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**[[file:urban dictionary gatsby.ppt]]**
Chapter 7 Lecture Notes: Beth Anne S./Michele C.
 * Chapter 7:**


 * Characterization:**

The Gatsby video that we watched in class briefly mentioned alternative titles Fitzgerald considered for his novel…in researching this, we found that earlier drafts of this book were published under //Trimalchio: An Early Version of The Great Gatsby//. Here’s an interesting tid-bit of information courtesy of Wikipedia (We know that’s not generally acceptable, but as this is a wikispace we decided it would be ok to keep to the system)

“Trimalchio is a character in the Roman "novel" //The Satyricon// by Petronius. Trimalchio is a freedman who through hard work and perseverance has attained power and wealth. The name Trimalchio…means "thrice-blessed". Trimalchio is known for throwing lavish dinner parties, where his numerous servants bring course after course of exotic delicacies…he sought to impress his guests - the Roman nouveau riche, mostly freedmen - with the ubiquitous excesses seen throughout his dwelling. By the end of the banquet, Trimalchio's drunken showiness leads to the entire household acting out his funeral, all for his own amusement and egotism.” (en.**wikipedia**.org/wiki/**Trimalchio**)

//“It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night- and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over”// (Fitzgerald, 113).

It appears that Gatsby was based upon the character of Trimalchio, obviously explaining why he would have considered an alternative title. This quote introduces Chapter 7, and provides significance in the figurative death of Gatsby as a “Trimalchio” figure. Extending into the realm of symbols, his death as Trimalchio is analogous to the symbolic extinguishing of the green light representative of Gatsby’s hope and dreams. There is no longer a need for Gatsby’s Trimalchio-esque party extravaganzas now that he has obtained Daisy; his dream is being fleetingly fulfilled, and he doesn’t seek to impress anyone. Consequentially, this statement marks the seventh chapter as the turning point of the plot and of Gatsby’s characterization, cueing the rest of the book to move on to display the disintegration of his ultimately unattainable dream.

//“Their eyes met, and they stared at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table. ‘You always look so cool,’ she repeated”// (Fitzgerald, 119).

This exchange between Daisy and Gatsby is really an expression of their love. It is the first time that it really sinks in for Tom, and he looks at Daisy like she is a distant stranger.

//“You resemble the advertisement of the man,” she went on innocently”// (Fitzgerald, 119).

Daisy compares Gatsby to an advertisement; an idealized version of something, an object of materiality. To Daisy, Gatsby represents lavish wealth and a prolonged duration of her youth, which is what attracts her to him.

"She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw. He was astounded. His mouth opened a little, and he looked at Gatsby, and then back at Daisy as if he has just recognized her as some one he knew a long time ago" (Fitzgerald 119).

Daisy is flaunting her relationship with Gatsby in front of Tom. She is being rash, and acting like a child not caring about the ultimate consequences and ramifications her actions have on the other characters, in particular Gatsby.

Tom's pride completely comes out in this chapter. Also how hypocritical of a man he truly is. He seems to convince even himself of the lies he tells to other people.

"I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out . . . Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they'll throw everything overboard and have internarriage between black and white," (Fitzgerald pg 130).


 * Plot:**

The beginning scene of Chapter 7 is very repetitious; in fact, it is almost exactly the opening scene from Chapter 1. Jordan and Daisy sit together on the same couch, Tom receives a call from his mistress. Although Gatsby is now here, nothing has really changed in her life. This is perhaps foreshadowing Daisy’s later rejection of Gatsby for Tom; this affair with Gatsby is more of a game for her.

The introduction of Tom and Daisy’s child is very interesting. For both parents, the little girl seems more of a pawn, something to show off.

Wilson reveals that he knows that Myrtle has been having an affair. However, he is not aware that Tom is the person she has been having the affair with. The grief he is feeling has caused him to look physically sick, and Tom starts to see some of the consequences of his actions.

"I started at him and then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less than an hour before and it occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in their intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well. Wilson was so sick that he looked guilty, unforgivable guilty --- as if he just got some poor girl with child" (Fitzgerald pg 124).

