Coming home from World War I, Gatsby is broke, owning only the clothes on his back, his uniform. He is hungry, literally, when he meets Wolfsheim in a pool hall. Wolfsheim is a gangster. He puts Gatsby to work in his criminal activities. Gatsby becomes enormously rich very quickly, but his life is not respectable. He becomes corrupt through his association with Wolfsheim.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Dan Cody
Coming home from World War I, Gatsby is broke, owning only the clothes on his back, his uniform. He is hungry, literally, when he meets Wolfsheim in a pool hall. Wolfsheim is a gangster. He puts Gatsby to work in his criminal activities. Gatsby becomes enormously rich very quickly, but his life is not respectable. He becomes corrupt through his association with Wolfsheim.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
The Men of Gatsby
Gatsby is a guy whose sickening wealth, sketchy business dealings, and questionable background make him both fascinating and repulsive the people at his parties are glad to partake of his riches, but they’re all sure that there’s something not quite right about him. This sense of mystery is a large part of the public display of the Great Gatsby, people are intrigued by him, but very few actually find out what’s at the core of this enigma.Nick is one of these few – perhaps the only person who really comes to understand Gatsby in the end. What makes Gatsby “great” to Nick is not just the extravagance of his lifestyle and the fascinating enigma of his wealth, but his true personality; Nick slowly realizes that Gatsby, in his heart of hearts, doesn’t care about wealth, or social status, or any of the other petty things that plague everyone else in his shallow world. Instead, Gatsby is motivated by the finest and most foolish of emotions – love.From this point of view, Gatsby's love for Daisy is what drives him to reinvent himself, rather than greed or true ambition, and at the end of the day, this unsullied, heartfelt goal puts Gatsby ahead of the rest of the madding crowd. Despite the fact that he attempted to fulfill his “incorruptible dream” through distasteful, sometimes dishonest means, we still emerge from this story profoundly sympathetic to him; he may have been a fool at times, but he’s a fool for love. Even though he’s a self-created image built out of nothing, Gatsby’s emotional honesty, eternal optimism, and simplicity of heart ironically single him out as the only real person in a crowd of fakes as Nick says, Gatsby is “better than the whole damn bunch put together.”
Tom Buchanan is Daisy’s husband, an extremely wealthy man, a brute, and an athlete. He’s selfish and does what he needs to get what he wants. Most of all, he seeks control of his life and control of others. When Tom figures out that Daisy loves Gatsby, he forces a confrontation. He is then able to use Daisy’s momentary hesitation to regain control of his wife. The quality of Tom that’s most likely to stick with you is the fact that he’s abusive. While we never see him get violent with his wife, there are hints of his unbridled physicality when Daisy reveals a bruise on her finger that, although accidental, was caused by Tom. Although he might not be physically abusive to his wife, Tom certainly causes her some emotional damage. There is, of course, his series of affairs, but he hurts Daisy in other ways, too. When Daisy tells us about her daughter being born. Tom’s violent streak really comes across when we see him break Myrtle’s nose with the short, deft movement of his open hand. This makes it clear that such violence means little to Tom.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Women of Gatsby
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Jealousy
We tend to think of jealousy as a single emotion, but actually it is a whole bundle of feelings that tend to get lumped together. Jealousy can manifest as anger, fear, hurt, betrayal, anxiety, agitation, sadness, paranoia, depression, loneliness, envy, coveting, feeling powerless, feeling inadequate, feeling excluded. It often helps to identify what is the exact mix of feelings you experience when you feel jealous. What is the primary emotion you feel when you are jealous? Demystifying the exact components of your jealousy can be a giant step towards getting a grip on things and resolving the problem. Is it always the same for you or does the mix change from time to time depending on circumstances? For instance, one woman figured out that her jealousy was about 50% fear, 20% anger, 20% feeling powerless and 10% feeling betrayed. However, when she asked her partner for reassurance and affection, and he provided it, the anger and betrayal disappeared. Then her jealousy was much more manageable, because most of what was left was fear and she could express those feelings more easily to her partner and resolve them.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Gangsters/Mafia
In the public eye, the 1920s gangster and bootlegger "above the law" lifestyle brought money, fame, nice clothes, women, cars, and homes. Quality, high fashion suits and expensive accessories were as much the calling cards of the gangster then as they are today (though I doubt you'd hear the term haute couture being dropped regularly)The 1920s plays host to many other organized criminals with expensive suits and flashy names.
