In chapter 7, Nick drives over to East Egg to go and have lunch with Daisy and Tom. When he gets there he is surprised to find that Gatsby and Jordan Baker are also there. This is one of the first points in the book where I really realized how selfish Daisy is, becuase when the Buchanan’s nurse brings in their daughter, “ your mother wanted to show you off.”   I don’t even think that she mentions the girls name and hardly pays any attention to her.”I suppose she talks and –eats, and everything.” She says to Gatsby. I would of thought that Daisy would of been a loving, caring mother but she seems nothign of the sort. She and her husband are completely obsessed with themselves and their social stature to care about their own child. Althought I don’t think Daisy is intentially mean and negleglent towards her daughter, she is just extremely careless and self-absorbed. I think it was really hard for Gatsby to meet Daisy’s child because it makes her relasionship with Tom seem more real. I think he didn’t want to meet her daughter becuase then he could go on pretending like things ” could go back to the way they used to” with Daisy. I think Gatsby’s reasoning is completely absurd.

In chapter 6 we finally learn about Gatsby’s past and how he decided to completely reinvent himself. He was born Jay Gatz on a farm in North Dakota. He was not born into wealth and had to pay his way through college by working as a janitor which he found so embarrassing that the quit and dropped out of school. He began working on Lake Superior and one day decided to go warn a yacht of an incoming thunder storm. The yacht owner turned out to be Dan Cody, an extremely wealthy copper baron. Cody is so grateful of the pre-Gatsby’s warning that he invites him to be his personal assistant. From that moment on Gatz transformed into Gatsby, leaving behind his life of farming and janitorial work and entering the world of luxury.

“The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.”

With Cody he travelled all around the world and fell in love with material items and wealth. When Cody died he was supposed to leave some $25,000 to Gatsby but was prevented from receiving the money by Cody’s horrid mistress. After he became so used to luxury with Dan Cody when he died Gatsby decided that he would dedicate his life to becoming wealthy.This concept relates back to the American Character because many people today try to dedicate their lives to money. It seems how ever that once most people acheive this they find that (excuse the cliche,) “money can’t buy happiness.”

In Chapter 5 Nick invites Daisy over for tea so that Gatsby can just happen to be there too. I have to say I’m very disappointed in their meeting, I was expecting something…less awkward? Gatsby usually seems so calm and collected and when Daisy got there he just lost it. Clearly Gatsby had been planning a moment like this for over five years, I think he could of done a better job with what he had to say and what happened. I actually felt bad for Nick in this chapter, I think sitting in the room with the two extremely awkward lovebirds would have been painful. I also feel bad for him because he keeps getting dragged into this awkward romantic situations that really have nothing to do with him..i.e. Tom and Myrtle and now Gatsby and Daisy (third-wheel-Nick). Although if I were Nick I’m not sure which one I would find less awkward but Fitzgerald makes it clear that Daisy and Gatsby’s first meeting wasn’t the smoothest.

” Amid the welcome confusion of cups and cakes a certain physical decency established itself. Gatsby got himself into a shadow and, while Daisy and I talked, looked conscientiously from one to the other of us with tense, unhappy eyes. However, as calmness wasn’t an end in itself, I made an excuse at the first possible moment, and got to my feet.” Pg 87

Once the three of them go over to Gatsby’s home the tension gets no better. Gatsby takes them frantically around the house showing his various wonders from his collection of ‘beautiful shirts’ from England to citris fruits that he has imported. Not to keep bringing this but as I mentioned before I keep seeing similarities between this and Araby because he becomes obsessed with the silver bracelet that his love has ( or is able to afford) and Gatsby is clearly the same way, trying to practically sell himself to Daisy.

I hadn’t really noticed how sketchy Gatsby is acting until this chapter. Everything he has done so far seems like it has been for Daisy. He even says how ” If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,” meaning that on clear days, he stares out at her dock-looking for the green light from chapter 1. He also lets Daisy know how hes been saving newspaper clippings of her. If I was Daisy I would be pretty creep-ed out by Gatsby at this point- there is a line and I think collecting newspaper clippings for the past five years crosses it. Once again I get the feeling that nothing good can come from meeting which I’m starting to find frustrating because I like Daisy and I wish that she could have the opportunity to be with someone better than Tom but although Gatsby seems like a better choice than Tom I don’t know if he loves Daisy or the idea of her. I’m also not convinced that Gatsby would be satisfied once he got her. He seems so reckless I doubt that anything would be able to really satisfy him. This could have something to do with the fact that the rest of his family is deceased he constantly feels the need to find something that will make him feel whole again or ‘help him to forget’ his past (ch.3). I think he has convinced himself that to do this he needs to be with Daisy, that she will be the solution to all of his problems. I think he needs to realize that some ‘holes can never be filled’ and no matter how hard you try to forget- the way to dealing with it shouldn’t be becoming obsessed with girl who he can never really have uncomplicated relations with or throwing lavish parties. I think its becoming clear that his grief has caused him to form an unhealthy idea of a relationship with Daisy and nothing good can come of it.