Tom shows some remorse when he tells Wilson that he will give him his car, so that Wilson may in turn sell it and use the money to move out West.

The big confrontation between Tom and Gatsby also erupts. The tension is surrounding the 5 characters throughout the chapter, and finally is let out at the Plaza Hotel. ""What kind of row are you trying to cause in my house anyhow?' They were out in the open at last and Gatsby was content," (Fitzgerald pg 129). The battle wages on between Tom and Gatsby both trying to beat the others pride. Ultimately Tom is victorious, delivering a blow when he gets Daisy to admit that she loves him too. Also note, that we learn Gatsby is involved in the underground alcohol business and other illegal activities.

Myrtle’s death serves to resolve the plot. Daisy is driving the car, but Gatsby says he will take all the blame. Her demise was brought about by the carelessness of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Ultimately, this is the point when Nick decides that he can no longer remain here with this crowd. Jordan displays her cold personality here


 * Symbolism:**

//“ ‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money- that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it…High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl…”// (Fitzgerald, 120).

Daisy is described here as a golden girl in her white palace – a poetic description that is extremely accurate. Daisy is the center of Gatsby’s ideal aspirations. Since the scale of Gatsby’s life has always been measured on a scale of monetary wealth, it is appropriate that he considers her to qualify as the “golden girl” and the princess in his romance.

Nick turns 30 years old, realizing that the day all of Chapter 7 occurs is in fact his birthday. The 30th birthday, a milestone date, is symbolic of youth’s passing. As Gatsby is rejected by Daisy and his dream is crushed, Nick hits a turning point in his life as well.

Automobiles: The cars serve to advance the plot and also serves as a symbol of recklessness, the same type that, in the end, drives Nick away from the Long Island world.


 * See also: Heat** in //writing style//


 * Themes:**

Those who try to sustain themselves in a world of idealism based on materialistic values are doomed by their self delusion/disillusion. Dream versus reality – The dream can be blinding, and the reality does not measure up to the ideal. This mirror Fitzgerald’s ideas of the American dream.


 * //“Picking up Wilson like a doll, Tom carried him into the office, set him down in a chair, and came back. ‘If somebody’ll come here and sit with him,’ he snapped authoritatively.”// (Fitzgerald, 141).**

It seems here that Tom finally realizes to some degree the consequences of his selfishness and his actions. He uses his strength and authority to make sure that Wilson is taken care of. Although Myrtle’s death is obviously a very personal loss to him, he continues to show himself as the stolid character. He cannot show his emotion, but he can take control as usual.


 * //“‘Daisy’s leaving you.’ ‘Nonsense.’ ‘I am, though,’ she said with visible effort”// (Fitzgerald, 133).**

Daisy has trouble facing the fact that she cannot have both the secure world of Tom and the attention of Gatsby. She attempts to stall, not giving a direct answer. The fact that she can’t admit that she never loved Tom is the moment when Gatsby’s dream dies for good. Despite any efforts to revive the old dream, Gatsby has lost. Daisy is a weak character- she gives in to the stronger force, and that force is Tom. - Tom is so full of himself that he allows Daisy to drive home with Gatsby as a show of confidence


 * //“‘Was Daisy driving?’ ‘Yes,’ he said after a moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was’…. ‘How long are you going to wait?’ ‘All night, if necessary’”// (Fitzgerald, 143-144).**

Gatsby refuses to give up on his dream. He stakes out a spot outside the Buchanan’s to make sure that Daisy is okay. Regardless of her betrayal, he still desires to protect her. Essentially, he is watching over nothing, and his stubbornness is almost pathetic. However, his willingness to sacrifice for a dream he inwardly realizes cannot be attained, earns Nicks respect.


 * Writing Style:**

Fitzgerald consistently refers to the rising temperature outside. While intended superficially to mean hot weather, it can be interpreted symbolically as a representation of the building of tensions. Fitzgerald displays a very vivid style here in the descriptive passages, using careful word choice to create the mood of heat and building underlying tension. In a way, the writing is very poetic.


