You may be wondering why I (Gatsby) am writing such a late response. You see, I was recently run over and spent the last week in Limbo. I made a deal with G-d saying that I must go back to earth and spread my wisdom if I ever wish to see the light of heaven. 

My spirit has recently been reincarnated into a student named Zackary Caleb-Levine. I'm essentially acting as the little voice inside his head. This last week Zack visited colleges in New York and with my guidance, briefly stopped in West Egg and helped him pick out a fantastic french restaurant in Manhattan. Anyway, on Zack's Journey, this is the advice i gave him:

Often times, certain colleges hold aren't all they're cracked up to be-Zack, like myself, fell victim to awesome and unearthly grip of imagination. In his head, these prestigious schools were perfect for him. They would make his life complete in every way. These school's were his Daisy. When he actually visited the campuses, he found that there was nothing that special about them and his platonic perception of them was false. I told him not to blindly follow a dream rooted in superficial ideas that weren't even his own. If I only knew that the perfect life for me was not the one which i aspired to live......And likewise, the perfect college for Zack is not the one that outside voices recommend, but rather the one that makes him content. I have learned from my foolish ways and did not make good choices. Hopefully Zack will, so I can go to Heaven.

Hannah Nussbaum's last chapter response

As Nick grapples with Gatsby's death, and with his relationships with any and all of the characters in the story, he realizes the tragic state of "the American dream." Through reflecting upon Gatsby's life, Nick comes to the ultimate realization that Gatsby lived and died a simple man from the midwest, and that his notions and fancies in the end amounted to nothing; Fitzgerald implies through Gatsby's plight that no individual can truly sever his or her roots. Fitzgerald, through the lens of Nicks narration, seems to imply that the wholesome quality of the original American dream is now distorted, and that the harder individuals like Gatsby grapple for the dream through societal ascent, the farther and farther they move from peace of mind. Nick seems to come to the realization that the concept behind America is flawed in itself- he realizes that the idea of anything being possible if one simply tries as being flawed and idealistic. The last line in the story serves to emphasize the idea that one's past cannot simply be shed, and that dreams are immaterial if they simply disregard the past.
This last chapter seems to focus on Nicks personal progress as well; his ephiphinies regarding the pull of the past drive him to reject the superficial aspects of West Egg, as he plans to move back to his origins in Minnesota. Nick acknowledges the tragedy in the lives of the West-Eggers, who are all like Gatsby in that they are living lives they do not feel truly comfortable in. With all this said, I kept in mind throughout the chapter that the narration is Nick's, and therefore not neccesarily adjacent to Fitzgerald's ideas.

I want to point out some of the last words that Nick says to Gatsby when leaving his house in the morning. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together"(154) Nick tells Gatsby, referring to Daisy, Tom, and probably Jordan and other "friends". Nick is not a huge fan of the true person that Gatsby is and he tells us this in the first chapter: "Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn"(2). Nick knows that Gatsby lies and is going after the wrong dream with wrong ways. Nick says this line because he feels pity for Gatsby. Daisy went back to Tom and Gatsby is lonely and sad and also his house (in a way symbolizing his life) is getting out of hand so Nick let's him know that he has at least on friend left by saying this to him to make him feel better.....but this compliment has a back meaning. The fact that he said you are "worth" more than them shows an obvious literal meaning that Gatsby is actually wealthier than Daisy, Tom, and all of his other guests. I feel like Nick is saying , "nice job getting all that money and making yourself so happy" in a sarcastic manner. Nick knew that Gatsby was trying to get Daisy with his wealth (go back to the t-shirt scene) and he disapproves. Fitzgerald explains Gatsby's response to this by noting: "First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile..." (154). Here, it seems that Gatsby appreciated the compliment, but in a way understood what Nick was actually saying. The smile that Gatsby gives Nick is a smile that says he is happy with the fact that he is so rich- the exact reason why he did not have a happy life. Even at this point in the book, Gatsby believes, and Fitzgerald makes it obvious, that to have happiness for most people (Nick an exception?), you need money. That's why Tom, Daisy, Myrtle, and Gatsby have horrible lives. He has the wrong mindset the whole book.

