Great Gatsby Reading Blog #3 (Final)

1.) What was Fitzgerald's purpose in including the giant advertisement for Dr. T.J. Eckleburg's now defunct business?

As mentioned in the book, the giant pair of eyes is compared to that of God's, and little else is said on the topic. However, to a keener-eyed reader, more can be dug out of them. Not only do these glasses symbolize the eyes of God, they are there to show that God is watching and disapproves of the moral decay that is going on. The eyes' home in the valley of ashes, a disgusting place, emphasizes the fact that God is witness to all the filth surrounding the characters of the book. The climax of the novel also takes place under the watch of these eyes, and this is simply another sign of God's gaze judging what's going on. After all, the events of the book would not have played out the way they had if Gatsby had done the morally right thing (said that Daisy was the one driving when Myrtle was run over) instead of acting selfishly (or in his mind, selflessly, by claiming that he was the one driving.) The eyes of God are disapproving of this morally bad act.

2.) What was Fitzgerald's purpose in having Nick be the narrator of the story instead of having an omniscient narrator?

By having the self-proclaimed unbiased Nick as our narrator instead of an omniscient one who could hop from person to person and event to event without hindrance, Fitzgerald not only gives the story an obviously more human set of eyes from which to inspect everything, but also gives it more weight. After all, Nick is only human, and can't know everything that's going on at once. The only way he figures things out are by witnessing them or by having them told to him. For example, by having Nick rush over to Gatsby's house and finding him dead instead of narrating his murder through the eyes of a crazed Wilson, there is a greater shock value to the event. Plus, Nick's disheartening efforts to get somebody else who cared to come to Gatsby's funeral increases the tragedy of the event. If an omniscient narrator had been commenting on the scene, much of the emotion of it all would have been lost.

3.) Do you believe that Fitzgerald did a good job of portraying Daisy in both a sympathetic and unsympathetic way?

I can say with a resounding yes that Fitzgerald showed off two sides of Daisy very well. In the beginning of the book, the reader feels sorry for her, because she appears to be a lovely girl who's married to an abusive man that she doesn't love. Plus, she knows that he's cheating on her, which causes us to feel even more for her. Even with the advent of learning about her and Gatsby's romance five years earlier, we still hold great sympathy towards her, for the great love that she once had has been replaced by an unhappy marriage with Tom. However, as the book carries on, especially by the end, I personally just wanted to punch her. She claims to love Gatsby, and even kisses him in front of Nick and Jordan, but when Tom and Jay start arguing over her and her feelings for them, she panics and admits that she still has feelings for Tom. And then, at the news of Gatsby's death, instead of showing grief at the fact that the man she apparently loved is now dead, she just speeds off with Tom, who will surely continue his pattern of taking mistresses and generally being a big brute, and leaves Nick and Gatsby's father as the only ones at Jay's funeral. Fitzgerald does a great job of making the reader have polar opposite feelings for Daisy as the book goes on - for one half, we have sympathy towards her, and the next, we just wanna smack her.

4.) Do you feel as though the title of the book is a fitting one? Was Gatsby truly 'great'?

I think that 'Nick' titling the book 'The Great Gatsby' was his attempt at honoring his dead friend more than anything. While Nick does admit to disliking Gatsby for pretty much the entire book, by the end, after learning of his death and desperately trying to organize a halfway decent funeral for Jay, he's lifted him somewhat onto a pedestal and is admiring him some. While this is quite touching, I don't think Jay Gatsby should be called 'great'. Not only did he lie about his own life (including the fact that his father was still alive, which is even more hurtful given that his dad was one of the people that came to his funeral) he also allowed himself to get hopelessly lost in what turned out to be a fruitless dream. He had convinced himself so thoroughly that after trying so hard to get close to Daisy, including getting involved with shady people like Meyer Wolfsheim, he would eventually get her and ride off into the sunset, so to speak, that he basically sealed his own doom. Had Gatsby not been so hopelessly enamored with Daisy and desperate to make her happy, he would have admitted that she was the one driving when Myrtle was killed, and as such would have prevented his own death. Alas, his own foolishness and unceasing desire for gratification of his wishes brought his downfall. As such, while it is kind of Nick to look on the bright side of Gatsby and elevate him to a higher status than he actually is, I disagree with him - Gatsby does not deserve the title of 'great'. Perhaps foolish would be a better term.