I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn't believe it would come and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitiously about... like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees. pg. 169 paragraph 2
This passage is the epiphany that Gatsby has of his illusive life. The reason why Gatsby no longer cared about Daisy returning his phone call, is because the dream of Daisy calling back was some kind of abstraction that would ultimately never come true. Gatsby also has the realization that he has been wasting his time with catching Daisy, and because he has wasted this time in an ilusive world, the reality of life is extremely frightening. Fitzgerald's description of the "unfamiliar sky" through the "frightening leaves" shows that the natural world is something terrifying to Gatsby. Fitzgerald describes the rose as "grotesque" as well. The reason why the rose is grotesque is because the rose is a symbol for the his love for Daisy, something that appeared beautful at first but in reality was something that led to disgust. The grass is a symbol for Gatsby, and the "raw sunlight" upon him represents Gatsby's utimate vulnerability to damage. This vulnerability to damage ultimately foreshadows George Wilson killing Gatsby very soon. Fitzgerald next describes people who are living in this illusive world as "poor ghosts" who breathe in dreams like air; people taking things in but eventually getting rid of it and going nowhere, much like the life of the "fantastic" figure coming toward him. George Wilson is the ashen figure approaching Gatsby and is the hero who ends the terribly abstracted lives of them both.
I agree with all the points. However, if you wanted to go deeper in to the descriptions and explanations of how you felt about the descriptions, that would be really good. For example, "The grass is a symbol for Gatsby" isn't really explained as to how you got to that conclusion.
ReplyDeleteYou've chosen a great passage, and you ground your response in a strong "so what." The second sentence of the response gets confusing--essentially, you say the dream won't come true because it's a dream. I'm really interested in what you say about the natural world. Perhaps it's terrifying to Gatsby to because it's real, not constructed. I can see why you conclude what you do about the rose part of the passage, makes sense. Why, though, does the grass symbolize Gatsby? I guess I'm not convinced about that conclusion. I'm surprised, too, about your reading of George as heroic. Why do you think he's a hero in the end? The ashen figure description suggests that he's an extenson of the valley of ashes, a place of the living dead (ie, the poor).
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