Aneka's Online Journal

The idea of illusion vs reality is widely created through the different stories written by F.Scott Fitzgerald. An illusion is a false impression on reality, and when looking from the outside, things may appear to be perfect and everything that you aspire and want to be. But the true reality is that beneath the surface, it is not all perfect and superior. The 1920s are known for women stepping out of their comfort zone, taking control, and wearing skimpy outfits that went against what others wanted them to wear. However, under the surface, the 1920s was not all fun and games. Through the following texts written by Fitzgerald ‘The ice palace’, a film inspired by the short story Fitzgerald wrote ‘The curious cases of Benjamin Button’, ‘The Great Gatsby’, and ‘Winter Dreams’ he has presented the illusion that characters make in their head, and shown the harsh reality these characters later realize. All of these stories written by Fitzgerald link to the idea of never judging a book by its cover and that not everything is as it seems from the outside.

The Ice Palace, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald is about a girl named Sally Carrol who lives in the south and meets a guy in the north. Just like the story ‘The Great Gatsby’, the north is a higher class than the south and everybody wants to live here and marry a rich guy to become wealthy and of higher class. Harry Proposes to Sally Carrol and invites her to move to the north with him. He tells her it will be “like a fairytale” exciting, fun, and romantic. From what Harry has said, Sally carrol makes up in her head how fun it will be and she is excited to become superior. Before she moves she says to her friends “Yes. I don’t mean only money failures, but just sort of– of ineffectual and sad, and– oh, how can I tell you?” this shows the fact that she is leaving everything behind to gain social status and that she doesn’t care about them as much as she did, she wants to become superior and perfect and that is all she wants. At the end of the story, Sally Carrol and Harry go to an Ice palace where she gets lost. Once Harry finds her, she says “Oh, I want to get out of here! I’m going back home. Take me home” with delirious, unrestrained passion. In the end, Sally Carrol liked the idea of living in the north, being superior and first-class, but when she started living in it she started to miss her family and friends and realized that it wasn’t all that great from what she had thought up in her head. She realizes that even though things seem to be five-star, when you actually live it, it is not always. This links back to the idea of never judging a book by its cover and that sometimes, what you see isn’t always as perfect as you may think it to be.

The curious cases of Benjamin Button, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald is about a guy called Benjamin Button who ages back in time. Just like in The Ice palace, people think that having his life that way seemed good from the outside. He got to age backward when all of his friends were old and he got to experience life from a different perspective than others, but in reality, it was not as good as it seemed. Benjamin fell in love with a girl named daisy and had kids. He knows that he would age to be a baby one day when his kids were old and that daisy would have to look after him and he hated that. He lost his friends and family throughout his life and when his caregiver died he said “she taught me how to play the piano, and what it meant to miss somebody.” this made the audience feel sympathetic towards benjamin and made us realize that he didn’t like loosing people and that aging backward may not be as good as it seems. This story ties in with the idea of time and how time can not be changed, similar to a message conveyed in The Great Gatsby. Benjamin as “a man who is unable to stop time” is similar to Gatsby when he wants to go back in time to be with daisy again. Benjamin wants to stop time so that he doesn’t age back, he wants to grow old with Daisy and watch his kids grow up. This short film, inspired by F.Scott Fitzgerald links to his other short stories, and the idea of what you see from the outside isn’t always as spectacular and fantastic as you may think it up to be, and that everybody is fighting their own battle that is unknown to the rest of us.

Another story F.Scott Fitzgerald has used to convey the idea of illusion vs. reality is The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby, at the age of seventeen, decided to remake himself. He decided to change what he looked like, his name, what his personality was like, and he decided to become rich. In the story, when he was in his younger years, Gatsby falls in love with a girl named Daisy. She is the golden girl that everybody wants and aspires to be and Gatsby was happy to have won her over all of the other guys. Unfortunately, he had to go to war and during this long time, Daisy had met someone else and was now married with a child. When Gatsby remade himself, he made an illusion created to make Daisy fall in love with him again. But this wasn’t who he truly was, he became rich through an illegal bootlegging business which is also an illusion as he did not follow the correct path of The American Dream and working hard for it. In the end, Gatsby ended up dying as I believe “living too long with a single dream” caught up with him. This caught up with him because he was so stuck on the idea of getting Daisy back and being in that ‘perfect life with her’ that he made up in his head and he forgot about everything else that he had left behind. Nick says in the story “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 vitality of his illusion” Nick is saying that Gatsby has made up an illusion of daisy being perfect and pure. But in reality, Daisy was not perfect, and that he was never going to get that perfect life with her he thought he wanted. Time had caught up with him and this resulted in his death. This links in with Dexter from ‘Winter Dreams’ as he also had his dream of being with this girl Judy Jones and gaining social class, being superior. Like Gatsby, Dexter was so also stuck on the dream of being superior and having Judy Jones that he left everything else. Overall, Fitzgerald has conveyed the idea in the Great Gatsby of illusion vs reality by Gatsby creating an illusion of himself to make daisy fall back in love with him but in reality, the perfect life with daisy was never going to happen. 

