- I believe that this statement from Nick means that he doesn’t like expressing how he feels and thinks about different topics and people and would rather keep his thoughts to himself. I think that since the story is told by nick and from his thoughts there will be a slight bias as he will, as everyone does, have set beliefs on how he personally views things. The narrative is also told from Nick’s memory and memories are not always completely reliable.
- a) Tom: Big ego, thinks himself better than most due to his rich and sporty background, slightly racist as he talked about how he was the dominant race.
b) Daisy: Daisy is first portrayed as a frail young woman who is there almost as a display for Nick. She seems to have little personality and also seems a little dumb.
c) Nick: We get the impression that Nick is a well-educated man that does come from a reasonably wealthy background but doesn’t take his wealth completely for granted and doesn’t take advantage of it as he goes and gets his own job to supply himself.
c) Jordan: I think that Jordan seems to be a slightly nosy woman as she was eavesdropping on Tom’s phone call. She also seems to like gossiping which as an addition to her nosiness. She also gives an impression of being almost humble as she doesn’t speak of her job in sports.
- Tom and Daisy’s relationship seems off because of the mention by Jordan about Tom’s “woman” in New York who was calling him at dinner. They also look like they fight as they had a few small quarrels even in front of their guests.
Chapter II
“This is a valley of ashes- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.” -Poverty cycle
“But above the grey land and spasms of black dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Dr TJ Eckleburg … his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground”
“Well, they say he’s a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s. That’s where all his money comes from.”
“I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and replied by the inexhaustible variety of life.”
How does the scene at the new york city apartment develop toms character?
Nick states that he “was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and replied by the inexhaustible variety of life.” What does this mean? What does nick think of the scene that unfolds in the apartment?
Chapter III
- There is a colour that is frequently associated with gatsby and his house. Its mentioned many times in the opening two pages of this chapter. What is it? Write 2-3 quotes out of the text that mentions this colour in connection to gatsby. The colour mentioned is yellow. “And now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music” “she held my hand and impersonally, as a promise that she will take care of me in a minute and give ear to twin girls in yellow dresses”
- Gatsby’s character is developed in this chapter. Locate two quotes which express something about his personality. Explain what is revealed by these quotes.
- Nick observes that “east egg condescending to west egg and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gaiety.” Explain what this means, and what it says about the difference between ‘old money’ and ‘new money’
- Owl eyes observe that gatsby is “a regular Belasco” is and explain what connection might exist between him.
Chapter IV
- “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world”
- “Anything can happen now that we have slid over this bridge,’ I thought… Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder.”
Post-reading question
- Who is Meyer Wolfsheim, and what do we know about him? Meyer Wolfsheim is a gambler
- What is weird about nicks drive into new york with gatsby? List at least three things about gatsby in this scene that strike you as odd. 1, Gatsby said his parents and him lived in the middle west in ‘San Francisco’ which San Francisco is not in the middle west. 2, hurried over the fact that he went to oxford. 3,
- Jordan recalls the time in 1917 when she saw gatsby and daisy together. From Jordan’s description, do you think daisy was genuinely interested in gatsby? Yes, Jordan said that they were engrossed in each other and she didn’t even see Jordan until she was 5 feet away.
- Nick says “then it had been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night” when nick first spotted gatsby reaching out across the bay. What does nick now realize about that night and about gatsby’s real estate purchase? Looking at the dock, with the green light.
Chapter V
“If it wasn’t for the mist, we could see your home across the bay’… “you always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock” he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.
“There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams – not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart.”
Questions:
- Describe Gatsby’s feelings toward the meeting with Dasiy. Find two quotes to support your description. Explain why he might be feeling the way you have identified. “‘If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,’ said Gatsby. ‘You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock” the green light resembles hope for daisy and gatsby.
