The Great Gatsby

on
The Great Gatsby
                    - F.Scott Fitzgerald

- This blog is part of task given by Dilip Sir.



Que-1 Read the article on the Book cover art and its connection to the novel's themes - and write your understanding of the symbolic significance of the book cover


Book cover's art connection with Novel's themes:

The iconic "Celestial Eyes" cover art by Francis Cugat for The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald. 

The article discusses how the cover art of The Great Gatsby, , connects to the novel’s themes and deeper meanings. It explains how different elements of the cover visually represent key ideas in the story.

Main Points of the Article:

The Dark Blue Background:

  • The cover’s deep blue color creates a sense of sadness, loneliness, and mystery.
  • This reflects Gatsby’s isolation and his never-ending search for happiness, which he believes he can find through wealth and Daisy.
  • The dark atmosphere also symbolizes the hidden secrets and corruption in the world of the novel.

The Floating Eyes:

  • The most striking feature of the cover is the pair of large, disembodied eyes.
  • These eyes are similar to the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg in the novel, which appear on a faded billboard and symbolize judgment, God, or the moral decay of society.
  • The eyes on the cover seem to watch over everything, just like how people in the novel are constantly being observed and judged for their actions.

The Green Light:

  • The cover also includes a small green light, which is an important symbol in the book.
  • In the novel, Gatsby often looks at the green light across the bay, which represents his dream of being with Daisy.
  • The cover’s depiction of the green light highlights the theme of chasing dreams that may never come true.

Conclusion:

The article explains that the cover of The Great Gatsby is not just a random design but a meaningful representation of the novel’s major themes. The sadness of Gatsby’s life, the judgment of society, and the unattainable nature of the American Dream are all reflected in the artwork. The cover visually captures the emotions and ideas that Fitzgerald explores in the story, making it an essential part of understanding the novel.


Que-2 Write about 'Understanding Jay Gatsby's character.

Understanding Jay Gatsby’s Character:

Jay Gatsby, the main character in The Great Gatsby, is a man who is deeply focused on his dreams but struggles to face reality. He is known for his wealth, grand parties, and deep love for Daisy Buchanan, but beneath all of this, he is a lonely and tragic figure. His character can be better understood through different aspects of his personality.

1. Obsessiveness:

- Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy, believing that he can win her back and recreate their past love.

- He spends years building his fortune just to impress her, never considering that she may have moved on.

- His obsession blinds him to reality, making him live in a fantasy rather than accepting the truth.

2. Excessiveness:

- Gatsby’s lifestyle is over-the-top he has a massive mansion, throws extravagant parties, and owns expensive things.

- He believes that money and luxury will help him achieve his dreams, but his wealth doesn’t bring him real happiness.

- His excessiveness shows how people in the 1920s used wealth to cover their loneliness and pain.

3. Dreams and Illusions:

- Gatsby’s biggest dream is to be with Daisy again, but this dream is based on an illusion he wants things to be exactly as they were in the past.

- He believes that with enough effort, he can change reality, but he doesn’t see that some things (like time and people) cannot be controlled.

- His story teaches us the dangers of chasing an impossible dream and ignoring reality.

4. Parties and Social Facade:

- Gatsby’s parties are legendary, with hundreds of guests, music, and endless drinks, but they are not for fun he hopes Daisy will come.

- Even though his parties are full of people, Gatsby himself remains alone and disconnected.

- This shows the emptiness of the 1920s high society, where people valued wealth and entertainment over real relationships.

5. Harsh Reality:

- Gatsby refuses to accept the truth: Daisy has a life of her own and will not leave everything behind for him.

- His belief that money can buy love and happiness is false, as he remains alone despite all his efforts.

- In the end, Gatsby’s dreams are crushed by reality, showing that not all dreams come true, no matter how hard we try.

6. Psychoanalytical Study – Shame, Guilt, and Grief:

Shame: Gatsby is ashamed of his poor background, so he creates a new identity, hiding his true self behind wealth and luxury.

Guilt: He may feel guilty for manipulating events to make Daisy love him again, ignoring how his actions affect others.

Grief: Gatsby grieves for the past he cannot get back. His deep sadness comes from realizing that no matter how much he tries, his dream is slipping away.

Conclusion:

Gatsby is a man full of hope but also full of self-deception. His obsessive love, excessive lifestyle, and refusal to accept reality lead to his downfall. He represents the dangers of living in a fantasy and ignoring the truth. His story is not just about wealth and romance but also about deep emotions like shame, guilt, and grief, making him one of literature’s most tragic characters.


