life and his abusive tendencies. Despite having an established economical life, a beautiful wife, and a high place in his community he finds the need to cheat on his wife. Tom being a part of a high-class society it is seen that men like him have a tendency to exploit women from lower class societies hence why despite having a wife like Daisy he cheats on her with Myrtle who is also another case of dissatisfaction as she hopes that he will rescue her from her marriage with George.