In reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and thinking about what I would like to blog about it, I really wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to blog about. However when thinking about the things that we have discussed in class so far about the frontier and how it was perceived and the reality of it, I realized that there were quite a few lines in the book that referred to the frontier. One line in particular to me that stood out was the part in the book where Nick is talking about Gatsby's friend, Dan Cody. In the passage on page 100, Nick is describing a picture that he seen of Cody in Gatsby's house saying, "I remember the portrait of him up in Gatsby's bedroom, a gray, florid man with a hard, empty face-the pioneer debauchee, who during one phase of American life brought back to the Eastern seaboard the savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon." What struck me about this passage was the ending where it says "the savage violence of the frontier". This made me think about how we have been discussing in class the savagery of the frontier movement in American history.
One other thing that I thought when reading the prompts that Dr. K posted was considering the book told from another perspective. In my opinion I don't think the book would have worked out so well if another character were telling the story of Gatsby, unless Gatsby was telling it himself. I feel that Nick does a very good job and is a very key character to the book. He is the keystone in my opinion because he is the one that is connecting everyone in the book together. If it weren't for him, would Gatsby have ever met with Daisy? I find that hard to believe due to the fact that it took his so long to set up the meeting and when they finally did meet, he was nervous out of his mind. The only other person that I think could have had a small chance at being successful in telling this story would be Gatsby himself. I think that he is just such an interesting character and feel that it would be interesting to hear his thoughts when he was trying to meet Daisy. He also had a very interesting story behind him as well.
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Nikki--
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite scenes in the novel is when Gatsby knocks over Nick's clock, but catches it before it hits the ground. This not only perfectly show us how nervous Gatsby is about his reunion with Daisy; it also captures one of the novel's central themes: time (and its passing, and how to pass the time, and the inability to recapture a time that is past).
Do you think the violent frontier imagery is meant to resonate with the violence that characterizes the Buchanan's lives?
Nikki,
ReplyDeleteI read your blog on The Great Gatsby with interest. I had never considered what this story would be like if it had been told by a different narrator. I guess your thoughts about Gatsby telling his own story would not work all that well for me. I am thinking that Jay Gatsby has no idea who Jay Gatsby is. He has been Jay Gatsby for so long that he probably has forgotten much of who he really is. Sure, he can recite his history, but (like the “Wild West”), is it his real history? He has fabricated his life for so long, I really doubt that he would have been able to tell his story with any accuracy at all. Just my opinion…
I totally agree with you that Nick is the perfect narrator because he ties all of the characters together like no one else could. I think in answer to your question about whether Gatsby would have ever met Daisy (again) if not for Nick, I would like to think that eventually he would have. If not for Nick, though, I doubt that the meeting would have resulted in an affair to remember! Gatsby probably would never have been able to talk to Daisy and spend enough time with her without Nick due to his extreme nervousness about meeting her again!
I wonder what the book would have been like if it had been told by Daisy? Or Tom? Yes, I think Nick was the perfect narrator!