Great Gatsby - The last....melon...

"It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night - and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over. Only gradually did I become aware that the automobiles which turned expectantly into his drive stayed for just a minute and then drove sulkily away. Wondering if he were sick I went over to find out - an unfamiliar butler with a villainous face squinted at me suspiciously from the door." (Page 113)

I feel it is only appropriate when finishing another novel to use a blog title that invokes curiosity. Well, confused reader, I am referring to the epic scene in Ice Age with the Dodo birds when Sid wants to get a watermelon for  the baby. After destroying 2 melons in their fight, Sid and the dodo birds see the third and final melon and one of the birds says, "the last....melon," in an extremely quotable manner. I would just post a video on here but I can't find one that is the right scene and in english. So you'll just have to imagine it. Hers's a picture:

I've decided that I liked this book. It kind of felt like watching 90210. There's always some new drama that the writer can spin into the plotline just in time to keep me intrigued.

But I can't imagine that these characters are as unrealistically attractive as the ones on 90210. Anyway, the story actually kept me entertained, and the drama was almost juicy in a way. The ending was quite unexpected, I must say. I definitely did not see 3 deaths coming. It kind of felt like reading a Shakespeare tragedy there at the end. Oh well. All's well that ends well. Sort of.

Great Gatsby - I've decided I like Nick.

"I've always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end." (Page 154)

I like Nick. He's a wholesome character. In fact, he's the only character in this book that I didn't want to strangle at least once. A close second for my praise was Jordan, but she was just plain annoying at points in the story. Especially when she was just lounging without a care in the world in the beginning of the book when Nick meets her for the first time at the Buchanan's house. That scene reminded me of Mrs. Bennett of Pride and Prejudice during one of the scenes in the movie when she is just lazily sitting on the couch. And I like Mrs. Bennett, so this is a tough comparison for me to admit! Okay, I can't find a picture of this scene anywhere online, so you'll just have to imagine it. 

Anyway, Nick was capable of liking Gatsby but not liking him at the same time, and I can relate to that. I guess I'll have to believe his comment about always disapproving of Gatsby, but I have a hard time doing that when I think about how much care he took in arranging everything after Gatsby was shot. Someone had to do it, I guess.

Great Gatsby - External conflict

"It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete." (Page 163)

Wilson and Gatsby didn't have any interaction until the night when one of Gatsby's decisions impacted Wilson's life forever (or at least for a few days until he killed himself). Gatsby let Daisy drive. And then he didn't make her stop when she hit someone with the car.Wilson found out who had killed his wife (or so he thought), and BOOM! External conflict! Wilson v. Gatsby. They both lost. Unfortunately, Wilson decided that the only way to avenge his wife was to kill Gatsby and then end his own life.  It's slightly depressing to think that this whole story passed rather happily with parties and drunken people until the very end when the splat-woosh factor set in. (Those of you who have ever had the privilege of learning from Mrs. Helbing know what this means. Those of you who don't: think of it as the (to use a nicer word) feces hitting the fan. Splat. Woosh.) I liked the action though. It gave the book substance, and I think I understand all of the hype surrounding this critically acclaimed novel. Bravo, Fitzgerald.

Great Gatsby - Antihero

"Then they sauntered over to my house and sat on the steps for half an hour, while at her request I remained watchfully in the garden." (Page 107)

I want to like Gatsby. I really do. But he's not helping himself. Every time I begin to have any sort of sympathy for him, he does something stupid like cheat with another man's wife or cover up a murder. So, I've decided his is the antihero of this story. He certainly lacks courage: it took him 5 years to speak to Daisy because he was worried she wouldn't love him if he wasn't rich. He lacks grace because he stupidly decides to spend time with Daisy and her husband more than once. He's intelligent, but he's not street smart, and he doesn't possess any worthy morals that I can discern. He is having an affair of sorts with a married woman, and then he allows her to kill someone and get away with it. Unfortunately, I sustained a bit of sympathy for him throughout the book simply because I find him kind of pathetic. He doesn't have any real friends, and the woman he loves leaves him. Plus he gets shot.

Great Gatsby - Motif

' "That's a great expression of yours, isn't it?" said Tom sharply.
"What is?"
"All this 'old sport' business. Where'd you pick that up?" ' (Page 127)

I must say, I was a bit relieved when Tom finally called Gatsby out on all of his "old sport"-ing. I was getting frustrated with it, and I wasn't even speaking to him! I noticed that this particular motif of Gatsby's occurs almost every time he speaks. It isn't confined to when he is angry or when he is being pleasant. It's just his thing. I guess I can understand that, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. It almost feels like a defense mechanism, though. It's Gatsby's way of ensuring that the listener won't think he is being rude or mean. It invites camaraderie and confidence. It actually almost makes him sound paternal, like a father patting his son on the back after a baseball game. Classic. Amurrican.

 I can practically hear this guy saying, "Good job, sport."

Great Gatsby - say what?!

"Then I was lying half asleep in the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania Station, staring at the morning Tribune, and waiting for the four o'clock train." (Page 38)

The end of chapter two confused the heck out of me, and to be completely honest, I ended up glossing over some of the drunken banter between Myrtle, Tom, the McKees, and all of the other randoms that decided to walk across the pages of chapter two because I just couldn't see the significance in some of it. Tom has a mistress, she's a little chubby, and she's a bit of a diva. They all like to drink. There. I just summarized it for myself.

I could handle all of the insanity up until the end when Tom randomly punched Myrtle Wilson in the face and broke her nose because she kept repeating Daisy's name and then the above quote happened when I'm assuming he awoke from his blackout. Who knows? I could definitely use some clarification on this particular scene. He mentions standing by somebody's bed, underwear, a great portfolio, and then Pennsylvania Station. All after accepting a lunch invitation from Mr. McKee that has yet to actually happen at the end of chapter five. Hmm.

Great Gatsby: Is Nick secretly Lemony Snicket?

"Reading over what I have written so far, I see I have given the impression that the events of three nights several weeks apart were all that absorbed me. On the contrary, they were merely casual events in a crowded summer, and, until much later, they absorbed me infinitely less than my personal affairs." (Page 56)

A Series of Unfortunate Events: we've all read them. Or at least, we read them until we were too depressed to carry on. (Although I must admit that Lemony Snicket does remind the reader every 4.2 seconds that they could be reading something less real and therefore less morbid. I'm not bitter though.) This popular series by Lemony Snicket is written in such a way that the author occasionally takes a step back from the story and addresses the reader about what is to come or how they should throw the book aside and run away to their grandma's house for cookies or blah blah blah...........zzzzzzzzzzzzz............I fell asleep. He uses his depressed tone of foreboding to entice the reader into carrying on with the innately tragic story of three little orphans. When he pauses to talk to his reader, Lemony Snicket likes to explain why he is telling the story the way he is or how certain events will make sense later.

Nick reminded me of Lemony Snicket on page 58 when he paused from his storytelling for a moment to address the reader about how he is writing the story. He wants to emphasize that the events he had previously described weren't the only things going on in his life. That's when he breaks into his description of work and New York. I don't know about you, but I was relived to learn Nick has an actual life.