Gatsby Reflection Questions

1. I don't think Daisy chooses, I think that she just puts her head and the sand and tries to avoid any confrontation and conflict. She goes with what is safe, and Tom is safe. She lets other people make the choices for her.
2. While I find none of the characters admirable, they all have some commendable traits. Gatsby is persistent: he knows what he wants and stops and nothing to get it. He is also generous and welcoming, though we learn that these traits are a result of his desire to find Daisy. Nick is intelligent and a good friend. He is the only person that actually cares about Gatsby (besides his father), and he is there until the end. Daisy has good intentions, but they never come off well. Tom isn’t a great person, but he is consistent with who he is. 
3. None of the major characters are horrible people, but their bad traits outweigh their good ones. Gatsby is stuck in the past, he has trouble moving on a living his life for himself. While I don't think that this is necessarily the worst characteristic, he is not admirable as a result. Nick is confused. He doesn’t know what he wants, and as result he lives somewhat through other people’s life. Daisy hates confrontation and she cannot make decisions for herself. She is not an individual and the perfect wife for a patriarch. Tom is just a mean person, he is selfish and needs control. 
4. The protagonist is Gatsby, he never means any harm, even though his choices often cause problems. The antagonist is all the uncontrollable variables that get in his way: such as time. 
5. The definition of catharsis is emotional release. Gatsby is capable of eliciting such purgation in the reader, just not in the conventional way. The reader also has to be sympathetic to Gatsby, which rules out about half the population. However, because Gatsby’s death is a murder by a character blaming him for something he didn’t do, and therefor it is completely out of his control, some catharsis is involved in our pity for him. 
6. Thesis statement: Hope is capable of inspiring people and motivating them, but it has the ability to destroy someone. Gatsby’s hope crushes him hard; he is so stuck in the past that he is blind to danger ahead. The past is always best left in the past.
7. The Great Gatsby is a story of the destruction of hope. Hope is general defined as a good thing that strengthens people through tough times and motivates them to attain a goal. This novel contradicts everything I believe about hope, and it defines it as something that cause us to stay in the past and will eventually destroy us. 
8. I don't think that wealth is limited to money or tangible goods, so as a result neither is conspicuous consumption. People can be emotionally wealthy, and show off the wealth to others. In this sense, I agree with Veblin.
9. I agree to an extent with Plato’s statement. I agree that virtue is not a result of wealth or poverty, but I believe that one can be virtuous and either rich or poor. It is not your lifestyle that determines your morals, but your experiences. Whatever my wealth status is when I am older, I hope that I am virtuous.