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Admirable Hooks
A not-so-great hook. Visit https://thisibelieve.org/youth/ and look at the various hooks (e.g., first sentences or paragraphs) of the...
A not-so-great hook. Visit https://thisibelieve.org/youth/ and look at the various hooks (e.g., first sentences or paragraphs) of the...
The essay claims that the novel is not urging that we reject opulence but reclaim the awe that it can inspire. Daisy and Gatsby seem to have either lost that or never had it in the first place; Gatsby never seems proud of or awed by the luxury he now lives in. However, I feel like Nick has retained this awe, and he shows it in his sweeping, overwrought descriptions. I’m not sure about the novel not having a message to not strive for luxury, though, because it shows us a lot of very unhappy, very rich people.
ReplyDelete“Nick has here restored to him the greatness of his desire”. Nick has left Gatsby with the legacy that he wanted to have his whole life. Nick wanted Gatsby to be remembered the way he described himself to others throughout the novel.
ReplyDelete"Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing how dreams intersect with realities." This shows the idea of Gatsby in the novel always dreaming about New York, his old life with Daisy, and Nick was a witness to that dreaming.
ReplyDelete"This might well be the most lyrical patch of prose in our literature. Taken by itself it sounds florid, overwrought. There is only the last sentence, implacable beneath the lulling sway of its syllables, to mitigate the visionary excess. But encountering it as we do on the far side of Gatsby's exploded paradise, we are stirred at the deepest level". I thought this was interesting because it shows a new aspect of thinking and it's something I had not thought of.
ReplyDeleteThe article describes the story as a “cautionary tale” because Gatsby let his “dreams intersect with realities”. Gatsby was trapped in the past and blinded by the image of Daisy, so he denied his actual reality. Instead of moving on, he held onto false hope that Daisy still loved him and that she would leave Tom. The story’s message warns that it’s okay to have ambitions, but only to an extent. Gatsby’s illusion was overly consuming and became dangerous. I wonder how the end could have been different if he had tried to pursue a new dream rather than chasing an old one.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Birkerts when he claimed that the novel "...is really cautioning us against selling ourselves short, against turning in fear or disappointment from the lyrical call of our nature". In my opinion, Gatsby is the perfect example of someone who refused to turn against his nature, and against all odds, kept hold of his dream. But, despite this, he died without achieving his dream and without leaving a grand legacy. Thus, I think that the novel is actually cautioning the reader to not chase dreams as Gatsby does, and I think this is especially emphasized by Fitzgerald showing the naivety and blindness of Nick's appreciation for Gatsby.
ReplyDeleteI think that the satisfaction we look for in a dream can only be found in the pursuit of that dream. That dream, will never be as satisfying as the chase itself.
DeleteI don't really think it is possible to sell ourselves short. If life is only what we make of it, we are only selling ourselves short of what other people think. In other words, anything can be fulfilling s long as you make it fulfilling. If whatever journey you are on now is enough then why try to convince yourself that it is actually not enough?
I agree!
In the article Birkerts describes the article as being "about the power of our expectation and out longing", which is a statement that I agree with. I think that throughout the entire novel, Gatsby longed for Daisy, and he longed to live the lifestyle that she lived. Gatsby created a life that was based around his longings and desires. He hoped that by changing his life and becoming rich would allow him to win over Daisy. The reason that Gatsby's life went in the direction that it did, was due to the fact that he longed for change and there was nothing he wanted more.
ReplyDeleteDo you agree with the statement that "every perfectly orchestrated description, is part of the design, guiding the reader to the romantic surge of the books final passages" or do you think that the details undermined the romantics of the novel?
ReplyDeleteBirkerts's point about Nick moving away from the honest mid-western guy he claim to be throughout the novel: "The man who began with both feet on the ground and his head screwed back on has unveiled the contrary side of his character.", was interesting to me. Birkerts notes how Nick describes Gatsby and his parties with reverence, but criticizes the Buchannons often. I definitely saw Nick change, but this point was very clarifying.
