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The Great Gatsby

Name:

Teacher: Miss K Cowin

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1896. He was a student of St. Paul Academy, the Newman School, and had attended Princeton for a short while. In 1917 he joined the army and was posted in Montgomery, Alabama. This is where he would meet his future wife Zelda Sayre but first he had to make some money to impress her. Having his first novel, This Side of Paradise published and a best-seller accomplished this. He was published at the age of only twenty-three and was regarded as the speaker for the Jazz Age. Pretty soon though things started to take a turn for the worse. Zelda's schizophrenia and Fitzgerald's drinking problem led Fitzgerald to rely mostly on his short story's for income. Slowly they started to lose their appeal as well. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald ended up dying in Hollywood on December 21, 1940.

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Resource

Booklet

ABOUT THE 1920'S

These years were known as the ‘Roaring Twenties’ because the economy at the time was through the roof and people were partying all over the place. At the time there was a legal ban on the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drink called prohibition. Since a lot of people didn't feel like drinking the gin they made in their bathtubs all the time there was a huge market for organised crime. Organised criminals catered to the needs of the drinking public by illegally supplying them with liquor and made a fortune doing it. Even with all the crime in the Jazz Age though, it will still be remembered for its glittering lights and unbridled romance.

GATSBY TIMELINE

1890 Gatsby is born. Since Gatsby is 17 when he meets Dan Cody in 1907, he was born in 1890.

1892 Nick Carraway is born. Since Nick is 30 in 1922, ("I'm thirty, five years too old to lie")(chapter 9) he was born in 1892.

1898 The Spanish-American war breaks out over territories in Cuba.

1899 Daisy Fay is born Daisy was 18 when she met Gatsby in 1917, so Daisy was born in 1899.

1902 Dan Cody, Gatsby's mentor, buys his yacht and begins his ten year trek.

"Ella Kaye, the newspaper woman, played Madame de Maintenon to his weakness and sent him to sea in a yacht, were common knowledge to the turgid sub-journalism of 1902." (Chapter 6)

1907 At the age of 17, Gatsby joins Cody in Girl Bay and sails the seas with him for five years.

"He had been coasting along all too hospitable shores for five years when he turned up as James Gatz's destiny in Little Girl Bay."(chapter 6)

1912 Dan Cody dies.

"The arrangement lasted five years…….one night in Boston and a week later Dan Cody inhospitably died."(chapter 6)

1914 World War I begins.

1915 Nick Carraway graduates from New Haven at the age of 23

"I graduated from New Haven in 1915"(chapter 1) and since he was born in 1892, in 1915 he is 23.

1917 Daisy and Gatsby meet in Louisville Daisy is 18, Gatsby, 27

"Her white roadster was beside the curb, and she was sitting in it with a lieutenant I had never seen before….His name was Jay Gatsby."

"The largest of the lawns belonged to Daisy Fay's house. She was just eighteen."(chapter 4)

and since Gatsby was 17 in 1907, he is 27 in 1917.

1917 The United States of America enters World War I, and Jay Gatsby fights for his country.

1919 Jay Gatsby meets his future partner, Meyer Wolfsheim.

"I remember when I first met him, a young major just out of the army." (chapter 9)

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1919 Meyer Wolfsheim fixes the 1919 World's Series.

"Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he's a gambler. He's the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919." (chapter 4)

1919 The 18th amendment of the constitution is ratified, prohibiting the sale of liquor.

1922 The main time period of the book in which most of it takes place. Jay Gatsby dies at the age of 32

1924 Nick Carraway, (with help from F. Scott Fitzgerald) tells the reader the story of The Great Gatsby.

"After two years, I remember the rest of that day." (chapter 9)

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS:

Nick Carraway: Nick Carraway is the narrator of this story. As you can see on the first page Nick holds himself in higher esteem than the other characters in the novel. Even though Nick is the narrator he should not be completely trusted. On the first page he boasts about how he doesn't judge people yet throughout the story he's judging people. The only person who he envies though is Gatsby. On [page 2] Nick says about Gatsby, He has an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. Also, for someone with such high moral values he doesn't handle commitment very well. That's probably a main reason why he left the Mid West and it's part of why he ended up going back. Nick left the Mid West to be a stock broker in New York but didn't get rich, yet everywhere he looks these amoral people are rolling in the wealth. That's a clue to one of the main themes....

Jay Gatsby: Gatsby is the rich, majestic, protagonist of the novel. While it isn't clear how he made all his money it is obvious that it was through illegal dealings in organised crime. There was a reference to the 1919 World Series, (That's the one where the players on the Chicago White Sox helped out organised crime by not trying their hardest when it counted). It is also clear that the driving motivation for getting all this cash is so that it will appeal to Daisy. Daisy was the rich girl that he fell in love with before he joined the service. Unfortunately he just didn't have enough money to keep her while he was overseas. When Gatsby got back she was married to someone else but that didn't dissuade him in the least. Gatsby's whole efforts in this book are focused on trying to bring him and Daisy back to the point of time before he joined the army except this time he has enough money for her. Gatsby says it himself on [page 111], Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!.

Daisy Buchanan: Daisy is the woman Gatsby is trying to win back and coincidentally she is also Nick's second cousin. Daisy doesn't have a strong will and she cracks under pressure as will be shown late in the book in the hotel scene. She is the original material girl and focuses on the outward instead of the inward. Tom bought her love with a three hundred thousand dollar necklace, and now Gatsby is doing it with a huge mansion and a lot of nice shirts.(You'll understand the shirts thing when you read the part of the novel when Daisy first visits Gatsby's house).

Tom Buchanan: Tom is the antagonist in this novel. While Gatsby was fighting in World War I Tom was using his wealth to sweep Daisy off her feet. Tom is a yuppie and clearly in the way of Gatsby's love for Daisy. He is having an affair, which he makes no attempt to keep secret, with Myrtle Wilson while stringing along Myrtle's husband on a business deal. He

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treats Myrtle even worse than Daisy because in his eyes Daisy is worth a three hundred thousand dollar pearl necklace while Myrtle is worth a dog leash. With that fact in mind it is reasonable to assume Fitzgerald is telling us that Tom considers Myrtle to be his pet dog. Tom is just the bad guy in this story and you could not possibly like him.

Jordan Baker: Jordan is the woman in this story who connects Gatsby to Nick and consequently Gatsby to Daisy. Jordan is also a friend of Daisy's while she has something going with Nick during the story. She has short hair and plays golf which back in the twenties was uncommon for women. Therefore you can assume she acts like a guy. She is very into the Roaring Twenties party scene and is carelessly going through life. The carelessness comes out when she's driving with Nick on [page 59] He also tags her as a hypocrite when she says "I hate careless people" being a careless person herself.

Myrtle Wilson: She's the woman Tom is having an affair with. She lets Tom push her around and treat her however he wants and she likes it. Tom has all the money and leads the life she wants to be a part of. She always thought she should have done better than her current husband and having an affair with Tom reinforces this belief of hers. Her current husband, George Wilson, is just a poor gas station owner in the Valley of Ashes who had to borrow a tuxedo for his wedding. Myrtle would rather be treated like a dog by someone who has money instead of being cared for by someone who has no money.

George Wilson: George is married to a woman who resents him and is having an affair right under his nose without him knowing it. He runs a gas station that he lives above in the Valley of Ashes which is the dirtiest area of New York. The valley of Ashes has now become Queens if you were wondering where it was. That's not even the worst of it but I don't want to give up to much of the story so you'll just have to believe me. George Wilson is just the hard luck guy in this novel and he ends up taking it out on someone else in the end.

Meyer Wolfsheim: While he may not be a major part of this novel he serves a purpose. He is Gatsby's connection to organised crime. He is the link that connects Gatsby to how he gained all his money. He supposedly in this novel is the one that fixed the World Series of 1919. He is also a close friend of Gatsby's.

THEMES OF THE NOVEL

1. The American Dream

This novel is filled with multiple themes but the predominate one focuses on the death of the American Dream. This can be explained by how Gatsby came to get his fortune. Through his dealings with organised crime he didn't adhere to the American Dream guidelines. Nick also suggests this with the manner in which he talks about all the rich characters in the story. The immoral people have all the money. Of course looking over all this like the eyes of God are those of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg on the billboard.

