Jaxon Mase 12/12

         Today in class, we started with defining a WASP (White Anglo Saxon, Protestant). We defined them as protestant being a christian religion, anglo saxon as english and norther european, and white as a complicated connotation of skin color. Mr. Rivers then connected this to the amount of our presidents that have been wasps. We have had 42 WASP presidents out of 44 presidents. He then asked the question of how one becomes the president. The answer is college. If you look at the colleges that our past presidents have gone to are mostly Ivy league Colleges, and to get into these colleges you have to have a high social status (wealth).
          The talk of status used to get to these colleges that produces wealth is connected to Gatsby because he went to Oxford, a very prestigious school. Because of this, Gatsby is very egocentric. On page 67, Nick Carraway is shocked to hear that Gatsby went to Oxford. Its such a famous school and Nick notices his ego. Looking back on page 53, Gatsby calls Nick "old sport" which at first seems to show endearment or brother hood but really is just trying to be familiar without being familiar and really condescending. Gatsby has an ego from his past at Oxford thinking he is a big man and everyone else is below him. He uses this condescending language to get something out of Nick (dinner with Daisy).
The ego of everyone in this is also biased. When Nick is talking to Mr. Wolfshine, Nick realized an abnormality in his pronunciation of Oxford as 'Oggsford" and points it out in he text. (page 71) This represents the bias towards people not considered white in he 1920's, Jews, Irish, Exc.
The obvious segregation in race and wealth displays Fitzgerald's (author) view that race and religion is what caused the wealth gap, and that the rich are given an easier path to success.

This shows the wealthy's advantage (connection to Ivy League Colleges and money) that helps them get to the top over the common man.

The homework is to read chapter five and look at color and weather and how they are being used as symbols. Rest of period used to start reading.