Young Writers Society

So, we're doing speech things in Lit class and our group got women in The Great Gatsby and I unknowingly chose the hard topic! The woman in white.

I've gotten some ideas already from my teacher, but I seem to stick real close to what he says and I'm struggling to go beyond this. It's just... ech.

Here is what I have to work with:

I see it as a night scene by El Greco: a hundred houses, at once conventional and grotesque, crouching under a sullen, overhanging sky and a lustreless moon. In the foreground four solemn men in dress suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken woman in a white evening dress. Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels. Gravely the men turn in at a house--the wrong house. But no one knows the woman's name, and no one cares.

So... anyone who has read the book? I just need some pointers and things. X_X

Ah yes, the woman in white.

My lit teacher seemed to hint that is was some kind of foreshadowing to when Gatsby gets killed, because no one really cares about Gatsby, they just care about his money. And when Gatsby is killed, no one cares, they all leave him, and he is quickly forgotten. Run with that if you wish.

I think Flemzo makes a good point here, and the bit that really caught my eye was: "Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels." I get this image of a hand hanging over the side of a stretcher as the medics take it away--in movies, isn't that how they always tell you the person is dead, if the hand is dangling lifeless over the side? Also, the carefully chosen words "sparkles cold with jewels." It's not the jewels that are sparkling here, but the hand which is encrusted with them--and again the word "cold" seems to imply death.

This paragraph also demonstrates the artificial nature of the world: nothing of the woman's appearance is mentioned; not her face, her age, her hair, nothing. Only her clothes and jewels get billing, as do people's reaction to her. She herself is merely a part of the facade.

Wow....didn't mean to go so deep there. Hope it helps!

*hugs you people* I'm happy now, things make sense!