grabyourgearhobbitsandhunters:
Bitchy Teachers: We all have one.
what bothers me about this scene is not just how the teacher treats drake but the fact drake had actually READ and ENJOYED a classic novel and no one even praised him for it because i mean it’sdrakei’m sorry but can we look at the kid sitting behind Josh who looks both asleep and stoned
You have said “Daisy is the worst person” because she’s vain, selfish, shallow, emotionally unstable and then in the next paragraph you point out that Tom is racist, sexist, abusive, he cheats…yet Daisy is the worst person? Like Tom has horrific views on PoC and women and he breaks a woman’s nose, but you think Daisy’s traits are worse than his? Girl, you need to sort out your priorities, that is fucked up.
Daisy is a shitty person but not all of that is her fault, like Gatsby and Tom both manipulate her in some ways - like that scene towards the end when they’re in that hotel, neither of them actually bother to ask her opinion - they just both want to own her. Also, remember in the beginning Gatsby actually lied to Daisy about his background, pretending he was wealthy. Daisy actually appears to be more insightful than she lets on; in the beginning she says she hopes her child will be a “beautiful fool” or something, because she knows about women’s role in society and she knows it’s better to be dumb and happy, than be intelligent and realise how shitty everything is. Arguably, Daisy is playing a role of what she’s expected to be; there are moments that indicate this like the one above. And if you look at her comment “We’ve got to beat them down” to Tom’s racism, she winks at the sun: she doesn’t appear to agree, she’s playing a little game. I mean, Daisy is very obviously not a good character, she’s not really likeable at all, but if anything, she’s to be pitied as well - Gatsby puts her on this ridiculous, unrealistic pedestal, and her feelings aren’t cared about at all; it’s all about Gatsby - he tells her she’s “never loved” Tom, he acts quite creepy sometimes in the way he collected newspaper cuttings of her and bought a house across from her’s deliberately (like no, that’s quite weird to buy a house across from someone you know purely for that reason if you’re not friends). He’s so in love with the idea of Daisy he doesn’t properly notice Daisy’s personality and autonomy. I don’t know, I just feel quite bad for her because Tom and Gatsby both treated her quite badly at some point (Tom cheated on her and is a general ass, while they both just totally disregarded her wishes in the hotel scene). She seems to be treated more as a trophy by them as a person, nobody considers her seriously. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a bad mother (but what proof is there that Tom is a good father?) and she is certainly shallow and vain (although she does seem to be genuinely fond of Nick so is capable of affection!) but to describe her as the “worst” person? I don’t like her, obviously, but I don’t particularly hate her either - I just feel sad for her because she’s pretty complex if you look deeper into her: she got that letter from Gatsby before she was due to marry Tom, it had a serious affect on her, it really hurt her, but she married Tom anyway, and if you look at the description after they got married after the honeymoon it really does seem like she’s fallen head over heels in love with him. But then Gatsby comes back years later, and how she must feel. She’s not dumb, if she was a “fool” like she wants her daughter to be, she probably wouldn’t have got involved with Gatsby. But her husband, who after their honeymoon she adored, kept cheating on her, and she wanted to feel loved. It was just a shame Gatsby didn’t love her for who she was. Of course, this is sort of balanced out by her shittiness and her indifference towards her daughter, and the whole role she plays. She’s never been taught independence, most of her decisions are made for her. Even Nick pushed her into her relationship with Gatsby (and why did he do that? Did he consider her feelings, or was it mainly about getting Gatsby what he wants, what he ‘deserves’?). She’s never grown up. She’s like a child a lot of the time, and it’s quite pathetic.
Also, I feel I should add that Tom wasn’t even there when his daughter was born - Daisy said he was “god knows where” and she felt an “utterly abandoned feeling.” And then she goes on about how everything is terrible (and it does seem to be, Nick describes her as speaking with ‘tense gaiety’, she often seems to be desperately trying to hold things together and pretend everything is okay, and sometimes comes off as quite hysterical) Nick thinks it’s an act, because she apparently “smirks” but that’s his opinion, and it could be utterly wrong. Daisy doesn’t seem quite right in the head to me, sometimes seems wrong, perhaps she’s mentally ill and tries to hide it, but there’s something not quite right with her. Or just perhaps it’s the fact she still seems to be a child.
Nick, Nick is flawed too, even though he’s the most likeable character. He’s arguably racist - when he meets the Jew he is shockingly anti-Semitic (or Fitzgerald is, but since it’s told from Nick’s perspective, I’ll give that the benefit of the doubt), focusing on his nose and stuff, it’s really bizarre. But that could just be Fitzgerald. He’s not even that reliable a narrator; at the end Gatsby is like this hero to him, even though Gatsby was a criminal and had this weird obsession with Daisy and wanted to live in the past kinda thing. Not to mention, everything is told from his perspective - he has biases, etc, so our viewpoints on characters are going to be strongly influenced by him, and we only have what he witnesses himself or have heard second-hand. Furthermore, he’s a little bit of a hypocrite - he says he’ll “reserve judgement”, then he FUCKING JUDGES EVERYONE IN THE GODDAMN BOOK. Jordan is “incurably dishonest”, he seems to blame Daisy for what happened and calls her and Tom “careless”…Perhaps he starts off honest and reliable, but as the book goes on he becomes more like them - Jordan points it out, in fact, and it seems he realises because he says he’s too old to lie to himself. Also you could argue he seems a bit full of himself/arrogant in some ways but if he is it’s nothing compared to the other characters so
Annnddd that’s my interpretation. I had to find an ebook on the great Gatsby for that, taking my novels seriously…
Okay, apart from Nick in NOT an honest man. He says that he doesn’t judge people and then spends the rest of the damn book passing judgements over every single other character in the book. He THINKS he’s the only honest character but he’s just like the rest of them, only less rich and he’s fucking BITTER about it.