Fitzgeralds link to this idea of illusion vs. reality also appears in the short story of Winter Dreams. Like Sally Carrol, Dexter has a dream of having a better life and gaining social status. He dreams of being a golf champion and being respected and admired. Like Gatsby, he meets a beautiful girl named Judy Jones. He makes up in his head that she is perfect, lives the perfect life, and is respected and admired “the helpless ecstasy of losing himself in her charm was a powerful opiate rather than a tonic” this helps the reader to understand that he has made an illusion of her, and he loses himself in it as Gatsby did with Daisy. He puts everything on the line for her and later, at the end of the story he realizes that he didn’t get her, his dream is gone and they can never return home. “even the grief he could have borne was left behind in the country of illusion, of youth, of the richness of life, where his winter dreams had flourished” He leaves behind everything for his illusion of Judy Jones and to fulfill his winter dream, a lot like Gatsby, he had made this idea of being superior solves all of your problems and getting the ‘golden girl’ would help him to do that. But in reality, he gets left with nothing and the illusions finally catch up with him. This text helps to link the four texts written by Fitzgerald to the idea of illusion vs reality and that Fitzgerald likes the use of using illusion to convey the idea of things to never be what they may seem from the outside and that everyone is different, and everyone has a flaw.

The idea of illusion vs reality is portrayed throughout many stories written by Fitzgerald, and the idea of the illusion you make things up to be is never going to be like that. Through the following texts ‘The ice palace’, a film inspired by the short story Fitzgerald wrote ‘The curious cases of Benjamin Button’, ‘The Great Gatsby’, and ‘Winter Dreams’ he has used the beliefs of characters such as Sally Carrol, Benjamin Button, Jay Gatsby, and Dexter and what they think things up to be to convey the idea of when things seem perfect on the outside, they are not always perfect on the inside or deep down and that everyone has there own problems and flaws that people can’t always see from the outside

Benjamin Button writes a diary of his life, as the love of his life Daisy is dying in the hospital she makes her daughter read the book to her. Benjamin button is a person who ages backward. He’s born as an old man and his mother dies giving birth. The dad leaves him on the front porch of a retirement village and a young couple that owns the retirement village takes care of him. He meets a woman named Daisy and they fall in love. They have a child and as Benjamin is going down in age, he decides to sell everything he owns, leave the money for daisy and the child and leave them hoping they will live a better life.

Benjamin changes personality throughout the film, when he is younger he is very curious about the world and he is motivated to walk and to stand without help. When he is older he knows more about the world and isn’t as curious. You can tell that he cares a lot about Daisy as he never stops writing to her.

Daisy is a caring person and she knows that Benjamin is different and becomes friends with him when she is young. Later in life, she becomes a really good dancer and moves to France and dances for the French ballet. She gets hit by a truck and can never dance again and she is heartbroken. This shows her love for dance. Also when Benjamin is a baby, she cares for him until he dies, this shows that she is a really caring person and loves him very much.

“time is inevitable” meaning you can not stop time, Benjamin can’t stop himself from aging backward, and Daisy can’t stop herself from aging forwards. A key message the director wants us to take away is that you can’t stop time, in the end, you will die and there is nothing you can do about it.

What similarities did you notice between this film and the great Gatsby. Gatsby hangs on to time more than Benjamin, Gatsby always refers back in time when Daisy and he were together whereas Benjamin lives more in the moment. Another thing i noticed was that there were major symbols showing throughout the film. The clock appeared a lot throughout the film, it was ticking backward showing that time was going backward. In the great gatsby, the great light and the colors are the symbols for the film.

A gold fish, with big large eyes swimmed quickly through peculiar caves. It moved

School quad on a warm day

Walking into the quad, the warmth of the sun beams down. Kids unpack their scrumptious lunches and sit cheerfully chatting with friends, above them the blossom trees fill the humid air with a fresh scent and the warm breeze lifts loose leaves.

