Gatsby and such

1. Why, ultimately, did Daisy choose Tom instead of Jay?
1. Daisy is absurdly concerned with keeping up appearances.  She worries about what people will think of her, and balks at the notion of running away from her husband with a suitor from "new money" (insert condescending venom).  Daisy's also concerned about 
2. Which aspects of the major characters do you admire?  Why?  (Say which character, which trait, and why you admire it.)
1. I really respect Gatsby's tenacity and willingness to do anything to gain Daisy's love.  He never gives up, even to the very end.
2. I don't really respect the characters in the book very much.  They all act kind of trashy and depressing.
3. Which aspects of the major characters do you not admire?  Why?
1. Daisy is very fickle and selfish.  Even in her youth, she would go on seven dates a day with seven different people.  She doesn't respect men and tosses them aside like garbage when she doesn't think she can get anything more.
2. Gatsby is willing to destroy an already fragile marriage by stealing Daisy away from Tom (not that Tom deserves her)
3. They're all super pretentious.
4. I am not a fan of the opulence and excess displayed in this novel.  I seriously doubt any of these characters would vote green.
4. Who is the protagonist of this novel?  Who or what is the antagonist? Explain your answers.
1. Gatsby is the protagonist of this novel.  He takes the most action, and the reader empathizes and thinks about him the most.  He is an unbelievably optimistic guy, and everyone and everything that brings him down collectively serves as the antagonist of the story.  Daisy leads Gatsby on and then abruptly drops him on the ground.  Tom yells at Gatsby and forces him to confront the reality that Daisy doesn't really love him.  Everything that brings Gatsby down and makes him realize that the world isn't perfect becomes the antagonist.  Daisy and all of those other haters are the current ceaselessly beating Gatsby down.
5. Jay Gatsby's life does not follow the arc of a typical tragic hero.  But do you as a reader sense some tragedy (of the Shakespearian variety) in his death?  In other words, is Jay Gatsby a character capable of eliciting a catharsis (Links to an external site.) in the reader? Explain why or why not.
1. Yes, Gatsby's death relieved a lot of emotional tension.  After he died, Nick felt as though he could move on and forget about the whole east-coast sordid affair.  Tom and Daisy also just want to move on after he dies.  All of the anxiety and emotional tension that collects throughout the story is suddenly relieved when he dies.
6. If this book is an argument, what is its thesis statement?  (Try to come up with two or three answers to this question, and don't settle for the simplest statements; honor the complexity of this text by trying to discover its subtleties and nuances.)
1. Fitzgerald doesn't believe that we can escape our pasts.  Everything Gatsby does is for his lost love Daisy, and Nick gets roped in with Tom and Daisy's garbage.
2. Excess and wealth can corrupt people.  It's hard to stay morally straight with so much money.
7. Francis Bacon says we should read to "weigh and consider" the ideas presented to us in novels.  In what ways does The Great Gatsby challenge your personal view of the world of 2015, your values, your assumptions?  What is your response - for now - to that challenge?
1. The Great Gatsby is a perfect example of how difficult it is to escape the past.  Our previous actions haunt us in the present and modify the opportunities that we have.  After reading this book, I will much more carefully consider how my background has contributed to where I am now.  I feel much more aware of how my actions now will change what happens to me later.
8. According to Thorstein Veblin, conspicuous consumption is not unique to the "leisure class."  He says, "No class of society, not even the most abjectly poor, forgoes all customary conspicuous consumption.  The last items of this category  of consumption are not given up except under stress of the direst necessity.  Very much of squalor and discomfort will be endured before the last trinket of the last pretense of pecuniary decency is put away."  Do you think that's true, that conspicuous consumption is inevitable no matter your wealth?  Should we try to minimize our own instances of conspicuously consuming?  Or are we wrong to assume, with Veblin, that buying things for show is inherently immoral (or at the very least, unseemly)?
1. In general, I don't think the poor participate in conspicuous consumption.  It seems rather ridiculous to presume that people on a small or fixed income would waste money on unnecessary objects when they have to pay for rent and food.  I don't think conspicuous consumption is inherently a bad thing.  There's nothing wrong with showing the world that you have a little bit of wealth.  Instead of focusing on restricting the behavior of the rich, we ought to learn to be more accepting and less judgmental.
9. In Chapter 4 of Plato's Republic, Socrates argues that both wealth and poverty are antithetical to virtue.  He states, "Wealth, I said, and poverty; the one is the parent of luxury and indolence, and the other of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent."  I think Fitzgerald - based on his portrayals of Jay, Tom, Jordan, Daisy and Wilson - would agree with Socrates (though you may read it differently). Now, the lifestyle you currently live (whatever that is) probably has more to do with your parents' choices and circumstances than your own at this point in your life.  But as you consider the social and economic lifestyle you hope/expect to have as an adult, how do Socrates' and Fitzgerald's views of wealth (and poverty) inform your aspirations?
1. I hope to have enough money to be happy and comfortable.  Being rich or ridiculously wealthy is not important to me, but paying for my kids' education and the things they will need is.  All I aspire towards is contentment; I don't need excess.  Gatsby, Tom and Daisy seem like they are almost made less happy by all their money because life's pleasures begin to lose their appeal.
10. Veblin says, "As wealth accumulates, the leisure class develops further in function and structure, and there arises a differentiation within the class. There is a more or less elaborate system of rank and grades."  Readers see that even among the uber-wealthy in Gatsby's world, there exist gradations of status.  Do you know where your household ranks in comparison to other American households?  Check out this calculator.  (Links to an external site.)(You don't need to write anything for this question....just play around with the numbers and see if it's interesting.)