The Green Light

At the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Because Gatsby’s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal.

East egg vs. West egg

East Egg is the fashionable group of social elite, also known as "old money" or people who have always had money. Tom and Daisy represent the 'old establishment', having lived in the wealthy upper class for most of their lives. Daisy is consumed by the materialistic values associated with her 'social class'. These people are shallow and lack values. They are careless and completely consumed with themselves, which is shown through Jordan Baker. She is a professional golfer who makes the comment that people should be careful of her when she drives. Also Daisy hits Myrtle, and does not even turn around to see if she is okay, all she is concerned with is the dealing with the consequences. "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together." The social elite of East Egg are inhuman; they are spoiled to such an extent that their morality has been twisted. Although these are clearly "bad" people they are envied and copied constantly by the West eggers. Throughout the novel it seems to be the West are trying to fit in the East, but East eggers, like Tom and Daisy, feel that they are too sophisticated to take part in that.

West Eggers are the newly rich; the people who have worked hard and earned their money in a short period of time. Their wealth is based on material possessions. Gatsby, like the West Eggers, lacks the traditions of the East Eggers. He is considered 'new money', in the sense that his wealth came to him more recently through his business dealings (which we are led to believe are corrupt). Although Gatsby is now a part of this class, his faith and belief in the success of his dreams has allowed him to preserve some morality. Despite the fact Gatsby made his fortune in a corrupt fashion one must recognize that he is someone to admire because of his hopes. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, lives in West Egg and exhibits honesty in this place of superficiality. Clearly the West represents the more moral of the two. Although West Egg is the more moral, it is still a place of superficiality, excessive spending, and gaudy living.

Unrequited Love

it isn't love at all. It is a crush, an obsession, an infatuation. Real love has to be mutual. It is impossible to have one-sided love. Love by its very definition must be returned. It is shared. love that is not returned or understood as such, even though reciprocation(returned)is usually deeply desired. The beloved may or may not be aware of the admirer's deep affections.dictionary defines unrequited as "not reciprocated or returned in kind.Like in the Great Gatsby, gatsby has a relentless unrequited love with daisy.Unrequited love can result in obsessive behavior such as stalking and even transform into hostility toward the object of desire if the love is rejected. These sorts of behavior can lead the afflicted person to be seen as "perverted" or to a lesser extent.

http://neonights.net/dating/guide/Unrequited_love.html

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17473084
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrequited_love

The Great Gatsby film versions

The Great Gatsby film version is a romantic drama that was released in 1974.The main cast of the film was Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, Scott Wilson, and Sam Waterston. Scripted by one of the top directors of the early 70's and starring the period's hottest leading man, The Great Gatsby was supposed to be the prestige production of the year. Its flaws, however, turned it intodisappointment. With its luxurious period costumes, meticulously rich settings and props, and a cast who all looked the part, this version of The Great Gatsby had all of the surface elements seductively in place. The Great Gatsby is a 1926 silent film adaptation of the novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was made by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and Paramount Pictures, directed by Herbert Brenon and produced by Jesse L. Lasky and Adolph Zukor. The film is a famous example of a lost film, which means it was a film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives. Most silent films are apart of the "lost films".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTxxXK9PQT0
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071577/
http://www.answers.com/topic/the-great-gatsby-1974-film

Selfish People

The book "the Great Gatsby" is set among wealthy, educated people, who have lots of leisure time and little concern about people who are not in their social milieu. Nobody's concerned about politics or spiritual matters but everybody cares about how they are perceived socially. Those who do come from other classes seek and envy the glamour and lifestyle that they see in the elite. Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, is able to attain a certain amount of wealth, but he cannot fake education or social behaviors that only come with old money. The novel's two main locales, West Egg and East Egg, are distinguished also by class. East Egg represents old money while West Egg represents the nouveau riche. East Eggers consistently look down on West Eggers for precisely this fact. Class and wealth are virtually indistinguishable from each other, but if a person lacks education, then he is clearly not part of the upper echelon.

The Men of Gatsby

In the Great Gatsby there are about 6 characters not counting wolfshiem, who is apart of the mob and is the one who made Gatsby rich by doing bootlegging. Nick Carraway - The novels narrator, Nick is a young man from Minnesota who, was being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I,Nick goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment. Jay Gatsby- The title character and protagonist of the novel, Gatsby is a wealthy young man living in a mansion in West Egg. He is famous for the parties he throws every Saturday night.Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s immensely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick’s social club at Yale. Powerfully built and hailing from a socially old family, Tom is an arrogant, and is like a bully. George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, the lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop at the edge of the valley of ashes. George loves myrtle, and is devastated by her affair with Tom.