Cantankerous – bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative.

Pong- An unpleasant smell, stink

Sacrosanct- sacred, respected

Diffident- modest or shy 

Austere- strict, harsh

Malevolent- sinister, evil

Voracious- greedy

Eradicate- eliminate

Ardor- passion

Ruminate- thinking

The beach – sand, rocks, sticks, salt air, waves, froth, sky, dolphins, shells, crabs, bush, seaweed, hot, sun, people, beachball, salt water, breeze, yellow, fish, towel, swimming togs, picnic basket, sunscreen, blue, orange, boat, seagulls, hot food.

Walking down the small worn track, the palm trees break out into a large piece of pale land disappearing into the huge, deep ocean. Families dance in the bitter gust of wind, as it sweeps up bits of crushed rock tinier then a speck of lint. I walk through the thick, humid air down to the cool wet, dark water. The sun falls below the horizon, causing colors to

preposition are the words that indicate relationships between things. (objects, people etc.)

On the surface, everything looked ordinary. Beneath the lush, green grass and tall blossom tree was a hidden city. Over the tall grassy cliff, sat a boy in a boat.

The room was a mess : As I walked into the dark colored room, clothes laid sprawled along the floor. The duvet was scrunched in a pile in the middle and around it lay hundreds of uncompleted homework sheets.

The food was good : As I took a large bite into the heavenly delicious donut, my teeth chomped slowly like a sloth.

The teacher was mad : The Teachers red face explained the furious words escaping her mouth. As she moved closer, with each step I began to feel more and more frightened.

The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone. The American Dream is achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, rather then by chance. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the truth in living behind this dream. Fitzgerald describes the myth of the American Dream through the use of setting. East Egg, West Egg, and The Valley of ashes all come across as very different, though they all show the false achievement of the American Dream.

During the 1920’s, the understanding of the American Dream was that an individual can achieve success in life regardless of family history or social status if they work Hard enough. East Egg represents old money. Tom and Daisy live in East Egg, where they have both inherited money from their families and they never had to put any work into becoming superior or upper class. In chapter one, Nick explains East Egg “Across the courtesy bay, the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water” In this quote, white symbolizes that old money is purer than new money. Old money is thought to have families of worthy and respect, but the white paint that covers the mansions of East egg is just a cover for the passerby. Tom and Daisy were born with America already at their feet, they seem to directly antagonize the dream. They are described as “careless people… they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness…” they end up instigating a large amount of tragedy through their own recklessness. This is tragic and unethical to the American Dream. As they were both born into the upper class, this does not seem fair to the American Dream. You are supposed to work hard for it and not have it handed to you on a golden platter. This shows that East Egg displays the myth of the American Dream by them not having to put any effort into getting superior.

“I lived at West Egg, the-well less fashionable of the two” West Egg is where the self made, rich people live. While people living in East Egg acquired their money through inheritance and with ease, those living in West Egg acquired theirs through ‘Hard work’. West Egg is a representation of achieving the American Dream corruptly. It stands for newly rich people like Gatsby. It is the world of those who make their own fortune and are not rich by birth. West Egg is known as getting to the top by ‘Hard work’. But really, is it not hard work that West Eggers go through. This is shown by Jay Gatsby, who, gets most of his wealth through his illegal business in liquor smuggling or bootlegging. Prohibition came into effect in the early 1920s. In the United States it was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. Gatsby achieved his dream through illegal business. Tom knows this and describes west egg as “Everyone in West Egg is a bootlegger” this shows peoples thoughts from East Egg on how their neighbors across the sound became wealthy. They don’t accept this new money, and dislike the way west Eggers flaunt it. When Tom says this to Gatsby, he does not deny it. This shows that Gatsby made his money through illegal business and therefore did not achieve the American Dream as you are supposed to.

The Valley of Ashes is the depressing industrial area of Queens that is between West Egg and the city Nick describes it as “The valley of ashes was a grotesque place. New Yorks dumping ground halfway between west egg and the city” It is composed of garbage from New York city. It represents the moral and social rot that results from the chase of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with attention for nothing but their own pleasure. The Valley of Ashes is a representation of how the American Dream fails for those who it was created for. For people who live in the valley of ashes, it is really hard to get out, this is shown by George Wilson who lives among the dirty ashes and looses his vitality as a result. These are people who do not get to enjoy the luxury of life. In chapter one, the valley of ashes is explained “The motor road hastily joins the railroad…so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is the valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the farms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” All of this combines to form a picture of hardship. This helps the readers to grasp the fact that everything about their world is grey, black and ashy. Linking back to the American Dream, this shows the myth of the dream as people who live can never get out and live a terrible, hard working life for nothing.

