Chapter 5: Symbols

- the clock
In the story during this scene Gatsby is talking to Daisy for the first time in almost 5 years. Gatsby "glanced momentarily at me and his lips parted with an abortive attempt at a laugh. Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head....". Here Gatsby is nervous and almost knocks over Nick's clock. I think the clock symbolizes a repeat of the past because. Daisy and Gatsby are old friends. Just like the clock is old and a lot of time has past between there last meeting. But the tilt of the clock shows how time can bring two people back together on the same path. I think it also shows how Gatsby wishes he could change the past. Which is why he stops the clock from falling.

- the light
There is a lot of light mentioned in this chapter from "Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed..." to "My whole house?...See how the whole front of it catches the light" Light seems to symbolize beauty and wealth. Gatsby's house "glowed full of light" as they begin to walk around it with Daisy and Nick. The green light that Gatsby also looks at every night is also mentioned and here you can see that Gatsby used it as a goal. A set goal which was to meet Daisy again. Now that his goal is reached it is now as it was "again a green light on a dock."

-car and billboard
Aren't really mentioned but the car I think symbolizes Gatsby hiding behind his big shiny car. I think it's a cover for something Gatsby has done to get the money to afford that car. On the inside I think there are many secrets yet to be discovered.

Chapter 3: Minor Characters

• Owl Eyes- He's found in drunk in Gatsby's library admiring all the books.  "Absolutely real-have pages and everything.  I thought they'd be nice durable cardboard..." p. 50 He's materialistic and he later crashes a car with someone else driving the car.  Nick thinks that he did but he hasn't.  He's a bad drinker and he says he knows "very little about driving-next to nothing..." p. 59 Besides that I don't really know his significance in the story yet.  I looked it up on shmoop.com and it says to take note of it.  I'm guessing he will be coming up later in the story as well.  
• I didn't see any of the other minor characters in this chapter.  Please tell me if you have any insight on Owl Eyes' character in this chapter, because I don't see anything.

Location in Chapter 1

The first location brought up in the book is Midwest.  Right from the first line you can assume that the midwest is a place where status is important and people are born into wealth there by the way Nick talks of it.  "The Carraways are something of a clan and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch." 

The second two locations are east of New York and are an unusual formation of land.  They look like enormous eggs and are 20 miles away from the city.  They are identical and are separated by a bay.  West Egg and East Egg.  So I kind of see it as fraternal twins by the way Nick describes the two land masses.  The West Egg is the less fashionable of the twins and is where "new money", like Gatsby, live.  Tom and Daisy are considered "old money" because status, appearance, and knowledge is very important to them.  For example, Nick is told by Ms. Baker that Tom has a mistress, but Tom and Daisy are still together even though Daisy knows.  They will not divorce most likely because there appearance will be tainted.  You can also see that knowledge is important to them by how Tom is reading these deep books about the rise of other races.

I hope I didn't miss anything. Please let me know if I did. :)

First Offical Blog. :)

As of now I have read up to Chapter 3 of the novel.  I like it but I'm still not sure exactly how the story is going to turn out.  Or what the story is going to be about.  I really want to know who this love relationship is going to be between.  Nick and who?  Daisy?  Ms. Baker?  Someone that we still haven't met.  I'm also curious to find out if the relationship between Gatsby and Nick will be a genuine friendship.  Will they end up hating each other and become enemies? Will they fall in love with the same woman?  I'm very intrigued by this novel so far because I haven't been able to predict what will happen next, and I'm usually very good with that. 

It's 8:46 and we're in the computer lab.  I want to start blogging about this book.

First Post! :)