Individual Assignments
Chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby is the longest and most revealing chapter of the entire book. In this chapter Gatsby's and Daisy's affair is realized by Tom and the fallout of the entire plot begins in this chapter. The reader can start to guess that Tom knows about the affair because he keeps throwing this subtle insults at Gatsby about what he does for a living. The chapter starts off by Nick telling about how Gatsby had cancelled all of his parties because he is so preoccupied with Daisy and how he fired many of his servants to prevent gossip and replaced them with very shady individuals connected to Meyer Wolfshiem. Then Nick, Jordan, Tom, Gatsby and Daisy all head into town to have some fun. This day was supposed to be the day that Daisy told Tom that she never loved him. This chapter is filled with emotion and very shocking events that eventually lead to Gatsby's demise. When the group is leaving for New York, Tom insists that he drives Gatsby's car and Gatsby drives his car. I believe that Tom does this because since Gatsby stole his wife so he is going to steal Gatsby's car. After they make the trek to the city and get some alcohol (nothing could be done before they got alcohol) Tom begins blabbering on about how he knew that Gatsby has been sleeping with Daisy and that he is not going to stand for this. Things get really heated in the room and Gatsby loses his temper and starts yelling at Tom and grabs him by the shirt. After these events transpire, Gatsby feels very embarrassed and him and Daisy start to head home and that is where the trouble begins. While Gatsby and Daisy are on their way home they pass Wilson's gas station and his wife and Tom's mistress, Myrtle, runs out into the middle of the road and is hit and killed by Gatsby. When the rest of the group heads back to Long Island they see the mayhem that Gatsby has left for them. When they finally get back to Long Island, Nick is invited inside to hang out for a little but he denies and heads home. That is when he finds Gatsby hiding in the bushes and him and Gatsby have an altercation.
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In chapter 5, the fantasy of Gatsby and Daisy reuniting continues to comes closer into reality. When Nick returns home from a date with Jordan Baker he finds Gatsby's house lit up like Christmas but seemed to be unoccupied, Gatsby was waiting for Nick to get home so he could barrage him with all of these invitations to do things with him, Nick quickly realizes that he is trying to persuade him to ask Daisy to tea for him like Jordan had mentioned. This scene really showed Gatsby's true loneliness because I feel like he wasn't only inviting Nick to this things because he wanted him to do something for him but because he truly hated being alone. Nick tells Gatsby that he would be glad to invite Daisy to tea but just as a favor he doesn't need anything in return. Nick does arrange tea with Daisy, it rains on the day of the meeting and Gatsby seems terribly nervous. When Daisy arrives Nick brings her into the house to find that Gatsby has vanished. A minute later there was a knock on the door and it was Gatsby and he was soaking wet from the rain. This shows how nervous he was that his meeting with Daisy wasn't going to go as perfectly as he wanted it to go. Gatsby was nervous that even if Daisy accepted his advances that their love would not be exactly like it would have been back in Louisville. This chapter reveals the true characteristics of Gatsby.
In chapter 6, Nick finally tells us the truth about Gatsby's past and everything that he does. It turns out Gatsby came from dirt poor farmers in North Dakota and his real name was James Gatz. Even though he was born poor Gatz always believed he was destined for greatness so he packed his bags and ran away from home so he could make something of himself. During his travels Gatz saw a man in trouble on his yacht so Gatz climbed aboard and saved the man's yacht and the man's life. The man was named Dan Cody and he gratefully allowed Gatz to join him on his yacht. This is where Gatz learned all about how to dress, how to act, and that is where he changed his name to Jay Gatsby. Chapter three is the first chapter where the audience and Nick gets to officially meet Gatsby. Gatsby is introduced when Nick receives an invitation to one of his giant parties and decides to attend in hopes to finally meet this Gatsby that everyone has been talking about. When Nick arrives at the party he begins to ask around to figure out who to give his invitation to, but then quickly realizes that he is the only one that received an invitation to this glamorous party. Nick begins to ask around trying to find Gatsby so he can inquire about the invitation. When he finally starts to get some information everyone he asks seems to have a different story about Gatsby's past. Not knowing what to expect when he finally meets the famous Gatsby, Nick actually starts a conversation with him without even knowing it was him. Chapter three is a chapter that is dedicated to the introduction of Gatsby. It emphasizes his lavish life style by setting the chapter at one of his parties. It also introduces all of Gatsby's habits that seem slightly amiss, such as his habit to call people "old sport". Also it appears that Gatsby is using is extreme politeness and lavish lifestyle to cover up something much more dark in his past.
