Valley of Ashed - Drea Mathis

Symbol – The VALLEY OF ASHES

Picture -
http://www.cradleofnhs.org.uk/images/dyffryn.jpg



Meaning- The VALLEY OF ASHES means Rich takes from the environment and the poor just so that they can have the luxuries that they want.


Quotes-
“A fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take forms of house and chimneys… and ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud.” (23)

The people who live in this gray city are hopeless and poor. The gray surroundings symbolize the poor rode ahead that is existent without any life of color to come. The gray symbolizes loss of hope. When the book describes Wilson with “ashen dust [Wilson] suit and his pale hair…” (26) This shows that there is no hope for George Wilson. Also, Gray can symbolize death. The gray valley of ashes ties in very well with this concept when Myrtle dies in the ugly, hopeless town.

Gatsby's House - Xavy SanGabriel

Gatsby’s House
Jay Gatsby’s house is home to lavish and extravagant parties filled with people who may or may not know Gatsby personally. They may have been introduced to Gatsby once and then stays there for the fun. The house parties also provide opportunities for young (and relatively poor) Englishmen to be able to create connections with rich Americans to be able to achieve the upper class status. Gatsby uses his big house parties to attract the woman of his dreams: Daisy Buchanan. Unfortunately, Daisy is one of the few people who don’t attend Gatsby’s parties. Gatsby also stays at his house and stares at the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.
Serving these purposes, Gatsby’s house is home to many symbolic purposes for the book The Great Gatsby. Gatsby’s house symbolizes the path to Gatsby’s dream. It may also be interpreted as to how the American Dream has fallen to just seeking money and riches. The fact that Gatsby’s dream (Daisy) came last to his house symbolizes the patience required to attain the American Dream.
Quotes:
“There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights… The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun.”
“I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited”
“I was immediately struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about; all well dressed, all looking a little hungry, and all talking in low, earnest voices to solid and prosperous Americans.”
Sources:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/themes.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/summary.html

Picture:
http://www.sitecreative.com/gallery/misc/White-mansion.jpg

East Coast vs. West Coast - Robert Flores

VS

The Great Gatsby
East Cost vs. Midwest/ West
At the commencement of the novel the reader is attune to the fact that the novel takes place in New York. New York is located on the Eastern Seaboard, wile many of the character’s in the novel made their starts in the Midwest. There is a great amount of contrast between the attitudes of the Northeasterners and the attitudes of the Midwesterners. The liberal thinking of New York sets the scene for opportunity, that is hoped for in the American Dream. New York also sets the scene for radicalism and change which is different from the traditional values of the Midwest.
“My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this middle-western city for three generations” Shows traditionalism in the Midwest
“The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and were dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors and hair shorn in strange new ways and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile.” Shows the radicalism of New York
“That’s my Middle West . . . the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.” Shows the contrast between the two ways of life

“...I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes- a fresh, green breast of the new world.” Shows the opportunities made possible in New York

VS.

Works Cited:

30 Mar. 2007 .

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995.

Oberlin College. 30 Mar. 2007 .

The Color White - Veronica and Pete-8th

Meaning: Wealthy, a cover up for their filthiness
“Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water…”
“…walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken women in a white evening dress.”

Works Cited

1. www.litfix.co.uk/Fitzgerald.htm
2. www.wikipedia.com

The Green Light - Selby and Star-6th

Selby
CrystalStar
Period 6
1) The green light in “The Great Gatsby” symbolizes the envy that James Gatz has. He longs for Daisy’s love.


2) “…he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling.” (21)
“Gatsby believed I the green light…Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning-”(182)
3)
4) "Start Trails in the Night Sky with Northern Lights Alberta Canada." Fotosearch. 22 Mar. 2007 .

