Thursday, April 15, 2010
Avery's chapter six response
Until chapter six, I thought that Gatsby was one of the more genuine characters in the book, and one of the few who was where he wanted to be in life. After learning about his past, my opinion changed completely. Gatsby lives entirely in his own fantasy world. "He invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end" (98). He began living based purely on what he thought his life ought to be, and he never made it back to reality. Now, he throws extravagant parties in which he doesn't participate, keeps a library of books he doesn't read, lives in an amazing mansion on the wrong Egg, and has an affair with an old love which he convinces himself will end with a happily ever after. Gatsby has built his life up around his own fantasies to the point where it almost seems true, but in the end it is still just that, a fantasy.
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Hi Avery! Hi English Class!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same as you do concerning my understanding of Gatsby's character. On the topic of fantasies and realities, I would like to highlight an interesting quotation in the final scene of Chapter 6 which I've been itching to open up to class discussion: “Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.” (111) I took incarnation to retain its literal definition of 'taking on flesh from a presumably immaterial form'. I ran out of time on my in-class assignment to ponder further on this, but I believe that, in a sense, Gatsby's kiss with Daisy shattered his dreams and brought him to reality; it removed his previous God-like meretriciousness and reduced him to a mere mortal. I found this moment to be closely related to Mrs. Arnaboldi's John Hoganblatt(or whatever his name was) moment of realization. If you, as in the class, agree with me, then why does Gatsby try to reclaim Daisy later in his life? Did she live up to his previous dreams?
-Shervin Rezaei
I agree that kissing Daisy brought Gatsby into the real world, but I don't think it was like John Hoganblatt. I think he honestly chose Daisy over his fantasies, and after giving up those fantasies, Daisy is all that he has left to hold on to, so she has to live up to his expectations. He doesn't see it as trying to "reclaim" her but sees their relationship as having been "going on for five years" as he tells Tom in chapter seven. When their future together starts falling apart in front of him I think its clear that he has not even thought of that option. He gave up his dreams for her, and is now depending on his belief that she will choose him.
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