Chapter four begins with Nick describing everyone he recognized at Gatsby's party and he didn't recognize them because he knew them personally but because they were most famous, most elite people in New York. This shows the influence that Gatsby's parties have on people. Nick even describes how he witnessed his boss losing money gambling at Gatsby's parties. Then the chapter transitions to Nick and Gatsby heading to New York to have lunch with one of Gatsby's old friends, Meyer Wolfshiem, who Gatsby later admits fixed the 1919 World Series, this gives an insight into where Gatsby's fortune my have actually came from. While Nick and Gatsby are driving to New York Gatsby drives really fast and recklessly and a police officer attempts to pull him over but Gatsby shows him a white card and the police officer apologizes which is very suspicious. After the lunch Nick runs into Jordan Baker who was at Gatsby's party and lunch with Tom and Daisy. She tells Nick about how she knows how Gatsby is connected with all of their lives. A long five years before, Gatsby was in the military and stationed in Louisville, Kentucky where Daisy grew up and where the two of them fell in love. At the beginning of the novel the narrator, Nick Carraway, starts off with a general observation of himself stating that he is from the Midwest and states himself as author of the book and offering a very pessimistic overview on his opinion of Gatsby and life in general. He does this through weird observations. He also describes how he tends to reserve all judgement because if he holds them to is own standards he will not understand them but then he continues to judge every single person in the first chapter. In doing this he sets up a number of contradictions in his point of view. After this introduction, Nick explains that he lives on an island in Long Island called West Egg which is right across the bay from East Egg which is the richer and classier of the two Islands. Nick's cousin Daisy Buchanan lives on East Egg with her husband Tom who went to school at Yale with Nick. Nick travels across the bay to Daisy's house on East Egg to have dinner with Daisy and Tom. This is where the author introduces the audience to Daisy, Tom, and their friend Jordan Baker who seems to take an interest in Nick. Nick uses chapter one to set up the plot in the novel and to introduce the audience to all of the characters in the first chapter. At the very end of the chapter Nick sees who he thinks is Gatsby although he never had actually met Gatsby at that point the audience could sense a connection between Gatsby and Nick.
Unlike the first chapter which is set in the beautiful neighborhoods in East and West Egg, the second chapter moves to a more dark and depressing place just outside of New York which unlike the Eggs contains a completely different society. While the people of East and West Egg are the richest, most powerful people of New York, the people who live in this new area are the complete opposite. They struggle to make ends meet and have an overall poor quality of life. Nick refers to this place as the valley of ashes because it is where the railroad meets the motor road and all of New York's coal is processed. The valley of ashes is where Tom Buchanan's mistress resides with her husband in an auto shop which the text shows to maybe be a a cover for a prostitution ring. In this chapter there are many different things said that lead to this chapter being the most sexual out of the whole book. This chapter also reveals that Tom does not care that he is cheating on his wife and feels no guilt. In How Soccer is Ruining America: A Jeremiad by Stephen Webb, the main strategy that he uses is irony. In the majority of the passage Webb does nothing but insult the game of soccer and all who support and play it. He does this in a variety of different ways. He continually brings up god in his arguments stating that any sport that restricts a player to their feet is not worth playing. " Did Jesus wash his disciples' hands at the Last Supper? No, hands are divine (they are one of the body parts most frequently attributed to God)" this quote qualifies his last statement that the feet are worthless because he alludes to the bible by bringing up Jesus and his disciples.
He continues to bash on soccer by comparing it to baseball and stating how baseball is so much better of a sport because it takes courage to step up to the plate and have a hard ball thrown directly at you. He then build ethos by providing the fact that he used to play baseball himself. He also compares standing at the plate to being in a western shootout. Webb also says that the language in baseball is tougher with words such as "bases", "bats", and "strikeouts". He states that it is a tougher sport all around. He then makes his argument even more insulting by saying that soccer is a girls sport. Not only is this insulting to both males and females it is incredibly sexsist. He also calls soccer a "foreign invasion" which if that was even the slightest bit true it would not have grown into one of the most popular sports in America. The American people obviously like soccer so it is more of a "foreign gift" then a "foreign invasion". He continues to go on for two pages about how soccer is a disgrace to America and it is running it into the ground before the admits in the last paragraph that he himself is a supporter of soccer. He also admits that all of his kids are on travel soccer teams and that he goes to support his kids. This is where the irony comes in, if he actually is a supporter of soccer why did he spend two pages slamming it? He did that because in the last paragraph he destroys every argument he brought up in the first two pages completing imploding the argument against soccer. |
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