Daisy and Myrtle - Logan and Michael-5th

Daisy & Myrtle

Daisy and Myrtle have a lot in common. They both are linked to Tom Buchanan, so both are used to his treatment of them. Both have a love for the superficial things that money can buy. They love being linked with wealth. Both also cheat on their husbands with other men. Both decide that they are happier with the men they are cheating with. They represent the women of the roaring 20’s, because both have characteristics of the American Dream. They both want wealth, power, and are materialistic. They are also both involved in love affairs and the problems caused by them.

Quotes: “I love you now isn’t that enough? ...I did love him once, but I loved you too”
Daisy said this to Gatsby, which shows how she is torn between Tom and his wealth which she married him for, and Gatsby her love from before and his new found wealth.


“I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
Daisy is not a fool herself but is the product of a social environment that, to a great extent, does not value intelligence in women. While Myrtle may in fact be this fool, because she married George who she no longer wants to be with. She wants to be with Tom too, because of his social status. Daisy might not value intelligence in women, but she should or she could’ve ended up like Myrtle.

Work Cited: http://www.lawhern.org/Photos/Crepe-Myrtle.jpg
http://www.airbrushnow.com.au/gallery/data/media/7/cartoon-daisy.jpg
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:lAwyh3BzSf8J:www.enpferney.org/StudentSite/Two%2520Women%2520Daisy%2520and%2520Myrtle%2520myessa%2520topic%252016.doc+what+do+daisy+and+myrtle+symbolize&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us

Gatsby's Car - Jisna & Ray-6th

Gatsby’s Car
Gatsby’s car is a symbol of the American dream because he is living his life in luxury.
The car symbols the ending of Gatsby because in the end you no longer see the car as “beauty”, but as a “weapon” that was accidentally used to kill Myrtle. In the Wilson Myrtles husband uses his weapon to kill Gatsby.
Gatsby's yellow car is ultimately the murder weapon used to kill Myrtle. This yellow represents money and crass materialism that corrupts and destroys Gatsby's dream.

“He was balancing himself on the dash board of his car…that is so peculiarly American.”
Here the coincide the car along with America the car is a dream only for those who are rich enough to grasp it. While to the eye Gatsby has grasped that dream, but in actuality Gatsby is still not reached his point of the American dream.
“I’d seen it everyone had seen it”
Here Nick expresses that everyone’s seen the car, and in the end when Myrtle dies Gatsby thinks no one saw them except when they find out what kind of car it was from the black guy its almost positive that someone will identify that car as Gatsby’s
“It was a yellow car”
“…and left the car in my garage.”
Gatsby thinks he’s going to be able to hide away like Tom and Daisy simply, but just hiding the evidence, but by hiding the car to me it’s like hiding the American dream so it hints to the fact that Gatsby American dream where he was so close to achieving will soon come to an end.

Gatsby’s Car
Gatsby’s car is a symbol of the American dream because he is living his life in luxury.
The car symbols the ending of Gatsby because in the end you no longer see the car as “beauty”, but as a “weapon” that was accidentally used to kill Myrtle. In the Wilson Myrtles husband uses his weapon to kill Gatsby.
Gatsby's yellow car is ultimately the murder weapon used to kill Myrtle. This yellow represents money and crass materialism that corrupts and destroys Gatsby's dream.

“He was balancing himself on the dash board of his car…that is so peculiarly American.”
Here the coincide the car along with America the car is a dream only for those who are rich enough to grasp it. While to the eye Gatsby has grasped that dream, but in actuality Gatsby is still not reached his point of the American dream.
“I’d seen it everyone had seen it”
Here Nick expresses that everyone’s seen the car, and in the end when Myrtle dies Gatsby thinks no one saw them except when they find out what kind of car it was from the black guy its almost positive that someone will identify that car as Gatsby’s
“It was a yellow car”
“…and left the car in my garage.”
Gatsby thinks he’s going to be able to hide away like Tom and Daisy simply, but just hiding the evidence, but by hiding the car to me it’s like hiding the American dream so it hints to the fact that Gatsby American dream where he was so close to achieving will soon come to an end.