 * //“My commutation ticket came back to me with a dark stain from his hand. That any one should care in this heat whose flushed lips he kissed, whose head made damp the pajama pocket over his heart!”// (Fitzgerald, 115)**

Note: Use of symbolic colors of silver= rich, white = Daisy’s color…the pure and unattainable


 * //“Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like//** //silver **idols weighing down their own** white **dresses against the** singing breeze **of the fans”**// **(Fitzgerald, 115).**

"There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were clipping precipitately from his control" (Fitzgerald pg 125).

The way that Fitzgerald describes Ton's unwillingness to let control slip from him is played out perfectly in these two sentences. The panic, anxiety, fear, and fragility of the situation are all captured within these lines.


 * Chapter 8:** Rosalie and Hannah

//“[Gatsby] had committed himself to the following of a grail//” (149)
 * Characterization:**

Jay Gatsby- His past is finally truthfully fleshed out with the story of his courtship with Daisy. The story reveals why he fell in love with Daisy, and how his obsession with earning money and appearing to have a rich lifestyle emerged as a result of wanting to both impress and woo Daisy. He wants to win Daisy’s heart; in order to do so he must enter her class by gaining material wealth. To achieve this goal he creates a false persona and resorts to crime in order to impress. Win her and return to their shared past. His faith to Daisy and obsession with living in his past is shown by both his willingness to wait by her window until four in the morning and by his visit to Louisville after the war, when both times daisy showed no desire or necessity for him to be there. · //“He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn’t realize just how extraordinary a “nice” girl could be. She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby – nothing. He felt married to her, that was all.//” (149) · “//I can’t describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her, old sport. I even hoped for a while she’d throw me over, but she didn’t, because she was in love with me too.//” (150) · “//Well there I was, ‘way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love any minute, and all of a sudden I didn’t care. What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?//” (150) – Once he can’t tell her what he’s going to do because he loses her, he feels he must do the things in order to impress her · “//’Nothing happened,’ he said wanly. ‘I waited, and about four o’clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light//.’” (147)

Daisy is non-committal, just trying to get the best catch. If she can’t rebel by having a relationship with Gatsby, she’ll go after the rich, macho man. Shows similar characteristics to before, her frivolousness and almost spoiled qualities of being loved by all around her become even more apparent as you learn of her past. “//Through this twilight universe Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men//” (151). Her world includes “//pleasant cheerful snobbery”// (151)

Jordan – Continues what was started in Chapter VII in her association with the East Egg old money over Gatsby and the West Egg, her matter of fact bluntness is also portrayed, such as when she tells Nick “//You weren’t so nice to me last night… However- I want to see you//” (155)

George Wilson – Learn he belongs to no church but appears to have a belief in some all-seeing and judging God, especially as shown through the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. · “//God sees everything//” (160) · “//You may fool me, but you can’t fool God//” (159) He also shows intense love, devotion, or desire to control Myrtle even after her death. He refuses to have let her “lover” have the last say with her by killing her, hence his desire to hunt down Gatsby and avenge her death.

Nick Carraway – Comes to the realization about how he views Gatsby vs. The East Egg/Old Money crowd, “//They’re a rotten crowd’ I shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth more than the whole damn bunch put together.//’” (154) This realization also puts into words something Nick has been searching for how to say throughout the entire novel, such as when he says “//I felt that I had something to tell him, something to warn him about, and morning would be too late//” (147).

· Gatsby tells of how nothing occurred the night before between him and Daisy (147) · Gatsby’s history is repeated again (148-151) · Don’t empty pool, keep it filled (153) · Nick doesn’t meet with Jordan (155) · Nick can’t get through to Gatsby on the phone (155) · George spends much of his time after Myrtle’s death sitting still, or sometimes talking to himself. It isn’t until he decides to start taking action that the plot in this chapter is accelerated. (156-158) · The murder of Gatsby is addressed almost in passing, never mentioned directly (162)
 * Plot:**Inaction – Much of the plot (especially the first half of the chapter) focuses on things not happening

Yellow- wealth and fast paced life - racing yellow trolley (153), yellow car - //“…the sun, which as it sank lower, seemed to spread itself in benediction over the vanishing city where she had drawn her breath.”// (153)
 * Symbolism:**

