This blog is in response to a thinking activity given by our professor Dilip Barad https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2021/06/great-gatsby.html this is the link you can go there and see more detail about this task. In this Blog I am going to write about my understanding of "The Great Gatsby".
*THE GREAT GATSBY*
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, and named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the writer of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Fitzgerald was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Though an intelligent child, he did poorly in school and was sent to a New Jersey boarding school in 1911. Despite being a mediocre student there, he managed to enroll at Princeton in 1913. Academic troubles and apathy plagued him throughout his time at college, and he never graduated, instead enlisting in the army in 1917, as World War I neared its end.
Me and my two classmates gave introductory video based on this novel.
1) How did the film capture the Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties, the Flappers & the Prohibition Act of the America in 1920s?
-Jazz and the “Roaring Twenties”:-
Jazz music became wildly popular in the “Roaring Twenties,” a decade that witnessed unprecedented economic growth and prosperity in the United States. Consumer culture flourished, with ever greater numbers of Americans purchasing automobiles, electrical appliances, and other widely available consumer products. The achievement of material affluence became a goal for many US citizens as well as an object of satire and ridicule for the writers and intellectuals of the Lost Generation.
Technological innovations like the telephone and radio irrevocably altered the social lives of Americans while transforming the entertainment industry. Suddenly, musicians could create phonograph recordings of their compositions. For jazz music, which was improvisational, the development of phonograph technology was transformative. Whereas previously, music-lovers would actually have to attend a nightclub or concert venue to hear jazz, now they could listen on the radio or even purchase their favorite recordings for at-home listening.
These both images show the jazz age and also it shows the flapper culture.
Flapper Culture:
-One of the ways that flappers rebelled against convention during the 1920s was by frequenting speakeasies and other private clubs where they could drink illegally. Previously, bars and saloons were considered an all-male space and respectable women did not drink in public. Even after Prohibition was over, Connecticut law made it illegal to serve a woman alcohol at or within three feet of a bar.
Prohibition of alcohol:
-During Prohibition (1919-1933), alcohol was still readily available in Connecticut. The coastline in Fairfield and Bridgeport provided direct access to international waters and ships that carried liquor from Europe, the Bahamas, and Canada. "Rum runners" used speedboats to deliver the liquor to networks along the Connecticut shoreline. Inland, bootleggers kept a steady supply of liquor flowing from New York and along the Post Road, and people distilled alcohol in homes, farms, and shops. Loopholes in the law enabled people to buy alcohol at a drugstore with a doctor's prescription, to make their own wine for family consumption, or to drink at a "speakeasy" that qualified as a private club.
In this video you can see the environment of the party in Film The Great Gatsby.
2) Watch PPT on the difference between the film and the novel and write in brief about it.
-There are so many differences between the film and novel.
1.The Frame story.
2.Relationship of Jordan baker and Nick carraway.
3.Lunch with Wolfsheim.
4.Racism
5.Gatsby's Death and Funeral.
6.The Apartment Party.
In this PPT you can see some points which are given in an article by Davide Haglund. Name of that article is "How Faithful is a Great Gatsby"
3) How did the film help in understanding the symbolic significance of 'The Valley of Ashes', 'The Eyes of Dr. T J Eckleburg' and 'The Green Light'?
In The Great Gatsby, between the glittering excitement of Manhattan and the stately mansions of East and West Egg, there is a horrible stretch of road that goes through an area covered in dust and ash from the nearby factories. The valley of ashes is the depressing industrial area of Queens that is in between West Egg and Manhattan. It isn't actually made out of ashes, but seems that way because of how gray and smoke-choked it is.
This grayness and dust are directly related to the factories that are nearby-their smokestacks deposit a layer of soot and ash over everything. The valley is next to both the train tracks and the road that runs from West Egg to Manhattan—Nick and other characters travel through it via both modes of transportation.
Green Light suggests that Gatsby believes in Green light and it means a lot to him or we can say Green Light is very important for his life It means that if that Green light is not there on Dock on Daisy's Mention.
In the world of The Great Gatsby, there is no moral center. Every character is shown to be selfish, delusional, or violent. Even Nick, who, as our narrator, is ostensibly meant to reflect on who is good and who is bad, turns out to be kind of a misogynist bigot. It's not surprising that none of these characters is shown to have faith of any kind. The closest any of them come to being led by an outside force, or voice of authority, is when Tom seems swayed by the super racist arguments of a book about how minorities are about to overwhelm whites. So it makes sense that Nick, whose job it is to watch everyone else and describe their actions, pays attention to something else that seems to also be watching—the billboard with the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg.
The billboard watches the site of the novel's biggest moral failures. On a more local level, the garage is the place where Daisy kills Myrtle. But on a bigger scale, the "ash heaps" of Queens show what happens to those who cannot succeed in the ambitious, self-serving, predatory world of the Roaring 20's that Fitzgerald finds so objectionable. The problem, of course, is that this billboard, this completely inanimate object, cannot stand in for a civilizing and moral influence, however much the characters who notice it cower under its gaze. Gatsby, who is also compared to "the advertisement of the man", the billboard is a sham representation of a deeper idea.
4) How did the film capture the theme of racism and sexism?
The racism in the book is largely expressed by characters we’re clearly supposed to disapprove of (like Tom). If a repulsive character says racist things, it’s hard to argue that they represent the author’s own views. This racism and sexism theme is used for Tom Buchannan.
In this video you can see how Tom was behaving with every person around him.
Nick Carraway is the narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. He is a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. He lives in West Egg, next door to the mysterious Jay Gatsby. As the novel progresses, Nick becomes increasingly involved with Gatsby's life and the lives of those around him. Nick is a reliable narrator who is able to look at the events of the novel objectively. He is also an unbiased narrator, allowing the reader to form their own opinions about the characters.
Nick is also an outsider who can observe the events of the novel without being personally involved. He is able to provide an objective view on the events that are taking place, which allows the reader to form their own opinion on the characters. His relationship with Gatsby is also important in the novel, as it provides an insight into the true nature of Gatsby's character and motivations. Nick's narration is an important part of the novel and allows the reader to understand the events that are taking place.
In the end, Nick Carraway's perch on the outside of these lofty social circles gives him a good view of what goes on inside; he has a particularly sharp and sometimes quite judgmental eye for character, and isn't afraid to use it.
*What Is Nick’s Final Message to the Reader?:
Ultimately, the last line of The Great Gatsby can be seen as a metaphor for the elusive American dream. Remember that Fitzgerald wrote the novel during the “Roaring 20s,” a time of great financial success and booming expansion in the United States, but also when many old values were seemingly left behind.
Nick’s observation in the final line is a reflection on how, no matter how much wealth or success we may accumulate, we’ll always chase after more in our futile efforts to “have it all.”
However, there is an infinite number of ways to interpret any one work of literature, as a single passage can mean something different to different people.
The analysis presented above is merely a reflection of my own point of view, but by using a similar approach (analyzing key literary elements and techniques), you can draw your own conclusions.
-So, that's it for today's blog.
-Thank You so much for visiting.
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