Reyes 1

Maria Reyes
English III Honors, Block 5
Mrs. Storer
February 20th, 2020
The Great Gatsby Socratic Reflection
The text we discussed was The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The questions we
discussed were about what the last and first sentences meant as well as how Fitzgerald used color
throughout the book. For the question dealing with the last two sentences, we discussed what
Fitzgerald meant to tell the reader about the American Dream. The two big opinions on that
question were that it was either attainable or unattainable. Rachel started out the conversation
saying that the message in the story is that dream is attainable, Patrick and Sofia Salcido both
agreed with the idea. However, Mila brought up the point that the quote can mean running
towards the past. I agreed with this idea since I interpreted that Gatsby’s American Dream is
bringing back the pat and repeating it, which is unattainable. The second question which deals
with the first two sentences of the book started out with a consensus that Nick was not meant to
judge people at all. Niala started the discussion with listing the advantages and disadvantages of
the main characters, this prompted the circle to focus on Gatsby and Tom and how they can be
judged based on their money but should not due to their different upbringings. The last question
dealt with the usage of colors in the story. Yellow was brought up the most and most of the inner
circle correlated it to different aspects of the novel. Patrick associated it to Daisy meanwhile
Niala correlated it to money.
The first original argument that was introduced into the inner circle was Patrick
correlating yellow and Daisy. This was so interesting since I never noticed this. He brought up
good point and mentioned how she was called the “golden girl” of the novel, and gold is yellow.
He also mentioned she’s named after the daisy, a flower that is yellow. The second original point
was brough up by Mila. She went into depth on Dr. TJ Eckleburg’s ad. She used the colors blue
and yellow to demonstrate that the message it portrays is that God sees through men’s
dishonesty.
The most original piece of evidence that was used from the book was given by Niala. She
used this quote, “Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their
share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking
up and wondering,” when proving how yellow was used to portray dishonesty (35). I think this is
the most interesting piece of evidence because Niala used something that was not obvious, like
Gatsby’s car, and took this quote that is often overseen to prove a point.
Thesis: Fitzgerald uses colors in The Great Gatsby to reveal things about the characters in
the novel. This can be seen through the association of yellow with Daisy, the green light Gatsby
looks at, and the different colors of Tom’s and Gatsby’s cars.
 Reyes 2

In the Daisy paragraph I would use the concept of her being the “golden girl” to show
how Daisy is correlated to yellow and how that can prove her dishonesty and cowardliness which
yellow signifies. In the green light paragraph, I would use two different meanings for the color
green; envy and hope. Gatsby is jealous of the life Daisy has and wants her for herself and he
also looks to that green light as hope and a new beginning. In the car paragraph I would use the
fact that Tom’s car is blue which means truth, meaning that Tom is a bad man, but he is open
about it. Gatsby’s car is yellow which means dishonesty, this shows how Gatsby is a dishonest
man and basically built his empire on lies.
In my life, I tend to see memories as colors. Whenever I remember sad things, I always
see them with a blue tint. I don’t remember when this started to happen but its been a thing in my
life for a while now. I always like to recall happy memories because I always replay them in my
head and they’re always saturated with yellows and bright colors that evoke a warm, fuzzy
feeling inside. So, when I read this book and we did the color chart for chapter 9 it reminded me
of how I tend to associate times in my life with colors. I also associate colors with people,
especially if they are close to me. Whenever I think of a person a color always pops up in my
mind. My close friends tend to be correlated to their favorite colors, but theirs always bright. In
my mind they’re actually the power rangers.