Que-3 How faithful is Luhrmann's film adaption to the original novel?

Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film The Great Gatsby mostly follows the novel’s story but adds some modern elements and flashy visuals. While the main characters, events, and themes remain the same, the movie takes creative liberties in its style and presentation.

1. Gatsby’s Funeral and His Father’s Appearance:

  • In both the book and the movie, almost no one comes to Gatsby’s funeral a sad contrast to his grand parties.
  • His father, Henry Gatz, arrives and expresses pride in his son’s achievements.
  • He shows Gatsby’s old schedule, which includes waking up at 6 AM and a list of self-improvement goals. This highlights Gatsby’s hardworking nature from a young age and his desire for success.
  • This part of the film is faithful to the novel, showing Gatsby’s loneliness and his lifelong dream of self-betterment.

2. Faithful Elements of the Film:

  • The Main Story & Characters – The film follows the novel’s key events, including Gatsby’s love for Daisy, Tom’s affair, and Gatsby’s tragic death.
  • Themes – The film stays true to the novel’s themes, such as the corruption of the American Dream, wealth vs. morality, and the illusion of love.
  • Symbolism – Important symbols like the green light, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, and the valley of ashes remain in the film.

3. Changes and Creative Choices:

  • Modern Music & Fast-Paced Style – The film adds hip-hop and pop music instead of 1920s jazz, making it feel more energetic but less historically accurate.
  • Nick’s Narration from a Sanitarium – In the movie, Nick is shown as an alcoholic in a mental hospital, writing Gatsby’s story. This is not in the book.
  • More Sympathy for Daisy – The film portrays Daisy as more emotional and regretful, while in the book, she is more shallow and self-centered.

Final Verdict

Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is mostly faithful to the novel’s plot and themes, especially in how it presents Gatsby’s loneliness, his funeral, and his father’s memories. However, the modern style, music, and fast-paced visuals make the movie feel different from the novel’s quiet and reflective tone. While the film captures the spirit of Gatsby’s story, it adds a flashy, exaggerated style that some viewers may find distracting.


Que-4 Write a brief note on the symbolic significance of 'Green Light' and 'Billboard of The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckelberg.'

'Green Light':

- The green color usually symbolizes hope, spring and vitality. 

The green light in the novel symbolizes the hope and optimism for Gatsby to have Daisy and reunite with her. When he looks at this light, he feels confident and hopeful that his dream will be fulfilled. 

This green light glows at night and is emphasized in the novel. In the first chapter Gatsby describes this light and says: 

  • "Involuntarily I glanced seaward-and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock." (Fitzgerald, 1993, p. 16). 

From this quotation, the reader understands that this light is at the end of Daisy's dock, so in a way it represents Daisy in Gatsby's pursuit of happiness by being with her. In chapter 1, Gatsby looks at this light as a guidance at night to lead him. Gatsby compares this green light to America that gave hope for its people about prosperity. 

The green light is a concrete object that represents abstract concepts of yearning and nostalgia. 

The green light is noticed again in the last chapter of the novel, but here it indicates the disillusionment of the American Dream. 

  • "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then." (Fitzgerald, 1993, p.115). 

In a narrow vision, the green light is a symbol for Gatsby's love to Daisy but in a broader context, it symbolizes America in general and the failure of the American Dream. The above quote shows the failure of the American Dream. Gatsby at the beginning of the novel has hopes and wills to be wealthy and successful but at the end he fails to achieve his hopes and desires. The quote asserts the idea that even if we keep trying, we do not always achieve our goals. This can be applied to many characters like Nick who returns to the Midwest and Daisy who continues her life with Tom.  

It also seems that the green light at the beginning of the novel foreshadows the tragic end in the last chapter, when we find Gatsby dead. Now, the green light only exists in Nick's memories. Mizener describes the effect of this green light on Gatsby's life by saying: "For Gatsby Daisy does not exist in herself. She is the green light that signals him into the heart of his ultimate vision". (Mizener, 1963, p. 133).


'Billboard of The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckelberg':

The faded blue eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, those staring, vacant, yet somewhat terrible eyes so much more than an abandoned sign-board; of the ash heap and its "ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air" over which the eyes brood changelessly; of George Wilson's despairing mutter as he gazes at the eyes, "You may fool me, but you can't fool God!" 

