Like Pale Gold - The Great Gatsby Part 1: Crash Course English Literature #4 - YouTube (2)

come by his money honestly, but who in the novel did come by their money honestly?

And you can argue that Gatsby fails because nothing is ever enough -- it's not enough for Daisy

to love him, she must also say that she never loved Tom.

But this is America, man, when was enough ever enough for us? We invented super-sizing!

I mean -- we invented the stretch limousine, we invented the Hummer, and then we invented

the Hummer stretch limousine! We all believe, as Nick says at the end of the novel, "that

if we can only run faster, stretch out our arms farther, then one fine morning..."

We've come to believe in this American Dream not just in the United States but throughout

the world. We understand that much will be lost in pursuit of this dream - not just that

butler's noses will be ruined - but that vast valleys of ashes will pile up outside of our

cities as we consume ever more stuff. We know this is unsustainable, we know that these parties

can't last forever, and that we won't be able to drive home in our three wheeled cars; but still we press on.

Next week we'll consider whether Gatsby's quest, and ours, is a heroic one, but for

now I just want to encourage you not to dismiss the characters in this novel simply because

they may seem different from you. At one point Nick recalls all the people who would go to

those great parties and sneer most bitterly at Gatsby on the courage of Gatsby's liquor.

Let me submit to you that those of us who would sneer at Gatsby do so on the courage

of his liquor, because the truth is, we all share his ambition. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next week.

Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller. Our script supervisor is Meredith

Danko. The associate producer is Danica Johnson. The show was written by me and our graphics

team is Thought Bubble.

Every week when I might otherwise curse, I use the name of one of my favorite writers.

If you'd like to suggest writers, you can do so in comments where you can also ask questions

about today's video that will be answered by our team of literature experts.

And now I will leave you to observe the abundant metaphorical resonances of this chair, but

thanks for watching Crash Course and as we say in my home town, don't forget to be awesome.