- A new symbol becomes apparent in this chapter. Find three quotes which mention rain, the ocean, mist or water of some kind. Write them down and consider what connection they might have to Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship. “Aware of the loud beating of my own heart…” “
- Discuss the connection between Gatsby and the clock that he breaks on the mantelpiece. A quote to help you understand this might be “He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock.”- Nick, chapter five. When you wind up a clock, if you wind to far it overworks and breaks.
- Why do you think that Gatsby wants Nick to host this afternoon tea? How important is it to Gatsby that Daisy sees his house? It’s important for Daisy to see his house because it’s so big and great and gatsby is trying to suck her into his trap.
- Why do you think Daisy cries over Gatsby’s shirts? Daisy cries over the shirts because she realized what she could have.
Chapter VI
“The truth was that jay gatsby of west egg, long island sprang from his platonic conception of himself… he invented just the sort of jay gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception, he was faithful to the end…”
Plato- Greek philosopher Ideas are separate from reality.
- Give an overview of where Gatsby came from. How different is this to the rumours that we have heard about him? How true do you think his story about the war and Oxford is now?
- Find two quotes that show us Gatsby ‘reinvented’ himself.
- Consider the quote “a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing.” What do you think this has to do with the idea that you can design your own reality? How do you think this applies to Gatsby?
- Describe Daisy’s reaction to the party. Find two quotes to support your observation.
She didn’t like the party“She was appaled by west egg”
- Why is it significant that Daisy says “I’m giving out green” during the party?
She is giving out hope for the people that she thinks are in need of it.
- Gatsby seems to think that Nick’s opinion that “You can’t repeat the past” is insane. Find his response to this line in the novel and write it down. Why do you think he needs to hold this opinion? “Why of course you can.” because he was trying to repeat the past as they spoke at his house.
Chapter VII
- Nick observes that “the whole caravansary had fallen in like a card house at the disapproval in her eyes.” What do you think he means by this? Note: the quote relates to Gatsby and Daisy and is near the beginning of chapter one.
Daisy doesn’t like the big parties so he has just stopped doing them to please her.
- Why do you think Fitzgerald set the events of this chapter on the hottest day of the story so far? Consider how this might connect to the water symbolism.
Because it had the most eventful/ intense moments in the story. Whereas earlier in the story it was rainy and stormy and that resembled sympathy and re-unitement
- Gatsby tells Nick that “Her voice is full of money” in regards to Daisy. Explain what this means.
She speaks as money comes out of her mouth because she likes to have money to spend and be wealthy so she can do whatever she pleases. She’s posh. There are no worries in her world.
- “High in a white palace, the king’s daughter, the golden girl”. This line appears as Nick is describing Daisy and her voice. Why do you think it is significant? What does it tell us about her?
She has value to others because she is attractive and worthy of fighting over. She gets what she wants.
- Comment on the situation at the palace hotel. Do you think Daisy ever had any intention of leaving Tom? Find a quote to support your answer.
Yes, because Daisy said “I never loved him”
She doesn’t really want to leave tom but she did like the idea of it.
- Break down the following quotation, as we have done as a class on the board. Explain what is revealed about ‘the dream’ in this quote.
“But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, despairingly, towards that lost voice across the room.”
the dead dream was gatsby and it kept slipping away from Daisy because of Tom and the argument he had with gatsby.
- Reflect on the death of Myrtle Wilson and think about the fact that she was killed by a member of the ‘elite upper class’. Comment on what statement Fitzgerald is making about the privilege the very wealthy believe they possess.
More power and rights they believe they can run away from problems and not have to deal with them, and live a great life filled with money.
Chapter VIII
“If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is…. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about…”
Chapter IX
- Comment on your reaction to Gatsby’s story about falling in love with Daisy.
He is obsessive over Daisy. He fights over her, lies to get her.
- The idea of the golden girl is developed in this chapter. Comment on how the following quotes help us to understand Daisy’s status as the golden girl of the story:
- “It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy- it increased her value in his eyes” She is/has been loved by many men that gave her all the things she wanted and seeming though Gatsby is rich, he can get her WHATEVER she likes/wants
- “He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn’t realise just how extraordinary a ‘nice girl’ could be.”
