The End Of Jay Gatsby - James Gatz and the Beginning of Hope

Finish all books completely - actually I finished a couple of days ago and just been busy with other projects so I was unable to blog yet.

I have fallen in complete love with Fitzgerald's writing style but on another note, I'm here to talk about the story and comparing it with Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

So, when I first started this project and read most of The Grapes of Wrath, I was pretty sure the theme both of the novels had were rebirth. After finishing The Great Gatsby, I realized another and probably better theme between both novels: false hopes and dreams.

Through both novels, the characters or even just a few, have dreams of starting a fresh new beginning or winning back their true love.

The Joads family hope to restart a new life in California but their dreams are ruined constantly throughout the entire novel. They a new people to a different world and try to be accepted.

In the Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby wants to win back his love, Daisy, by buying a house across the bay from her and Tom, her husband who has a mistress in New York City. Jay wants to relive his past with Daisy and show her he is not a poor boy but a rich, successful man now and wants her back.

It seems there are several similar ideas and also elements in both novels. Both novels deal with hot weather and end with water tragically. At the end of The Grapes of Wrath, Rose of Sharon finds hope with helping someone and in the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick or even perhaps Jay, finds hope in that "-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. ...And one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." I feel this line states we hope is still close and we will still reach and reach until we have it in our arms.

Another possible theme would be reflecting on our pasts and never forgetting where we came from. This theme is still developing but I believe false hopes is the best one for me and the story.

Water is a big element in both books. Water in the Great Gatsby is also involved and symbolizes a lot in the novel. The lake that keeps Jay from fully reaching Daisy's type of life and that he died in his pool that he had never swam in all summer. This could symbolize his life of trying to fit in with people not like him and dying in the stress of trying to fit their expectations.

Heat is throughout most of both books until the very end when everything goes down hill and hope seems completely gone. It shows stress and tension between all characters in both novels. With the water at the end of both novels, it shows calmness and new beginning or a new chance.

Both novels suggest at the end, some new found hope for all the characters, gone or dead.

I would also like to say, I liked the writing style of Fitzgerald better than Steinbeck. It appealed more to my senses and I could really feel and see the images he created that came to life on the page. It inspires me to write like him and I hope I do one day.

The Great Gatsby

Oh, The Great Gatsby. What a wonderful book! I have read some before in grade ten but couldn't get into it. After starting the novel again this year, I see so much more. The novel is very well written and structured. I really can see the characters coming to life on the pages and their surroundings in my own eyes.

Just for fun, I did some background research about F. Scott Fitzgerald and the writing of The Great Gatsby.


After the birth of their child, the Fitzgeralds moved to Great Neck, Long Island in October 1922, appropriating Great Neck as the setting for The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald's neighbors included such newly wealthy New Yorkers as writer Ring Lardner, actor Lew Fields and comedian Ed Wynn. Great Neck, on the shores of Long Island Sound, sat across a bay from Manhasset Neck or Cow Neck Peninsula, which includes the communities of Port Washington, ManorHaven, Port Washington North and Sands Point, and was home to many of New York's wealthiest established families. In his novel, Great Neck became the new-money peninsula of "West Egg" and Manhasset Neck the old-money peninsula of "East Egg".

Progress on the novel was slow. In May 1923, the Fitzgeralds moved to the French Riviera, where the novel would come to completion. In November, he sent the draft to his publisher Perkins and his agent Harold Ober. The Fitzgeralds again relocated, this time to Rome, for the winter. Fitzgerald made revisions through the winter after Perkins informed him that the novel was too vague and Gatsby's biographical section too long. Content after a few rounds of revision, Fitzgerald returned the final batch of revised galleys in the middle of February 1925.

I found a lot of interesting facts about the novel also. Daisy is based off of a Chicago heiress named Ginevra King who Fitzgerald fell in love with. Just like the novel, he was a poor boy in love with a rich girl and she could and would not marry him. It is said that Fitzgerald used a line in the novel that he was said to by Mr. King, Ginevra father: "poor boys shouldn't think of marrying rich girls" which also appears in the novel said by Daisy to Gatsby. Also the bill board with the hovering eyes are suppose to represent Daisy.

Jordan Baker was also based off of someone Fitzgerald knew who was good friend with Ginevra King. Her name was Edith Cummings. was one of the premier amateur golfers of her generation. She was one of the Big Four debutantes in Chicago, at the end of the First World War. She became nationally famous following her 1923 victory in the United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship. On August 25, 1924, she became the first golfer and first female athlete to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

I can't wait to continue reading this novel! It's going to be great!

