Today we had a slightly shortened period of class due to the delayed opening. In class we discussed about the privilege that WASPs had throughout the history of our country and how Gatsby became who he is. In addition we discussed Nick's bias when talking with Gatsby and then with Wolfshiem.
We started off by discussing how throughout American history almost all of our presidents have been WASPs, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. This connects to great Gatsby because we see how our main characters who are all wealthy compared to many other Americans, are WASPs.
We then discussed the background of Gatsby, how he supposedly went to Oxford. Previously in the book there was discussion between Jordan and Nick that Gatsby may have never been to Oxford, but as we went over today, Gatsby shows Nick a picture of him at Oxford.
This in turn, allowed us to look into Nick's bias when he talks about conversations he had. With Gatsby, Nick is constantly referred to as "Old sport", a term used mainly by wealthy British men talking to someone of lesser status than them. In almost every conversation Nick and Gatsby have, Gatsby calls Nick Old sport.
Then we looked into how Nick says Mr. Wolfshiem talks, a character described heavily with Jewish steriotype, in pronouncing Oxford as "Oggsford". Nick although not outright saying it gives the impression that even though Mr. Wolfshiem is very wealthy, that he talks as if he is low status.
The video attached shows how many times in the movie Gatsby says "Old Sport"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kYk-slslBk
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