Gatsby: Some Help from Google

". . . I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands.

'Beauty and the Best . . . Loneliness . . . Old Grocery Horse . . . Brook'n Bridge . . .'" (The Great Gatsby, 38).

Fitzgerald adds quite a few allusions that gracefully place this novel in the Jazz Age. There are references to powerful figures like Morgan and Rockefeller. In Tom's apartment, copies of Town Tattle are on the table at a time when tabloids were becoming very popular (29). The orchestra at Gatsby's mansion plays a song called Jazz History of the World (49). My "things I learned in APUSH" label is slowly but surely climbing up my list of labels.

But what the crap is this at the end of chapter two? Is it even an allusion? I realize that at this point, Nick is completely wasted.  He says that this was the second and final time he ever got drunk, which I think just makes his character more sympathetic (29). But I'd still like to know what he's talking about here. Ready? I'm going to google this quote and see what comes up; hopefully, I can find enough information to do my blog justice.

Oh, I see -- most people seem to think that Nick put Mr. McKee to bed, and the "great portfolio" has pictures in it. Likely, the titles of the pictures are "Beauty and the Beast," "Loneliness," "Old Grocery Horse," and "Brook'n Bridge." That's not very exciting, and if they're allusions, I don't get them. "Brook'n Bridge" kind of sounds like "broken bridge," which could refer to Myrtle's nose.

Let's talk about Tom!

"But I'm not patient. I don't want to wait till then. I'm tired of the movies and I am about to move!" (The Glass Menagerie, 1268).

No, not that Tom.

Surprisingly, not that Tom, either. However, this may be a good opportunity to expose this secret thought of mine that I've had for the past two years -- am I the only one who thinks that Thomas Jefferson looks like Mrs. Bohn? Either I'm crazy or she should seriously look at her ancestry.

One of the questions in the book asks, "What qualities possessed by Tom, and by him alone, make him the proper narrator of the play?"

Tom seems to be the most round character in the play -- temperamental, poetic, friendly, trapped -- so I think he has the most interesting perspective. Only he could have delivered the final few lines of the play because he was the one who felt bounded by St. Louis and needed to find adventure.

An obvious answer the question is that Tom is a poet. He barely focuses on his day job and instead writes poetry; Jim calls him "Shakespeare." The ideal narrator of a play should have the poetic eloquence that Tom has.

Finally, the character list says that Tom is "not remorseless, but to escape from a trap he has to act without pity" (1234567 -- sorry, I got carried away -- 1234). Perhaps Williams wanted to have a narrator who connects with the others characters the least, and Tom fits that description well. That way, we see the characters from a relatively impartial lens instead of, say, Amanda's lens that would be very protective of Laura and critical of Tom.

Seeing into the Mind of Iago

"Thus do I ever make my fool my purse, / For I mine own gained knowledge should profane / If I would time expend with such a snipe / But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor, / And it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets / He's done my office. I know not if 't be true, / But I for mere suspicion in that kind / Will do as if for surety" (Othello, I.iii.363-370).

I was going to shorten that quote, but I just had to keep typing -- everything Iago says is pure gold.

What we have here is a significant contrast between what the audience knows and what the characters know. In Othello, the only character who has a firm handle on what's actually going on is Iago. (This is essentially due to the fact that this play is from the vantage point of Iago, who is actually the antagonist.) Here, he establishes a contrast between what the audience knows and what Roderigo and Othello know. Roderigo believes that Iago will help him win back Desdemona if he gives Iago money, but Iago is using him for his "sport and profit." Othello believes that Iago is an honest ensign, but Iago is planning his revenge against Othello who (a) appointed Cassio as his lieutenant rather than Iago and (b) maybe slept with his wife, Edith. I mean, Emilia -- why do I have issues with that name? Maybe it's just because I'm a fan of Edith Wilson.

Iago delivers another soliloquy at the end of Act II to reveal his plan to plant a seed of suspicion that Cassio is spending time 'twixt the sheets with Desdemona, Othello's wife.

