Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Great Gatsby


The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about a man named Nick Carraway who moves to the West Egg district of Long Island. As he gets to know his neighbor Jay Gatsby, he starts to learn about the mistakes of Gatsby's past and tries to help Gatsby put his life back together.



Gatsby fell in love with a girl named Daisy when he was very young, but Daisy found a better life for her self in the West Egg district of Long Island with her husband Tom. Gatsby, unlike Daisy, was never able to get over what could have been. He spends many nights looking across the water at a green light which comes from Daisy's house.



When Nick Carraway meets Gatsby at a party, Gatsby asks him for a a favor. Gatsby asked Nick to set up a meeting with him and Daisy so he could have the chance to talk to her. Gatsby doesn't realize that his fling with Daisy is in the past and she has set up a new life for herself. He can't see that she moved on and that he needs to do the same. He spent so much time thinking about her that he never lived his life like she did.

Gatsby didn't only seem to be in love with Daisy, it got to the point where you could consider it an obsession. He also seemed to be obsessed with the life style that she lived. Every night he thew extravagant parties in the hopes that Daisy would come to one of them. He lives off of money that he inherited and lives his life as high class as he can, but he is lonely because he never allows himself to make real relationships.

1) Is Gatsby really in love with Daisy, or is he in love with the idea of her and the life that she lives?

2) What are some of the consequences of living in the past, only imagining what could have been and regretting your decisions?

4 comments:

Avi D. 7/8 said...

2. Living in the past has good and bad consequences. On the up side, one can review his or her mistakes and learn and improve on them. However, if one were to dwell too much on the past, one would not be able to move on with life and look forward to the future.

Sarah N. 7-8 said...

1. I think that in the beginning Gatsby was in love with Daisy herself. However, I think that overtime his perception of love changed to not just loving her, but what she represents.

Morgan O 7-8 said...

I agree with Avi in that when you think about the past you can learn how to improve your situation and live a better life, but the way in which Gatsby reviewed the past was not good for him. He only ever focused on the past and how to make it come back to him which made him idealize Daisy.

Morgan O 7-8 said...

I partially agree with Sarah. I agree that in the begining he did truly love Daisy and that over time it changed to him loving what she represented, but i think he also worked up the idea of Daisy in his mind so that he began to forget who she really was and turn her into exactly what he wanted. Gatsby, therefore, loved the idea of Daisy along with the lifestyle she represents, and not who Daisy really is.