12/9/16 Ben Dottinger

Within the bounds of today's short 42-minute session, we were able to accomplish a plethora of things and draw a myriad of conclusions. To kick it off, we established a universal, uniform definition of the word “nostalgia”; that which we defined as a fond and even longing reminiscence (of the past). However, the consequence of nostalgia is an imperfect memory, as it is clouded by our very own emotion. This will come into play slightly later.


We jump into The Great Gatsby by analyzing and trying to find where F. Scott. Fitzgerald puts perspective in action, especially in chapter three, when Miss Jordan Baker relates the story that Gatsby so badly wanted her to tell Nick. Jordan refers to Gatsby as “the officer” for three paragraphs, as if he wasn't important, meanwhile, the story is about him and Daisy and what Gatsby wants Nick to do for him (which is to invite Daisy over for tea so they can be reunited, at least for a short while). Furthermore, Jordan’s perspective limits the concept of absolute truth in a number of ways; we don't know about Daisy’s other engagement in New Orleans that Jordan offhandedly mentioned; we don't know specifics about Daisy’s honeymoon with Tom, and why they were acting so strange when they come back; Jordan never sees the letter that caused Daisy all that grief; even something that Joran does see, like Daisy and Tom being all power-couple-y, limits the idea of absolute truth because it risks nostalgia (we shouldn't forget that this was all during WWI, why the heck would she be longing for that?).


We also utilize perception to see gaps in truth, which is especially true for Nick in the way that Fitzgerald portrays him and speaks through him. For instance, Nick calls Jordan “incurably dishonest”, which is agreeable to a point, but then he goes on to say that he’s “one of the few honest people I’ve [he’s] ever met”, which is much less agreeable, especially after having been reading his opinions and judgements for so long when he started the book by saying he never judges. We found that Nick’s bias is subconscious--below the mind--which is exactly where Fitzgerald puts those gaps in truth! After a little bit of searching, we were able to find Nick’s subconscious bias toward black people and toward Jews. For example, when Gatsby and Nick first cross the Queensboro Bridge, they pass by a group of  “modish”--fashionable-- black people, he then goes on to call the men “bucks” (which is a derogatory term referring to someone that is always at the lowest possible status), and he then calls them snobby and arrogant, all without saying any of this explicitly. So, as you can see, bias and the subconscious and absolute truth and perception and nostalgia play a huge role in the entirety of The Great Gatsby.


The attached video I found below discusses why we have nostalgia and it’s origins in the first minute or two.


https://youtu.be/3mQczcuZtcE