Monday, August 6, 2012

Foreshadowing... Again

I've found yet another example of foreshadowing in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  On page 79, Nick says: "A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement:  "There are only the pursues, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired (p79)."  I think this thought foreshadows an unhappy ending to the novel.  The thought itself seems to reflect a pessimistic "there is no such thing as a happy ending" attitude.  "The pursued and the pursuing" could represent Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy and Tom's pursuit of Myrtle.  It could possibly reflect the relationship between Jordan and Nick as well.  As far as I can see, "the busy" doesn't symbolize any main characters, but could possibly represent the people in the working class, somewhat like Nick, who don't possess the riches displayed in the novel, and have to work hard all the time.  "The tired" most likely is the biggest part of foreshadowing, possibly suggesting that at the end of the book, all the characters will be tired and unhappy because they will not find happiness.  They may instead find disaster as the result of their pursuits.  I now think that Gatsby might die at the end of the book.  I looked back at the first few pages and realized that Nick uses past tense when talking about Gatsby, as if he doesn't exist anymore.  This could be because Gatsby dies.  That would certainly be a tragic ending that would make the other characters tired at least.  Once again, I'm probably in for another sad ending.

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