2. Repeating the past

The second theme that needs to be acknowledged is the idea of repeating the past. Gatsby's whole being since going off to war is devoted to getting back together with Daisy and have things be the way they were before he left. That's why Gatsby got a house like the one Daisy used to live in right across the bay from where she lives. He expresses this desire by reaching towards the green light on her porch early in the book. The last paragraph, “So we beat on, boats against the current, born back ceaselessly into the past” reinforces this theme.

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3. Immorality

Fitzgerald was in his twenties when he wrote this novel and since he went to Princeton he was considered a spokesman for his generation. He wrote about the third theme which is the immorality that was besieging the 1920's. Organised crime was rampant, people were partying all the time, and affairs were common. (Fitzgerald portrays the latter particularly in the novel).

4. God – the all seeing eye

The eyes of T. J. Eckleburg convey a fourth theme in this novel. George Wilson compares them to the eyes of God looking over the valley of Ashes. The unmoving eyes on the billboard look down on the Valley of Ashes and see all the immorality and garbage of the times. By the end of the novel you may have realised that this symbolises that God is dead.

Handy Summary!

Ch Characters Chapter Title1

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The Great Gatsby: Chapter 1Nick Carraway introduces himself as the narrator. Nick establishes his reason for recording events. He establishes setting – East Coast/Summer/1922. He asserts the qualities he has for recording the story yet contradicts himself. His style of prose is both lyrical, dense but also efficient. He Establishes his own family background. We meet some of the main protagonists. He alludes to Gatsby but we do not meet him directly, thereby maintaining a sense of an enigma. Importantly, he reveals that he has returned to the West in order to process the events of this summer.

Nick Carraway – Discussion Questions

1) Having read the first few paragraphs of the novel, what do you know about Nick’s personality?

2) According to Nick, what was a particularly unusual aspect of Gatsby’s character, given the pessimism of the time? Include the quotation.

3) At the start of the novel Nick’s father reminds him that not everyone has had his advantages. Describe Nick, list his advantages, and detail the facts you know about him.

4) Do you consider Nick to be a “good” narrator? Justify your response.

First Impressions of Characters

Your task is to record quotations, ideas, impressions and opinions of the characters we meet in Chapter 1

Draw a body on your page.

Write the character’s name at the top of the paper and begin finding details to add to your character.

Head = what you think about that character, first impressions, justifications from the text, words used to describe their personality.

Mouth = speech bubbles, important quotations from that character.

Heart = important relationships the character has, quotations which highlight this.

Around the body = additional information, quotations you wish to add.

Setting

Chapter one introduces the reader to the two main settings: West Egg and East Egg. These settings are very important as they help to establish the characters and also link in with the main themes of the novel. They are also symbolic of different class systems in America (the supposedly classless society)

Task

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Find two quotes which describe each Egg and explain what they tell you about the setting.

Explain what these two settings symbolise in terms of class and The American Dream.

The Great Gatsby – Chapter 2The reader is introduced to a third setting – The Valley of Ashes. This shows a darker side to the American Dream and demonstrates what happens if you work hard but don’t achieve what you want. We meet George and Myrtle Wilson, the only impoverished characters in the novel and they live in the Valley of Ashes. We find out that Tom and Myrtle are having an affair and Myrtle has aspirations to leave the ash pit. She sees Tom as her ticket out and does not accept that there is no chance of a permanent relationship between the two. There are clear contrasts between Daisy and Myrtle. The story then moves to another setting – Manhattan, New York. Tom, Nick, Myrtle and other people throw a small party and we see a darker side to Tom’s character as he punches Myrtle when she insults Daisy. The theme of artifice and reality is explored in this chapter.

Setting: The Valley of the Ashes

ASH – Think about:The connotation of this wordWhat this tells you about the settingThe type of people who live thereThe lives they lead

Symbolism: The Eyes of TJ Eckleberg

In groups, discuss what these giant eyes could symbolise. Think about: Their setting overlooking the Valley of Ashes The importance of advertising in society Lack of vision

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LACK OF COLOUR AND DEFINITION – Think about:

Symbol of God?Character: George and Myrtle

Myrtle represents the idea of escape in the novel, but like other characters, her dream is false and filled with illusion. Both she and her ghost-like husband are locked to the Valley of the Ashes by the very nature of their impoverishment. Thus, the yellowness of their home could also suggest decay and atrophy.

Identify the three stages of Myrtle’s transformation. These are directly related to her setting and her clothes.

Find quotes which show this transformation of character and remember to fully analyse what this represents about her character.

Theme: Artifice and Reality

The idea of falseness rings throughout this chapter Find as many examples of falseness in the novel and explain what they tell you

about the characters and Fitzgerald’s overall impression of this type of society.Setting: Manhattan

How is Manhattan described in stark contrast to The Valley of the Ashes? How does the change in setting mirror the change in behaviour?

The Great Gatsby – Chapter ThreeA large party is staged at Gatsby’s mansion and Nick describes his opulent and

ostentatious lifestyle. Nick meets Jordan Baker there and notes that lurid speculation concerning Gatsby’s past is rife and finally meets the man himself.

The evening ends with a car accident outside the house.

Gatsby’s Party

This chapter accurately summarises the decadent, wasteful hedonism of the Jazz Age. Gatsby’s parties are shown to the ‘theatrical’; affairs, attended by uninvited and rowdy parasites. The host himself is aloof, even separate, from his guest.

Re-read the first 2/3 pages of the chapter and discuss the nature of these parties. What impression is Fitzgerald trying to create about the parties and the people who attend them? Make Notes on:

How the guests are described The use of the colour yellow The waste

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Gatsby himselfCharacter: Jay Gatsby

Make notes and find quotes which show

Gatsby’s Entrance Gatsby’s Smile Gatsby Rumours Gatsby’s Parties

Gatsby and the major Themes

Illusion vs. Reality

Gatsby looks like he belongs to the elite but in reality his attempts are gauche and unconvincing to anyone but him. This social naivety is emphasised throughout the novel.Old World vs. new World

While Gatsby belongs to West Egg – he goes to enormous lengths to show his alliance with the old world: house modelled on French Hotel de Ville; car is a Rolls Royce which is typically old world; library is old world/European Gothic style and ‘Old Sport’ which is a typical anglophile phrase.

Character: Jordan

Jordan Baker plays a bigger role in this chapter and we find out more information about her through Nick’s eyes.Find quotes which describe Jordan and Nick’s opinion of her from the last few pages of the chapter.

The Great Gatsby Chapter 3

The ‘parasitic’ quality of the partygoers

‘… men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars…”

The moth image symbolises the guests moving towards Gatsby’s ‘light’. Although the imagery here seems delicately positive (whisperings, champagne and stars), Fitzgerald urges us in this chapter to peer beneath the false veneer, the guest are ultimately shown to be buzzing flies drawn to the detritus of Gatsby’s backyard:

People were not invited – they went there… and after that they conducted themselves according to the rules of behaviour associated with an amusement park.

This is symptomatic of the artificial ‘rush’ required by these people in order for them to enjoy life: like those waiting in line at a roller coaster, they breathlessly anticipate the ‘game’ of social interaction and its attendant levels of hilarity and hysteria. They trash Gatsby’s backyard, endlessly consuming and regurgitating food, drink and opportunities for mindless and empty conversation.

The Colour Yellow

The symbolism extends to Gatsby’s station wagon ‘scampering like a brisk yellow music’ to meet his various guests from their trains; to the ‘yellow cocktail music’ which plays as the earth, significantly, ‘lurches away from the sun’; to Jordan Baker’s ‘golden arm’ and to the twins in yellow dresses who indulge in drunken behaviour and gossip fiercely about their host.

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Each of these props in the scene, on some level, are false: Gatsby’s car fetches guests who don’t care for him; the yellow music is brassy, and eventually reaches a hysterical pitch; Jordan’s arm is symbolic of her golden allure, which hides her deceit and spiritual vacuity; the twins are the visual epitome of the careless excess displayed by the partygoers at large.

Waste

Since Gatsby is interested in presenting pure theatre for his guest, no expense is spared. Nick details the trails of food, drink and décor processed on the weekends of these parties, subtly documenting the wastefulness on show:Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruitier in New York – every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves.The process of consumerism – and its corrupting effect - is clearly shown here. The crowd at the party is again portrayed as a relentless machine which devour everything. The piles of fruit peel therefore come to represent more than mere rubbish heaps – they stand for waste and greed.