In conclusion, F. Scott Fitzgerald has revealed the harsh reality in living behind this dream. He has shown how The American Dream is a myth through the use of setting. Using East Egg, West Egg, and The valley of ashes, he has shown the false achievement each character faces at the end. With the death of Gatsby and George Wilson he shows that in the end, no one completely successfully achieves The American Dream, it doesn’t matter what place you live. Therefore, F. Scott Fitzgerald has thoroughly displayed the myth of the American Dream.

Write down the definition we developed in class of ‘the golden girl’. What does this term refer to? If you can, list an example of a modern-day golden girl. 

The definition of a golden girl is a very popular or successful young women. Someone who people are influenced by and someone who people look up to. An example of a modern-day golden girl would be the Kardashians or A famous singer like Taylor Swift.

Explain how Daisy could be considered clever. Use at least one quote from the text to support your answer.

She seems to draw people in and is able to manipulate people into what she wants them to do. She manipulates Gatsby by leading him on and lets him think theres a chance for them to be together. Daisy shows her manipulative side when she is in the same room as tom and Gatsby and refuses to choose a side. “I did love him once – but i loved you too”

The notes above talk about how Gatsby views Daisy as a possession to be collected. Explain this further. Find a quote from the text to support your answer and explain how the quote supports your ideas.

Men talk about Daisy on how she looks and how she presents herself. To men Daisy is a treasure to be collected, seen as an object by people around her. “it excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy – it increased her value in his eyes” Daisy’s the ‘it’ girl that everyone wants and the fact that Gatsby got her over every other guy makes her more valued.

Describe what life was like in the 1920’s for women. After you have done so, explain why you think Daisy wants her daughter to be a ‘fool’ in this world.

Daisy hopes that her daughter will be ‘a beautiful little fool’ because she understands that society, at the time, valued only a womens appearance and not her intelligence. She also wants her to be a fool so she doesn’t understand the cruel reality

Towards the end of the novel, Nick says that Daisy and Tom were “careless people…they smashed up things and creatures, and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”. Explain what Daisy ‘smashes up’ (figuratively speaking) in this story

Daisy smashes up the Wilsons by killing Myrtle and the grief on Myrtles death ends up killing Mr Wilson. Daisy also smashes up Gatsby’s heart, Gatsby’s life, and Gatsby’s car. Also Nick because she is the epicentre of all of the destruction and its impacted on everyone. she never stops to clean up anything, everyone around her is left to pick up the pieces.

Explain how Daisy could be considered ‘amoral’. Use at least two quotes from the text to support your answer.

Daisy is considered amoral because she is a careless individual who makes selfish decisions without considering the consequences of her actions or caring about how they negatively affect others. She destroys myrtles life and leaves everyone else to deal with it. She also, leaves nick to deal with the loss of Gatsby and in the end he has to pick up all the pieces.

1. Provide a background description of Nick Caraway. Use the ‘w’ questions to help you cover the main points ( who, what, where, when ) and think about what information someone might need to be able to understand his role in the story.

Nick is a young man aged 29 who, after being educated at Yale and Fighting in World War 1 goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Nick often serves as a person who one shares a secret or private matter, trusting them not to repeat it to others. Nick tells the story from his perspective. Nick has a connection with all of the characters which makes him the best person to narrate the story out of the characters in the book.

2. “I am inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.”- Chapter One

Nick is saying that he refuses to give an opinion until he knows more. Nicks expressing himself to the reader as a thoughtful and reliable narrator, he has talked with some very interesting people and some very boring people that he wouldn’t have talked to if he judged them more quickly. This means that Nick as a person is quite reserved, open and accepting.

When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. “ – Chapter One

Nick wants everyone to be on the same page with morals and he wants people to actually stick to it and obey the morals they’ve all agreed to live by. He’s had an experience he didn’t really like. Once he returned home to the Mid-West he didn’t really like the East and no longer wanted to know what people were really like. He was convinced that everyone he met back East didn’t stick to their morals and he needed to return to an environment where morality was an important part of life.

“…wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.”- Chapter One

Nick is saying that he feels like a checkered piece from a game of Chess that Tom is moving around. This is telling us that people find it easy to direct him to what they want him to do, Nicks a pushover. He lets other people control him and his actions.