What sort of breaks this special relationship Iago has with the audience is that in Act III, Othello begins to share private information with the audience in addition to Iago. In one soliloquy, Othello expresses his internal concerns about Desdemona potentially sleeping with Cassio (III.iii.259-78). However, still, Othello doesn't know the half of what's really going on -- an instance of dramatic irony. Only Iago and the audience can share in the fullness of truth.

Woolworth's

"So we went into the Woolworth's, and immediately I felt much more cheerful. Even now, I like places like that: a large store with lots of aisles displaying bright plastic toys, greeting cards, loads of cosmetics, maybe even a photo booth" (Never Let Me Go, 157).

When the Woolworth's was introduced as a place where Chrissie and Rodney get birthday cards, I highlighted it and annotated, "I've heard of that." Then I thought about it a lot and remembered that it was a significant place in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement.

It started with four black students who sat at a Woolworth's counter in Greensboro. They were not served because of their race, but they stayed at the counter until closing. Each subsequent day, more African Americans gathered at the counter as part of a large-scale sit-in.

I don't even know if the two Woolworth's stores are connected in any way, but I still wonder if the author choose Woolworth's for allusion purposes. I could easily draw a parallel between the students' sitting where they weren't allowed and Kathy's eavesdropping on Ruth and Chrissie. It's probably just a coincidence, but I'm going to pretend that it's an allusion. Either way, I think it's an appropriate choice of store.

". . . I'll stroll into somewhere just like that, where you can hang around and enjoy yourself, not buying a thing, and the assistants don't mind at all" (157).

One time, I went to Walmart for the sole purpose of putting stuff on my head, so I can totally relate to Kathy on this one.

We're different, different as can be!

"'Damn, I'm late,' Bernard said to himself as he first caught sight of Big Henry, the Singery clock" (Brave New World, 78).

I was wary of saying this in my last post, but now that I've read chapter five, I'm more confident about it. (Deep breath.) It seems to me that Bernard Marx and Henry Foster are foil characters.

Already, I've placed them into two different mental groups -- Bernard is an outsider with an unconventional thought process while Henry is stuck with his hypnopaedic views. The way they act also plays along with this; Bernard is really awkward and Henry is a hit with the ladies. Now I also know that, unlike the extremely punctual Henry, Bernard was late to his Solidarity Service. (I'm not even going to talk about how creepy that whole part was.)

Just now, I'm piecing together possible implications of their names. "Henry Foster," I noticed from his first appearance, is remarkably close to "Henry Ford." Ford was as American, consumeristic, and free markety as anyone can get. Bernard Marx shares his last name with Karl Marx, who made huge contributions to the ideas of socialism and communism. So even their names are strongly contrasted with one another.

The sharp differences between Henry and Bernard really highlight their distinct personalities. Umm, and they make me like Bernard more than I like Henry.

What kind of name is "Aldous"?

"'Going to the Feelies this evening, Henry?'" (Brave New World, 35).

Admittedly, as the point of view got really choppy and annoying at the end of chapter three, I wasn't very interested in Henry Foster's story as much as I was with what the Controller was saying. BUT there were a ton of cool allusions that I liked.

The quote up there is a reference to the "Talkies" of the Roaring Twenties -- movies with sound. I suppose they're "Feelies" in this book to make the world seem more advanced and (I don't think this is too far fetched) sexually free. Before that, the Director sat on a bench made of "steel and rubber" (33), two industries that thrived in that decade because of Ford's automobile. Then, near the end of the chapter, there was a huge focus on consumerism ("'I do love having new clothes'"), which was a defining aspect of the 1920s. All of this really makes sense with the idolization of Ford -- and the "Ford" thing really keeps getting more and more over-the-top.

I have one more quick reference that I enjoyed: "Our Ford -- or Our Freud, as, for some inscrutable reason, he chose to call himself whenever he spoke of psychological matters . . ." (39). The reason was inscrutable to the notebook students because they don't know anything about history, but luckily, I can tell you that Freud (who was influential during the 1920s -- go figure), was a psychologist who studied sexuality and impulse.

Fast forward to abooouuut . . . 2:05. It's number 23.

Also, if anyone was curious, "Aldous" is actually a legitimate name that comes from the German word for "old."