Blue- A dreamlike state marking the awakening of Gatsby, Wilson, and others from their past illusions. (159)

“//Two stale dry cigarettes//” (148) represent reality- Gatsby no longer gives the impression of perfect achievement of the American dream. Weather- · Sudden switch of seasons to autumn and sudden rush of heat out of summer (hottest day of the year -> Autumn in one day) shows sudden rush of faith and hope out of Gatsby’s dream of life and love with Daisy. “//The night had made a sharp difference in the weather and there was an autumn flavor in the air//” (153) · Gatsby has an inability to let go of both the summer weather and his love for Daisy “//Don’t [drain the pool] today…You know, old sport, I’ve never used that pool all summer?//” (153) · Shift to coolness in temperature like the shift to cordiality in the relationship between both Daisy and Gatsby and Nick and Jordan. Everything cools off. The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg- · George Wilson sees them as a judging God · Myrtle seems to almost grasp his vision, as being forced into the line of judgment of the eyes sends her into a panic and helps lead to her ensuing death. · “//Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking into the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night//” (159) · “//’God sees everything’ repeated Wilson//” (160) Lack of Meaning in Symbols- · Michaelis tries to convince George that the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg symbolize nothing, “’That’s an advertisement,’ Michaelis assured him.” (160) · Gatsby’s dreams are punctures, and as a result Nick believes that Gatsby must have realized the pointlessness of many symbols/things e previously valued o “//He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is, and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass.”// (161)


 * Themes:**

Though desired by many, material wealth eventually brings oppression rather than complete fulfillment.


 * While hunting for cigarettes Nick notices that the house is “enormous,” has “curtains…like pavilions,” “innumerable feet of dark wall,” and “musty” (Fitzgerald 147-148). After the exposure of the impossibility of Gatsby’s dream, his opulence is more a hindrance than a pleasure.
 * //“Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves…”// (150). Wealth may set one on a pedestal but it becomes controlling to the point that there is no escape from the //“artificial world”// (151).
 * //“He must have felt that he had… paid a high price for living too long with a single dream”// (161)

Dwelling on the past prevents one from moving forward.


 * Gatsby “//clutches at some last hope//” though events seem have brought more distance between the former lovers. (148)
 * Gatsby even realized, after his last visit to Louisville, that he had lost a part of his past.
 * Wilson also displays this attribute when he refuses to face life in his altered circumstances and instead ends the life of both Gatsby and himself.


 * Writing Style:**

Fitzgerald creates a mood of oppression early in this chapter which foreshadows Gatsby’s untimely death that follows.


 * //“A fog horn was groaning incessantly on the Sound, and I tossed half-sick between grotesque reality and savage frightening dreams.”// (Fitzgerald 147)
 * Correlation to the dream on page 99
 * Fog horn is a warning


 * Ashes, dust, and fog create half blind perceptions.
 * //“There was an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere…”// in Gatsby’s house clouding the dream that used to be quite vibrant. (147)
 * Even Daisy’s house was filled with //“shining dust”// which, representing wealth, blinded those who participated in the lifestyle of the rich. (151)
 * Also included in half-things is Wilson’s half-knowing, half-bewildered look in his faded eyes (157). Wilson is blinded by a revengeful passion and jealousy of the rich man (presumably Gatsby) who stole his wife.


 * A motif of ghosts/ghostliness flows through this chapter furthering the depiction of the dead dream. Ghostly birds (152), eyes of billboard emerge as the blueness of the delusion turns to daylight (160), //“A new world, material without being real, poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about… like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees.”// (161)

Fitzgerald interjects to complete the story of Gatsby’s past and give purpose to all of his former actions.

Gatsby makes many references to weather and the changing season from hot summer to cooling autumn. Autumn happens to mark both the beginning and end of Gatsby’s delusion. The //“old warm world”// was lost when the object of greatest passion, Daisy, left Gatsby’s life forever. Because it is no longer summer, much of nature has also lost its beauty. Blinded for so long by his affluence and the beauty of summer, Gatsby finally must have //“looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how rare the sunlight was upon the newly created grass.”//(161). When examined closely things are not as they initially appear.