Dan Cody

Gatsby worked on Lake Superior the next summer fishing for salmon and digging for clams. One day, he saw a yacht owned by Dan Codywho is a wealthy copper mogul, he rodeout to warn him about an impending storm. Cody was grateful and took young Gatz, who gave his name as Jay Gatsby, on board his yacht as his personal assistant. Traveling with Cody to the Barbary Coast and the West Indies, Gatsby fell in love with wealth and luxury. Cody was a heavy drinker, and one of Gatsby’s duties was to look after him during his drunken "celebration". This gave Gatsby a healthy respect for the dangers of alcohol and convinced him not to become a drinker himself. When Cody died, he left Gatsby $25,000, but Cody’s mistress prevented him from claiming his inheritance. Gatsby then dedicated himself to becoming a wealthy and successful man.
Gatsby got "scammed" out of his inheritance. Coming home from World War I, Gatsby is broke, owning only the clothes on his back, his uniform. He is starving, when he meets Wolfsheim in a pool hall. Wolfsheim is a gangster. He puts Gatsby to work in his criminal activities. Gatsby becomes enormously rich very quickly, but his life is not respectable. He becomes corrupt through his association with Wolfsheim.


http://www.enotes.com/great-gatsby/q-and-a/how-do-roles-dan-cody-daisy-meyer-wolfsheim-shape-60003

Jealousy

Jealousy is an emotion and typically refers to the negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over an anticipated loss of something that the person values, such as a relationship. Jealousy is found most common in relationships it consists of anger, sadness, and , hatred/disgust. People usually get jealousy confused with envy but they are not the same envy is an emotion when a person lacks a accomplishment, a object, achievement, or something the other person desires.

A example of jealousy in The Great Gatsby is when Tom hits his mistress because of how she kept saying Daisy to him. Also the only cause for Gatsby's downfall was that he was jealous of others that did not want him to succeed.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was a american author of novels and short stories such as This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, and The most famous of all The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "lost Generation", which is a term used to characterize a general feeling of disillusionment of american literary. Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Mineesota, he was named after his second cousin Francis Scott Key and by his sister that died shortly after he was born. Fitzgerald attended Nardin Academy, St. Paul academy ,and Princeton University.Fiztgerald was known to be a poor student so he enlisted in the army during WWI but shortly after he enlisted the war and ended.
Fitzgerald was known to be a alcoholic ever since he was in college. He became notorious for his heavy drinking, which then leaving him with a illness named tuberculosis in 1919. In 1940 Fitzgerald suffered from two heart attacks which he died from before the ambulances could arrive. Fitzgerald's work and legend inspired writers ever since he was first published.

http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/biography.html

Mafia/Gangsters

In The Great Gatsby Meyer WolfShiem was a mafia member who was Gatsby "friend". Not much was known about Wolfshiem work with the mafia except for he corrupted his dream as well as aided in destroying Gatsby's dream. This corrupts the American dream because working with characters from the mafia and then joining the mafia is illegal and you really arent working for the dream it's mainly given so what did you accomplish?

The mafia was around for along time before the 1920's and existed in mostly all of the cities in the U.S. as well as other countries but the 1920's was the most noteworthy because of prohibition. The mafia got involved in bootlegging, this was a risky business but it earned them about $100 million a year but whenever this much money was involved greed, deception , and murder took over. One of the most famous mobster, Al Capone was a bootlegger and made millions off the business. As well as other illegal activities he was so good at what he did (covering his tracks) that he only ended up in prison for tax evasion but then died several years after being released.

http://writinghood.com/literature/national/corruption-of-the-american-dream-in/

http://west.iccsd.k12.ia.us/library/WQR&J/era/1920s.htm

Flappers

F. Scott Fitzgerald first used the term flappers to the U.S. to describe the image and style of the new style. He described them as "lovely", "expensive", and about "nineteen". The flapper image was young girls wearing unbuckled galoshes that would make a "flapping" noise when walking. Flappers usually wore short skirts, bobbed their hair and listened to jazz. They also wore excessive makeup ,drinking, smoking( which women usually never did), and treating sex in a casual manner as well as dancing the charleston.

In The Great Gatsby Jordan Baker is an athletic, independent woman who maintains a moral lifestyle. Her character represents the new breed of woman(flappers) in America with a sense of power. The term Flapper first appeared in Great Britain after WWI it was used to describe young girls still some what in movement who had not yet entered womanhood.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/flappers.htm
by Jennifer Rosenberg, About.com Guide

Prohibition

The 18th amendment was ratified on january 16, 1919 which is the illegal sale, manufacturing, and transportation of alcohol for consumption was banned nationally. Many social problems occured when the 18th amendment took affect such as mafia groups limited their activities for gambling and theft until 1920, then bootlegging manifested in response. Many gangs corrupted law enforcement agencies. Many people started to make their own alcohol.
Prohibition relates to The Great Gatsby because smuggling illegal booze was the way that Jay Gatsby was able to make and keep his fortune. Many well off people during the 1920's were involved in this underground supply of liquor to speakeasies and other illegal foundation. Meyer Wolfshiem introduced Gatsby to the remunerative bootlegging industry.