Month: December 2023

For my multi-modal project, I decided to create a collage to represent how everyone’s true intentions and goals can be hidden through perception- and I titled it “Is perception reality”. The featured image on this post is the collage I created and I put the background as a city setting to represent the West Egg in New York City, as this was the novels setting.

The black silhouette facing the back of the characters represents Nick, the narrator. I included the silhouette over the other characters to represent that we are viewing the image from his perspective. Nicks’ commentary throughout the novel acts as Fitzgeralds’ social commentary on materialism and opulence during the 1920’s. The characters such as Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby have a certain way they want to be perceived by those around them, while Nick allows us to see their true motives and actions. The collage includes money signs over everyones actual face to expose what they are truly motivated by. Nicks commentary allows us to see the narrative differently than we would’ve if Gatsby himself would have described it in his own words- commentary like “Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn” would not have been included.

Another important element to my collage is the fact that Daisy’s face is over Gatsby’s instead of money. Because unlike Tom, who’s main motive is fame and reputation, Gatsby only desired those in order to get Daisy. His obccession with her led him down a pursuit of wealth and material goods yet left him with nothing. This separates him from characters like Tom, though in the end- it was Tom who ended up with Daisy.

Overall, I think my collage represents that 21st-century Gatsby can be seen in everyone still putting up a facade- specifically to gain wealth. The deception and bending of reality to be perceived still goes on today, and that was I wanted to represent in my project.

For my final blog post, I wanted to do it over my current favorite Taylor Swift song, August. It touches on themes of infidelity, which makes it easy for me to pull parallels from the lyrics and The Great Gatsby narrative. The song August is on the Folklore Album, which was written from different perspectives from a love triangle that involved infidelity. The song August is written from the perspective of a girl named “Augustine”, a character Taylor had created. Agustine was the girl in the love triangle who thought she had fallen in love with a man who was already in a relationship.

The lyrics describe her emotions, as she beleives she is in love, but knows it is doomed to fail. The lyrics stating,

“‘Cause you weren’t mine to lose
You weren’t mine to lose, no

But I can see us lost in the memory
August slipped away into a moment in time
‘Cause it was never mine”

She is describing how he was never hers to lose. Similar to the situation with Gatsby and Daisy- Daisy was never Gatsby’s to lose. He had created a persona to attract her and begin again what they had before he had left for war. Yet, the reality of their affair was that Daisy never truly loved him- nor did she Tom, but Gatsby never really had Daisy. He had her admiration over his possessions, but she was never his at all. If anything, Gatsby belonged to Daisy- not the other way around.

Even before the war, Daisy would have never married Gatsby due to his economic status, so even after she had gotten married before the narrative started. The lyrics still apply. She was never his to lose to Tom, and was never his to come back and claim despite his efforts.

As tragic as this is, the novel itself is a modern tragedy. The storyline is not designed to have a perfect ending, and neither was Taylors song.

The song “August” reminds me of a peaceful rainy day whenever I listen to it, and though the lyrics itself are tragic, I am glad I got an opportunity to compare it to the novel- as it is my current favorite song.