Gatsby

The reader is finally introduced to Gatsby in this chapter and this delay reinforces his mysterious and enigmatic qualities. Even when he first appears, Gatsby is unassuming and detached from the party which is in stark contrast to the behaviour of his partygoers.

Gatsby’s Entrance

An important authorial technique in heightening climax is delay. Fitzgerald delays Nick’s meeting with Gatsby until this chapter, although our interest is aroused when Nick first sees him, especially when his behaviour is so odd.

These points all contribute to the climax of the eventual meeting.

Instead of making some ceremonial entrance, Gatsby stumbles to Nick’s attention almost by accident. This is key to understanding Gatsby’s relationship with his guests – they do not now what he looks like, and he is easily overlooked.

The language used by Nick are very complimentary and warm which is bound to have an effect on us, the reader, so we begin to like him just as Nick does.

Gatsby’s Smile

His smile proves immediately enigmatic, and seems to symbolise the man himself:

It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it … it faced - or seemed to face – the whole eternal world for an instant … it understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would to believe in yourself and reassured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished.

This smile reflects Gatsby’s passion for hope. It follows a path toward something full of promise, then it… just… stops… We are therefore given some very early clues about Gatsby's association with the conflict between fantasy and reality. We don’t know yet how much of him is real. He certainly keeps apart from the other guests – and this proves to be a point in his favour, from what we have learned in the first 3 chapters – he doesn't drink, he is excessively kind and makes a clear attempt to befriend Nick, who we can clearly establish as being a reliable and ‘solid’ character.

But something just doesn’t ring true. Why is he doing this for the parasitic guests? Why does he waste money on these orgies of self indulgence? Why does he use affections such as ‘old sport’ in his speech? Why does his smile promise so much yet deliver so little?

Gatsby Rumours

The mysterious and elusiveness of Gatsby is heightened by the ridiculous rumour mill surrounding him.

‘I don’t think it’s so much of that,’ argued Lucille sceptically; ‘it’s more that he was a German spy during the war.’

‘You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody’s looking at him. I’ll bet he killed a man.’

Gatsby’s Parties

During the parties, Gatsby removes himself from the action. His sobriety and detachment is in stark contrast to his guests.

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This party introduces him as the showman with the Vaudeville moniker ‘The Great Gatsby’ which alludes to the tremendous attention to detail he has.

The sole purpose of these parties are to attract Daisy which emphasises his strength of desire for her.

They are overtly lavish and ostentatious which symbolises the materialism and conspicuous consumption prevalent at this time.

Gatsby and the Owl Eyed Man

The Owl Eyed man represents the inherent blindness and lack of vision prevalent in society at that time.

Ironically he is one of the few who attend Gatsby's funeral.

He is not impressed by the library per se – but rather Gatsby’s attention to detail.

The Symbol of the Car

The automobile was a fairy recent invention and therefore a rare commodity in 1922, but it features very strongly both as an aspect of the narrative and as a symbol throughout the novel.

The car that is crashed by a drunk driver at the end of the chapter symbolises the potentially destructive effects of industrialisation and mass consumerism. The invention of the car has progressively caused a road safety hazard in the twentieth century that was effectively non-existent in previous time. Fitzgerald is asking whether the price we pay for these dangerous commodities of convenience is too high.

Jordan Baker

Jordan asserts that she does not need to take care when driving because other people will take care on her behalf. When asked by Nick what she will do if another bad driver were to encounter her on the road, she says: ‘I hope I never will. I hate careless people. That’s why I like you’.

The irony of this is not lost on the reader or Nick, who reflects at the the end of the chapter that she is ‘one of the few honest people I have ever known’.

“I hate careless people… That’s why I like you” – an admission that she is one of those “careless people”.

Gatsby reveals “the most amazing thing” to her – again reinforces his mystery.

“for a moment I thought I loved her” – emphasises the fleeting and insubstantial nature of love. These feelings cannot always be relied upon.

“She was incurably dishonest” – also linked to the theme of illusion vs. reality as we expect sportspeople to behave with integrity and honesty.

The Great Gatsby – Chapter FourGatsby visits Nick’s house for the first time, and talks of his wartime experience. They

travel into the city, where Gatsby introduces Nick to Meyer Wolfsheim. Later, Jordan tells Nick about Daisy’s past, her brief love affair with Gatsby, and her

subsequent marriage to Tom.

Symbol – Gatsby’s car

We have already discussed the symbolism related to cars in previous chapters but today we will focus on Gatsby’s. A potent symbol throughout the entire novel, the care is shown to be both an indicator of status and a harbinger of doom.

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As a group, find three quotes which describe his car from the opening pages of chapter 4 and explain what you think it symbolises.

Character: Gatsby and Nick

Look over the conversation Nick and Gatsby have in the car on the way to New York.

What do we learn about Gatsby’s character and how Nick feels about him. Think about:

• Gatsby's restlessness

• His attitude towards all his objects

• The information (lies?) he tells Nick about his life

• Quotes which describe the way he says those ‘facts’

• Whether Nick believes him or not

You must refer closely to the text and provide quotations and analysis.

Character: Meyer Wolfsheim

Disucss the importance of this character and why he is introduced to the novel. Think about:

• What he reveals about Gatsby

• Your own impressions of this character

• How he is described

• His purpose and role

Narrative Deviation

At this point, Nick re-tells the story of Gatsby and Daisy’s love affair from Jordan’s point of view. He relates her words as if they were exactly as he remembers them of the October in 1917.

Does this effect the reliability of Nick’s narrative style? Can Jordan be trusted to tell the truth? She has already been shown as a liar – do we feel comfortable hearing the story

from her perspective?

The Great Gatsby – Chapter Five13

Nick organises a meeting at his house between Gatsby and DaisyAlone with Nick, Gatsby discloses that the money which bought his mansion was made in just three yearsGatsby gives them a guided tour of his house, displaying his possessions, especially his expensive, imported clothesNick muses on the nature of Gatsby's desire for this woman, and remarks on the intensity of their relationship, eventually he leaves them alone

Gatsby’s Blazing House

Gatsby leaves all the lights on in his house, even when there are no partygoers to admire it.

THINK – about why he does this, what is the point?

PAIR– discuss your ideas with your partner.

SHARE – as a group, create a list of reasons which would explain this ‘blazing’ house.

Gatsby and Daisy are reunited…

It rains throughout chapter 5 (and throughout chapter 8). The connections between these two chapters become clearer towards the end of the novel.

Rain is a striking metaphor for spiritual release and this chapter is full of examples of this.

Task: Depending on your number, you will either be working on:

Identifying when it rains in this chapter and how this connects to Gatsby’s feelings at that time.

OR

Describing the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy and how it develops in this chapter. Development

You should now all be able to chart the change and development of Gatsby’s feelings towards Daisy but now we will focus on his anti-climatic feelings for Daisy at the end of the chapter.

In groups, write a detailed description of how Gatsby feels about Daisy at the end of this chapter. Refer to key quotations and remember to give your own opinions.

Symbol: The Clock

Gatsby himself is referred to as an ‘over wound clock’ in this chapter, which ties him perceptibly to the idea of the passing of time. When he enters Nick’s

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house, he behaves very like a wooden stiff actor, full of unrealistic gesture and poses

‘in a strained counterfeit of perfect ease… his head leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock, and from this position his distraught eyes stared down..’

The deliberate use of negative adjectives to describe these clocks – ‘defunct’ and ‘over wound’ – reinforce the idea that Gatsby has a skewed and unrealistic idea of time itself. For him, time must have stopped and rewound to the point where he lost Daisy to Tom Buchanan.

Practice Exam Question: How Does Fitzgerald tell the story in Chapter 5?

How is the story told?

