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The IB Practice Oral

This document contains a summary of key points about The Great Gatsby and the American Dream from an IB oral presentation. It discusses how the novel portrays the idealistic vision of the American Dream and the reality of inequality. Specifically: 1) The novel depicts Jay Gatsby as achieving wealth and status, embodying the American Dream, but through means that place him above other men, making true achievement unattainable. 2) Gatsby changes his name to hide his past and define himself by his wealth and status, showing how the American Dream transforms identities. 3) A photograph by Paul Strand called "Blind Woman" represents the realities of inequality and limited social mobility that

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1K views5 pages

The IB Practice Oral

This document contains a summary of key points about The Great Gatsby and the American Dream from an IB oral presentation. It discusses how the novel portrays the idealistic vision of the American Dream and the reality of inequality. Specifically: 1) The novel depicts Jay Gatsby as achieving wealth and status, embodying the American Dream, but through means that place him above other men, making true achievement unattainable. 2) Gatsby changes his name to hide his past and define himself by his wealth and status, showing how the American Dream transforms identities. 3) A photograph by Paul Strand called "Blind Woman" represents the realities of inequality and limited social mobility that

Uploaded by

Ging Ching
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The IB Practice Oral

In this Oral I will be examining the Global Issue of Politics, power and justice and how
it is presented through the content and form of my non-literacy text- a photograph by Paul
Strand called Blind Woman and an extract from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel the Great Gatsby.
The specific focus of the Global issue for this photograph is inequality, on how the American
Dream is being portrayed. This is relevant to today’s world since everyone wants to reach
the top, although some don’t the resources to reach the American Dream.

The American Dream is the belief from someone, regardless of their race, gender, or
nationality that they can be successful and rich in America if they just work hard for it. In the
1920’s, there were a lot of people immigrating to America to look for a better life, and the
role of women was starting to change, since in 1919 woman had the right to vote. And there
was an increased income inequality and wealth distribution kept worsening. The United
States of America were in an economic boost, which increased people’s ideas that they
could enter the American Dream quickly on Wall Street. However, then there was a stock
market crash in 1929, even though that the book was written in 1925, I think it gives a sense
that good things last for a short period of time, just as one of Gatsby’s parties.

Content: From this extract, we have a clear connection that Gatsby has been the
ideal idea of the independent, individualistic and self-taught man, which are the
characteristics of the symbol perfect man of the American Dream. After, he references
Plato’s concept. Platonism is the view that there are abstract objects that exist, meaning
that it is unreachable and very rare to find. As said in the extract, “his Platonic conception of
himself”, meaning that he is out of reach compared to other human beings, and perhaps
what he did to be involved in the American Dream was different from what other people do.
Finally, he uses a Biblical concept of Jesus, who is the “son of god”. Again, there is a link to
Gatsby and life beings that are far from human beings reach. Therefore, it’s as if Gatsby is so
far on top, that it is impossible to reach his wealth.

The fact that we only get to know his government name in Chapter 6, shows us how the
American Dream changes people’s names to whatever they are better known as.
Furthermore, from his change in name, has to do with change, he changed his name
because he wants to be known for what he has done to come up to the American Dream,
not his early life before his seventeens. The name of Dan Cody's yacht in F. Scott
Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the TUOLOMEE, was derived from the bucolic region of
California where a number of prospectors during the Gold Rush made their fortunes. 
His moment explicitly ties Daisy to all of Gatsby's larger dreams for a better life, to his American
Dream (page 119)
This rosy view eventually gets undermined by the tragic events later in the novel. And even
at this point, Nick's condescension towards the people in the other cars reinforces America's
racial hierarchy that disrupts the idea of the American Dream. (page 74)

This famous image of the green light is often understood as part of The Great Gatsby's
meditation on The American Dream—the idea that people are always reaching towards
something greater than themselves that is just out of reach. (page 24)

For the Context of the photograph, I believe that the three main points are
immigration, inequality, big money through the rise of industry. When we look at the
photograph, it is able to distinguish that this woman isn’t participating in the American
Dream, Strand as a socialist, might focus on economics prosperity, so the person is worth to
focus on. There is some type of “advertising”, due to the sign that she has on her, but also
its an element of combining text and image.

As for Content, around her neck she is wearing a license number and the certificate
of being blind, and the clothes she is wearing seem like she is a beggar, therefore since she
is blind, she is trying to get some money to compensate the fact that she doesn’t have a job.
The image represents the reminiscent of the late 19th century anthropometric classification
pictures that sought to establish general profiles based on the stereotypes of individuals. As
people would see her first as a blind person, not even a woman. She doesn’t look happy, her
face expression seems like some intimate connection, makes us uncomfortable to see her
but she can’t see us. She looks very vulnerable, the wall behind her and the way she is
positioned against the wall, makes her look like she has no chance.

Furthermore, the form of Strand’s photographs always seems to have a specific


shape, in which it appears very often, and in this case its mostly rectangles. Also, the texture
of the black and white, shades, and makes her face look a little dusty or dirty, just like the
wall behind her. The sign is communicating more than her, she might not be able to talk
either.
(page 104)

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