Reading Journal: The Great Gatsby (4-6)

Questions for The Great Gatsby chapters 4-6:1.  What is the purpose of Meyer Wolfsheim as a character? How does he affect the way we see Gatsby?
2.  What does the backstory about Jay and Daisy's past do to our impressions of Gatsby?
3.  What does the story of the rest of Gatsby past due to our impressions of him?
4.  How does your overall impression of Gatsby change over these three chapters?  Do you like him more, less, and why?

Answers:
1.  Meyer Wolfsheim seems to add more mystery to Gatsby as a character, since he appears to be of much lower status than Gatsby.  For me, he made Gatsby seem a lot higher up in status since he was a gambler and didn't have as pleasing of an appearance.
2.  Personally, I thought the backstory to Gatsby and Daisy brightened my perception of the former considerably.  I thought it was sweet that he had been faithful to her this whole time, as well.
3.  The true story of Gatsby's past didn't surprise me, since Gatsby has been so mysterious for the entire story so far.  It didn't really come as a shock or change my opinion of him because it seemed to fit right in with his personality already.
4.  My impression of Gatsby brightened greatly in these three chapters.  I like him more probably because of the way he still loves Daisy, and she appears to be happier with Gatsby than with Tom.  Also, Gatsby is nice to Nick, who is the narrator of the story.

"Black Batton Stomp" by Jelly Roll Morton

Questions for blog:
1.  How do you envision this music playing a part of Gatsby's parties?
2.  What is the mood?
3.  What activities go along with this music?

Answers:
1.  I think it fits well with how I envisioned his parties.  It fits perfectly with the time period.  Also, I think it goes well with the class of these people.
2.  The mood is very upbeat and exciting.  It's in a major key and the saxophones are very prominent, which both contribute to the upbeat mood.
3.  I picture old, 20s-style dresses, coming with 20s-style dancing.

Reading Journal: The Great Gatsby (1-3)

So far in The Great Gatsby, Nick appears to be the hero of the story.  His values seem to be (so far) those of the reader since he doesn't do anything dishonest, unjust, etc.  Plus, the reader pulls for him throughout the story.
Jordan is the antihero.  She is dishonest, and she cheats in her tournaments.  "Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible.  She was incurably dishonest" (p. 58).  Despite her moral values, Nick seems to like Jordan, and therefore, the reader does, too.
At the moment, Gatsby is still a mystery in the novel since the reader doesn't know much about him.  On page 48, Nick describes Gatsby as having, "one of those rare smiles with a quality of reassurance in it," and then discusses how he could be extremely understanding.  Because of the underdevelopment of his character at this point, Gatsby would be very hard to classify, though he could potentially be the villain.

Justin Bua

Question for blog:
Describe his style.

Answer:
He elongates a lot of the pieces of the paintings (the piano, an arm, or a trumpet).  He uses mainly red, blue, and green in his pictures.  They look like pictures about jazz bands.  Also, all of the people in his pictures are African American.  They all seem to be from an earlier time period, maybe the 50s.  All of the pictures have music or dance involved.