Narrative perspective/voices: first person narrator, self-conscious story teller and author, voices of Gatsby and Daisy, etc

Setting: Nick’s house, Gatsby’s mansion. Importance of the stage management by Gatsby, the mansion not a home but an elaborate prop, etc

20th century tragedy, a novel about writing a novel, a love story, etc Centrepiece of the whole novel: the meeting between Gatsby and Daisy; begins with a description

of Nick’s arrival home at night and his telling Gatsby that Daisy is to come to tea the following day, leads to Gatsby’s meticulous preparations, Daisy’s arrival and the romantic encounter; finally Nick leaves the lovers alone, and reflects on whether or not Daisy tumbled short of Gatsby’s dreams,

chronological story but told retrospectively, use of page breaks, etc Poetic prose, descriptive detail, sensual description, use of colour (especially green) and musical

imagery, time references, dialogue, repetition, references to the past, reference to Adam, rain as a release etc.

The Great Gatsby – Chapter Six

A reporter calls at Gatsby's home in attempt to learn more abut him. This visit was fuelled by Gatsby’s status as a sort of celebrity. He asks questions about many of the myths surrounding Gatsby, but Nick gives us the truest account of Gatsby's life.

He was born James Gatz in North Dakota. His parents were poor farm people and to escape the blandness of his existence, Gatsby created a fantasy world. Part of this

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fantasy included the name Jay Gatsby. As a young man he worked along the shore of Lake Superior doing odd jobs. He tried a small college for a couple of weeks but quickly grew restless and went back to the shore. While walking the shoreline he spots a yacht owned by the wealthy Dan Cody. He warns Cody that he might have sailing troubles. Cody takes Gatsby under his wing. When Cody died Gatsby was supposed to receive a large portion of his fortune but was tricked out of it. However, Gatsby had created a persona and found something that he wanted to achieve at all costs.

After an absence of several weeks due to work, Nick goes over to see Gatsby one Sunday afternoon. While there, Tom Buchanan and two others arrive on horseback. Gatsby tries his hardest to be hospitable to the trio. They make an attempt to invite Gatsby with them somewhere but when he goes to get ready, they leave without him.

Tom and Daisy attend Gatsby’s next party. Tom immediately dislikes the party and begins to question how Gatsby came into so much money. Daisy also seems to be unhappy at the party - which concerns Gatsby. He tells Nick that he will make things right with her and they will be able to go back to how they once were.

After hearing this, Nick tells the reader of an evening Gatsby and Daisy spent together in their youth. The moment was so perfect and beautiful to Gatsby that he has spent all of his time trying to recreate that moment. It is this recreation that he believes will make him happy.

Social Class

Like so many who sought and achieved the American Dream during the Roaring Twenties, Gatsby is a self-made man. He literally created himself, even changing his name in order to become a “success.” Gatsby’s story is not as unique as all the rumors about him suggest. Instead, he represents a typical member of the rags-to-riches “new money” class

Old Money, New Money

The conflict between Gatsby and Tom, new money and old money, continues to build. Here, Gatsby fails to understand the “old money” behavior of insincere politeness; he mistakes it for actual politeness. “Old Money” hides its cruelty, and calls it good manners.

Nick has clearly come to sympathize with Gatsby against Tom. Tom’s disdain for the party is to be expected. But that Daisy has a bad time suggests that Gatsby might not so easily be able to recreate their love. There may be too many obstacles

Nick recalls a memory that Gatsby once shared with him about the first time Gatsby kissed Daisy. Nick calls Gatsby’s sentimentality about history “appalling”

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and reflects that in that kiss Gatsby’s dreams of success focused solely on Daisy. She became an idealized dream for Gatsby and the center of his life.

Nick calls Gatsby’s sentimentality appalling because it has made Daisy into a symbol of perfection, an idealized vision to which Gatsby has sacrificed his identity

Transformations

Gatsby has transformed himself from humble mid-western boy to an East Coast celebrity

Also transformed Daisy, within his own imagination, from a Southern girl to an ideal of radiant life and beauty.

Look for references towards magic and enchantment and how ‘The Great Gatsby’ is an accomplished magician

Perception and artifice

Dan Cody, Gatsby’s mentor, transformed himself into a millionaire, but underneath the veneer of material success he remained ‘the pioneer debauchee, who during one phase of American life brought back to the Eastern seaboard the savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon.’

Deflating idealised version of pioneer life, characterised by heroism and high-mindedness

The Great Gatsby – Chapter SevenCuriosity surrounding Gatsby peaks as his Saturday parties come to an abrupt end.Daisy, Gatsby, Nick, Jordan, and Tom all have lunch togetherTom leaves the room to speak to his mistress and Daisy boldly kisses GatsbyThe group head to the cityTom has been suspicious of Gatsby all along and has had him investigatedAt the gas station they find Wilson visibly unwell and he tells them him and Myrtle will be heading West as he has learnt of her secret life Tom, doubly enraged at the potential loss of his mistress and his wife, malevolently questions Gatsby after the group assembles at the Plaza Hotel. He confronts Gatsby about his love for Daisy. Gatsby, refusing to be intimidated, tells Tom "Your wife doesn't love you . . . She's never loved you. She loves me." Tom, in disbelief, turns to Daisy for confirmation. Daisy, however, cannot honestly admit she never loved Tom. Gatsby, somewhat shaken by the scene unfolding before him — the collapse of his carefully constructed dream — tries another

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tactic. He declares: "Daisy's leaving you." Tom assures him Daisy will never leave him for a bootlegger. Tom orders Daisy and Gatsby to head home (in Gatsby's own car this time). Tom, Jordan, and Nick follow in Tom's car. The narration now skips to George Wilson who has been found ill by his neighbour, Michaelis. Wilson explains he has Myrtle locked inside and she will remain so until they leave in two day's time. Michaelis, astonished, heads back to his restaurant. He returns a few hours later, hears Myrtle's voice, and then sees her break away from her husband and rush into the road. As she enters the highway Myrtle is struck by a passing car that fails to stop, continuing its route out of the city. Nick, Tom, and Jordan arrive on the scene shortly. Excited by the thought of something going on, Tom pulls over to investigate. He is grief-stricken to find Myrtle's lifeless body lying on a worktable. Tom learns the car that struck Myrtle matches Gatsby's in description. Tom, visibly upset by the day's events, can only whimper of his anger toward the man he already hates. Returning to East Egg, Tom invites Nick inside to wait for a cab to take him home. Nick, seeing clearly the moral and spiritual corruption of Tom, Daisy, and the whole society they represent, declines. Outside the Buchannans', Nick bumps into Gatsby who asks if there was trouble on the road. Nick recounts what he has seen. After asking a few questions, Nick learns Daisy, not Gatsby, was driving at the time. Gatsby, however, in true chivalric fashion, says he'll take the blame. The chapter ends with Gatsby, the paragon of chivalry and lost dreams, remaining on vigil outside Daisy's house, in case she needs assistance dealing with Tom, while Nick heads back to West Egg.

Structure: Climax• Everything The Great Gatsby has been building toward intersects in this very

important chapter. All of the paths, once loosely related at best, now converge — forcefully and fatally. The turbulence of Chapter 7 gives clear indications of what Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and even Nick are about.

• Unfortunately, for three of the four, the revelations are complementary. As the weather of the novel becomes increasingly hotter and more oppressive, Fitzgerald finally gets to the heart of the love triangle between Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom, but lets it speak poorly of all the participants. Nick, alone, comes out of this chapter looking stronger. Like all the other characters, he has been tested in this chapter, but much to his credit, he grows and develops in a positive way.

Character: Gatsby• By chapter's end, Gatsby has been fully exposed. Gone are the mysterious

rumours and the self-made myth. Stripped of all his illusions, he stands outside Daisy's house, vulnerable and tragically alone.

• Although he begins the chapter with his customary Gatsby dignity, when he comes up against Tom's hardness, the illusion of Jay Gatsby comes tumbling

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down. In all of Gatsby's years of dreaming, he never once suspected that he might not have his way (as is the nature of dreaming; one never dreams of having people stand in the way, preventing fantasies from coming true).

• As soon as Gatsby has to contend with people whose parts he can't script, he's at a loss. Instead, he will try, at all costs, to hold on to his dream. It is, in a sense, the only thing that is real to him. Without it (sadly), he is no longer able to define himself; therefore, the dream must be maintained at all costs (even when the dream has past its prime).