I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” – Chapter Two

Nicks a participant and a observer in a scene he doesn’t really belong in. Nick is attracted to the excessive larger than life experience of unlimited money and at the same time, he doesn’t like the immorality and superficiality of the scene.

Most of the time I worked…I knew the other clerks and young bond salesmen by their first names…I even had a short affair with a girl who lived in Jersey City and worked in the accounting department, but her brother began throwing mean looks in my direction…” – Chapter Three

Nicks quite career driven, he’s not super comfortable financially, he seems friendly with his colleagues. He cares what other people think because of the brother throwing mean looks in his direction.

I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”– Chapter Three

Nick thinks quite a lot of himself. He seems a bit cocky.

“They’re a rotten crowd…You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together!’ I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him because I disapproved of him from beginning to end.”- Chapter Eight

Nick is getting tired of Gatsby because he’s just like Tom and Daisy and after all the commotion of Myrtle getting hit, Nick is sick of it.

“I shook hands with him. It seemed silly not to for I felt suddenly as though I was talking to a child.”- Chapter Nine

He talks about Tom as though he’s a child, he shakes hands with Tom. This is showing that Nick just kind of goes whatever, leave it at that and moves on. Nicks trying to go for no conflict.

“I sat there brooding on the old unknown world…” –Chapter Nine

This shows that Nicks a very thoughtful guy.

Finally, consider how Nick changes throughout the story. He is not the same young man that he starts out as. Describe how Nick comes across as a different person towards the end of the story as opposed to the beginning. Explain the possible reasons for this change. 

Nick goes in believing he’s very moral. At the start of the book, Nick says how he’s going to keep an open mind and not judge anyone before he’s got to know them. At the end of the book, Nick ends up having judged everyone and looses his morals.

The costume – James Gatz has turned himself into Jay Gatsby using costume by…. wearing upper class clothing such as three piece suits, shirts, coats, sweaters, hat shoes and accessories including bowties, and pocket watches. When James became Jay Gatsby he was poor so he would have not been able to afford fancy suits, nor would they have been practical in labour intensive jobs. Men simply wore a pair of pants with a shirt and suspenders. Colours were a bit dull, they were grey, brown, navy blue, black. When Gatsby met Nick in the movie, he was wearing a black tux with a white shirt and he had his hair slicked back. I couldn’t find a quote for this one…

The props – Yellow is frequently associated with Gatsby and his house and parties during the first few chapters of the book. Gatsby having a yellow car ties in with this. I think yellow is used to show his status of a wealthy man to attract Daisy’s attention. Gatsby car also adds to his appearance as everything about him was a spectacle. ” it was a yellow car… big yellow car… ” This is another thing outlining that Gatsby is now rich and he used to be poor.

Setting of the ‘stage’ – “this fellas a regular belasco” David Belasco was a famous theatre producer known for his lavish sets. Owl eyes is indicating that he knows Gatsby is simply putting on a show with his mansion and his wild parties. David Belasco was well known for putting so much time into his sets that people believed him. This links back to Gatsby because Gatsby has set up this new life from the age of 17 and he has said some things that aren’t necessarily true. Gatsbys house is another setting. Gatsby holds many big parties at his huge house. This is to hopefully grasp Daisys attention. As we get to the end of the book, the illusion becomes more transparent… The house that had once been a symbol of Gatsbys success and wealth became a symbol of Gatsbys colossal loneliness, and the failure of his pursuit to find happiness.

The speech and dialogue – “old sport” Gatsby uses this phrase a lot during the book but it sounds pretty forced. In his timetable that Gatsby’s father shows Nick at the end of the book, he has written “Practise elocution, poise and how to attain it” elocution means the skill of clear and expressive speech. This means that every day from the age of 17, Gatsby practised the way he spoke, he wanted to speak elegantly.

The Backstory – Gatsby goes to great lengths to ensure that we get his side of the story throughout the book. A lot of rumours are shared about him which seem really suspicious from the start. Myrtles sister Catherine seems to think that he “… killed a man once..” and Gatsby claims that he went to Oxford. In chapter 6 when Gatsby took them to a party they meet some of his friends who seem to think he came from Louisiana and New York, when Gatsby told Nick he came from North Dakota. Gatsbys back story is full of lies and they consume him. After Gatsby dies, we find out what Gatsby was hiding. Not only his criminal bootlegging, but also his family name, Gatz, and his poor, ethnic-American roots, which in the end exclude him from the upper-class he hoped to enter.