ReplyDeleteEvan Bak
"Nick sustains a wistful learning that the sad facts cannot destroy". I think that this is an interesting point and attests the the big idea that Nick realizes the American dream is not attainable.
ReplyDelete“Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing how dreams intersect with realities”. I agree with this statement. Gatsby was unable to let go of the past, turned it into a dream, and tried to make it his reality. Gatsby’s dream was okay but only when he took it too far did it ultimately lead to his downfall. I think the cautionary tale part of the book is reminding us to not take dreams so far that it could be dangerous.
ReplyDeleteThe author brings up that in a passage Nick "restored to [Gatsby] the greatness of his desire" and I thought that was an interesting detail. As the author points out, Nick has changed throughout the novel. This is exemplified by the fact that Nick defends Gatsby's dreams and tries to give meaning to Gatsby's seemingly impossible vision of the future.
ReplyDeleteI thought the authors point that the “stand up decent fellow from the Midwest, does not quite believe the tale - certainly not the lesson it would impart” I thought this was interesting and I agree that Nick’s langue can be “shrewd and cynical” throughout the story.
ReplyDeleteThis essay has me wondering about how to define the conflict in TGG. Man vs society seems to be the case that people have the most fun with and I think it's probably what Birkerts is getting at. Nick moves East and his struggle over most of the story is with the culture. I think this is a flimsy argument because his conflict is mostly with the people he's involved with. He wouldn't have gotten involved with the 20's New York party scene if he didn't fall in with this crowd of people, and one could argue that the conflict is Nick trying to juggle all these terrible people back and forth without anyone getting hurt, man vs man. Nonetheless, I would argue that TGG is more of a man vs self type story and Birkerts brings up a lot of points that support that. Nick is a boring, regular man who has to confront a new part of himself that he didn't know existed, and Birkerts's point about how Nick's prose develops shows this conflict. Nick is struggling to deal with a new environment and new people but his real issue is that he doesn't like the person he becomes when he's around these influences and now he has to deal with that part of himself for the rest of his life.
ReplyDeleteBirkerts mentions that Gatsby is "a cautionary tale," and I couldn't agree more. I believe that it is cautioning the danger of becoming too involved in a dream and stuck in the past that you are unable to live in the present and appreciate reality. Gatsby couldn't let go of what happened in the past, so he made it is goal and his dream to recreate it. He couldn't let go of what used to be and what he no longer had, that he couldn't stop and just appreciate what he actually had (because there was a lot to appreciate).
ReplyDeleteOne line that caught my eye was "Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing how dreams intersect with realities". Gatsby's ultimate fault was that he was blinded by his dream to be with Daisy. The dream itself is not the issue but rather how Gatsby let the dream take over his life, to the point at which he was unable to differentiate his life from it. Not only that, he let the dream get in the way of the lives of others. He dismissed the realities of everyone else in his life, which only brought the final disaster of the novel to an even greater scale.
ReplyDelete"To attain that status a novel ... must perpetually renew its relevance for audiences... true classics, survive the vagaries of the marketplace by tapping the stratum of the universal, embodying our essential dreams and conflicts."
ReplyDeleteThis line is a perfect explanation as to why the Great Gatsby works so well as a novel. It is an inherently relatable story by touching on themes of disappointment and dreams, concepts that transcend time. For example, Gatsby's blindness to him and Daisy's current situation leads him to end up dying and paying the price for dreaming about an average woman. His dreams and his lacking sense of reality literally result in his death. This was most likely a warning by Fitzgerald to Americans about how engrossed they can be in the American dream. It is a cautionary tale about how many Americans see greatness and speciality in a greatly flawed country and end up shocked when they are suddenly snapped back into reality. America itself isn't inherently bad, however people infuse America with ideas of true equality and greatness just like how Gatsby infused Daisy, an average woman, with ideas of greatness and beauty. History has shown multiple times the often tragic ways that people are forced back into reality (2008 recession, Great Depression, Civil War, Jim Crow laws, Japanese Internment) just like how Gatsby was forced to face the truth when Daisy never came out to meet him while he waited despite his sacrifices. Expectations and the dissapoint that come when those dreams are proven to be out of tune with reality is a pattern that is not exclusive to time or country.
