4 Matching Annotations
  1. Aug 2025
    1. Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the “creative temperament”—it was an extraordinary gift for hope,

      I always found this introduction to Gatsby fascinating. He is the narrators one exception to his values, because Gatsby represents a quality of deep hope. I often equate hope to a love of life, a belief system that believes everything will work out because life is beautiful. This paragraph made me feel like the narrator also has made this connection and is why even though Gatsby has many flaws, it is hard to dislike him because of his "gift".

    2. rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion

      He proceeds this with where he lives is less fashionable and yet describes a beautiful mansion. So even though both west and east have signs of wealth one is still considered "better". This later connects into the distinction of old and new money, and that even when you have the means and have worked to be successful it will always be seen as less.

    3. I came East, permanently, I thought, in the spring of twenty-two.

      Foreshadowing that something will happen for him to change his life plans. Since he begins with his values, and then it follows into this, one could assume that where he moved "East" did not reflect his values.