Great Gatsby

[kernsy]

Hello everyone, i am currently reading the Great Gatsby in english class. so i am up for discussion on it. also wondering, for those of you that have read it, if there is any sort of symbolism or any connections that occur in the book that i should look out for? if you have anything that could help, it would really help me out in our class discussions i struggle in those sometimes. any help would be greatly appreciated!

Kernsy

[Molokai]

the great gatsby is, in my opinion, the best american novel. one thing that comes to mind is the giant eyes that fitzgerald mentions on the billboard (between west and east egg, i think). the eyes are those of god that watches on impassionately while the characters drives back and forth to their ultimate folly.

[Koa]

i read it a few years ago and i was delighted when i finished it....because i was finding it SO boring! :rolleyes: Maybe i wasnt paying too much attention and that's why i didn't appreciate it... I'll put it in the long list of things to re-read one day....

[Robert E Lee]

the great gatsby is, in my opinion, the best american novel. one thing that comes to mind is the giant eyes that fitzgerald mentions on the billboard (between west and east egg, i think). the eyes are those of god that watches on impassionately while the characters drives back and forth to their ultimate folly.

I disagree. You can note that racism is an important theme of the novel. The fact that Tom Buchanan is both the embodiment of evil and a racial supremacist does not mean that Fitzgerald intended to represent racism as evil. During the 20s it was quite fashionable to be either racist (this is shortly after the beginning of the second Klan) and/or fascist (Mussolini had just come to power in Italy). Although the artists are today seen as being liberals and libertarians, this was not the case then.

The eyes on the billboard are those of a doctor named T.J. Eckleberg, who is, like Meier Wolfsheim, obviously a Jew. One of the central themes of the novel is that the upper class is losing the nobility and culture which had been associated with it in the past. Fitzgerald, when he makes Wilson say that the eyes are the eyes of G-d, is pointing out that the Jews control and oppress the working classes.

If the eyes merely represented G-d, Fitzgerald would not have made it so obvious by having Wilson refer to them as such. Fitzgerald is known as one of the more subtle symbolists of the 20s. And if the eyes represented G-d, what kind of statement was Fitzgerald intended to make? That G-d sees everything? Come on. That's not very deep.

[Molokai]

your point of view is...interesting. i think the eyes on the billboard symbolize the fading of God's power in the modern world. Whereas God was once a domineering influence in everyday life, Fitzgerald shows him to no longer have that power to sway. The modern world, breaking away from social, idealogical, and religious constraints, has rendered God an impotent observer.

As for racism being "trendy" at this point in time, I can't say. Obviously, politcal correctness was decades off. I can, however, refer you to the example of Ruyard Kipling and "The White Man's Burden". Several writers from Fitzgerald's time, including Yeats and Elliot looked down on his racism. Just an observation.

[Robert E Lee]

your point of view is...interesting. i think the eyes on the billboard symbolize the fading of God's power in the modern world. Whereas God was once a domineering influence in everyday life, Fitzgerald shows him to no longer have that power to sway. The modern world, breaking away from social, idealogical, and religious constraints, has rendered God an impotent observer.

As for racism being "trendy" at this point in time, I can't say. Obviously, politcal correctness was decades off. I can, however, refer you to the example of Ruyard Kipling and "The White Man's Burden". Several writers from Fitzgerald's time, including Yeats and Elliot looked down on his racism. Just an observation.

1) Rudyard Kipling's "White Man's Burden" is a racist poem. It conveys the typical imperialist message that the White Man must help the savages to help themselves.
2) T.S. Eliot, according to the great neo-Beatnik poet Amiri Baraka, WAS an anti-Semite.
3) Virginia Woolf and several other writers of the time were anti-Semites.
4) Ezra Pound went to Italy to kiss Mussolini's ***.
5) The only prominent anti-Fascist 1920s writer I can think of is Ernest Hemingway; and his portrayal of Jews in the Sun Also Rises wasn't nice.

I doubt that the eyes represent G-d's diminishing power. You have to remember that in post-WWI America there was a great Protestant revival headed by evangelists like Billy Sunday. Sure, it was also the beginning of liberal Christianity, and many Americans drank like hell; but I don't think religion is a dominant theme of this book.

Nor does Fitzgerald condemn the upper-class 20s society for its dissoluteness. He emphasizes its shallowness and hedonism. Yes, Tom Buchanan's actions are immoral, but Buchanan himself represents the old-style husband who considers infidelity serious only when a woman commits it. Therefore Fitzgerald criticized traditionalism as hypocritical.

[waxmephilosophical]

Kernsy - look out for color symbolism. There's lots of it in Gatsby. I can't remember any specifics right now, but give me a few days to find my old notes and I'll get back to you.

[wimpkin]

fitzgerald uses a lot a literary devices: watch out for euphemisms, imagery, allusions, similes, metaphors, etc. His symbols include the valley of ashes (it will be referrred to throughout the book), the green light at the end of daisy's harbor, gatsby's house, the circus, east egg(old money) and west egg(new money). Aside from the bastardization of the American dream, they also bastardize God. The eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleberg symbolize God, and the point of the whole thing is that it's on an advertisement for an eye doctor in manhattan, and the ad is there to rake more money for the doctor...
there's a lot of racism and poorness involved..if you really understand the novel i know you will love it. i could ramble on and on and on for hours, but i'd rather not spoil your fun. hope this helps :rolleyes:

[peeru]

Actually, when i read Great Gatsby i found it a great novel. It shows how people sometimes think only about themselves no matter what happen to others. Also, it focuses on raicism and how it effects our way of judgment and our choices sometimes,even love cannot stand against what we have built inside our minds,and arround our hearts.

For poor Gatsby,he just paied his life for the sake of his love. And got nothing.

[sommerumarmung]

I don't know why, but I really did not like the Great Gatsby.