Chapter 5 What about Gatsby could you associate with the American Dream?
The class said that:
- He is wealthy.
- He is independent (he is not considered to be living with anyone permanently).
- He represents hope and has hope himself (even his smile is hopeful to Nick, “It faced the whole eternal world for an instant.”)
- His desire for Daisy could imply his longing to start a proper life, including a relationship and maybe a family.
- His Rolls Royce car is a symbol of the American Dream, wealth and ownership.
- He has his own space around his home, which indicates his dream to own some land.
- Gatsby’s business is illegal (he is associated with Mr Wolfsheim’s gangster work) which means that he would do anything to go forward.
- His parties are popular; however, they turn quite sour towards the end, suggesting that people’s dreams didn’t always go smoothly and how they wanted things to turn out.
We turn to page 88, where Chapter 5 begins and we read and analyse within our groups. Nick has just come home after spending the whole day with Jordan Baker (we learn about Daisy and Gatsby’s past together in what seems to be Jordan’s words just before Nick and her get very close to one another..) and he meets Gatsby there, who is suppressing his eagerness. They agree over a day to have Daisy over which is very awkward for both Gatsby and Nick, however, we see the almost-sadistic personality of Nick as he does not bother to make Gatsby feel better about himself and does not make conversation with him, “hoping I’d begin conversation with him”. It seems as if he secretly enjoys the fact that Gatsby is uncomfortable and that his high status his being reduced. This side of Nick could relate back to him fighting in the army – he enjoys killing people. Here, we also see that Gatsby is very image-conscious, since he starts to talk about making everything perfect before Daisy’s arrival and subtly mentions that Nick needs to do this too by starting with cutting his grass, “I suspected that he meant my grass.” Image consciousness returns later on when Gatsby asks Nick whether or not his house looks nice just for reassurance.
On the day of Daisy’s arrival, Gatsby was, “in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-coloured tie”, the colours represent wealth and purity, he can ‘afford to get white dry-cleaned’, although it makes him seem flashy and as if he is trying too hard for the sake of Daisy. It is also raining, which could seem foreboding toward the storyline (pathetic fallacy). At Nick’s house, Gatsby leans against the clock and nearly drops it, but the fuss they made over it seems as if it actually fell over, to Nick. This implies how nervous Gatsby was. Nick stares out of the window towards Gatsby’s house relates to Kant, who was an 18th century philosopher who stared at a church steeple to steady his thoughts and help him think. This could be Nick’s situation, but also that he looks up to Gatsby and gives him a reason for carrying on with this whole evening. Gatsby’s house also used to be owned by a brewer who failed to have the American Dream, which could be foreboding for Gatsby since he’s living in his house. They take the “long way” to Gatsby’s house later just to show her his wealth. Lists of material possessions are seen here to emphasise conspicuous consumption – this also relates to when Gatsby is throwing his impressive and expensive shirts on the bed, showing Daisy his new found wealth. Here, Daisy starts to cry, which could imply that she feels as if Gatsby was her destiny, not Tom whom she does not love. The green light’s symbolism is emphasised here, this time, the amount it represented once is not there anymore – he has reached his dream (Daisy) and the dream isn’t there anymore and becomes unimportant.
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