-Chloe

Love and The American Dream

The Great Gatsby draws a parallel between romantic desires and the American Dream. Fitzgerald suggests that if love is only the desire to possess, then that love will fail, just as if the American Dream is only the desire to possess, that dream is destructive and the entire purpose of the dream--self-dependency and -discovery--is wasted. The downfall of the American Dream is rooted in the fact that true love in the 1920s was subordinated to the overwhelming consensus that an abundance of money, not familial and individual achievement, was the highest form of happiness. The subordination causes societal and romantic relationships to fail. For example, we know that Gatsby's love for Daisy is only an inflated and romanticized infatuation with money. We know that she could not bring herself to marry him while he was poor, and that she is finally attracted to him when he is rich; she only displays emotion--a sign of love--when he shows her his beautiful, expensive clothing. Both Daisy and Gatsby subordinate love to the idea of this really stereotyped, materialistic coexistence with another person. Both have empty, broken American Dreams, because both are more susceptible to money than they are to love. Daisy marries Tom out of convenience, because he was able to provide her with social and financial comfort when Gatsby was not: "[Tom] came down with a hundred people in four private cars, and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars" (75-76). Likewise, Myrtle is attracted to Tom because "he had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes, and [she] couldn't keep my eyes off him" (36). She is too blinded by his money to know that he really only wants her because in his boredom he has nowhere economically higher to look, and because he can easily control her with expensive temptations like the dog and its leash (the latter being a direct metaphor for control). Fitzgerald pities the deteriorating American Dream for its succumbing to the pleasures of wealth and overlooking the value of the kind of love that Wilson has for Myrtle, the kind that lives without material appeal.

The Great Gatsby is the first book I have read about the American dream that does not deal with the working class or minority immigrants . In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, all Lennie and Geroge wanted was exactly what Gatsby already had-a big house and a stable life. The fact that Gatsby escaped the tedious and unpredictable farmer's lifestyle that George and Lennie so desperately tried to depart from, and was still unsatisfied, exemplifies Gatsby's unusual and uniquely ambitious behavior. He seeks more than what most only dream of. Perhaps Gatsby's unrelenting determination in achieving his "Platonic self-perception" is what Nick describes as "something gorgeous about him," in the beginning of a novel. Nick seems to lack Gatby's ability to dream beyond what is rooted in reality; Nick is very caught up in the miniscule, often arbitrary subtleties of what he observes (see pages 1 through 180 for proof) and perhaps lacks the ability to imagine and dream of things greater than he can imagine.In the beginning of the book, Nick also states that Gatby "represented everything for which [he] has an unaffected scorn-" materialism, pretentious social hierarchies, superficiality ect. The fact that Nick can find beauty in that which he disgusts shows that he is unique in his ability to view something from every angle, unlike he piers who only see the world in black in white; east and west; rich and poor.

The Great Gatsby

So I'm not sure how I feel about any of the characters in this novel. It is clear that the novel is about identity and the American Dream, but I don't like what Fitzgerald is suggesting about the dream. I feel as though he is saying it is just that. A dream. It cannot be obtained easily and maybe at all. Gatsby was so much happier when his dream was just a dream. And when he tried to create reality from his dream he could only do so by sacrificing his identity and losing his sense of self. Gatsby lived a life that was not his own from seventeen "and to this conception he was faithful to the end(98)"(foreshadow of his death). I understand to achieve what one wants in life he or she will HAVE to sacrifice, but is this the only way? Or is Fitzgerald suggesting that we must sacrifice, but never change who we really are or lose ourselves? I'm curious as to what he really feels about the American Dream. If we go by Gatsby's story it seems like the American Dream cannot be accomplished. Social barriers are too oppressive. I would like to think that he is saying that failure is certain if we go about obtaining the American Dream by the same means as Gatsby...but is really sacrificing everything for the one thing you truly want in life so wrong? I know I've considered it...but this story is reason why I would not. The risk of failure is too daunting.

Chapter 9 Reader Response

Hi Mrs. Arnaboldi! Hi English Class!

Chapter 9 recapitulates Fitzgerald’s views with various tools: the image of the woman in the white dress being hauled away on a stretcher, Wolfsheim’s reaction to Gatsby’s death, Gatsby’s funeral, the physical condition of Gatsby’s house after his death, Tom and Daisy’s disappearance, and so much more. I believe that the concluding line of the novel, however, conveys Fitzgerald’s message more powerfully than all of Chapter 9’s symbols and characteristics combined. The final line of the book reads:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (180)

Here, Nick realizes that Gatsby’s desire, and his own desire, to progress and achieve higher socio-economic levels is a futile and endless chase. Fitzgerald compares life to a river, somewhat stating that life is driven by an inexorable backwardness, a natural inclination or flow towards previous states. Thus, any attempt to push against the river can only be scorned upon and labeled as superfluous ambition and selfishness.

The reader can elaborate further upon this quotation and transcend the context of the novel to discuss its bond with America as a nation. The founders of the United States came with visionary and honorable ideals such as progress, equality, and justice. However, the test of time has proven that these bold fantasies could not hold strong through the ages, and that America fell into the same condition which its founders tried to escape, conditions of imperialism, injustice, inequality, cruelty, and moral corruption.

Therefore, in Fitzgerald’s solemn view on the 1920s, Gatsby’s rise and fall mimics the decadence of America itself. As Nick stated at the inception of the novel, the past determines who a person is, and whether they are suited for a particular class or quality. Nick’s views are reiterated in Chapter 9 by the constant depiction of the West as the homeland and the East as a land of social climbing and perversion. Ultimately, attempting to break through any social or natural barriers, like attempting to move upstream, is a hubristic abuse of human willpower.

-Shervin Rezaei