What a second hand emotion (Josh)

Previous to the reading I had never thought about the Great Gatsby through a strictly romantic lens; "whats love got to do with it" really ads another dimension to the Great Gatsby. The characters motivations through out the novel seemed hard to fathom in many cases, or just plain bizarre in others, but Tyson provides the tools for converting the characters raw emotional actions into something much more manageable for discussion and debate. I had never thought about the relationships in the way I do now after Tyson dissected them. The fact that Daisy is painfully aware of Tom's sleeping around and yet remained with him always struck me as Daisy being weak and not knowing how to make a relationship work for her, but in-reality Tom is the kind of guy daisy needs, or at least feels she needs so she doesn't have to be intimate with anyone, something which would be deeply confronting for her.

Fitzgerald created such a great image of Tom and Daisy in the novel that even as the reader it was hard to see through their act and realize that they truly suffered from a case of severe low self esteem. When Tyson suggests ideas such as these there is a whole new found depth to the novel, scenes start to have new meaning and characters seem to be complete. A third party in-depth review of a text is truly eye opening after you feel you have made all the conclusions one could about a text.