The Great Gatsby
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Numbers in The Great Gatsby
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Number 80, 12000, 15000My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. . . . I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor's lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month.
eighty dollars a month: In Fitzgerald's pencil manuscript, Nick's rent has two figures, "at a hundred a month" and "all for fifty dollars a month." Fitzgerald finalized it to 80.
twelve or fifteen thousand a season: Turning over number 12000 may result 15000. Season has the usage of relish or flavor.
Nick's rent of 80 can be turned over to infinite-zero (∞–0). The relish of "a view of the water" could mean infinite to Nick, and "the consoling proximity of millionaires" zero at the beginning of the novel, the reverse at the end.
20 Dollars. Tom sleeps Wilson's wife. What owes Tom to Wilson?"What do I owe you?" demanded Tom harshly.
"I just got wised up to something funny the last two days," remarked Wilson. "That's why I want to get away. That's why I been bothering you about the car."
"What do I owe you?"
"Dollar twenty."
"Dollar twenty" sounds like dolor-twain/twine-tear.
25000And it was from Cody that he inherited money—a legacy of twenty-five thousand dollars. He didn't get it.Gatsby cannot have that money, because 25000 is the oblation offered to God: "All the oblation shall be five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand: ye shall offer the holy oblation foursquare, with the possession of the city" (Ezekiel 48:20). This figure appears over ten times in Bible.
Number 265From the two girls in yellow:
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"It was gas blue with lavender beads. Two hundred and sixty-five dollars."
gas blue: a hint on gas flames. Cause of the battleship Maine's explosion was assumed to be a Spanish mine, or spontaneous fire of gas from the ship's coal bunker. In the galley proof the color was set to "gray" and changed to "gas blue" in the first print.
lavender beads: Lavender has the usage of purple; beads of drops; "lavender beads" puns on drops of dried blood.
Two hundred and sixty-five dollars: The number 265 is roughly the men died in the battleship Maine. (The number wasn't really fixed that time.) 265 sounds like two-sicks-fight, the fight of two sick countries America and Spain, or two sick persons Pulitzer and Hearst.
Yeah and if you count up the number of times Herman Melville wrote the word "no" in 'Moby Dick' that naturally makes it a very 'negative' and 'discouraging' novel. Without any hope to offer us.Also: 'Faye Dunaway' sounds like "fading away". And why would any actor choose the name 'Rip Torn'?
Obvious conspiracy to disillusion mankind. Plots upon plots. The inexplicable alien tunnels under New Zealand, that's where enlightenment awaits.
Someone add that loon Monty to tomorrow morning's call sheet
A sound play should fit to its context, else has no true value.T. J. Eckleburg:
T = Tom (Buchanan), a male cat.
J = Jay (Gatsby), a colorful bird, doomed to be failed by a cat.
Eckleburg = a sound play of egger-burg.
egger = one who urges or incites (OED), indicating Tom and Jay.
burg = a town or city, indicating West and East Egg.
In all Fitzgerald's works, the word egger appears only once in The Great Gatsby:
Tom deferred that much to the sensibilities of those East Eggers who might be on the train.
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Mr. McKee had photographed his wife 127 times.
Number 127 appears only once in Bible as the years of life of Sarah, Abraham's wife: "Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah" (Gen. 23:1).
Mr. McKee should listen to his wife as God said unto Abraham, "in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice" (Gen. 21:12).
Some other number plays:
—eighty dollars a month
—twelve or fifteen thousand a season
—limited excellence at twenty-one
—two hundred and sixty-five dollars
—five deep in the drive
—twelve lemon cakes
—three hundred and fifty thousand dollars
—twenty-five thousand dollars