the corruption of the american dream Flashcards

1
Q

Ch3 “every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in new york – every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves”

A
  • Corruption of wealth as they use destructive pleasure to evoke their capitalism. Money is thrown around.
  • Yellow + orange symbolise corruption and these are shown through the fruit
  • ‘pulpless halves’ represents the emptiness and lack of substantial foundation in the wealthy’s lives.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

[Gatsby’s car] “it was a rich cream colour bright with nickel … terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns…behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory”

A

cream (dirtied white, pretending to be pure)
nickel (a cheap material) + labyrinth (prison for the minator) = all undermine the delicacy of the car and gatsby’s wealth.

layers of glass = reflection + fragility. Gatsby is contained and secretive, the green also symbolises the hope of daisy.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

ch4 “he had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths”

A
  • he is obsessed and has devoted his life + identity to daisy.
  • the ‘casual moths’ are wealthy guests who are attracted to the ‘starlight’ of gatsby’s parties, not gatsby himself. they float around with no purpose
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

ch5 “I’ve got a man in England who buys me clothes” “shirts… in coral and apple green…lavender…Indian blue”
daisy: “began to cry stormily”

A
  • the exotic old European colours represent his materialism and attempts to reach the old money lifestyle. He uses his wealth to prove to daisy he should marry him not tom as he is also rich. the colours represent the life she could be living with gatsby.
  • throwing colours out like an expression of love, needs more than language. uses modernism in expression which uses art/literature as a metaphor.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

ch5 daisy: “if it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay”

“the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever…now it was again a green light on a dock”

A
  • the light is the greatest desire aka daisy. the mist could be tom who has interfered and daisy now recognises the spark between her and gatsby
  • alternatively, the meeting didn’t surpass gatsbys vision. his hope was too extreme to be reached especially wanting something from the past.
  • the idea gatsby was cultivating was perfection, intense but daisy 5 years later cannot live up to this
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Ch7 nick: “ and as obscurely as it had begun, his [gatsby] career as Trimalchio was over

A
  • Classic roman allusion, trimalchio was a slave who became rich like gatsby.
  • reinforces the idea of ‘going west’ to build your american dream, however this is clearly corrupted and the Aristotle dream of old money is unattainable.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Ch8 “it excited him too that many men had already loved daisy - it increased her value in his eyes”

A
  • Despite his obsession with daisy, he really favours her wealth and materialism, he wants to use her for social status. Everything for him is about value, she’s like a tophy/prize
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Ch8 “he shook his head and in a moment disappeared among the yellowing trees”

A
  • ‘Yellowing’ symbolises a movement towards autumn, which is close to winter and death, foreshadowing the next events.
  • The yellow also symbolises corruption
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

ch8 “ a thin red circle in the water”

in relation to the corruption of the american dream…

A
  • the death of Gatsby’s dream is reduced to a circle of water
  • the little ripples (gatsby) in a large pool (america) suggests he didnt make the impact he wanted to make. his dream killed him physically, the american dream killed him mentally.
  • the water symbolises trying to get from west egg to east egg and this not being reachable, like the american dream.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Ch1 “reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope” (nick)

A
  • as nick is writing this after the events that occurred, he could be referring to the idea that hope is a platonic conception which cannot be fulfilled.
  • hope is a feeling only applicable to the future and as nick is a homodiegetic author, this could be foreshadowing how ‘going west’ isn’t the utopic lifestyle.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

ch1 “a cheerful red and white georgian colonial mansion”

A
  • describes tom and daisy’s old money house in the style of the 1740’s architectural era.
  • Evokes the birth of america but as “cheerful” soon becomes apparent as the wrong word choice, maybe the birth of the american dream will soon crash.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Ch3 “I had actually been invited. A chauffeur in a uniform of robin’s-egg blue crossed my lawn early that Saturday morning”

A
  • Nick emphasises how he was invited to the party unlike everyone else who used gatsby for wealth. Wants to establish his importance.
  • “eggs blue” – rebirth of tiny dreams that grow. Foreshadows the importance of gatsby and nicks crossing of paths.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Ch3 “ walked into a high gothic library panelled with carved english oak” (gatsby’s house)

A
  • Repeated ideas of European artifices vs American import.
  • Trying to replicate the original European aristocracy and be associated with the old money lifestyle.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Ch9 “one of my most vivid memories is of coming back west from prep school and later from college at Christmas time”

A

Nick shifts after the funeral to a memory of his childhood. (part1)
Christmas is mostly for children and when they realise the dream of santa claus is fake, their dreams are crushed. This is like the idea that christmas is actually about hope and religion but capitalism/materialism has overpowered that and is now a metaphor for capitalist corruptions

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

ch9 “The real snow, our snow” +
“We drew in deep breaths”

A
  • Snow is white symbolising innocence and childish nature and purity.
  • The first time they can breath without being polluted by corruption
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Ch9 “the thrilling returning trains of my youth”

A

The journey for nick is like a journey back in time like gatsbys dream to reestablish his relationship with daisy. - cocoonism

17
Q

Ch1 “ive been everywhere and see everything and done everything” (daisy)

A

– daisy isn’t well, as being a wealthy member of society, she has plenty of money for leisure
- despite living in a utopic post-industry, she is still seriously depressed.

