Skip to main content

Commentary of Social Class in Chapter 6

In Chapter 6 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, we learn the supposed backstory of the novel 's title character.

Supposedly born James Gatz as a farm boy in North Dakota, Gatsby attended St. Olaf in Minnesota. However, he was tired of the work he had to undertake as a janitor, "dismayed at the ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny". So, he went back to Lake Superior, where he had been wandering aimlessly before he went off to college. That is when he saw Dan Cody on his yacht, and Gatz met him in the water to warn about a torrential wind that was coming soon.

Now known as Jay Gatsby, he accompanied Cody on trips to the West Indies and the Barbary Coast. When he was denied Cody's inheritance, Gatsby sought to reinvent himself.

In this particular passage of the novel, it seems that Fitzgerald is commenting on the supposed vigor of the American dream, how anybody can reinvent themselves if they really want to. He also seems to be making a statement on how the lower class' American dream might never really be attainable, or at least that there are many obstacles that stand in the way, when Gatsby is denied the inheritance.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Use of Formulaic Language in the Odyssey

Because the Odyssey  was written circa. 800 B.C.E, it obviously wasn't meant to be read by a bunch of high-schoolers at a Montessori school in 2016 Houston, Texas. It, gathered from research by linguists, archaeologists, and historians, was almost certainly meant to be performed. I don't think anybody has mentioned that only the major or supporting characters in the Odyssey are given epithets (ie. "Owl-eyed Athena, godly Nestor, Red-haired Menelaus "), and there is quite a lot of supporting characters for a relatively short epic compared to the length of fantasy & epic literature today. Because of this, these epithets were not only used for rhythm and splendor when performing. In fact, some were likely put there to remind the audience members of characters that haven't been seen in a while. However, for the characters like Zeus, Poseidon, and Athena who appear often, the performance explanation seems to be the greatest. However, another possible reason is ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sound Devices in "We Real Cool"

THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon. We Real Cool" is a great piece of literature. It doesn't take more than fifteen seconds to read, and yet I found it to be one of the most interesting poems I have come across, not only for its surprisingly deep meaning, but also for it's enjoyable and catchy use of sound devices. Some uses of sound devices in the poem are obvious. For example, the two sentences in each stanza (not counting the use of enjambment with the word "we", which, by the way, is an interesting visual choice) produce a couplet, as they rhyme. However, looking deeper into the poem, we start to see more hidden devices, such as the consecutive rhyme "we thin gin" and the fact that on the first and second lines of the second and and the first line of the fourth stanza, al...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Were Frederick Douglass's Human Rights Violated?

A human right is any such right that is guaranteed to each and every human regardless of creed, class, color, race, gender, or sexuality upon birth. However, to say that because every human is guaranteed these rights that these rights are untouched is a falsity. Today, human rights are constantly violated every day, and it was no different in Douglass's time. In Chapter 10, on page 35 of the novel, Douglass describes how we was sent by his then-master, Mr. Covey, to gather a load of wood using a wooden cart and two oxen. Covey tells Douglass to hold on tight when the oxen begin running. In no fault of his own, Douglass is dragged at an immense speed by the oxen, who crash the cart into rocks and trees. When Mr. Covey learns of this, Douglass is then brutally whipped, even though he had no prior experience with oxen and this particular exercise. Beyond slavery itself violating an essential human right, Douglass describes the numerous times when he is beaten, occasionally to life-t...
Post a Comment
Read more