Passage Analysis for Chapters 5&6

"I walked into the back way -just as Gatsby had when he made his nervous circuit of the house half an hour before- and ran for a huge black knotted tree whose massed leaves made a fabric against the rain. Once more it was pouring and my irregular lawn, well-shaved by Gatsby's garderner, abounded in small muddy swamps and prehistroic marshes. There was nothing to look at from under the tree except Gatsby's enormous house so I stared at it, like Kant at his church stteple, for half an hour. A brewer had built it early in the "period" craze, a decade before, and there was a story that he'd agree to pay five years' taxes on all neighboring cottages if the owners would have their roofs thatched with straw. Perhaps their refusal took the heart out of his plan to Found a Family- he went into an immediate decline. His children sold his house with the black wreath still on the door. Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry" (Fitzgerald 93).

What first stands out to me is how Nick once messy lawn was made better by Gatsby's doing. This shows weakness on Nick's part seeing as tehy just recetnly had talked about fixing the lawn and then it was already done, he didn't try to work for his own garderners he just allowed for Gatsby's. It brings to mind that idea that Gatsby uses wealth and status to distract from things he doesn't want to be found out about himself. Which comes up a lot in chapter five where he seems frantic to cover something up. Secondly, Nick's mention of the tree blocking his view of everything but Gatsby's house seems to be about isolation. Gatsby certainly knows a lot of people and is as social as possible but he is alone in that house and as we see he gets nervous and excited when Daisy shows up and he seems eager to please Nick at some points, Gatsby may know many people but he seems to be truely alone. Finally the last line of this passage leads to questioning, seeing as pesants are free and serfs aren't why would Americans be willing to be the later. In the context of this book I take the idea of authority and being told what to do to go alon with how the people act. They all display odd social behavior in their newly found extravengent life style and they all play into the same certain personality not straying away into anything really unique.

The Great Gatsby: Chapter 2

The excerpt I found most important from chapter II was:
"'Can't stand them.' She looked at Myrtle and then at Tom. "What I say is, why go living with them if they can't stand them? If I was them I'd get a divorce and get married to each other right away'"(Fitzgerald 37).

This section reminded me of the contradictions we were talking about in class, not so much that contradictions are even mentioned here but there seems to be a problem with evenness. If the characters would make once certain decision everything could be sorted out but they don't do it. This quote also relates to status and the perceptions others have on you which I think I saw started to become more important within this chapter.

The two ideas can also come together. I believe Catherine, in this quote is implying that the two she is looking at should get divorces in order to marry each other since they are already seeing each other. Clarification is needed because the reader could interpret it as those two splitting up. Later in Nick's conversation with Catherine we see a very important lie told, "You see?' cried Catherine triumphantly. She lowered her voice again. 'It's really his wife that's keeping them apart. She's a Catholic and they don't believe in divorce.' Daisy was not a Catholic and I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie" (38). Firstly, we see some proof as to how important status is. Since being Protestant was more accepted than being Catholic at the time, Catherine takes advantage of that to make someone else look bad in order to be perceived better. So while Catherine is able to reveal something about other people to Nick he catches her in a lie, this goes back to the evenness I was mentioning earlier. Just when she does something good she cancels it out and nothing is accomplished. Likewise to Myrtle and Tom she is talking about. If they got their divorces they would personally be happy but looked down on since divorce isn't something believed in. Once again nothing would really be accomplished.