The Green Light

The Green Light;

The green light is a symbol for hope and promise - a hope that the "ash heap" of the present will change to that of a great future, where dreams come true and the American Dream is realized. (https://www.msu.edu/~millettf/gatsby.html) The person that this green light is affecting is Gatsby, the hope that is instilled in him is for Daisy. His hope lies in the fact that he hopes that him and Daisy can reunite in love, not just friendship. Nick remembers the night he saw Gatsby stretching his arms out to the water and realizes that the green light he saw was the light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Thus proving that this hope is for Daisy.

"If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay... You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock." The green light on Daisy’s house that Gatsby gazes wistfully at from his own house across the water represents the "unattainable dream." But the green light also represents the hazy future, the future that is forever elusive, as Nick claims in the last page of the novel, "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – to-morrow we will run farther, stretch out our arms farther…." The interesting question is, if the green light is the future, how is it so tied up with Daisy and the dreams of the past?(http://www.shmoop.com/great-gatsby/symbolism-imagery.html)


The green light is probably one of the most important symbols in The Great Gatsby. Green is the color of hope and it first appears when Gatsby stares across the bay towards a green light at the end of a dock (21,8ff.). Later the reader finds out that this light stands on Daisy Buchanan’s dock. In the context of the novel this green light represents Gatsby’s hope to meet Daisy again and a chance to win her back. “Gatsby believed in the green light”(128, 26). (http://www.ovtg.de/3_arbeit/englisch/gatsby/Symbols.html)

East Egg vs. West Egg

In The Great Gatsby there are two cities separated by The Valley of Ashes, East Egg & West Egg. The author, Fitzgerald, uses these two cities to represent two classes of wealth (old wealth and new wealth). You can tell what kind of people live in what city. The people in East Egg, such as the Buchanans, have come from families who have always had money; they have been well educated at Ivy League colleges such as Yale. Those in West Egg, on the other hand, like Gatsby, are new to great wealth. They don't come from wealthy backgrounds; rather, they have made their own fortunes. Gatsby has had family that was wealthy, but all of his family passed so that is where his money comes from. Instead of Ivy League college degrees, people in West Egg are more likely to have work experience gained while they made their money, like Nick Carraway.

Nick Carraway, a native of the Midwest, lives in West Egg, but instead of buying an extravagant house like Gatsby, he get a small cottage. Nick is more like those in East Egg because of his background, but he chooses to live in West Egg because he's trying to make it in the bond business and doesn't have much money of his own. The East Egg citizens are portrayed as corrupt and mean while those in West Egg are seen are less sophisticated, and more innocent. Sadly, the residents of East Egg are consumed with material things because money has run their lives since birth. Thankfully, for those residents in West Egg, have more morals and are less absorbed in their wealth. Fitzgerald mentioned in the text that West Egg was 'less fashionable', I don't see this to be a bad thing. Like previously stated they are not wrapped up in their money, and only focusing on material things such as clothes.

Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. Alas, this again results in the cash hounds that inhabit East Egg. East is more about that social standards and values, and West is more about morals. (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/section3.rhtml) The West is described as the country of “wide lawns and friendly trees” (p.7,5 ), “prairies” and “lost Swede towns” (p.125,19). East Egg represents the old aristocracy, West Egg the newly rich, the valley of ashes the moral and social decay of America, and New York City the uninhibited, amoral quest for money and pleasure. (http://www.chacha.com/question/what-are-the-major-differences-between-east-egg-and-west-egg-in-the-book-the-great-gatsby)


-It's Gatsby Baby

Selfish

1 : concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself : seeking or concentrating on one's own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others
2 : arising from concern with one's own welfare or advantage in disregard of others
3 : being an actively replicating repetitive sequence of nucleic acid that serves no known function ; also : being genetic material solely concerned with its own replication

Selfishness is in The Great Gatsby, and it provides the reasoning for the title. Nick Carraway, the narrator, awards the title "great" to Gatsby not because Gatsby is a good or honest person ( because in reality he is not) or because his romantic quest to win Daisy Buchanan away from her husband is realistic or commendable ( this isn't true either). Gatsby deserves to be called "great" because of all the major characters protrayed by the narrator, he alone manages to break free from an exclusive obsession with himself and his own needs. He pursues Daisy as an ideal beyond himself, the "green light" at the end of the dock that Nick sees him yearning for the first time he encounters Gatsby. He is not selfish and cynically accepting of his selfishness, in the way that Jordan Baker and Daisy Buchanan are, nor is he lost in the almost childlike self-absorption and self-pity that characterizes Tom Buchanan. He will even go so far as to pretend that it was he and not Daisy who was at the wheel of the car that killed Myrtle Wilson (chapter 7). In a society of self-centered people, Gatsby alone preserves the "capacity for wonder" that in the narrator's view has been lost from modern American society.
(http://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/q-and-a/what-theme-selfishness-great-gatsby-how-similar-22863)

-It's Gatsby Baby.