• The best example of Gatsby's last-chance efforts to save his dream come after he tries to get Daisy to admit she never loved Tom. When she admits to having actually loved Tom, Gatsby, unwilling to give up, pushes the situation forward, abruptly telling Tom "Daisy's leaving you." Tom laughs off this declaration, dismissing the whole party and ordering Daisy and Gatsby to head back in Gatsby's car. By following Tom's command, the lovers, in effect, admit defeat and Gatsby's dream disintegrates.

Character: Daisy• In addition to getting the real scoop on Gatsby, we also see the real Daisy. • She has relatively few lines, but what she utters, and later what she does,

changes her persona forever. • Whereas in the previous chapters she has come off as shy and sweet, a little

vapid, but decidedly charming, here, there is a bit more depth to her — but what lies beneath the surface isn't necessarily good.

• Daisy's reasons for having an affair with Gatsby aren't at all the same reasons he is in love with her. By boldly kissing Gatsby when Tom leaves the room early in Chapter 7, then declaring "You know I love you" loudly enough for all to hear (much to Jordan and Nick's discomfiture) Daisy has, in effect, shown that to her, loving Gatsby is a game whose sole purpose is to try and get back at Tom. She's playing the games on her own terms, trying to prove something to her husband (her response to Tom's rough questioning later at the hotel also supports this idea).

Setting• The other early vision of Daisy is of the peacekeeper (although one wonders

why she would want Tom and Gatsby both at the same outing). On the hot summer day, it is Daisy who suggests they move the party to town (largely in an attempt to keep everyone happy).

• Strange things, however, always happen in the city — in the land of infinite possibilities. By changing the location, the action also shifts.

• As the chapter continues and the party moves to the neutral, yet magical, land of the city, the real Daisy begins to emerge, culminating in her fateful refusal to be part of Gatsby's vision.

• In a sense, she betrays him, leaving him to flounder helplessly against Tom's spite and anger. Finally, by the end of the chapter, the mask of innocence has

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come off and Daisy is exposed. Her recklessness has resulted in Myrtle's brutal death.

• To make matters worse, one even senses that Daisy, in fact, tried to kill Myrtle. Gatsby has a hard time admitting that the object of his love has, in fact, not merely hit and killed another person, but has fled the scene as well.

Theme: Materialism• Myrtle's death by Gatsby's great car is certainly no accident. • The details are sketchy, but in having Myrtle run down by Gatsby's roadster,

Fitzgerald is sending a clear message. Gatsby's car, the "death car," assumes a symbolic significance as a clear and obvious manifestation of American materialism.

• What more obvious way to put one's wealth and means on display than through the biggest, fanciest car around. Yes, it is tragic that Myrtle dies so brutally, but her death takes on greater meaning when one realizes that it is materialism that brought about her end.

• Looking back to Chapter 2, it is clear that Myrtle aspires to wealth and privilege. She wants all the material comforts money can provide — and isn't at all above lording her wealth over others (such as her sister, or Nick, or the McKees).

• Her desire for money (which allows access to all things material) led her to have an affair with Tom (she got involved with him initially because of the fashionable way he was dressed).

• Myrtle's death is sadly poetic; a woman who spent her life acquiring material possessions by whatever means possible, has been, in effect, killed by her own desires. Dwelling too much on material things, Fitzgerald says, can not bring a positive resolution.

• Materialism can only bring misery, as seen through Myrtle.

The Great Gatsby – Chapter EightNick wakes as Chapter 8 opens, hearing Gatsby return home from his all-night vigil at the Buchannans. Gatsby reveals that nothing happened while he kept his watch. Nick suggests Gatsby leave town for a while, certain Gatsby's car would be identified as the "death car."

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Nick's comments make Gatsby reveal the story of his past, "because 'Jay Gatsby' had broken up like glass against Tom's hard malice." Daisy, Gatsby reveals, was his social superior, yet they fell deeply in love. The reader also learns that, when courting, Daisy and Gatsby had been intimate with each other and it was this act of intimacy that bonded him to her inexorably, feeling "married to her." Gatsby left Daisy, heading off to war. He excelled in battle and when the war was over, he tried to get home, but ended up at Oxford instead. Daisy didn't understand why he didn't return directly and, over time, her interest began to wain until she eventually broke off their relationship.

Tragedy and the American Dream

Gatsby’s death is brutal, if not unexpected, and brings to an end the life of the paragon of idealism.

The myth of Gatsby will continue, thanks to Nick who relays the story, but Gatsby's death loudly marks the end of an era.

In many senses, Gatsby is the dreamer inside all of everyone. Although the reader cheers him as he pursues his dreams, one also knows that

pure idealism cannot survive in the harsh modern world. This chapter, as well as the one following, also provides astute commentary on

the world that, in effect, allowed the death of Gatsby.

Character: Nick

As the story opens, Nick is struggling with the situation at hand. He grapples with what's right and what's wrong, which humanises him and lifts him above the rigid callousness of the story's other characters.

Unable to sleep (a premonition of bad things to come) he heads to Gatsby's who is returning from his all-night vigil outside Daisy's house. Nick, always a bit more level-headed and sensitive to the world around him than the other characters, senses something large is about to happen.

As the men search Gatsby's house for cigarettes, the reader leans more about both Nick and Gatsby. Nick moves further and further from the background to emerge as a forceful presence in the novel, showing genuine care and concern for Gatsby, urging him to leave the city for his own protection. Throughout the chapter, Nick is continually pulled toward his friend, anxious for reasons he can't exactly articulate. Whereas Nick shows his true mettle in a flattering light in this chapter, Gatsby doesn't fare as well. He becomes weaker and more helpless, despondent in the loss of his dream. It is as if he refuses to admit that the story hasn't turned out as he intended. He refuses to acknowledge that the illusion that buoyed him for so many years has vanished, leaving him hollow and essentially empty. Specimen

Gatsby’s love for Daisy

Find examples in the text of the following:21

Nick identifies Daisy’s aura of wealth and privilege—her many clothes, perfect house, lack of fear or worry—as a central component of Gatsby’s attraction to her.

The reader has already seen that Gatsby idolizes both wealth and Daisy. Now it becomes clear that the two are intertwined in Gatsby’s mind.

Nick implicitly suggests that by making the shallow, fickle Daisy the focus of his life, Gatsby surrenders his extraordinary power of visionary hope to the simple task of amassing wealth.

Gatsby’s dream is reduced to a motivation for material gain because the object of his dream is unworthy of his power of dreaming, the quality that makes him “great” in the first place.

SymbolsHow are the following symbols used in this chapter:

Weather and Time Symbols of Wealth The Eyes of TJ Eckleburg

The Great Gatsby – Chapter Nine

The Great Gatsby and The American Dream

Themes

Gatsby’s relationships with others

The communities of East & West Egg

New York Society

The new-found Consumerism of the 1920s

Chapter 4As Gatsby and Nick approach New York City, Nick seems to allude to the American Dream.

Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving

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cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of nonolfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in itsfirst wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.…

“Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge, “I thought; “anything at all.…”

Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder.

What does this passage suggest to you about the American Dream? List the ideas.

Chapters 7,8,9

• In Chapter 8, Nick explains more about Gatsby’s love for Daisy. He states:

…he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail….Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.

• In Chapter 7, another connection is made between Daisy and wealth. Gatsby states that Daisy’s voice is “full of money.” Nick elaborates on Gatsby’s point by telling the reader:

That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it.…High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl….

• Nick concludes the novel by drawing the parallel between Gatsby’s dream of Daisy and wealth and the American Dream. Reread the last four paragraphs of the novel.

Using your Chapter 4 notes on the “American Dream,” complete the following chart on Fitzgerald’s ideas about it.”

Fitzgerald’s ideas of The ‘American Dream’

Aspects of the Dream

Positive Evidence Related to this in Society

Negative Evidence of Related to this in society

Outcomes for our Society

Materialism Prosperity Greed: people valued according to what they have

People lose focus on what is important

Self-Reliance and Individualism

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Energy

Achievement

Structure and Narration in The Great Gatsby

Introduction

The Great Gatsby is the third novel of Fitzgerald, published in 1925 after This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and the Damned (1922). It is a turning point in Fitzgerald literary career because it was to improve on his previous works : he tested new techniques and insisted on the novelty of his enterprise : ‘I want to write something new, something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and ‘intricately patterned” (letter to Perkins, agent at Scribners). Indeed, Fitzgerald devoted a lot of care and attention to pruning unnecessary passages and tried to introduce editing methods (just like a film-maker) to re-arrange his story in movie sequences.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s main innovation was to introduce a first person narrator and protagonist whose consciousness filters the story’s events. This device was not a total invention since a character through whose eyes and mind the central protagonist is discovered is to be found in two of Conrad’s books : Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim. As usual with this device, the main protagonist remains strange and shady. This technique reinforces the mystery of the characters. The second advantage is that the mediation of a character-witness permits a play between the real and the imaginary. This indirect approach is inherited from Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hence, it is difficult to distinguish between true representation and fantasizing. For Emerson, vision was more important than the real world.

