ELA Blog Post #22

Hey guys, sorry my Blog Post is late, I forgot I was discussion leader. Here it is, though.

I believe the main conflict in The Great Gatsby is centered around Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy. There are the issues with Myrtle, but those are just a subconflict that ultimately tie back in to the main conflict. Where I feel uncertain is on the subject of how to categorize the issue. It would be hard to call it a conflict between Gatsby's aspirations and the truth about his past because of the fact that Tom is a factor, but conversely, it seems wrong to say it is a man vs man competing for Daisy's love, because even after his apparent "defeat" of Tom, Gatsby manages to still be defeated by the truth about himself. Then again, it was Tom who did the investigation imto Gatsby's life and exposed him, so perhaps it could be said that this really was man vs. man, and Tom simply came out victoriously. This would point towards an interesting theme, seeing as a man who is constantly pointed to as foolish and unintelligent managed to defeat Gatsby, whose single-mindedness ultimately caused him to fall to a man who he was in every other way superior to. In the end, though, I believe the true conflict is in fact between Gatsby and society itself. Even though Gatsby is at least implicitly explained to be better than Tom, he is still ultimately defeated. Why? Because society sees him not for his achievement or his current standing, but for where he came from. From the day each was born, Gatsby already had the odds stacked against him in his battle against Tom for Daisy's love, because he was born lower class. Tom was portrayed as a worse man, who in the end faced the same conflict as Gatsby of striving for a woman who wasn't his, but he never had to fight for Daisy. Daisy overlooked his flaws because she came from a rich society where she learned to pursue a man with money and drive, and that lead her later to reject Gatsby for being an "outsider" to aristocratic society, in just the same way as the people at his parties, who always whispered rumors about his dirty beginnings. Tom may have felt he defeated Gatsby, but ultimately, he was just a device through which societal beliefs, the true antagonist of the story, struck Gatsby down.

Update: I updated my conclusion upon further thought.

ELA Blog Post Week of 4/17

This week, I read chapters 5 and 6 of The Great Gatsby. During Chapter 5, Gatsby finally meets again the girl of his dreams, Daisy. During this whole section, Fitzgerald repeatedly describes the weather. It seems to me as if this weather reflects Gatsby's current feelings. At the beginning, when he's super anxious about meeting Daisy, it rains, reflecting that. Then, as he talks more to her, the sky starts to lighten up, suggesting things are getting better for him. Interestingly, thought, he seems as oblivious to this as to where his own conversation with Daisy has gone until Nick snaps him out of his daze. All in all, it seems like the weather is definitely connected to how he feels.

ELA Blog Post 20

When looking at whether Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, is "inclined to reserve all judgment", it is important to note what this statement means. 

"Judgment", as define by Google, means "an opinion or conclusion". On its own, it seems there is an interesting argument to be made as to whether Nick shows he has any opinions at all. While he must have made decisions to do the things he's done in life, it seems there's a deeper debate as to whether those could be affected be his morals and beliefs, which may or may not constitute opinions. 

However, what Nick specifically says is not that he passes no judgment, but that he reserves all judgement. Reserve has a definiton specifically used in combination with things like judgement, which reads "refrain from delivering (a judgment or decision) immediately or without due consideration or evidence." If we take this into consideration, along with the quote from page two "And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has its limits." which describes this quality of Nick's as "tolerance" and the quote from Nick's father on the first page, we can throw together a mich solider thought on what Nick seems to be claiming about himself. Nick's alleged "tolerance" of people and reservation of judgement, then, should not be seen so much as a complete lack of opinion but rather the ability not to think negatively (and maybe not even positively either) about people or to form opinions about them, and to view people objectively based on what he knows about them and human nature.

In this sense, an interesting paradox seems to appear. It seems he's very good at keeping unopinionated while describing things to the reader. Even when using strong words like "arrogant", he seems to be stating it vey matter-of-factly. He seems to attribute nothing particularly to the word, nothing positive either, he just uses it to describe. It also is cool how well he reserves judgment in situations like the confrontation with the drunk in the library and during Tom's racist speech, which regardless of opinion, would be very polarizing and invoke a reaction from most people. However, where the consistency of his reservation of judgement comes into question seems to be when he actually speaks to other characters. For example, his remark on page 58 in which he speaks to Daisy about her driving skills, saying "You're a rotten driver... either you ought to be more careful, or you oughtn't drive at all". While this quote and the rest of the conversation  seems maybe a little patronizing, the fact that one of the best quotes in which it can be argued he fails to reserve judgement is one in which other people's safety is concerned. The words "without due consideration or evidence" at the end of the definition of reserve really seem to come into play here. It feels very debatable, but in my opinion, the fact that he obviously had some knowledge of her driving skill to base his statement on, coupled with the risk of not protesting against her driving, point toward him having due consideration or evidence in order to give his two cents without  violating his promise to "reserve all judgement".

So far, I believe Nick Carraway has succeeded at "reserving all judgement", or at the very least, being inclined towards it, which is what he claims to be. Of course,  he also says this will change later in the story, so I'll have to continue on and find out what happens.