Gatsby/Bluest Eye Notes

Gatsby Bluest Eye

Societal Expectations Societal Expectations

-Classy Wealth: Use wealth to do classy -Be White, or be subordinate
things
-Old Money: Born into money Characters
-Showiness -Geraldine: Ashamed by her race, believes
-Pervasion: Wealth must pervade every she is better and acts “white”
aspect of your life -Maureen: Corrupted by purity, corrupts the
-Conformity girls

Characters
-Gatsby: Society changed him; literally Perception/Reality:
bought into society’s expectations -Perceived inequality
-Daisy: Born into society, but not 100% -In truth, equal
into it like Tom
-Tom: Absolutist, conviction without
thought
-Jordan: Typical

Perception
-Tom – All reality
-Jordan – All Appearance
-All friendships based on appearance (no
mourners at Gatsby’s Funeral)
Ryan Thomas
American Lit. Honors
6/10/08

Out of the Blue

In the proverbial eleventh hour of junior year, after steadily trudging through
studies of literary eras and wading through the pages of occasional novels, students were
very likely shocked out of their stupor by their final assignments. Two books, both
classics and both moving and completely open, were thrust upon them, almost
simultaneously. If either were the type of novel to be savored and digested, this would
have been a pity – but not so. Both were so disquieting that any prolonged exposure to
them would be more detrimental than enriching. With such books, meaning is best
gathered by finding not simply the truths within each, but the truths that they share, that
are universal, though shown through different lenses. But that is not the only benefit of
reading them so quickly and so close together.
The Great Gatsby and The Bluest Eye are logical choices to be read together
because they are, though both unique, very similar. Both speak to readers with similar
messages, and share similar aspects – their main similarity lies in the issues they
examine. Both uniquely approach expectations of their own societies, both do this
through showing the impacts of these expectations on characters, and both deal with the
differences between perceptions of these characters and the realities of their lives and
natures.