18
Q

Ch7 tom: “her voice is full of money”

A

Represents money and a promise for wealth. She is his prize and he loves her representation of wealth more than her.

19
Q

ch7 Nick: “High in a white palace the kings daughter, the golden girl…”

A
  • “Golden girl” shows she’s alluring and magnetic to men around her.
    Daisy is gatsby’s grail, (like the historical old money crusades idea? review this)his quest is to have daisy and seek gods love.
20
Q

the name ‘daisy’

A

NEED TO GO OVER THIS AND OTHER NAME MEANINGS LIKE THIS ETC.
Her name, “Daisy”, compares her to that of a flower with a gold centre and white petals, this portrays her radiant beauty and presenting her as the “princess dressed in white”
(the yellow centre = corruption.)

21
Q

ch8: [back in time] “she brushed silent lips against his coat’s shoulder or when he touched the end of her fingers, gently, as though she were asleep”

A

Daisy is inactive and was never fully devoted or into Gatsby or their relationship, didn’t need verbal communication every second (silent lips). When you are asleep you are unaware of reality, of time, and maybe this is what Gatsby recalls the most with his time spent with Daisy, a worry-free time with the person he loves.

22
Q

ch4: gatsby talking about meyer wolfsheim “ he’s the man that fixed the worlds series back in 1919”

A
  • shows the new world is for corrupt criminals not Gatsby. there is a sports corruption theme and by changing the outcome of sports he’s wanting the change the outcome of his life ending.
23
Q

ch9 meyer wolfsheim: “covered over with medals he got in the war”, “I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter” +
“I knew I could use him good.”

A
  • wolfsheim respected gatsby for his materialism. He took him in and gatsby was unintentionally sucked into the criminal life
  • gatsby achieved his wealth through crime showing the american dream is unachievable and corrupt.
24
Q

ch9 mr gatz: “jimmy always liked it better down east”

A
  • jimmy uses the diminutive form. The suffix of ‘i’ sound refers to something being small. Sense of possession and childhood, he still sees him as his own.
  • the american dream is still corrupt as even when achieved there’s a longing to go back, mr gatz wants his son back.
    he’s also less tolerant to calling him gatsby.
25
Q

ch9 “his pride in his sons possessions was continually increasing”

“Jimmy sent me this picture’ he took out his wallet with trembling fingers” + “It was a photograph of the house, cracked in the corners and dirty with many hands.

A

materialism over spiritual. Corruption of AD and critique of capitalism.
Recreation of reality, an advertisement, like the dream of Daisy. A picture of materialism not wealth

26
Q

Ch9 “a fresh, green breast of the new world”

A

Sucked on the path of the world.
uses the image of a nurturing breast in relation to the discovery by Europeans of the American continent. An earlier image of a breast depicts young Gatsby sucking, metaphorically, ‘the incomparable milk of wonder’ from ‘the pap of life’ when kissing gatsby. But when Myrtle Wilson is run down and killed, her left breast is described, with no symbolic association at all, as a mangled feature of her lifeless body. reinforcing that the american dream is unachievable for many.

27
Q

Ch9 nick reflects on gatsbys life and says 2he [gatsby] did not know that was already behind him

A

Nick shows how time and geography (Louisville) meant his dream was already gone.

28
Q

Ch9“and one fine morning-”

“So we beat on,boats against the current, borne back cease-lessly into the past”

A

After nick describes the beauty of the world, he establishes that you can never reach utopia or perfection

Links to the Romantic poetry and the cyclic nature of history.
Determination to move forward but trying to imitate the past is a barrier.

29
Q

Ch5 “Daisy fell short of his dreams - not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his allusion”

A
  • the platonic conception/dream gatsby created of Daisy in his mind is so perfect, it’s almost unachievable for Daisy. The time adds to this lack of achievement for Daisy.
    His illusion is colossal, a fantasy far from reality. An ideal life. - maybe war caused him to create this unachievable fantasy