June 10, 2013

• Gatsby

  "It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning —
  So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

  
  I finally watched the Great Gatsby and you all are right.  I wouldn't want to be him.   You can not have the world in your hands and expect things to end well.   I haven't talked with many others about the film and I did not enjoy the ending.  It spiraled so devastatingly wrong so quickly.   Gatsby takes the blame for hitting Myrtle when it was Daisy, Tom tells Myrtle's husband it was Gatsby that killed her and probably was the other man too,  Gatsby gets shot and dies, and no one attends his funeral.  My friend Gloria tells me that the ending is fine.   She says sometimes when bad things happen they happen fast and they spiral.   That makes sense to me.  We celebrate people's  quick rise to success or fortune, but we do not focus on the other end of the spectrum.   I guess I loved Gatsby too much.
  

  Gatsby could have had some things, but he could not have it all.   He wanted the world and he believed like the American Dream if one works hard enough, then one can gain anything.    The thing here  is he was not able to attain Daisy, or at least attain her in the way he wanted.   He wanted her to tell Tom, her husband of 5 years, that she never loved him.   Gatsby couldn't take Daisy's plea to "run away together."  Gatsby wanted all of her here in this city, with all he had attained, worked, and toiled for her.   And in this scene in the movie at the hotel room is where Gatsby loses her.   

  It reminded me of the scene from Closer.  Closer is also one of my favorite movies.  I believe the affairs of love are never Single Girl meets Single Boy, date, and are happy.   I feel like in the real world people are always connected to someone.  Courted or being courted in one way or another.  An old lover that we still hang out with.  A friend waiting in the wings.  Maybe it is just my world.   There is a scene in the movie at the very end, where Alice loves Dan.  She does, but Dan just has to know if Alice slept with Larry.   And then... 

  ALICE: I don't love you anymore.
  DAN: Since when?
  ALICE: Now. Just now. I don't want to lie. Can't tell the truth, so it's over.
  DAN: It doesn't matter. I love you. None of it matters.
  ALICE: Too late. I don't love you anymore. Goodbye.

  Just like that.  It ends.  And this scene has always stuck with me.  He loved her, but he wanted to know, but there was something about him wanting to know made this girl who has been madly in love with him just stop loving him like that.   Dan wanted too much and so did Gatsby.
  

  Gatsby wanted it all and that was probably what pushed him to such grandeur in the first place, but I guess there are limitations on how fast we can run and how far our arms can stretch.  Maybe he never could have had Daisy in any timeline of his life.  He lost her in the past and he lost her in the present.   His hope drove him, but there is nothing more cruel in this world than false hope, besides maybe cooked rice stuck to the bottom of your socks at a family party.  Daisy with her whimsical, charismatic nature was able to supply enough false hope to probably ever guy in the ballroom. 

  I am reminded that you can't have everything, but you can have anything you want if you are willing to pay the price.   But even with his life,  he was not able to attain his dreams with what he believed was the love of his life.   Daisy didn't want him in the way Gatsby wanted her.  

  There are times when you can't have it all.  He had the world in his pocket and still was empty inside.  

  Poor Gatsby. 

   

  • 3:51 pm
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