Ending Chapters and Title

Pages: 502 completed

I finished The Grapes of Wrath over the March Break but was away so I didn't have much time to actually blog. So now I'm going to talk about the few last chapters.

Firstly, it surprised me that Tom Joad left since I saw him as the main character. He killed a man for revenge when Jim Casey was killed for leading a strike. I'm not quite sure if the characters who left like Tom and his brother Noah, will ever see each other or the rest of their family again. I have a strange feeling they probably won't see Noah ever again. I also believe they will NEVER see Connie again because he probably won't risk showing his face near the Joad family ever again.

The last chapter was about Rose of Sharon delivering a still born baby and a flood coming.

Floods can also occur in rivers, when the strength of the river is so high it flows out of the river channel, particularly at bends or meanders and causes damage to homes and businesses along such rivers.

This statement about floods is similar to what happens in the novel. Many people moved to California from the East at the same time for better jobs and pay. When they arrived, they 'damaged' businesses by taking jobs from people who lived there and taking homes away from people there who also wanted home.

The still born baby being born has many meanings behind it. Babies are seen as new life, rebirth of one's self and a happy time. They have a chance to see the world differently and not tainted as when you grow older. When Rose of Sharon had the still born baby, it represented to the story how even trying to start fresh and move away to somewhere else, is hard to do. Rebirth is defeated in this case and shows the readers that one can never leave themselves behind. Later when Rose of Sharon is letting the sick man drink some of her milk, she is almost given another chance for rebirth, to start fresh and engage in a new life meaning. It also plays on the extended family theme by reaching out to a stranger and helping them.

The Grapes of Wrath title is interesting and is mentioned in chapter 25, ...and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. It basically says that people are starving and they will do anything because they are desperate for a good life. The grapes are tearing people up and turning against each other because they want money and a new, clean start in their lives in California.

The Grapes of Wrath was very sad and depressing tale of extended family and the search for rebirth but a good intake of what life was like for people similar to the Joad family. I have started the Great Gatsby and hope to finish it soon. I can see the rebirth theme in that book also.

Setting and Plot

In this book, the setting shadows the plot and suggests moods and foreshadows the plot.

The weather often serves to emphasize and magnify Pip's emotional states, unconscious sentiments, and gut feelings. In the book, they mention heat most of the time and that creates the emotions of aggression, anger, intense tension and many more hot emotions. When I looked up heat wave, it stated A heat storm is a Californian term for an extended heat wave. The first thing I think of is how the whole theme of the book is extended family and taking anyone under your wing to help.

A period of abnormally and uncomfortably hot and usually humid weather. This line for me makes me think of the whole family traveling uncomfortably in the humid weather to California and how it is a strange time for all the family members leaving their home state. In the summer in warm climates, an area of high pressure with little or no rain or clouds, the air and ground easily heats to excess. The heat is the tension with the family and the driving factor to move to California and the water represents new birth which they do not have in the heat wave in their home state. To survive, they need to find a new life in California but Steinbeck is also foreshadowing that when they arrive in California, it will be not what they expect. Even when I looked up heat wave, it stated that California is a very hot place where many heat storms and droughts occur. I believe that when they arrive in California is will be hot and intense within the family and out with others. I also believe someone else will die in the end. Heat waves and heat storms lead to wildfires that occur very often in droughts which is foreshadowing for the plot.

The grapes in California represent new birth and growth to all families. It also represents conscience is an ability or a faculty that distinguishes whether one's actions are right or wrong. This works very well if the plot and characters in the story. Most of the characters have done something they believe is morally wrong, such as the preacher who slept with young girls in the fields. He knew it was wrong with his conscience and therefore stopped preaching. I believe that California to all the characters represent new birth, growth and power. California is derived from the Black Amazons and ruled by a Queen Califia. She was said to be powerful, who accomplished great deeds, she was valiant and courageous and ardent with a brave heart, and had ambitions to execute nobler actions than had been performed by any other ruler – Queen Califia. This queen represents what the people who travel to California are like in the story; ambitious, brave heart, courageous and valiant.

The title I believe represents the wrath of hunger and thirst for something better, something worth living for. The wrath is humanity and the grapes are something humans crave and desire. The grapes wrap around themselves and grow while we destroy them with pollution, greediness, and anger.