- “Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.” As it said earlier in the story “The rich get richer, The poor get – Children” that seems as though as she can protect herself with her money.
- Nick says to Gatsby “They’re a rotten crowd…You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” Do you agree with Nick? Explain why/why not.
No, They seem too stuck up and they don’t help anyone apart from themselves.
- Nick tells us the story of Wilson- or at least the version that the media published. In it, the symbol of the eyes is developed further. What does Wilson say to his wife about her actions? Who does he believe is judging her? Do you think that the eyes really symbolise God in this text?
No
- Gatsby is shot and killed in his swimming pool. Comment on the significance of this particular setting in connection to Gatsby’s death. Think about the reason that Gatsby is killed and how this might connect with what we already know about the water symbolism.
Water symbolises the sad parts of the story or just sad parts for somebody in the novel.
So when gatsby gets shot in the pool, the pool is full of water and water represents sadness in this book.
Chapter IX
- Why do you think no one came to Gatsby’s funeral? What does this tell us about “living too long with a single dream?”
He only focused on one thing in life for over 5 years. He didn’t see anyone else’s opinions he just went with what he wanted
- What was your impression of Gatsby’s father? Did you learn anything from Nick’s interactions with him that helps you to understand Gatsby better? Does your opinion of him change? Use quotes to support your answer.
- When Wolfshiem says “I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter”, how is the idea of Gatsby ‘creating himself’ become more developed?
Because gatsby ‘created himself’ he meant he had someone that had their back but he did his own work in bootlegging and drugs.
- Nick says that “After Gatsby’s death, the East was haunted for me…distorted beyond my eyes’ power of correction.” What does he mean by this? What does he start to realise? Look for the comparison between West Egg and the El Greco painting to support your answer.
He was friends with gatsby but gatsby was a mysterious man. He had to change what already happened to west egg.
- What final thing is established for us about Daisy in this chapter? What do we come to fully understand about her? Is she, in fact, the rose that Nick has described?
She is the rose/ golden girl to some people like tom and gatsby.
- Tom tells Nick that Gatsby “threw dust into your eyes just like he did in Daisy’s.” What do you think he means by this? How does this support the notion that Gatsby was an illusion?
By ‘throwing dust’ into peoples eyes it makes them blind to everything else around them.
- Break down the following quotation:
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
They do whatever they want to anything and with their money and empowerment they get others to clean up the mess they made and they retreat into their homes where it makes them ‘sane’
8. Nick describes Gatsby’s home as a ‘huge incoherent failure of a house…” What does he mean by this? What is it symbolic of?
The house owned by Gatsby is too big for just one person but for the conquest of daisy, he has the house so she can see from across the bay and he thinks by having the biggest house she will come back to him.
- Provide a background description of Nick Carraway. Use the ‘w’ questions to help you cover the main points (who, what, where, when) and think about what information someone might need to be able to understand his role in the story. Nick Carraway came into this story as Daisy’s distant cousin, he moved into west egg for work, he got a job as a bondsman at the bank in New York.
As the novel is told through Nick’s eyes, I want to use some of his words to help us build a picture of who he is and what he represents. For each of the quotes below, discuss what characteristics are revealed. Comment on what the quote helps us to understand Nick’s purpose in the text.
- “I am inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.”- Chapter One
Because he is so quiet he gets put into conversations and situations about Gatsby and Nicks cousin.
- “When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. “ – Chapter One
He wanted everyone to be in uniforms, the best that everyone can be. everyone as one, the same, all doing the same thing, wearing the same stuff working at the same place. Nick has really strong ideals.
- “…wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.”- Chapter One
Nick felt as if he was pushed around and controlled by tom, having no idea what will come next and having no say on what’s going on because he was “wedged in too tight”. He wedged his arm aggressively.
- “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” – Chapter Two
Nick has no idea where life is going to take him at this point. he is out of breath but got too much energy at the same time. he feels trapped inside a world of simplicity.