- Seiyoung Jang
I though it was interesting how Burket said, "Nick has here restored [Gatsby] of his greatness". In the end, Gatsby's dream was left unfufilled and that was disappointing from the readers' and Nick's perspective. No one else in the whole book really cared if what Gatsby had been working toward for years, to regain his relationship with Daisy, happened. That is why this TGG is a cautionary tale, having only one possibly unattainable dream that you cannot finish could render your life worthless in the end.
ReplyDeleteI am really interested in the aspect that The Great Gatsby serves as cautionary tale. Birkerts says that it is a cautionary tale against "selling ourselves short, against turning in fear or disappointment from the lyrical call of our nature. Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing how dreams intersect with realities." I really wanted Gatsby to get a happy ending in this novel, but i agree that at some point you have to reality check yourself, especially when your dream is as out there as Gatsby's. If he were to check the realty of the situation he would have realized that five years was enough for a person to form attachments to another person.
ReplyDeleteI remember first reading this and being shocked about it being so old, because people still talk about the book so much today, and it being a timeless classic. Now after reading it you can understand why its such a classic, knowing most of us have never read a book like it, with so many different layers, relationships and timelines throughout the story.
ReplyDeleteTowards the end of the novel, I realized The Great Gatsby isn’t much of a love story at all, but rather like what Birkerts pointed out, “Gatsby is a cautionary tale.” It warns us that time is always passing and the risk of being stuck or holding on to the past and dreams for too long. Furthermore, this great American novel represents destruction, rooted in the principle of dreams, in the face of wealth and opulence.
ReplyDeleteBirkerts points out the the novel is a “cautionary tale”, but if so why does Gatsby die along with his dreams? Or was Gatsby simply a figure in the novel exemplifying what it means to live a full life to Nick?
ReplyDeleteAt one point Birkerts says, "Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing how dreams intersect with reality". I couldn't agree more with this statement. Gatsby spent much of his adult life obsessing over Daisy, when in reality she was never really his to begin with. He convinced himself that he was the only man she had ever loved, but she was in love with her husband still. His inability to separate dreams from reality ultimately led to his downfall. He died protecting Daisy because he thought that she would do the same for him.
ReplyDeleteThe article was beneficial because it led me to think but I had many problems with it. First of all it talks an awful lot about other stories and it’s not needed, she’s just ruining those stories for the next person the reads them. Secondly, I always thought it was pretty obvious that gatsby was cautionary and I didn’t like how she implied that’s all it is. there are a lot of things going on in the novel and it’s not simply a cautionary tale becuase after I was done reading I didn’t only feel “cautioned”.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting how Birkerts said that Gatsby’s problem wasn’t that he dreamed, it was that he didn’t understand how those dreams fit into the real world. I think this is an important point to make, because it’s easy to look at what Gatsby wanted rom Daisy and think that it was unfair of him to want it in the first place, but his fault was really just that he wasn’t willing to adapt or change his desires based on the real circumstances.
ReplyDeleteBirkerts says, “Gatsby in love is as foolishly human as any of us”. Beginning the novel, Gatsby was perceived as a high-class mysterious man. For Nick it seemed as if Gatsby was unreachable, only hearing about him from afar. Yet, as the novel progresses, Gatsby begins to unravel his humbling admiration for Daisy, proving that all the rumors and stigma around his name only masks the real Gatsby and does not define who he is.
ReplyDeleteReading this article a second time, after finishing the novel, really made me have a different view on it, the first time it was a bit hard for me to focus on what it was saying, but the second time, I understood everything that it talked about. Now I understand more why it is considered as a classic. Now I see what Birkets meant with "Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing how dreams intersect realities", and how it helped making the novel a classic. - Zoe Rigoulot
ReplyDeleteIn the article, Birkets states that the last passage of the novel "might as well be the most lyrical patch of prose in our literature." What makes something lyrical? What specifically about this passage was so lyrical?
