Clayton's Class Notes

Class Notes

Julia quote questions

Well that was a pretty crazy chapter...
Something i am confused on was when it says "he took her because he had no real right to touch her hand" (149)
This line answers some of my questions like why is he doing all this for her if he knows he has to get there alone and questions like that. It also brings up some new ones for me though.
What does he mean when he says he took her? Is that referring to her engagement before Tom? And my other question is if you guys think falling in love with Daisy changed how he felt when he was described in this quote?

Dilatory

Sorry for the lateness of this post. I wasn't able to post it on the Vap blog. 

"Nope." After a pause he added "sir"in a dilatory, grudging way (113).

Dilatory- tending to delay or procrastinate, intending to cause delay. 

The boy's dilatory studying cured him to fail his Latin test. 

Julia's class notes

Julia blog chapter 6

After reading chapter six I think one of the questions was answered for me. The "what happens when there is nothing left to dream for?" question. I think by the end of this chapter we definitely see at least how Gatsby wants to approach the situation when he reaches this point. 
"It is inevitably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment"(104)
"Can't repeat the past? he cried incredulously. Why of course you can" (110) 
"I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before, he said, nodding determinedly. She'll see" (110) 
"but if he could once return to a certain starting place..." (110) 
Gatsby is initially sad at the fact that he has achieved his dream of reconnecting with Daisy and it is not exactly how he pictured it. He then realizes that even though that dream is over and there is no more to wish for about Daisy, the real problem is the past. So an easy fix is to repeat the past and fix everything. He just needs to find the place in the past where everything went wrong. 

referring to the Langston Hughes poem, he finished the poem by saying "or does it explode". The world explode reminds me of a word that seemed to be mentioned a lot in the chapter. The word was Oblivion. When I think of oblivion, I think of nothing, literal nothingness because it has disappeared or maybe even exploded. Some of the examples are...
"Tom appeared from his oblivion" (105)
"I'd a little rather not be the polo player," said Tom pleasantly, "I'd rather look at all these famous people in--in oblivion."(105) 
I think Langston Hues was implying that when a dream is deferred like Gatsby's, it was fade into oblivion and turn into nothing.  

Chapter 5 notes

Chapter 4 Notes

Here are my notes for chapter 4

Julia passage unpacking chapter 5

"There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal variety of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart" (95-96)
That last line is probably my favorite line in the book that we have read so far. There is something about it that just seems so sum up Gatsby's life. He has constantly worked on making his house better and bigger all in hope that Daisy will one day wander into one of his parties and see everything he has accomplished. That line talks about how nothing can challenge the dreams Gatsby holds in his heart for him and Daisy to be together.

Jacob's Notes from 5/7

Day 3 notes

If you can't read my handwriting just say in the comments. Sorry

Hi guys! So I figured I would passage unpack.
"I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight, but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair. Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual weather in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life" (35).
Nick is not in the right state of mind when he says this because this is only the second time he has ever gotten drunk. He looks out the window knowing that he should leave but the conversations and events happening inside keep him at the apartment with Tom, and his mistress and her friends. I think that in the last line Nick is talking about how he is witnessing things he has never seen before like all the different types of people and how they are disturbing yet fascinating to him because he is learning new things. The only part i do not understand is when he says "and I was him too, looking up and wondering" because i'm not sure who he is talking about here. Let me know if you guys have any ideas.