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Playlist The Great Gatsby: Shmoopversations 16 videos
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The Great Gatsby Part 13: Incorruptible Dreams 12835 Views
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Description:
Do you think Gatsby would have been super distracted by green traffic lights? Check out this video to (not) find out. ...Seriously. The answer isn’t in here. We were just wondering. Don’t mind us.
Transcript
- 00:01
We speak student!
- 00:05
The Great Gatsby
- 00:07
Incorruptible Dreams
- 00:09
a la Shmoop
- 00:12
Incorruptible Dreams.
Full Transcript
- 00:14
Our main character doesn't even make it
- 00:15
to the last page of the book.
- 00:17
Gatsby dies. Spoiler alert there, sorry.
- 00:20
[ scream ]
- 00:21
What does Gatsby's death mean?
- 00:24
Yeah, well, I mean...
- 00:26
Gatsby is shot by George Wilson.
- 00:30
And the crazy thing about it is that he's not --
- 00:34
He's shot because he thinks that Myrtle
- 00:37
was having an affair him, with Gatsby.
- 00:39
So he's killed -- His death is meaningless,
- 00:43
because George kills him for
- 00:45
something that's not true.
- 00:47
And that kind of brings to light the fact
- 00:49
that nothing in this book is real.
- 00:50
Nothing is true. So what does it matter
- 00:52
that he was killed for an untrue reason?
- 00:56
Because everything's false.
- 00:58
So, yeah, Gatsby dies and --
- 01:01
And, if I may, even the notion of the real truth...
- 01:03
In theory when you buy a book,
- 01:04
if nothing else, you can trust its title.
- 01:07
[ goofy laugh ]
- 01:09
And in this case, it's like the, eh, "great" Gatsby.
- 01:12
It's sort of like the opposite.
- 01:14
He wasn't great. He was just kind of there.
- 01:16
He was a placeholder,
- 01:17
which is about as opposite of great as you can get.
- 01:20
Right. And the fact that it's The Great Gatsby
- 01:22
is, again, another nod to what
- 01:24
Fitzgerald can do with words.
- 01:26
By saying "the great Gatsby," we --
- 01:29
He's great. He's this enigma of
- 01:33
excitement and parties and greatness.
- 01:37
And at the same time, it is so clearly ironic that he's called "the great Gatsby,"
- 01:42
because there is nothing about him that is great.
- 01:44
[ crash ]
- 01:45
There's nothing about anyone in this book that's great.
- 01:47
Even Nick kind of turns out to be a little bit judge-y.
- 01:55
[ whoop ]
- 01:57
What does Gatsby's death mean?
- 02:01
[ goofy laugh ]
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