I am looking forward to see what happens next!

Characters and Chapters

I have read 302 pages now and hope to read to four hundred by tomorrow.

I have been reading constantly for the last few weeks, a few pages a night here and there. I've just haven't pushed myself to actually blog more frequently about what I've been reading. So, I made a plan to blog about some parts in this post and then later on today I'll make a few more posts about the rest of what I've read.

So let's begin. Grapes of Wrath is a very interesting book. It can be slow at times, such as when they have paragraphs of just dialogue and ramble basically to themselves about how they feel or their life stories. I find this really unrealistic but it does help the reader understand more about certain characters.

I find it really actually interesting with the smaller chapters of description in -between. Sometimes it can be dry but it gives another view of the time period with people driving in tractors to tear down houses, and I find it very fascinating that in the story they compare what California did to the Mexicans that inhabited the land with the Roman Empire and calling them slaves imprisoned. Steinbeck makes connections very often to past events which I find interesting and exciting since I love history. At first, I have to admit, I found the short chapters, boring and a waste of space but as I read further on, I saw how much the chapters did for the rest of the story. It presented a whole new side of the tale and introduced more of what was occurring at that time.

The characters are all very different and unique. I especially love the preacher because I've never really seen a character like him in a story. It works so well and brings in another side of religion and life.

I also like Pa's background about how he feels it was his fault for Noah, his elder son, to turn out the way he did. On the night of Noah's birth, the doctor had not arrived, so Pa had to deliver the baby. He pulled and twisted the baby, the head twisted out of shape, its neck stretched, and its body warped. Even though the midwife molded the head back, Pa still remembered it was his fault for Noah turning out the way he did.

Also, Uncle was an interesting, quiet character who I liked. He had lived with his wife and one night she said her stomach hurt but he told her it was just an ached and she left it at that. She died that afternoon in her own house and he had never forgiven himself for it. He is mentioned to be extra nice to the children trying to make up somehow for his sins and is mentioned to have a drinking problem and has no alcohol in the house.

Al is another favourite of mine for just personal reasons. He is sometimes the comic relief in a sense. For example, when Connie says Al can work for him in the store, Al fights back saying, 'you can work for me buddy'. He seems like he looks up to Tom a lot and even shares his smart alec trait.

The other characters haven't been mentioned too much other than Connie and Rose of Sharon who talk about their plans of getting a nice house and Connie working at a store and taking night classes.

So, that's it for this blog and next one I'll continue on about the plot and setting.

The Turtle

I have recently read about 97 pages of the novel by John Steinbeck called The Grapes of Wrath.

I have tried to push myself to read more but it's hard to focus since the language and vocabulary is old fashioned and the dialogue is written how they would talk back then. In chapter three, it is just description of a turtle crossing across a highway. Even though it sounds boring and uneventful, I think Steinbeck had a larger, deeper meaning for the turtle attempting to cross the heated highway and how each time he tried to get across, something always stopped him. This could represent how people were feeling in the years of The Great Depression. They felt every time they tried to get across a difficult path or obstacle, they were thrown off course and back where they started. When they tried to get work or get enough money to survive for their family, some couldn't and were left on the hot highways, searching for hope.

I found it very interesting that Joad went to jail for murder. It brings a new, unique element to the plot. I also am very interested with the preacher because he's not a normal preacher. At first, when he was explaining why he didn't want to be a preacher and about his sin, I didn't understand quite what he meant. After reading more, I found out that the preacher had slept with girls out in the fields and he told himself to stop but he couldn't.

So far, the characters and the plot is unraveling and becoming interesting. I have also learned more about writing structure and ideas to explain surroundings. Overall, this book is getting more and more interesting.

First Post

This is my first post for my ISP on The Grapes of Wrath and The Great Gatsby. I have recently started reading The Grapes of Wrath and amazed at the language and great words John Steinbeck using. The first chapter was just describing the scenery but gave so much to the story. I could tell that it was a time of despair and loss of family and food. The certain words he uses to show that the dreaded drought that destroyed their fields and crop. I had known about the drought more so in Canada, so it's interesting that this book takes place down south in a different part of the world and experiences the drought. I have read about three chapters now and expect to have ten chapters done by next Tuesday. I decided to read this book first since it is longer and I don't know too much about it unlike The Great Gatsby. When I read this book, it also gives me more ideas of how to structure sentences and use different words to describe certain things. I'm really enjoying it so far!