The 20's most famous gangsters were: "Scarface" Capone, "Lucky" Luciano, "Bugs" Moran (AKA Jack "Legs" Diamond), and "Dutch" Schultzn. The 1930s the names became "Pretty Boy" Floyd and "Babyface" Nelson, while the 1940's gives us "Bugsy" Siegal. In more recent years the name parade brings John "The Teflon Don" Gotti, and Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano. Every famous gangster has a colorful name to go along with his fine suit. It's also been said that the gangster, as the American public sees him, is a creation of the mass media.
In the 1920s gangsters became the American icons of the self-made-man. Expanding their organizations into illegitimate markets, namely racketeering, bootlegging, and prostitution, these gangsters live life by their own shady but strict code of ethics, but outside of the iron grip of the law. 1920s gangsters fashion owes much of it's rise in the public's consciousness to the prohibition and the newspaper media's love affair with these criminal media darlings.
Capone was "Public Enemy Number 1". He had moved to Chicago in 1920 where he worked for Johnny Torrio the city's leading figure in the underworld. Capone was given the task of intimidating Torrio's rivals within the city so that they would give up and hand over to Torrio their territory. Capone also had to convince speakeasy operators to buy illegal alcohol from Torrio. Capone was very good at what he did. in 1925, Torrio was nearly killed by a rival gang and he decided to get out of the criminal world while he was still alive. Torrio handed over to Capone his 'business'. Within 2 years, Capone was earning $60 million a year from alcohol sales alone. Other rackets earned him an extra $45 million a year. Capone managed to bribe both the police and the important politicians of Chicago. He spent $75 million on such ventures but considered it a good investment of his huge fortune. His armed thugs patrolled election booths to ensure that Capone's politicians were returned to office. The city's mayor after 1927 was Big Bill Thompson - one of Capone's men. Thompson said
http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone.html
http://www.1920s-fashion-and-music.com/famous-gangsters.html
East Egg vs. West Egg
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The 1920's
The 1920s was a time of celebration, there were many fads. People loved to dance, especially the Charleston, Fox-trot, and the shimmy. Dance marathons were something everyone went to every weekend. The longest dance record ever recorded was a record of 3 weeks of dancing. People "tuned" in every day to listen to music, as jazz, sports and live events. A favorite for listening to jazz was "the king of jazz", Louie Armstrong. The start of 3-D movies was in the 1920's.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Old Money vs. New Money
The marriage of old-money services to new-money clients may or may not prove to be a match made in heaven. New-money clients may not even be interested in old-money services. Be sure you know your clients because new-money clients won’t be interested or willing to turn their checkbooks over to you.
In Gatsby, the People from West Egg are the people who belong in the category of New Money. The people from East Egg are in the category of Old Wealth. The Old Wealth people are normally very arrogant and lazy people who had life just handed to them on a silver platter. The people who are in the category of New Money are the hard-working peple that have to work for a living. These people don't have such an easy life like the Old Money.
The only real difference between the Old Money and the New Money is the way of life they have to live. The Old Money are very layed back people who have had life just handed to them and The New Money are the people who have to work for their money. In my opinion, the New Money people will prosper instead of the Old Money people.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Prohibition
Prohibtion led to the creation of underground bars called speakeasies. Speakeasies were illegal bars where alcohol was served. These speakeasies were very illegal. If the police broken into these speakeasies, the owner would most likely be arrested and everyone in the speakeasy would be arrested. These speakeasies were ran by gangsters. these gangsters oragnized the smuggling of alcohol into their bars. Jazz became very popular in speakeasies. The music that was played was Jazz music. This is where jazz became big.
Prohibition led to organized crime. Organized crime was when the gangsters would have the people go out and kill the competition. The gangsters were very sellfish and they didnt want any competition. The gangsters wanted the money of the people all to themselves. A famous gangster was a man named Al Capone. He was a very popular gangster in the 1920s. Prohibition also led to gang wars. Gang wars were when competing gangs would fight and kill each other. Two popular gangs were the Italian Mafia and the Irish Mafia. So in the end Prohibition was not very success for a couple of reasons. There was no real enforcement of the law and people just drank anyways and didnt follow the law. The 21st amendmant was the cancellation of Prohibition. So in conclusion, Prohibition was not successful in the US during the 1920s.