Monday, December 19, 2011
Chapter 3 Symbols
When reading chapter 3, I could not find information for most of our main symbols because they weren't mentioned. However I did notice one symbol. There are a lot of cars seen in this chapter. Everytime a car is around the people seem irresponsible and carefree. "'You're a rotten driver,' I protested 'Either you ought to be more careful or you oughtn't to drive at all.'"(page 63) This is what Nick says to Daisy when she is driving carelessly. She tells him she doesn't have to worry because there won't be someone as careless as her and that it takes two to make an accident. This is also shown in the accident outside of Gatsby's house. "'Don't ask me,' said Owleyes,washing his hands of the whole matter. 'I know very little about driving-next to nothing. It happened and that's all I know."' "'Well, if you're a bad driver you oughtn't to try driving at night."' (page 59) Because of this the cars represent carelessness and recklessness. I think the people of the Eggs are so corrupt, they think nothing bad can happen to them because they are wealthy. To them, that is all that matters and they see that as a reason to act careless. At least, that's how I see it. What about you guys?
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6 comments:
I think your right that the cars represent carelessness and the citizens being reckless. But I think your right, its hard to picture what else the cars could symbolize.
Yea, I think you got it. There wasn't a lot for symbols. The cars defiantly represent the party crowd. That could also turn into an argument to support the immorality of the people in the 1920's.
Cars could symbolize wealth, right? I mean, this isn't 2011 here, it's the 1920s and cars were probably less common. The fact that they are reckless with their driving implies that they are reckless with spending. This could even be taken literally: cars cost a lot of money, so you'd think they would be a little more careful, right? Wrong. Jordan's very rich; she doesn't need to be. As for the car crash outside Gatsby's house, it could symbolize the way too much wealth can cause corruption or how getting rich results in a crash-and-burn type of situation.
Well, I agree with you Dan. The cars show recklessness and carelessness with both self and money. They buy the cars to chow off, thinking it'll bring them content but it just doesn't. So, they go off and drink to find content and then when that doesn't work they just drive their fancy cars around like no-one's-business, thinking they're on top of the world when really they're crashing, like Amy said.
I think you are right about your comparison about the cars. Maybe instead of wealthy and careless, you can add invincible and untouchable? Which leads back to wealth. "They have the money, which makes them invincible and untouchable, causing them to be careless and wreckless?"
Nice job everyone. I think Amy's comment was particularly interesting. This time in the book (the 20s) was the first time that cars were really available to a greater amount of people for the first time - and yet they are still acting irresponsibly with the cars. There is a ton of carelessness and wrecklesness surrounding the cars which foreshadows a lack of responsiblity based around another car scene later to come in the novel.
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