Nick endlessly foreshadows and dishes out hints about the people in this book with his beautiful imagery. One place where this is shown is the book scene where the drunken man is astonished as he explains that the books are real on the shelf. “Absolutely real-have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. A Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real. Pages and –Here! Lemme show you” (p 45). This alludes to the fact that Gatsby is a fraud. The drunken man can no believe that the books are real because everything about these people are fake. They invite themselves to parties uninvited…He even admits he was brought by someone else. The act as thought they are friends when in fact they know nothing about each other, they don’t even know the host. Nick foreshadows that this fortune is very superficial on page 46, when he describes how Owl eyes takes the book back. “He snatched the book from me and replaced it hastily on the its shelf, muttering that if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse.” Obviously this relates to Gatsby and his elaborate disguise that can be picked apart and once is discovered all will crumble; just like if one brick is out of place the shelf with collapse. This is even more explained when Nick talks about Gatsby’s almost choice of words when talking to him, “Some time before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care” (p 48). He must pick his words carefully because if he changes character people will know his true self.
-Michael Spinosa
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2 comments:
now i see this aspect of the book from a clear angle now that you've expained it farther, michael. mr. gatsby seems to be balancing on the edge of the clif of his personality. any false move and anyone of his secrerts and apprehensions could be exposed and he no longer would be interesting or mysterious enough to attract "exciting people" in his life. i also feel as if one of the trademarks of being wealthy is secrecy and conspiracy. that way interest is maintained. it would be interesting to follow up and see how gatsby evolves and changes his character if at all changed.
I agree. Even though Gatsby seems to have many admirable qualities, there seems to be many aspects of his life that Gatsby is trying to hide from view. He constantly chooses his words carefully, and is never truly present at any of his parties. While explaining his history to Nick, he often left many parts of his life vague as to not arise suspicion. Gatsby become associated with many strange characters, such as Mr. Wolfsheim, who gambles, has human molars as cuff buttons, and fixed the 1919 World Series. Also, Gatsby is constantly appearing and disappearing from view. He first disappears while Nick saw him standing on his lawn, when he sees Tom Buchanan, and many other times in order to take phone calls.
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