Tuesday, May 26, 2009

A great qoute from The Great Gatsby


SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
So at the end of chapter 8 there is this quote/Paragraph that jumped out at me and I felt it has Significance importance.
"There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of water at the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other. With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool. A small gust of wind that accidental course with its accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water.
It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete." (Fitzgerald, 162, The Great Gatsby)
I'm going to the best of my ability, to interpret this massive quote and I welcome anyone/everyone to leave there interpretations as a comment on this post.

ok. So, in this line of the quote, "There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of water at the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other," it is saying that the water is being filter through the pool the old water is "Urged" to one side of the pool and on the other end a "fresh flow" is being introduced to the pool. I believe this is metaphor for cycles (example. life to death, the seasons, and day to night). Now that the idea of Cycles have been brought up in the next line, "With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool," It says that these "little ripples" which are so small that they "were hardly the shadows of waves." that means they are so tiny that they almost seem unnoticeable, they are less then shadows, but nevertheless the "little ripples" are able to keep the "laden mattress" moving. I think that means that the tiniest factor like "little ripples" can keep a cycle going. The Next line, "A small gust of wind that accidental course with its accidental burden," it says that the "small guest of wind" give the mattress an unplanned course. But what I think is interesting about that line is the use of the word accidental the "accidental course" and the "accidental burden." I think that means that in cycles the smallest factors can cause an "accidental course" to be taken, and that maybe cycles have many different course but no matter what you end up in the same place. The last line in the first part, "The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water." I think the leaves symbolise the life cycle of trees, and the cycle of the seasons(fall). When the leaves are falling off that means the tree is coming to the end of its cycle and fall is near the end of the of the seasons. I bring the end of Cycles up because of these words in the line "The leg of transit," that is the last leg or end of something like a cycle (Example if you were on a train the section between your stop and the stop before yours would be the "Leg of transit."). In the last part of that line it says, "a thin red circle in the water" I think when Fitzgerald says "circle" I think he is making a reference to cycle and when he says the word "Red" it makes me the think that it is Gatsby blood and that makes me think a cycle referes to a cycle that is near the end on its "Leg of transit" that involves Gatsby. And the path that Gatsby had chosen may have been "accidental" maybe that accident was the hit an run.

In the second part there was mostly straight forward (I think), "It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete." It was straight forward for all but one part of it, "The holocaust was complete." Keep in mind when Fitzgerald published this book it was before WWII and the Holocaust, so the definition I believe he is using is a destruction or loss of life. And when it says the word complete it made me come to the conclusion that this loss of life was the end of the Gatsbys cycle.

That is my interpretation of this section of the book.





6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that makes a lot of sense. I think your analysis is intriguing. It really makes you think. I doubt Fitzgerald knew much about Buddhism, but that interpretation seems almost zen. How everything moves in cycles and how the ripples and currents of life - the accidents and special circumstances (like meeting your future spouse), and minute synchronicity that surround us - that create causes that lead to new effects and circumstances that become new causes on and on all throughout our life; all along the chain which makes up Life and Death and which both, in the end, always come back around like "the Tao, always returning" - back to the nothingness from which everything came. Back to the ether.

Maybe that's what makes The Great Gatsby a timeless classic. Maybe Fitzgerald "knew time."

Richard Bonine said...

It means the incarnation of a certain idea at the moment of Gatsby's death. See "A Big Yellow Car: Subliminal Clues in The Great Gatsby," Lost Pearl by R. P. Bonine.

Patent Attorney said...

Wow, The Great Gatsby sounds fascinating, I really need to read it, it's one of those 'must read' books isn't it?

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Oakwood Knolls cygnet said...

It might help if the passage were quoted correctly. Go back to the text of the book and see.

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