ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
The Great Gatsby Part 11: Elusive Rhythms 3694 Views
Share It!
Description:
How do you achieve wealth and popularity? Easy. Just become a bootlegger. Oh, hang on...alcohol is legal now? Hm. Perhaps obtaining an education is the next best thing, then. Start by Shmooping it up and watching this video!
Transcript
- 00:01
We speak student!
- 00:05
The Great Gatsby
- 00:07
Elusive Rhythms
- 00:09
a la Shmoop
- 00:14
What's the real story behind Jay Gatsby?
Full Transcript
- 00:17
Yeah, so he started off in the Midwest.
- 00:20
The middle west, as Nick likes to say,
- 00:23
as James or Jimmy Gatz.
- 00:25
And then he decided that he wanted to
- 00:30
become something more. And he's taken
- 00:32
onto a yacht by a guy named Dan Cody.
- 00:36
[ uh-oh ]
- 00:38
And, through that experience, and kind of continues on
- 00:41
just starts this process of making money somehow. Hmm.
- 00:47
And we don't really know --
- 00:49
I think it's okay, not a spoiler at this point,
- 00:51
to say that we find out that he's a bootlegger.
- 00:55
Which means he's making alcohol when it's illegal.
- 00:58
But, yeah, so we kind of see this --
- 01:02
We get his story that he started out
- 01:04
from basically nothing
- 01:06
and had this idea that he wanted to become rich and successful.
- 01:09
And, well, here he is.
- 01:11
He's rich and successful,
- 01:13
but still not fulfilled.
- 01:15
And we almost feel sorry for him, right?
- 01:19
Because he's gotten everything he wanted
- 01:21
and he still doesn't have what he wanted.
- 01:23
And that makes us think that
- 01:24
even if he were to get Daisy in the end, too,
- 01:27
it wouldn't be what he wanted.
- 01:28
And he'd get Daisy and achieve that dream, but
- 01:31
it wouldn't really mean anything exactly.
- 01:33
[ gasp ]
- 01:36
[ whoop ]
- 01:38
What's the real story behind Jay Gatsby?
- 01:42
[ evil laugh ]
Up Next
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Related Videos
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...