cd- For example, when Gatsby is shown "stretch[ing] out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way,-he was trembling" in the first chapter, he is calling for Daisy up in the tower.
cm- As a reader, one would know that his house is exactly parallel to Daisy's on the opposite Egg/island across the water. What Gatsby is actually doing in this scene, is reaching out for Daisy.(20) He is the simpling that is longing and calling out for the fairest maiden locked up in the tower, which could be classified as Tom's overbearing household. Gatsby is like Romeo; he is crawling up the tree in her garden calling out her name to get her to come to the window and ask him for help to save her.
cd- Once Gatsby and Daisy are once again united, they, Nick, Jordan, and Tom take a day trip to New York and Gatsby professes Daisy's and his secret affair to Tom. (129-134).
cm- When the crew arrives at the Plaza Hotel, Tom is already mad that Gatsby has swooned Daisy into riding with him instead of Tom to town. When he starts questioning Gatsby in the room, he is ready for battle. He beats around the bush at first then goes in for the kill. Gatsby in this scene basically must fight off the ferocious dragon to save Daisy to sweep her away from the dangerous tower so they can live happily ever after.
cd- Once the fight fizzles out, the crew leaves. On the way home Daisy tragically runs over Myrtle, Tom's secret lover, by accident. Daisy returns home, and sees that Tom is waiting for her. Gatsby says to Nick outside of Daisy's house, " I want to wait here until Daisy goes to bed,".(145)
cm- Gatsby sitting there like a little lap dog makes him a lot like Juliet now. He is waiting outside of her window ready for battle if Tom gets out of control. He wants to make sure that once she pokes her head out of the window, everything was okay, and Tom would be able to handle himself without attacking her out of anger. Sadly, all that Daisy does once the talk with Tom is over is stay for a minute and then turned out the light and walked away.
pastel:
ts- Pastel colors in the book represent mystical characters, and objects.(Daisy)
cd- Daisy's wedding dress is cream colored instead of a pure and overly white dress.
cm- In the book, Daisy's wedding dress is said to be cream colored(74). Instead of a PURE vibrant white, it is an opalescent off white. This is classified as a PASTEL color. Pastels are a sign of mystic or fairy tales. The cream colored dress to the viewers was probably so beautiful that Daisy looked like a princess out of a story book.
cd- When Nick and Jordan arrange for Gatsby and Daisy to meet again, Daisy wears her lavender hat. (85)cm- When Daisy is on her way to Nick's house for tea, she has no idea that Gatsby will be there. When she pulls up and steps out of the car, Gatsby is starstruck, times slows, and her and her LAVENDER hat step out of the car. At this moment, Daisy IS a fairy tale. His dreams were finally coming true; and it's so mind blowing that they ACTUALLY are that Daisy and her magical hat are truly there in front of him. This day was a fairy tale.
cd- When Gatsby and Daisy start hanging around with each other, Gatsby meets Tom, and they all go to town for the day. Gatsby arrives in his yellow/cream colored town car (123).
cm- This car was a magical sight to Tom and Daisy. Tom immediately recommends driving it, and demands that Daisy ride with him in it. She refuses and Gatsby and her ride away in Tom's dark blue car. While in town, the fight breaks out, and everyone then leaves in astonishment. Daisy then is so mad that she storms out of the hotel with Gatsby following behind. She is so emotionally challenged at this point that she literally runs someone over while plowing through town. This person was Myrtle. Ironically, when Myrtle escapes Wilson's dungeon, she runs to the street trying to flag down her Prince Charming riding down on his noble steed, Tom, who she saw driving the creme car earlier that day. To Myrtle, this creme car represented wealth, which to her represents fairy tales. When she sees "Tom's" car barreling down the street, that is an enchanted moment; he arrived just in the nick of time to save her so they could ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. In actuality, it was emotional Daisy driving the noble steed, and kills her dead.
Thesis: The princess' tower, Cinderella, and pastel colors represent magic and fairy tale lifes in, The Great Gatsby.
ReplyDeleteThesis: Fitzgerald’s use of fairytale motifs emphasize the probability of Gatsby’s dream.
TS- Fitzgerald uses the tower motif to emphasize the futility of Gatsby’s dream.
cd- For example, when Gatsby is shown "stretch[ing] out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, he was trembling," he is calling for Daisy, who is up in her classy tower: East Egg.
cm- Gatsby is the simpleton who is reaching out to the fairest maiden locked up in the tower. She is held captive by Tom’s wealth. He assumes the only way he can save her is to dazzle her with his own wealth. Once he breaks the spell, he finally confronts Tom in the plaza hotel.
I feel like the Plaza hotel CD below is kind of weak. Why not move to the moment when he shows her is clothes? That is a much more powerful scene. The tower does not have to be a literal one. He takes her from East Egg (which is a tower in itself) and moves her to his castle in West Egg. Show that moment when she breaks down over his clothes. Then, once the spell is broken, she joins him in his dream there in his house and talks about the pastel clouds.
Later she attends his party and she looks around and wears her emotions on her face. She does not like his castle (West Egg) or anything associated it. It turns her stomach because they are from such different classes. So here is how I would set up your paper.
I. Daisy from a distance
a. He reaches out in the darkness
b. He draws her away to disenchant her (break the spell)
II. Daisy in his castle
a. He shows her his splendor
i. House
ii. clothes
iii. clippings about her
b. The spell is broken
i. She puts her arm in his
ii. She wants to push him around in the clouds (join him in fantasy land)
III. Daisy back in her tower
a. She attends his party and shows on her face her disapproval
b. She goes to the Plaza hotel where she admits that she is still enchanted by Tom
CONCLUSION:
She cannot be drawn from her tower (East Egg society) because it is old money. Fitzgerald is trying to show how destructive the American dream can be. It is impossible for lower classes knights to mingle with upper class princesses. And Gatsby was so bent on climbing those tower steps day after day that he didn’t realize that the past was left far behind him.