ReplyDeleteI really liked the line, "Every Cadenza, every perfectly orchestrated description, is part of the design, guiding the reader to the romantic surge of the book's final passages". I especially like the world cadenza which the author put in. A cadenza is much more of a personal effect within a piece of music, as the player is able to decide what to do during that section of cadenza. Rather than usual rhythmic accuracy or dynamics, the choice is given to the player as to where they want their swells, their dips and their articulations. Through this, I can connect better with Fitzgerald by recognizing that every part of the book is by his design, and that can give insight into how he intends his listeners to hear his symphony of words.
ReplyDelete-Cameron Gurwell
I thought it was interesting that Birkets said that every stanza is part of the design. I noticed it when reading that the wording was always so precise and articulate. I also thought that the line about "cautionary tale" rung very true.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that Birkets says that the final passages of the book were "patiently prepared for". Every decision that Fitzgerald made was intentional and conscious.
ReplyDeleteIn the last paragraph Birket states, "if Gatsby is a book for us today, it is not so in the obvious moralizing way". This is interesting because I think the book has some parallel's to modern day but definitely in the 1920's people showed their wealth and their prestige differently. I think the idea of the America dream is one constant that has remained the same and could be the underlying theme that Birket states is for us today.
ReplyDelete“This ambivalence is never really resolved. There is the tale, and there is the teller. And time and again we are given clues that the teller, our collective mouthpiece, that stand-up decent fellow from the Midwest, does not quite believe the tale--certainly not the lesson it would impart” (Birkerts).
ReplyDeleteI liked this quote a lot because I feel like it encapsulates the theme of fitting in/belonging that is prevalent in the novel. Nick is a bit of a wild card in the story; he feels connected to Gatsby yet doesn’t completely let go of his “old money” roots.
I agree what Birkerts say about the power of our expectation and out longing as throughout the entire novel, Gatsby changed his lifestyle and longed for Daisy in order for her to accept him as a potential life partner. His life was mostly based on this desire to get his American Dream. He went from rags to riches in order to achieve his dream and fulfill his desire. His dedication for the change of lifestyle he longed for and the expectation of that desire, even though went in vain but shows the power of longing for something and putting your best effort to achieve it.
ReplyDeleteBirkets talks about how Nick changes as a character throughout the novel. He points out that Nick is an uptight Midwestern man who is morally sound, citing that the first thing the narrator (Nick) does is teach a lesson about morality. He then shows how Nick's character straying away from his original self by reflecting on Nick's changing reactions to parties. I hadn't really thought about the character development for Nick much but this made me look at Nick twice as a character
ReplyDeleteHe mentions the last few lines:
ReplyDelete“So we beat on like boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”
While Birkets describes this as showing the way that the Great Gatsby “is really cautioning us against selling ourselves short”, which makes perfect sense. I think there may be more in the boat metaphor.
Boats float, it’s almost saying that we all float and are dragged into our past and memories, that it’s only our humanity that keeps us afloat.
In the second page, Birkets mentions "Then, when his quixotic obsession with Daisy is revealed, his mysteriousness is replaced by an aura of tragic pathos-- Gatsby in love is as foolishly human as any of us". I agree with this and think that when we understand why Gatsby is in love with Daisy and when we begin to understand more about him is when everything starts going down hill. Before, he is this mysterious character, whose power rises from his mysterious aura, but when we know who he is, he seems like the weakest human being.
ReplyDelete"...then it is really cautioning us against selling ourselves short, against turning in fear of disappointment from the lyrical call of our nature. Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing how dreams intersect with realities".
