The Great Gatsby - Thinking Activity

Hello Friends , 

This blog is a part of my classroom thinking activity . This activity given by Dr.Dilip Barad Sir .

This blog is about the novel ' The Great Gatesby' and it's film adaptation.

About Novel : 

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.

1) How did the film capture the Jazz Age the Roaring Twenties of the America in 1920s?

The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles rapidly gained nationwide popularity in the United States. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz. 

Fitzgerald himself coined the term of Jazz age. In the term reaction to the death/destruction/loss of innocence from WWI (post-war prosperity). 

During this time, there was a mass migration from rural areas to cities where “parties were bigger, the pace was faster, the buildings were higher, the morals looser” . So Some called it the first truly modern decade. In this time women is Flapper. Flappers means modern women of the 1920s – young, rebellious, fun-loving, and bold – short hair, short dresses (to the knees), more makeup (esp. lipstick) – attitudes changes – ex: began to smoke and drink in public.All these things we can go inside the movie that comes to the jazz age. From the video below we will understand more that the way jazz age is defined, the thing happens inside the movie.

2) How did the film help in understanding the characters of the novel ?

The film give a very proper idea about every character. It's help us to usestand every character very properly. For example character of jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is a rags to riches story; he is a millionaire having risen from a humble background. A son of unsuccessful small farmers, Gatsby could not remain satisfied with his fate. His desire for more took him on a path he had not reckoned for himself. It was his poverty that he could not win Daisy.

3) How did the film help in understanding the symbolic significance of 'The Valley of Ashes', 'The Eyes of Dr. T J Eckleberg' and 'The Green Light'?

 The Green Light :

Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Because Gatsby’s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. In Chapter 9, Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation.

The Valley of Ashes :

The Valley of Ashes- the area between West Egg and New York City. It is a desolate area filled with industrial waste. It represents the social and moral decay of society during the 1920’s. It also shows the negative effects of greed. This movie has a scene from Valley. It is a symbol. The valley is next to both the train tracks and the road that runs from West Egg to Manhattan — Nick and other characters travel through it via both modes of transportation.

The Eyes of Doctor. T. J. Eckeburg: 

The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. They may represent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral wasteland, though the novel never makes this point explicitly. Instead, throughout the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaning because characters instill them with meaning.

 The connection between the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God exists only in George Wilson’s grief-stricken mind. This lack of concrete significance contributes to the unsettling nature of the image. Thus, the eyes also come to represent the essential meaninglessness of the world and the arbitrariness of the mental process by which people invest objects with meaning. Nick explores these ideas in Chapter 8, when he imagines Gatsby’s final thoughts as a depressed consideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.

4) How did the film capture the theme of racism and sexism?

The Great Gatsby is an American literature. In which the difference between black people and white people is shown. Like Tom is a rich man. There are many black people working as servants in his bungalow. It shows the difference in color. Accordingly, power promotes some people’s desires like Tom Buchanan, and at the same time oppresses and confines others and their wishes like Jay Gatsby. The persistence of Jay Gatsby to break the social structure and his endeavor to confront and resist that power lead him to demise. The Great Gatsby movie also has sex scenes. Including the relationship between....

Marriages :-

.George/Myrtle

.Tom/Daisy

.Daisy/Gatsby

.Relationships/Affairs

.Nick/Jordan

.Tom/Myrtle

.Nick/Jordan

5) Watch the video on Nick Carraway and discuss him as a narrator.

Nick Carraway’s role in The Great Gatsby is more than just that of a narrator. He is the narrator of the well orchestrated Gatsby Drama but also an active character. He participates actively in its events and action. A wise and cultured young gentleman, Nick is also conscientious. He lends company to the readers throughout the novel, judging the events as they happen from his own unique perspective. His conscience and sense of morality differentiate him from the others.His conscience and sense of morality differentiate him from the others. He uses some of the interesting lines.

Thanks...