Prohibition in the 1920's

During Prohibition, the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages were restricted or illegal. Prohibition was supposed to lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems, lower taxes needed to support prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. Instead, Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; organized crime blossomed; courts and prisons systems became overloaded; and endemic corruption of police and public officials occurred. Prohibition began on January 16, 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect. Even though the sale of alcohol was illegal, alcoholic drinks were still widely available at "speakeasies" (an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. ) and other underground drinking establishments. Because Prohibition banned only the manufacturing, sale, and transport - but not possession or consuming of alcohol, some people and institutions who had bought or made liquor prior to the passage of the 18th Amendment were able to continue to serve it throughout the prohibition period legally.

The story is set in the early 1920s, just after World War I, during Prohibition, a time period that outlawed the manufacture, sale, or consumption of alcoholic beverages. This is significant not only because Gatsby’s ill-gotten wealth is apparently due to bootlegging, but also because alcohol is conspicuously available, despite being illegal, throughout the book. Indeed, the characters are seen drinking expensive champagne – suggesting that the wealthy are not at all affected by these laws.

In 1933, the legislatures of the states ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed Amendment XVIII and prohibited only the violations of laws that individual states had in regard to "intoxicating liquors". Federal Prohibitionary laws were then repealed. Some States, however, continued Prohibition within their own jurisdictions. Almost two-thirds of the states adopted some form of local option which enabled residents to vote for or against local Prohibition; therefore, for a time, 38% of Americans still lived in areas with Prohibition. By 1966, however, all states had fully repealed their state-level Prohibition laws.

Just comes to show that America will find a way around just about any law. That is if it makes life any more fun, or makes you the life of the party.
-It's Gatsby Baby
(http://www.1920-30.com/prohibition/)

Flappers: The Younger Generation

In the 1920s, a new kind of woman was born. She smoked, drank, danced, and voted. She cut her hair, wore make-up, and went to parties. She was giddy and took risks. She was a flapper. Historians of the 1920s have described the “new woman” who emerged in the decade, politically active, working for wages, and more frank about their sexuality.

The term "flapper" first appeared in Great Britain after World War I. There was a short fad among young women to wear rubber galoshes (an overshoe worn in the rain or snow) left open to flap when they walked. It was also used to describe young girls, still somewhat awkward in movement who had not yet entered womanhood. Fitzgerald described the ideal flapper as "lovely, expensive, and about nineteen." So ideally, the flapper was a young, hot, but not to trashy woman. (When broken down, it doesn't seem so glamorous.)

The 'Flapper Image' consisted of very drastic changes, including short hair as well as clothes Nearly every article of clothing was trimmed down and lightened in order to make movement easier. The flapper dress was boxy and hung straight from shoulder to knee, with no waistline, allowing much more freedom of movement. While it did not show breasts or hips, it did show a lot of leg. Flappers also started wearing make-up, something that had previously been only worn by loose women. Rouge, powder, eyeliner, and lipstick became extremely popular.

Not only were they different in appearance, but they had an attitude to match. Stark truthfulness, fast living, and sexual behavior. Flappers seemed to cling to youth as if they were going to die at any moment. They took risks, they wanted to be different and to announce their departure from the good girl image, they smoked. But that isn't all they did, they also drank alcohol illegally during the time of Prohibition. Way to live fast and die young, eh? Nonetheless, Flappers had fun doing all that wild and crazy stuff. It taught us modern day girls how to be bad;D -It's Gatsby Baby

The Big Green Monster

JEALOUSY!

1. Jealous resentment against a rival, a person enjoying success or advantage, etc., or against another's success or advantage itself.
2. Mental uneasiness from suspicion or fear of rivalry, unfaithfulness, etc.

3. Vigilance in maintaining or guarding something.

4. A jealous feeling, disposition, state, or mood.

There are many times when jealousy gets tied into The Great Gatsby, mainly because of the young, beautiful mistress, Daisy. Gatsby is jealous of Tom because he is married to the one that he loves and he also has the privilege to have her children. Nick is also a victim of jealousy when it comes to Daisy, for the same reason and he is also jealous of Gatsby and the wealth that he has. People begin to become oblivious of the outside world and think of themselves as a higher being, in this case, doing whatever they can to try and outshine the other to win the heart and love of Daisy. I also believe that the author was trying to show that sometimes one can hold on to a dream for so long, and try so hard to achieve it that it can leave you in misery instead of happiness. Ultimately leaving you with less than what you had originally.

-It's Gatsby Baby

Unrequited Love

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