//“With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool. A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden.”//(Fitzgerald 162)


 * Ch. 9: S.J./Jamie/Beth Anne**


 * Characterization:**

//“I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all – Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life”// (Fitzgerald, 176).

Nick finally realizes this carelessness of eastern society. The Buchanans retreat West when they realize that they are not cut out for this society, but leave everything to be straightened out by others.

Tom is filled with self-pity over the loss of Myrtle, which again testifies to his selfishness. Daisy never tells Tom the truth about the accident, which shows the carelessness of her personality. .

As we previously saw, Nick, contrasting the Eastern carelessness, desires a clean cut from Jordan and his matters in New York. He terminates the relationship, and points out that he is now thirty. He realizes that he is too old to lie to himself about being honest. This recognition that he is not the honest person he once built himself up to be goes against his earlier statement in Chapter 3 that he is one of the few honest people he knows, and shows the change that has occurred in his character.

Gatsby remains an ambiguous character. As Nick tries to get people to show up to his funeral, we realize that no one person truly knows Gatsby. A vague understanding of his life can only be obtained by piecing together fragments of his life as portrayed by those he knew.


 * Plot:**

In this final chapter, Nick assumes the responsibility of organizing Gatsby’s funeral. His sense of duty contrasts with Tom and Daisy’s irresponsibility when they leave.

It is interesting to see the difference between Gatz’s memory of his son and Wolfsheim’s; the father of Jimmy, and the man who made Gatsby. Both remember his youthful ambition and his classic American spirit. With Gatsby’s corruption, the American spirit also seems to be corrupt.

//“He [Mr. Gatz] had reached an age where death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise, and when he looked around him now for the first time and saw the geight and splendor of the hall and the great rooms, his grief began to be mixed with an awed pride”// (Fitzgerald, 168).

Gatsby’s father knows his son as someone driven by hard-working ambition and adventure. For Gatz, he sees for the first time what his son had obtained in his lifetime (the “splendor of the hall and the great rooms”) and his reaction is a powerful mixture of awe and grief of the realization that the son who went after the American dream is now dead. The dream has died with him.


 * Symbolism/Writing Style**:

//The drunken woman/carelessness// //“I see it as a night scene by El Greco: a hundred houses, at once conventional and grotesque, crouching under a sullen, overhanging sky and a lusterless moon. In the foreground four solemn men in dress suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken woman in a white evening dress. Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels. Gravely the men turn in at a house- the wrong house. But no one knows the woman’s name, and no one cares”// (Fitzgerald, 176).

In a clear example of his descriptive writing, Fitzgerald uses this scene to embody the concept of the carelessness of the East

//Gatsby’s childhood schedule//: the schedule places Gatsby in a light of a hardworking child driven by the desire to advance and get ahead. In a way, it shows his future desire to isolate himself from his society in order to rise above it. This is how his father sees his son; the typical youthful American hero who has what it takes to achieve the American dream.

//The green light// (see theme)


 * Themes/ writing style:**

//The last few paragraphs…// //“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 faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning//-” (Fitzgerald, 180).

Fitzgerald’s writing style is very intriguing in this passage. He skillfully places optimism and downfall all in one sentence, ending without explicitly stating what he was trying to say, but leaving us with rich implications.

//“And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes – a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams” (Fitzgerald, 180).//

The main theme becomes clear in the novel’s last paragraphs. The green light which drove Gatsby’s ambitions is compared to the “green breast of the new world.” The language employed here implies that for the early people moving East, the promise of the American dream was like that of a woman. Similarly, Gatsby’s dream is situated around a woman. Gatsby’s role is extended to become a symbol for America itself. He parted himself from his early past in order to try and realize his dream. His death reiterates the idea that the ideal can never be realized when surrounded by materialism. Symbolically, the “green” freshness of America is nothing more than an empty dream of dust and ash. Gatsby was blinded by his dream.

Note: The use of “pandered” is a really excellent word to describe the corruption of the human dreams.

Rosalie H. Beth Anne S. ** Michelle C.**
 * [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/user/pic/rhooper26-lg.jpg width="80" height="80" caption="rhooper26"]]

S.J. S. Jamie G. Hannah S.