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The Great Gatsby
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The Great Gatsby: Sep 15-21 Chapters 5-7
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Jenn, moderator
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Sep 15, 2020 01:22PM
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Already finished complete novel, enjoyed the re-read better, but still think, Gatsby is one of the rare examples, when the movie (1974) was better than the novel. (The moment, while Gatsby and Daisy are still sitting in far distance, while Tom is in close routine with Myrtle) Coppola placed Jordans reckless-driving-scene on the way to the fatal meeting at the same point, where Myrtle will be killed later. Coppola tried to mend some short-comings of the novel, especially in the last chapters.
"It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the light of his house failed to go on one Saturday night—and as obscurely as it begun, his career as Trimalchio was over" (ch. vii).I knew that Trimalchio was to be the original title but not that the draft version has actually been published. Enjoying that sort of literary sleuthing, I may get it, but not for now. It's fascinating that Gatsby's resemblance to Petronius' character still most endures in popular imagination, especially for moviegoers. They associate him with the mansion and the wild parties full of freeloaders enjoying endless rivers of liquor, just as in the Satyricon we remember the ostentation of Trimalchio. (I love the notion that Petronius intended it as a satire on the Emperor Nero, though that's probably not true.) After finishing this chapter, I felt Gatsby evolved from a comic figure to a tragic character, a great man destroyed by his endeavor to win the love of a woman who doesn't deserve him.
So much happened in these three chapters.In chapter five we see the real Gatsby for the first time. He forgets to be suave, cool, and collected. All he wants is to see the woman he loves and make her understand that now he is worthy of her love.
It feels like this is the main part of Gatsby’s struggle, when we get told the true background story a little later on it feels obvious. The poor upbringing, working as a janitor, things he finds demeaning. He was trying so hard to make it that he left everything behind, even his true self. He changed his name and learned how to be successful.
He reaches for success to be better than the forgotten James Gatz, and in the end also to be worthy of the love of Daisy. Daisy has been privileged her entire life and Gatsby looks upon her as a dream, a goal, the ultimate success.
There’s a lot of nice symbolism with time. Nick’s clock that Gatsby breaks as he is meeting Daisy for the first time in five years. It feels to me like this is his inner clock breaking, the one that was frozen inside him. This is where the time starts up again and the dream he had built about Daisy is being crushed by reality. Things are awkward and after a while Gatsby is eager to show Daisy all his possessions, to win her over.
The head to head between Tom and Gatsby at the hotel was the final crushing of the dream. Daisy couldn’t live up to the image in Gatsby’s head, she hadn’t loved him, and only him, for every day these past five years. Not like he had. Everything he had done, the shady business, the nice house, the lavish parties had been for her but she had done nothing in exchange, she couldn’t even leave her husband, as she had said she would.
The fact that Daisy drove the car and Gatsby was going to take the blame just put the icing on the sad cake for me. Why not? He had already lost his dream and everything he had worked for, why not destroy himself for her as well.
Great observations. Thank you.
Great observations. Thank you.