I. Nick’s vision : the ‘modified’ first person technique

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The story is narrated through a ‘modified’ first person viewpoint :

it is not the main protagonist (Gatsby) who recounts his own story but a secondary character, Nick Carraway, who is successively suspicious, wary and eventually fascinated by Gatsby. Nick is not trustworthy, not fully reliable : he oscillates.

whenever Nick cannot obtain a first hand version of facts, he does not hesitate to quote other sources. For instance, Gatsby’s love affair is told by Jordan Baker (chap.4 p80). Nick reports her words but the problem is that she is said to be a liar : how far can she be trusted ?

Nick is obliged to reconstruct an event through the collage of different testimonies. Nick uses his logical mind to come up with a definitive story, result of words that have been filtered by different minds.

That is why this first person viewpoint is modified : Nick can only rely on what he has been told.

II. Nick Carraway : a privileged witness

Nick is not a random choice, it is very well calculated. He was the best possible witness to let the reader discover Gatsby. Indeed, through coincidence, he happens to be Gatsby’s next-door neighbor (p11). Besides, Nick has not vested interest in hobnobbing Gatsby. He has no axe to grind. Yet, without being acquainted with Gatsby, Nick is nonetheless a relative of Daisy and consequently introduced to the Buchanans and to Gatsby’s story.

A. An eye-witness account

Nick witnesses some of the events of Gatsby’s last summer and sometimes participates in them. He has two functions : seeing and acting. The emphasis is put on visual perception. The act of seeing creates mystery instead of providing information. A lot about Gatsby’s life is bound to remain unfathomable : there is more in Gatsby’s life than Nick’s eyes can meet. Nick’s scope of vision is limited. Yet, Nick is a good observer and can draw his own conclusions. He can analyze Gatsby’s facial expressions and put a meaning on his gestures. See chapter 5 with the re-union between Gatsby and Daisy. He is sometimes over-informed. When Gatsby dashes into the kitchen, Nick is made privy of his companion’s feelings. Through Nick’s agency, the reader is provided with the real feelings of Gatsby : ‘this is a terrible mistake‘. This tends to suggest that Fitzgerald tried to favor the sentimental dimension of his character at the expense of his ‘business’.

B. The accounts of other people

Nick picks up most information about Gatsby and Daisy through other people’s accounts -mainly gossip and public rumors. The accounts repeated may be unreliable and called into question. Through the gossip of the beginning, Gatsby is almost all the time presented with a mixture of awe and dread, making of him an outsider. Nick is just echoing : ‘German spy during the war’, ‘he killed a man once’. Nick almost believes it : ‘he looked as if he had killed a man’. Nick has a varying attitude towards Gatsby. He passes on to the reader a lot of rumors which might prove later to be contradictory. Nick plays the role of the chorus in Ancient tragedy and is the link between the reader and Gatsby.

C. Nick’s reconstruction of events

Nick is a self-conscious narrator ; he is aware of the difficulties of writing a report that would approach the truth. He uses his critical judgement to form an opinion not only on the events but on himself writing these events. For instance, p62 : ‘reading over what I have written so far, I’ve given the impression that the events of three nights several weeks apart were all that absorbed me’.

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There is a sense in which the The Great Gatsby would concern Nick. Through the events of the summer of 1922 and his writing, Nick has changed. When he is involved in the action, he is a belated adolescent but he is an adult when writing back after two years. Chap7 : ‘I was 30. Before me stretched the portent menacing road of a new decade‘ (p142). In a way, he has gained knowledge, passing from innocence to the consciousness of the complexity of the world.

III. Nick Carraway : an unreliable narrator

All the characters are not depicted with the same clarity. Those described with most lucidity are those for whom Nick feels indifferent : Catherine, Myrtle Wilson and Mc Kee. In contrast, the closer the characters get to Nick and the more blurred they prove to be : Gatsby and Daisy, as if Nick was afraid to jump to conclusions concerning Gatsby. Because Nick participates vicariously in Gatsby’s adventures, he finds it difficult to come to a clear cut picture of the man.

A. Nick’s subjective account

Nick is unreliable : he has a romantic turn of mind pushing him to idealize certain characters. He is bewitched by Daisy’s voice, which he compared to a nightingale. He is in love with Daisy himself but remains aware of her selfishness and is not shocked by her carelessness.

Nick is influenced by his upbringing in the MidWest and stands for certain moral principles : ‘I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known’ (p66). He is a prig, smug and self-righteous MidWesterner. He is spineless (not very brave) and easily influenced. He is lured to the glittering false world of appearances. Nick is like all men looking for glory and high hopes (dream of making lots of money in a short while) provided they find out how it is possible. We cannot expect Nick to be totally objective -he is taken in by all those fake appearances.

B. Nick’s distorted vision

Fitzgerald’s novel emphasizes the difficulties of getting a clear picture of reality and it also underscores the impossibility of adjusting one’s eyes to obtain a faithful reflection of the ‘outside world’. From Dr Eckleburg’s gigantic spectacles on the advertisement to the Owl-Eyed man’s thick glasses, the eyesight is a recurrent motif, a metonymic allusion to the possibility of getting a distorted representation of reality.

It is often suggested that Nick is unable to get a clear picture of whatever goes on. Myrtle’s party in Chapter 3 offers a good example of the narrator’s distorted vision. There are several instances of misperceptions. First Nick does not see properly an over-enlarged photograph because lie is standing too close to it : lie sees ‘a lien sitting on a blurred rock’ but then taking a few steps backwards the sight changes into ‘a bonnet, and the countenance of a stout old lady’. The lesson could not be clearer ; namely it is indispensable for the narrator to bring the ‘outside reality’ into focus. Indeed Nick’s vision is too often distorted either because lie has overdrunk : ‘everything that happened had a dim, hazy cast over it…the whisky distorted things.’(chap2, p35) or because lie is in a dream-like state : half awake, half asleep as if sedated : ‘I think I walked into a deep sleep as I entered my front door’ (90).

Nick is also haunted by nightmarish visions. After the scene of the accident, in chapter nine he tells a fantastic dream reminiscent of a painting by El Greco (p183), which duplicates through its odd, baroque and surreal aspect the scene in chapter 3 at the end of Gatsby’s party when a car loses a wheel. (p61)

C. Nick’s own process of initiation

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Even if Gatsby is the novel’s main protagonist, the novel bears witness to the process of initiation undergone by Nick. Gatsby, after all, does not change in the course of the story, lie is and remains a static figure until the very end before being murdered when it finally dawns upon him that the Daisy lie worshipped was no more than an illusory creation. On the opposite Nick goes through different stages as lie tells the story. Nick’s viewpoint evolves and his changing outlook bestows a further dimension on the novel.

First Nick overcomes his moral prejudices and strikes up a personal relationship with Gatsby (chap. 4). He stops being a Middle West prig with too simple a notion of right and wrong. Then lie is given access to Gatsby’s past and Gatsby’s love quest ; lie is thus made alive to the power of illusion : ‘the unreality of reality’ (p106) to give life a sense of purpose. Nick, it should not be forgotten, had up until the novel’s beginning, led an aimless existence, lie was unmotivated by his work as a bondman and used to let himself be carried along by events. In this respect his encounter with Gatsby proves a decisive step forward.

With Gatsby’s death, Nick is made aware of the barrenness and sterility of the East, of a world that is ‘material without being real’. As Gatsby’s former acquaintances each in their turn finds an excuse for not attending his funeral, Nick realizes that the spree bas ended once and for all. The show is over and the actors have made their exits. Nick’s process of initiation ends with his sudden realization that his fascination for a gleaming, dazzling East was unfounded. After Gatsby’s death there remains nothing in the East but void and emptiness: the only music and laughter that Nick can hear are imaginary, hallucinatory : ‘I spent my Saturday nights in New York because those gleaming, dazzling parties of his were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter’ (p187).