- “Most of the time I worked…I knew the other clerks and young bond salesmen by their first names…I even had a short affair with a girl who lived in Jersey City and worked in the accounting department, but her brother began throwing mean looks in my direction…” – Chapter Three
he works quite hard and earns good money, he still has to work for his money, unlike Gatsby. he cares about his career. he knows the other employee’s first names which indicate he knows them, not necessarily well but he knows them. nick wants to be there, if he knows their first names then he likes them and nick is very friendly, a bit too friendly because he backed off of the girl he liked from jersey city because her brother. he doesn’t like trouble.
- “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”– Chapter Three
Nick feels like most people is lying to him or being dishonest towards him.
- “They’re a rotten crowd…You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together!’ I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him because I disapproved of him from beginning to end.”- Chapter Eight
Nick has seen the worst of Gatsby around the others trying to get Daisy on his side but really Gatsby is a good man, sometimes you have to be like that to get what you want.
- “I shook hands with him. It seemed silly not to for I felt suddenly as though I was talking to a child.”- Chapter Nine
Nick doesn’t seem to like conflict. He said that he is sick of it all. nick thinks tom is a child because he is immature. Nick is a bit arrogant because he said “he is one of the honest people he knows”
- “I sat there brooding on the old unknown world…” –Chapter Nine
brooding mean deep thinking. he thinks of what America would look like to outsiders. Nick is a neutral sort of person but he thinks deeply about what he is going to do next and what is going to happen with others.
Golden girl: the golden girl is an influencer/ model/ someone who you look up too. My “golden girl” would have to be ‘the rock’ he is my inspiration for hard work and work ethics, and hard work really does pay off.
- Explain how Daisy could be considered clever. Use at least one quote from the text to support your answer.
she is clever because she wants her daughter “to grow up a fool, it’ll make her life easier. and daisy knew that tom, where cheating but she knew, is she had confronted him she would lose a lot.
- The notes above talk about how Gatsby views Daisy as a possession to be collected. Explain this further. Find a quote from the text to support your answer and explain how the quote supports your ideas.
Gatsby wants her to himself. Gatsby has shown to talk about daisy as a possession, when they are at the hotel and they are arguing Gatsby says “she doesn’t love you, she loves me” and tries to get her but what happens after that.
- Describe what life was like in the 1920s for women. After you have done so, explain why you think Daisy wants her daughter to be a ‘fool’ in this world.
She wants her to be a fool because Daisy knew she was going to be pretty and “pretty fools” were the most worthy.
- Towards the end of the novel, Nick says that Daisy and Tom were “careless people…they smashed up things and creatures, and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”. Explain what Daisy ‘smashes up’ (figuratively speaking) in this story.
She smashes up peoples heart and hopes of becoming something so true and extraordinary and then they retreat back to their money, its like survival of the fittest but survival of the richest and they’ll do anything to make sure that others can overpower them with their money.
- Explain how Daisy could be considered ‘amoral’. Use at least two quotes from the text to support your answer.
she is ‘amoral’. She doesn’t stop when she hits mertyl and she doesn’t go to Gatsby’s funeral, she doesn’t realise why he ends up where he ends up. she made a mistake and that was that she messed Gatsby around. “high in the white palace” means that she doesn’t really care because she has all that she wants.
____________________________________________________________________________
Mapping task.
Wilson’s garage:
“The interior was unprosperous and bare; the only car visible was the dust-covered wreck of a Ford which crouched in a dim corner. It had occurred to me that this shadow of a garage must be a blind, and that sumptuous and romantic apartments were concealed overhead, when the proprietor himself appeared in the door of an office, wiping his hands on a piece of waste. He was a blond, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.”
“wiping his hands with a piece of waste” this is showing that they are in the poverty cycle and he has a dusty ford waiting to be worked on but he doesn’t have enough money/ customers to get the supplies to work on it.
hope gleamed into his light blue light when they came to the garage with a expensive car.
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