moral and social decay Flashcards
Ch2: “ash grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air”.
- ill-treatment of WC who provoke the reality of going west + A.D.
- semantic field of dullness, grey + fragility. Could easily be blown away. “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” – death + fate relations showing the american dream ends in death, like gatsbys parties end in violence.
ch2 “the eyes of doctor TJ Eckleburg are blue and gigantic”
AO1: the eyes watching over the VOA show corruption of wealth perceiving the foundation of capitalism.
AO2: “Blue” represents dreams but his “yellow spectacles” show the juxtaposition of reality as yellow=corruption of wealth.
AO3: The eyes could be a symbol of god emphasising the breakdown of religion, now turning to consumerism and illusions.
AO4: ‘The Waste Land’ by T.S Eliot
Modernist poet. He could have inspired Fitzgerald as it could be an allusion to the valley of ashes. This is a criticism of modernity and WW1 which he believed ruined nature.
‘A heap of broken images’ could be used in the novel with the billboard of doctor T.J Eckleburg’s eyes. ‘Blue and gigantic’ vs ‘yellow spectacles’ reinforces the corruption of dreams.
AO5:??
Ch3 “a pale, dangling individual stepped out of the wreck…ghostly pause… the apparition”
“did we run outa gas?”
Semantic field of death.
Gatsbys parties always end on violence. The journey comes to an end.
Colloquialism from drunkness, they can throw money around acting carelessly destroying society.
ch5: daisy and nick sing ”the rich get richer and the poor get - children”
- they are careless about the valley of ashes. the rich dont get happier but the wc are happy coming home to a loving family
- represents daisy’s state of mind in the leisure class
Ch8 “when i passed the ashheaps on the train that morning i had crossed deliberately to the other side of the car.”
ch9 “some little boys had come up on the steps and were looking into the hall; when i told them who had arrived, they went reluctantly away”
Drawn to the tragedy. Human curiousity is a natural flaw which fitzgerald criticises multiple times.
Ch7 talking to her daughter: “did mother get powder on your old yellow hair?”
Yellow - corruption of their relationship and reinforces how daisy doesn’t take part in much parenting
ch1: “baker leaned forward unashamed, trying to hear”
– decay of a normal friendship as its built on wealth and gossip.
- The phone was a new invention of the roaring twenties hoping to reduce war but instead it was used for adultery.
Ch3 “ I like large parties. Their so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy”
- jordan doesn’t care for gatsby, just his parties
- A large party allows her to blend in and only interact with the people she chooses. At a smaller gathering, she would be too open to closer examination, which might reveal her dishonest nature.
”he was his wife’s man and not his own”
- strange dominance of myrtle over wilson. - -
- Like the basketball brand ‘wilson’ he is repetitively beaten.
- social critique of advertisement and the representation of society + capitalism.
ch8: “Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night. “God sees everything,” repeated Wilson. “That’s an advertisement,” Michaelis assured him”
- He confuses god with the eyes on an advert which no longer exists, spiritual not separated with commercial
- religion was deteriorating even 100 years and starting to be replaced by elements of capitalism.
- Capitalism and love leads to death + re-representation of reality
Ch2 “she bought a copy of town tattle and a moving picture magazine”
Ch2 mrs wilson changes yet again into “a dress of cream coloured chiffon”
- Using tom for money to live her materialistic fantasy (town tattle is a gossip magazine about the wealthy) of wealth in exchange for sex.
- She is like daisy but not quite as white and pure. Shes living out her fantasy in all these different outfits.
ch9: “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.”
- material 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, he possibly values his success more than his actual son