Conclusion

The introduction of a first-person narrator who reflects the main protagonist’s personality is the best way to conjure up a sense of mystery that cannot be solved. When all bas been said and done the fact is that Gatsby remains elusive, indiscernible and unfathomable. Therefore the character’s myth is never ever broken up.

Nick’s encounter with Gatsby is a decisive step in the narrator’s progress towards adulthood. Writing retrospectively this biographical fragment is for Nick one way of consolidating his adulthood. Ultimately the memory of Gatsby is the only treasured possession that Nick may bang back to his native Middle West.

(b) .The Great Gatsby is a sordid tale of deception, adultery and murder.. How do you respond to this view of the novel?

Planning

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Deception,

Gatsby’s character –

Tom and Myrtle affair – deception,

Nick’s narrativ

American Dream –

Practice Question (Jan 2009)

Section A Part a) Question. This is assessing AO2 solely.

a) Write about some of the ways Fitzgerald tells the story in Chapter 3. (21 marks)

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Murder – Myrtle /

Gatsby and Daisy’s

From your ideas here you now need to form a plan to construct an argument in response to the question.

You can take a stance either way (or balance your ideas – this will help you to evaluate).

Example plan:

1. Introduce the themes of deception, adultery and murder in the novel as a whole. Link to the context in which it

Band 1(0-3)

A02 very limited discussion of how form shapes meaningsvery limited discussion of how structure shapes meaningsvery limited discussion of how language shapes meanings

Band 2(4-6)

AO2 some awareness of how form shapes meaningssome awareness of how structure shapes meaningssome awareness of how language shapes meanings

Band 3(7-9)

A02 consideration of how form shapes meaningsconsideration of how structure shapes meaningsconsideration of how language shapes meanings

Band 4(10- 13)

AO2 consideration of how specific aspects of form shape meaningsconsideration of how specific aspects of structure shape meaningsconsideration of how specific aspects of language shape meanings

Band 5(14 – 17)

AO2 exploration of how specific aspects of form shape meaningsexploration of how specific aspects of structure shape meaningsexploration of how specific aspects of language shape meanings

Band 6(18 – 21)

AO2 exploration and analysis of key aspects of form, with perceptive evaluation of how they shape meaningsexploration and analysis of key aspects of structure with perceptive evaluation of how they shape meanings exploration and analysis of key aspects of language, with perceptive evaluation of how they shape meanings

What to include

Form: Narrative perspective / voices – Use of first person narrator (nick) – self-conscious story-teller and author.

Narrative distancing of last two pages. Use of other voices through rumours etc.

Structure: Begins with a generalised reflection of the summer parties, moves to Nick’s first party, dramatic explosion of Gatsby’s entrance, ends with focus on Nick and Jordan’s relationship. Story at this point is chronological but framed by the reflections

Language: Description of parties, how the character of Gatsby is presented. Setting: New York, Gatsby’s mansion. Poetic prose – descriptive detail, sensual description of Jordan, symbolism – car, yellow etc

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Plato and Gatsby

Read the following extracts from Plato’s “Republic”, and the definition of the Theory of Forms. How do these ideas relate to Gatsby, and how do they relate to the novel’s premises in general?

"And he who, having a sense of beautiful things has no sense of absolute beauty, or who, if another lead him to a knowledge of that beauty is unable to follow--of such an one I ask, Is he awake or in a dream only? Reflect: is not the dreamer, sleeping or waking, one who likens dissimilar things, who puts the copy in the place of the real object? I should certainly say that such a one was dreaming. But take the case of the other, who recognises the existence of absolute beauty and is able to distinguish the idea from the objects which participate in the idea, neither putting the objects in the place of the idea nor the idea in the place of the objects-- is he a dreamer, or is he awake? He is wide awake." The Republic, book V

"AND now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:--Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

I see.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall?

Some of them are talking, others silent.

You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

Yes, he said.

And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?

Very true.

And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

No question, he replied.

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

That is certain.

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And now look again, and see what will naturally follow it' the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply?

And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?

Far truer.

And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?

True.

And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he's forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated?

When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.

Not all in a moment, he said.

He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world.

And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?

Certainly.

Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.

Certainly.

He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?

Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.

And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?

Certainly, he would.

And if they were in the habit of conferring honours among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and

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which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honours and glories, or envy the possessors of them?

Would he not say with Homer,

Better to be the poor servant of a poor master,

and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?

Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.

Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?

To be sure, he said." The Republic, Book VII

Plato postulated a world of ideal Forms, which he admitted were impossible to know. Nevertheless he formulated a very specific description of that world, which did not match his metaphysical principles. Corresponding to the world of Forms is our world, that of the mimes, a corruption of the real one. This world was created by the Good according to the patterns of the Forms. Man's proper service to the Good is cooperation in the implementation of the ideal in the world of shadows; that is, in miming the Good.To this end Plato wrote Republic detailing the proper imitation of the Good, despite his admission that Justice, Beauty, Courage, Temperance, etc., cannot be known. Apparently they can be known to some degree through the copies with great difficulty and to varying degrees by persons of varying ability.

The republic is a greater imitation of Justice:

Our aim in founding the state was not the disproportional happiness of any one class, but the greatest happiness of the whole; we thought that in a state which is ordered with a view to the good of the whole we should be most likely to find justice.

STYLE: POETIC LANGUAGE

Complete the gaps in the extract below

We walked through a high hallway into a bright _____________ space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming __________ against the ___________ grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze ______ through the room, ______ curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up towards the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then _______ over the wine-coloured rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.

The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were _______ up as though upon an anchored _______. They were both in __________, and their dresses were _______ and __________ as if they had just been ______ back in after a short flight around the house.

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Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows, and the caught _______ died out about the room, and the _________ and the rugs and the two young women __________ slowly to the floor.

Use the space below to add any notes about what you notice about the extract. You could consider: the rhythm of the prose, use of recurring images and phrases, what we learn about the two main characters in the novel, how a fantastical atmosphere is evoked ..

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NASTY NICK: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNJUDGEMENTAL NARRATOR…

Nick Carraway has a special place in this novel. He is not just one character among several, it is through his eyes and ears that we form our opinions of the other characters.

Often, readers of this novel confuse Nick's stance towards those characters and the world he describes with those of F. Scott Fitzgerald's because the fictional world he has created closely resembles the world he himself experienced. But not every narrator is the voice of the author. Before considering the gap between author and narrator, we should remember how, as readers, we respond to the narrator's perspective, especially when that voice belongs to a character who, like Nick, is an active participant in the story.

When we read any work of fiction, no matter how realistic or fabulous, as readers, we undergo a suspension of disbelief. The fictional world creates a new set of boundaries, making possible or credible events and reactions that might not commonly occur in the real world, but which have logic or plausibility to them in that fictional world.

In order for this to be convincing, we trust the narrator. We take on his perspective, if not totally, then substantially. He becomes our eyes and ears in this world and we have to see him as reliable if we are to proceed with the story's development.

In The Great Gatsby, Nick goes to some length to establish his credibility, indeed his moral integrity, in telling this story about this ‘great’ man called Gatsby. He begins with a reflection on his own upbringing, quoting his father's words about Nick's ‘advantages’, which we could assume were material but, he soon makes clear, were spiritual or moral advantages.

Nick wants his reader to know that his upbringing gave him the moral fibre with which to withstand and pass judgement on an amoral world, such as the one he had observed the previous summer. He says, rather pompously, that as a consequence of such an upbringing, he is ‘inclined to reserve all judgements’ about other people, but then goes on to say that such ‘tolerance . . . has a limit’.

This is the first sign that we can trust this narrator to give us an even-handed insight to the story that is about to unfold. But, as we later learn, he neither reserves all judgements nor does his tolerance reach its limit. Nick is very partial in his way of telling the story about several characters.

He admits early into the story that he makes an exception of judging Gatsby, for whom he is prepared to suspend both the moral code of his upbringing and the limit of intolerance, because Gatsby had an ‘extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness’. This inspired him to a level of friendship and loyalty that Nick seems unprepared to extend towards others in the novel.