And there is the matter, too, of the odd scene in which Nick and Jordan Baker discuss Jordan's carelessness with auto-mobiles. One could easily find structural reasons for such a conversation between Nick and Daisy, or Gatsby and Daisy, for it is Daisy who runs down Myrtle Wilson. But why emphasize Jordan's in- ability to handle an automobile safely? I believe the answers to this question and the others I have posed are concerned with a more complex organization than is commonly assumed, an organization of symbols the whole meaning of which was not entirely clear to Fitzgerald himself. For Fitzgerald-as-Fitzgerald and Fitz-gerald-as-Carraway, the gleeman of the Gatsby saga, are not the same, though both appear alternately throughout the novel, intertwining like the threads in a fabric whose sheen depends not only on the materials out of which it is made but on the light in which it is viewed.

It seems to me a very interesting fact that the overt theme of The Great Gatsby has little to do, actually, with the novel's use of symbol. It is indeed likely, as a matter of fact, that the subdominant motif which I hope soon to expose-very often overshadows what Fitzgerald apparently intended to be his principal theme. Of course, it is true that in making its point about the paradoxical futility of anattempt to recapture the past, The Great Gatsby obviously also says much more; one measure of its greatness


It is interesting, though not so relevant as might at first glance be supposed, that the eyes were written into the book after Fitzgerald saw what Arthur Mizener accurately calls a "very bad picture" on the dust jacket, a picture originally intended to represent Daisy's face.

The scene does serve partly to foreshadow Nick's final breaking-off with Jordan; but only partly.

is the complex and ironic quality of Gatsby's attempt to beat against the current. For he-and he alone, barring Carraway-survives sound and whole in character, uncorrupted by the corruption which surrounded him, which was indeed responsible for him; from his attempt at the childishly impossible he emerges with dignity and maturity. Yet no major work of fiction with which I am acquainted reserves its symbols for the subtheme; the more one thinks about The Great Gatsby, the more one comes to believe that F.Scott Fitzgerald may not have entirely realized what he was doing. 

I think it is evident that not even the most skilful novelist could make us quite accept a young bond salesman of Nick Carraway's background and experience (even one who was "rather literary in college") as capable of composing the wonderful description in chapter iii of Gatsby's parties, or the passage later on in the same chapter beginning "I began to like New York," or managing to contrive that unique and poignant apostrophe to the "hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers" which "shuffled the shining dust . . . while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor." In other words, Nick as Nick is one thing and Fitzgerald as himself is another-some- thing, incidentally, which Fitzgerald tacitly admits in a letter presently to be quoted. Thus the novel may very well involve not merely the theme which Nick presents in his own character, but also another which may be called, for lack of a better name, the "Fitzgerald theme." And it is toward the latter, I believe, that almost all the symbolism in The Great Gatsby is directed. 


Que-5 Write a brief note on the theme of 'The American Dream' and 'Class Conflict' in the novel.

'The American Dream':

Gatsby's ministry is "that huge incoherent failure of a house" that he left behind. And his epitaph on this monument is an obscene word, scribbled in chalk, by some neighborhood boy.

As a prophet of the American dream, Gatsby fails-miserably-a victim of his own warped idealism and false set of values. The American dream is not to be a reality, in that it no longer exists, except in the minds of men like Gatsby, whom it destroys in their espousal and relentless pursuit of it. The American dream is, in reality, a nightmare.

- Both "Absolution" and "Winter Dreams," 1922, foreshadow much of what is in The Great Gatsby.

'Class Conflict':

Cast in the framework of a metaphor, the aforementioned exponents of the American dream were the Old Testament prophets predicting the coming of a golden age, complete with a messiah who was to be the epitome of the word "American." Gatsby is Fitzgerald's answer. To Fitzgerald the long prophesied American dream had its fulfillment in the "orgiastic" post World War I period known as "the Roaring Twenties." He was the self appointed spokesman for the "Jazz Age," a term he takes credit for coining, and he gave it its arch-high priest and prophet, Jay Gatsby, in his novel The Great Gatsby.


References:

The iconic "Celestial Eyes" cover art by Francis Cugat for The Great Gatsby by
F. Scott Fitzgerald is a masterpiece
The iconic "Celestial Eyes" cover art by Francis Cugat for The Great Gatsby by
F. Scott Fitzgerald is a masterpiece in its own right, and it goes beyond simply
being a pretty picture. The painting's various elements, including the dark blue
background color, contribute to the overall atmosphere of the novel and reflect its
central themes.

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