ReplyDeleteThe novel isn't telling readers not to dream, its warning them of the dangers of forgetting reality while dreaming. It urges us to see ourself as capable and to not forget our worth but also to not overvalue it. Characters like Daisy, Tom and Jordan will forever be dissatisfied since they don't have any real value to their life and nothing in it is real- everything is staged. But Nick managed to realize he was better than the shallow society of the West and East Egg and he did what was best for him despite it not being the most validated decision. And for being able to follow this "lyrical call" and still seeing reality, he finds contentment.
Birkerts states that "Though Nick has alerted us in the first few pages to the crashing outcome, we forget. We forget because Nick forgets. His narration becomes fresh and expectant, untainted by hindsight" (2). I agree with this because when I read the Great Gatsby I became more focused on the drama between Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom; Gatsby being part of some secret or illegal organization; how many people around Nick are not very likable (ex. the people at Tom's party); than on the fact that the desire for money and material goods is what resulted in these events and behaviors happening in the first place. This makes the novel seem quite realistic, since it shows everyone, even the narrator, not being fully aware of societal problems in the moment, just like most people in the real world are not usually consciously aware of social issues, only aware in hindsight.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting when Birkerts stated that, "Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing how dreams intersect with realities." I think that this is a new idea, as I had thought of Gatsby as a delusional dreamer while reading the book. I think that Birkerts' description is more fitting, as ultimately it was his inability to understand the changing times and context of Daisy that lead to the downfall of his visions.
ReplyDelete"Gatsby in love is as foolishly human as any of us"(2). This is an interesting way to put his obsession with Daisy. His persona is there for Nick(and the reader) until we learn more about his situation with Daisy and after we are able to see Gatsby as more of a flawed human being than as this enigma he makes himself into in the beginning.
ReplyDeleteJona Lehmann
ReplyDelete"Our basic excessiveness is not about greed or display, nor is it a frantic escape from the roll-call confinements of dailiness. It is a surviving trace of the awe that set everything into motion"(5).
I think this is an interesting view to take because it seems like there are clues throughout the novel that signal that dreaming of excess is not actually individually motivated, but rather an idea that the powerful place into the minds of the powerless. One example is when Nick says "Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry"(93). There's clearly a mocking tone here, like Nick is making fun of the cognitive dissonance. Now maybe this implanted idea is what Birkets means by "the awe that set everything into motion". But if this is the case, what is the difference between the greed that Birkets claims this book is precisely not about, and the desire to achieve the opulence of which you have been shown glimpses by the opulent?
"Gatsby was not a fool for dreaming, only for not knowing how dreams intersect with realities" (5).
ReplyDeleteI like this interpretation of The Great Gatsby as a cautionary tale of ambition, as a story of rags to riches to a downfall. I think Birkets's analysis of the last line as a parallel to the American dream of immigrants was thought-provoking. Like immigrants to the United States sailing from Europe, Gatsby is a foreigner to the East and to New York. His dreams spin him into someone whom Nick, as Birkets describes, views in an "ambivalent" light, someone who is both ambitious and deserving of pity, but also deserving of scorn through his relentless pursuit of the past. He has dreams, stemming from his humble beginnings, that evolve both into a life of self-made glamour and riches, but also into him bringing his own tragic downfall because of his obsessive pursuit of Daisy.
-Oliver
“Even after Gatsby has fallen to earth, after the dark secrets have come out, the lessons been grudgingly learned, Nick sustains a wistful yearning that the sad facts cannot destroy.” (4)
ReplyDeleteI came to this same conclusion for a different set of reasons. Rather than Nick becoming a hopeless romantic, or having some kind of obsession with extravagance after living on the east coast, I felt that Nick had not really changed at all. He was still a child living out a series of events that even a hardened adult could not have adequately been prepared to comprehend. There were limits to the amount of change Midwestern Nick could have been exposed to while still retaining his dignity and all of the information from those experiences, and those limits were far surpassed fairly rapidly in the narrative. Nick is clearly a narrator in the sense that he is somewhat impartial. He takes an outsider's lens, and, through Fitzgerald’s mastery of his craft, very humanly is drawn through that lens into a world he is ill-equipped to take part in.