Nick overlooks the moral implications of Gatsby's bootlegging; his association with speakeasies, and with Meyer Wolfsheim, the man rumoured to have fixed the World Series in 1919. Yet, he is contemptuous of Jordan Baker for cheating in a mere golf game. And while he says that he is prepared to forgive this sort of behaviour in a woman: ‘It made no difference to me. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame too deeply - I was casually sorry, and then I forgot,’ it seems that he cannot accept her for being ‘incurably dishonest’ and then reflects that his one ‘cardinal virtue’ is that he is ‘one of the few honest people’ he has ever known. When it comes to judging women - or perhaps only potential lovers - not only are they judged, they are judged by how well they stand up to his own virtues.

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Nick leaves the mid-West after he returns from the war, understandably restless and at odds with the traditional, conservative values that, from his account, haven't changed in spite of the tumult of the war. It is this insularity from a changed world no longer structured by the values that had sent young men to war, that decides him to go East, to New York, and learn about bonds.

But after one summer out East, a remarkable summer for this morally advantaged young man, he ‘decided to come back home’ to the security of what is familiar and traditional. He sought a return to the safety of a place where houses were referred to by the names of families that had inhabited them for generations; a security that Nick decides makes Westerners ‘subtly unadaptable to Eastern life’. By this stage, the East had become for him the ‘grotesque’ stuff of his nightmares.

What does this return home tell us about Nick? It is entirely reasonable that he would be adversely affected by the events of that summer: the death of a woman he met briefly and indirectly, who was having an affair with his cousin's husband and whose death leads to the death of his next-door neighbour. His decision to return home to that place that he had so recently condemned for its insularity, makes one wonder what Nick was doing during the war? If the extent and the pointlessness of death and destruction during the war had left him feeling he'd outgrown the comfort and security of the West, why has the armoury he acquired from the war abandoned him after this one summer's events?

Don't we perhaps feel a little let down that Nick runs away from his experience in the East in much the same way that he has run away from that ‘tangle back home’ to whom he writes letters and signs ‘with love’, but clearly doesn't genuinely offer? Is it unfair to want more from our narrator, to show some kind of development in his emotional make-up? It is unfair to suggest that this return home is like a retreat from life and a kind of emotional regression?

The only genuine affection in the novel is shown by Nick towards Gatsby. He admires Gatsby's optimism, an attitude that is out of step with the sordidness of the times. Fitzgerald illustrates this sordidness not just in the Valley of Ashes, but right there beneath the thin veneer of the opulence represented by Daisy and Tom. Nick is ‘in love’ with Gatsby's capacity to dream and ability to live as if the dream were to come true, and it is this that clouds his judgement of Gatsby and therefore obscures our grasp on Gatsby.

When Gatsby takes Nick to one side and tells him of his origins, he starts to say that he was ‘the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West - all dead now . . .’ The truth (of his origins) doesn't matter to Gatsby; what matters to him is being part of Daisy's world or Daisy being a part of his. Gatsby's sense of what is true and real is of an entirely other order to Nick's. If he were motivated by truth, Gatsby would still be poor Jay Gatz with a hopelessly futile dream.

Recall the passage where Nick says to Gatsby that you can't repeat the past, and Gatsby's incredulity at this. Nick begins to understand for the first time the level of Gatsby's desire for a Daisy who no longer exists. It astounds Nick: ‘I gathered that he wanted to recover something . . . that had gone into loving Daisy . . . out of the corner of his eye Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalks really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees . . . Through all he said, even through his appalling sentimentality, I was reminded of something - an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words, that I had heard somewhere a long time ago . . .’

These are Nick's words. Whose ‘appalling sentimentality’ is operating here? Has Nick reported any of Gatsby's words - which comprise so little of the novel - to suggest that he would even begin to put his love for Daisy in these ‘sentimental’ terms? Is not this excess of sentiment in fact Nick's sentiment for Gatsby or perhaps Nick's attempt at displaying those ‘rather literary’ days he had in college? Or both?

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We should consider the distance that Fitzgerald has created between his presence in the story and Nick's and their implications. Fitzgerald has created a most interesting character in Nick because he is very much a fallible storyteller.

When an author unsettles an accepted convention in the art of storytelling by creating a narrator like Nick, it draws attention to the story as fiction, as artifice. Ironically, in doing this, he has created in Nick a figure who more closely resembles an average human being and thus has heightened the realism of the novel.

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WHY IS THE GREAT GATSBY LIKED BY READERS?

On one level the novel comments on the careless gaiety and moral decadence of the period. It contains innumerable references to the contemporary scene. The wild extravagance of Gatsby's parties, the shallowness and aimlessness of the guests and the hint of Gatsby's involvement in crime all identify the period and the American setting. But as a piece of social commentary The Great Gatsby also describes the failure of the American dream, from the point of view that American political ideals conflict with the actual social conditions that exist. For whereas American democracy is based on the idea of equality among people, the truth is that social discrimination still exists and the divisions among the classes cannot be overcome. Myrtle's attempt to break into the group to which the Buchanans belong is doomed to fail. Taking advantage of her vivacity, her lively nature, she seeks to escape from her own class. She enters into an affair with Tom and takes on his way of living. But she only becomes vulgar and corrupt like the rich. She scorns people from her own class and loses all sense of morality. And for all her social ambition, Myrtle never succeeds in her attempt to find a place for herself in Tom's class. When it comes to a crisis, the rich stand together against all outsiders.

Myrtle's condition, of course, is a weaker reflection of Gatsby's more significant struggle. While Myrtle's desire springs from social ambition, Gatsby's is related more to his idealism, his faith in life's possibilities. Undoubtedly, his desire is also influenced by social considerations; Daisy, who is wealthy and beautiful, represents a way of life which is remote from Gatsby's and therefore more attractive because it is out of reach. However, social consciousness is not a basic cause. It merely directs and increases Gatsby's belief in life's possibilities. Like Myrtle, Gatsby struggles to fit himself into another social group, but his attempt is more urgent because his whole faith in life is involved in it. Failure, therefore, is more terrible for him. His whole career, his confidence in himself and in life is totally shattered when he fails to win Daisy. His death when it comes is almost insignificant, for, with the collapse of his dream, Gatsby is already spiritually dead.

As social satire, The Great Gatsby is also a comment on moral decadence in modem American society. The concern here is with the corruption of values and the decline of spiritual life - a condition which is ultimately related to the American Dream. For the novel recalls the early idealism of the first settlers. Fitzgerald himself relates Gatsby's dream to that of the early Americans for, at the end of the novel, Nick recalls the former Dutch sailors and compares their sense of wonder with Gatsby's hope. The book also seems to investigate how Americans lost their spiritual purpose as material success wiped out spiritual goals. The lives of the Buchanans, therefore, filled with material comforts and luxuries, and empty of purpose, represents this condition. Daisy's lament is especially indicative of this:

'What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon?' cried Daisy, 'and the day after that, and the next thirty years?'

Fitzgerald stresses the need for hope and dreams to give meaning and purpose to man's efforts. Striving towards some ideal is the way by which man can feel a sense of involvement, a sense of his own identity. Certainly, Gatsby, with 'his extraordinary gift of hope', set against the empty existence of Tom and Daisy, seems to achieve a heroic greatness. [...] Fitzgerald goes on to state that the failure of hopes and dreams, the failure of the American Dream itself, is unavoidable, not only because reality cannot keep up with ideals, but also because the ideals are in any case usually too fantastic to be realised. The heroic presentation of Gatsby, therefore, should not be taken at face value, for we cannot overlook the fact that Gatsby is naive, impractical and over-sentimental. It is this which makes him attempt the impossible, to repeat the past. There is something pitiful and absurd about the way he refuses to grow up.

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NOTES ON STYLE: FANTASTIC AND REALISTIC

Particularly noted where commentary and conversation are mixed.

Dialogue is often realistic and records the banal everyday conversations that do take place.

Contrasted with Nick’s often complex and poetic commentary.

Myrtle Wilson’s town apartment: example. page 33. From: ‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman…Myrtle pulled her chair close to mine…’

Fitzgerald manages to place the fantastic and the bizarre next to the real and mundane. Valley of Ashes another example.

Lack of separation between the dream world and real world points towards a major theme of the text and Gatsby’s inability to divorce the two.

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