the corruption of the american dream Flashcards
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”
- 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.
[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”
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.
ch4 “he had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths”
- 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
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”
- 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.
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”
- 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
Ch7 nick: “ and as obscurely as it had begun, his [gatsby] career as Trimalchio was over
- 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.
Ch8 “it excited him too that many men had already loved daisy - it increased her value in his eyes”
- 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
Ch8 “he shook his head and in a moment disappeared among the yellowing trees”
- ‘Yellowing’ symbolises a movement towards autumn, which is close to winter and death, foreshadowing the next events.
- The yellow also symbolises corruption
ch8 “ a thin red circle in the water”
in relation to the corruption of the american dream…
- 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.
Ch1 “reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope” (nick)
- 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.
ch1 “a cheerful red and white georgian colonial mansion”
- 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.
Ch3 “I had actually been invited. A chauffeur in a uniform of robin’s-egg blue crossed my lawn early that Saturday morning”
- 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.
Ch3 “ walked into a high gothic library panelled with carved english oak” (gatsby’s house)
- Repeated ideas of European artifices vs American import.
- Trying to replicate the original European aristocracy and be associated with the old money lifestyle.
Ch9 “one of my most vivid memories is of coming back west from prep school and later from college at Christmas time”
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
ch9 “The real snow, our snow” +
“We drew in deep breaths”
- Snow is white symbolising innocence and childish nature and purity.
- The first time they can breath without being polluted by corruption