I can’t find a good link? sorrrrry!

In Chapter 4 Nick has tea with Jordan Baker at the request of Jay Gatsby. Jordan informs him that once when they were younger she saw his cousin Daisy completely smitten over a lieutenant. She remembers seeing the two sitting outside of her house, ” They were so engrossed in each other that she didn’t see me until I was five feet away.” Jordan states how she looked up to Daisy because she was one of the ‘most popular of all the young girls in Lousville.’  She remembers the meeting even more..

” The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every youn girl wants to be looked at some time, and becuase it seemed romantic to me I have remembered the incident ever since. His name was Jay Gatsby, and I didn’t lay eyes on him again for over four years-even after I’d met him on Long Island I didn’t realize it was the same man.” pg. 75

WOW, I have to say I was not expecting Gatsby to be in love with Daisy Buchanan. I thought he had feelings for Jordan Baker and that’s why he spoke to her privately at his party and wanted Nick to have lunch with her. It all makes sense now.  I feel bad for Daisy it seems like everything would be perfect for her except her marriage (Tom Buchanan’s continuous relations with other women from day one of their marriage) and Gatsby’s been across the water all along. I also don’t think anything good can come from their meeting again, I’m sure their past was special but I don’t think Daisy is the type of person who would ever leave her husband for another man and the whole thing just seems like it is going to cause trouble. 

Another thing I found interesting in Chapter 4 was after Jordan and Nick had finished their conversation and left the Plaza they were walking out side and heard little girls singing:

” I’m the Sheik of Araby.

Your love belongs to me.

At night when you’re asleep

 Into your tent I’ll creep” pg. 78

I wonder if this mention of Araby has something to do with the short story written by James Joyce. To read the story click here.   In the story a young boy becomes infatuated with the idea of love. He thinks he has fallen in love with his next door neighbor’s sister when really he creates an idealized version of the girl who he is to be in love with. I think Gatsby is similar to Araby in this way because they both treat their “loves” as objects of desire. Gatsby works hard to possess material items for Daisy to admire in hopes that it will somehow help show his admiration of her. I think just like Araby, Gatsby is going to be disappointed with reality and the strong “love” or idea of love that he has thought of Daisy will be proven wrong. Also, because of the way that Jordan described Daisy I doubt that she and Jay Gatsby would have even dated that logn anyways, so I think over all of the years they have been separated Gatsby has been picturing a love that is very different from the one that he may have had or will ever have will Daisy. 

In chapter 3 Nick is invited to one of Gatsby’s notorious parties. Everyone at the party seems stunned at the elaborateness of the affair. There are hundreds of lights everywhere and a full orchestra and people drinking and having fun. Most of the people there have not even been invited by Gatsby and have just come to his house for the party. Once at the party Nick looks for ‘this Gatsby’ everywhere but he can’t seem to be found. The people around the party are not of much help because many of them do no actually know who Gatsby is. It seems like no one really knows who Gatsby is, everyone hears all of these rumors about him – ‘he killed a man,’ hes a spy..etc. Nick finally meets Gatsby by talking to him without realizing who he is, but Gatsby is not offended at all..

” He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced-or seemed to face-the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you, that at your best, you hoped to convey.” pg 48

I really want to find out who Gatsby really is. I find it really interesting that Nick was able to take all of this from one smile from Gatsby but I’m not completely convinced that he is right. Although it is nice to be introduced to one of the main characters before chapter 100 I still find Gatsby extremely mysterious. In Moby-Dick, we were not introduced to Ahab for awhile but all of the rumors about him gave me a pretty good idea of who he was. With Gatsby I feel the opposite, the rumors about him seem completely false- so far he seems like a fun-lover. I guess I’ll have to keep reading to find out more..

 

In chapter 2 Tom Buchanan takes Nick into the city to meet his mistress. This really surprised and confused me because Nick is Daisy’s cousin so why would he go along to meet the woman who is having an affair with his cousin’s husband? It seems completely absurd that Tom would even ask Nick to go along with him. Whats more absurd is that Tom Buchanan is allowed to openly have a mistress.

Read the rest of this entry »

After reading chapter one I can already tell that I like this book better than Moby-Dick. I think having the characters be able to move around ( as opposed to be being stuck on a whaling ship) makes the story much more interesting. In the first chapter the narrator Nick Carraway remembers how his father decided to finance him for a year to learn the bonds business. He moves out to Long Island to a part called West Egg. Soon after moving there he goes to visit his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom. I’m kind of confused as to why Fitzgerald would start the book off with what seems to be an unimportant interaction- especially when Nick doesn’t seem to even know his cousin well and he doesn’t seem to like Tom Buchanan. I think he may have put it in the book to show how Nick feels out of place in his new environment even when with people that are supposed to be ‘family.’ On page 12 Nick observes his cousin and her friend,

” They were here, and they accepted Tom and me, making only a polite pleasant effort to entertain or to be entertained. They knew that presently dinner would be over and a little later the evening, too, would be over and casually put away. It was sharply different from the West, where an evening was hurried from phase to phase toward its close, in a continually disappointed anticipation or else in sheer nervous dread of the moment itself.”

I think as the book goes on Nick will continue to see all of the differences between the social classes in the East and the West but also in the smaller areas of East Egg and West Egg. Also after reading about East and West Egg I looked it up online and decided that our class should go here for a field trip : http://greatgatsbyboattour.org/

In chapter 131 the Pequod comes across another boat named Delight which as Ishmael notices is horribly misnamed. As the boat goes by they release a dead body into the water. At this point in the book I was extremely frustrated with everyone on the Pequod for going along with Ahab’s obsessive quest. Everything that happens is a bad omen, it bothers me that none of the crew members really notice this even after hearing all of the other boats say to stay away from the white whale. I wonder if any of the crew members really ever thought they were going to come back alive. The next chapter Ahab actually does mention his family although quickly enough his mind goes back to Moby Dick. Ahab recognizes himself as pitiful but also notes that he thinks he would not be able to stop..He is actually addicted to hunting the whale.

In chapter 126 I found it kind of creepy when the shipmates were talking about the wailing sounds that they hear at night. One man claims that the noise is actually the moans of the newly dead seamen. I think this is scary but it also shows how dangerous being out at sea really is. Later on in the chapter we get a perfect example of this when one of the shipmates from The Pequod actually falls off the boat and into the water. The men throw out an old lifebuoy to try and save him but lifesaver is so old itself that it absorbs the water and sinks. The poor man drowns and not much is done about the mans death.. only the lifesaver is replaced with the coffin that Queequeg made. Ahab then tells the carpenter to turn the coffin into a new lifesaver, the old carpenter mutters how ironic it seems to take the materials from a coffin to try and save lives. In the end of the chapter Ahab and Pip begin bonding–I’m not sure whose crazier. In the next few pages The Pequod meets another boat called The Rachel.  The captain from The Rachel begs Ahab to help him find his son but Ahab is too obsessed with finding the white whale to stop and help the poor man find his son. The en from the Rachel give news that the white whale is near and for the next few nights Ahab wonders around the deck day and night looking for his enemy. In chapter 130 Ahab is so crazed with Moby Dick that he decides he MUST be the first to stop the whale, he convinces Stubb to help him up to the masthead? ( I don’t really see how he could do this with a peg leg? .) Once he is up there a bird swoops down and steals his hat. 

Chapter 108 was when Ahab had the carpenter make his new leg. It was interesting because for what seems like the first time someone ( the carpenter) voices how crazy they think Ahab really is. I’m surprised that throughout the book no other characters have noticed or disagreed with Ahab’s decisions. Ahab’s obsession with the white whale is evident again in chapter 109 because Ahab initially refuses to go into shore to fix the leaking oil casks. He no longer cares about the profits of whaling or their vessel, he only cares about finding the white whale. Chapter 110 was one of the most interesting chapters of the book. In it  poor Queequeg becomes ill and feeling that death is upon him, builds himself a coffin. There are so many death omens in this book I am surprised that any members of the crew are still alive. Queequeg’s actions in this chapter are similar to when Ishmael writes his own will. Everyone on this boat either thinks or knows that they are going to die. ( or at-least I think that they must.) Queequeg then lays in his coffin-uplifting. In chapter 12 Ishmael presents an interesting idea that the adventures to the sea serve as a way for depressed men who want to die but can not commit suicide. The next interesting chapter was 117: The Whale Watch.  When one of the whales they killed that day was too far away to be brought back to the boat so Ahab, Fedallah and crew stay overnight in their rowboat. Fedallah tells Ahab the prophecy of his death, convincing Ahab further that he is some kind of invincible. In the few next chapters Ahab tells the crew to change directions and Starbuck  is the only shipmate who argues with Ahab’s revenge plan. The next day there is terrible weather and part of the ship catches on fire? ( white flames) Starbuck interprets the fire as another bad omen and this time connects it directly to Ahab by noticing fire on his harpoon. Starbuck and Ahab keep disagreeing with each other and Starbuck begins contemplating if he should kill Ahab. I am surprised that no one has mentioned this earlier.