English Exam - Great Gatsby

Epigraph

quote that begins the novel

Sets a tone

introduces the novel (alludes to plot; set up a theme)

Exposition

Sets up the novel introduces characters and start of the arc

Plot arc

sequence of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution in a narrative

Rising action

the series of conflicts or struggles that build a story toward a climax.

Climax

Most exciting moment of the story; turning point

Resolution

End of the story where loose ends are tied up

Nick Carraway

Narrator, Daisy's second cousin, Tom's college friend, Jordan's love interest, and Gatsby's neighbor Wealthy, Raised to not be judgy but is not always successful, Looking back on the past summer of 1922

Is he a relatable narrator

Tone: authoritative

Retrospective narration - looking at the past

East Eggs

In Manhattan NY

Old money, historical; not showy, elitist; inherited wealth

Money talks and wealth whispers

The Buchanans (Tom and Daisy) and Jordan Baker live there

West Egg

New money; Gatsby and Nick live here

Valley of Ashes

Industrial wasteland, Trash burning dump between West Egg, East Egg, and Manhattan

Working poor class, People are described as ash/ghost-like, Ash is dead remnants of fire and Death

Nick calls it a fantastic farm

Grows things meant to be productive

Shows that things that are living are really dead

Sounds like factory produced

Sameness they are all the same and nothing with never change

And is used a lot only adding things

Shows that the people who are living there are barely getting by, working mindlessly, crawling, swarming, dehumanization, have no personal identity, expressed as a collective

Satirical critique of the American Dream

George and Myrtle are two different sides of the american dream

His fire has been put out and hers is smoldering

People have less life than the place their living

George Wilson

Myrtle's husband, the lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop at the edge of the valley of ashes. George loves and idealizes Myrtle, and is devastated by her affair with Tom. George is consumed with grief when Myrtle is killed. George is comparable to Gatsby in that both are dreamers and both are ruined by their unrequited love for women who love Tom.

Spiritless, lack of energy

Lap dog, thoughtless, obedient

Foil to Myrtle

Desperate for tom because he is going to get out of the valley

Myrtle

fiery, Sexy, Velompituous

Called smoudering which are ashes that are about to go out

Attaching herself to tom because he is her way out

Nick puts all his attention to her body

Foil to daisy who is described by her face and voice

Nick misogynistic of women

Puts women in boxes

"Men and girls"

Men: people who Gatsby wanted to do business with

Girls: mistresses, single women, second wife that is much younger than them

Nick sees her and Tom as bodies which shows his obsession with physicality

Shows his insecurity

Dr. T.J. Eckleburg

Billboard

human/dehumanized

Brooding (intensified sadness)

Eyes are dim/dimmed

They don't see yet they see all/what is happening

Eyes always represent understanding, vision

Sees the emptiness, all the bad things that are happening in the valley of ashes, emptiness

Abandoned, outcast, lonely (Nick is projecting his feelings on to this billboard)

Its giving god

Like the owl eyes guy

Theme of someone is always watching

Nick is watching everyone

Especially sees gatsby

3 parts of self is like the trinity, giving godlike,

Owl eyes guy

Theme of someone is always watching

Irony because he is drunk

Sees everything all the corruption

Surprised the books are real

Thinks that the books would all be fake because he is new money

Discovers the realness of gatsby

Lives a certain truth

Sees that he is kind

The book is a reflection of Gatsby like many of his things

He realises that he has real books but he has not read them

He is both real and fake at the same time

He wants everyone to see that he is wealthy, book smart, ect.

Off chance that Daisy comes and see this

Gatsby

Is a dissembler

Wants nick to think of him in a certain way

Romanticizing way in his past

Well traveled

Well educated

He pretends to be nicks friend but he is using him

He is glided - on the outside it is gold and beautiful but the inside is ugly, plain, the truth/what the gold is covering up

Nick want to believe that gatsby is such a great friend and great in general

Gatsby's car

Unique, unusual, special, ostentaious

New money

Represents Gatsby

Rich cream/white (purity, innocence, privilege)

Cream is off white, dirtier than white, trying to be white

Nickle

Swollen: misshapen, inflated, pretentious, big ego

Monstrous: something bad, sinister

Storage options

Very excessive (conjunctions), sense of brokenness

green leather seats: snake like feeling of discrete, envies

Layers of glass is built proof and all the storage options maybe did not have hats in them, swollen maybe banged up

Bright light/center of attention

All the glitter is not gold

Pearl necklace/icy demeanor

Very expensive they were $250,000 which is like $7 million, symbolizes tom is buying Daisy's silence/using material things to buy her, his version of a fancy collar/chain that she wears around her neck (kind of like a dog, obedient), chosen money rather than love/tied to tom, she throws it in the trash can (shows how much she does not want to marry tom), trying to buy her love/very new money thing

icy demeanor:

Represses her feelings, much like gatsby, daisy takes the letter from Gatsby into the bathtub (with her the night before her wedding), let it disintegrate because it was too painful and she was letting go of the letter like she was letting go like how she had to let go of gatsby and who she was with him (like washing away that side of her and cleaning herself to be fully with tom), the bath is cold because the cold/harsh reality of her situation, letter comes to pieces like now snow shows that snow does not last long, snow covers things up and it's a brief escape from reality like the letter covers up the sadness or bleak reality, feels magical, blank slate like its erasing the ground and erasing her past, comes back every winter which for shadows his return now is cold like how cold she is to do that to gatsby

Nick and Jordan kiss

Preformivine (not an authentic couple)

Talks about her golden shoulder

Tan but gold suggest her wealth and rise in society

Using her for that

He kisses her because he wants to kiss someone like gatsby and tom

Daisy is beautiful and he is comparing himself to gatsby so he is just settling with what he has

Wants love and affection but have no feelings for her

Thinks she a major liar and how she had not hope

Jordan is a sceptic person who does does not trust or love

Cover of book

Is daisy

Her tears

Eyes have bodies in them

Is Mertil

Sees her naked

Eyes show that she sees it

Eyes know the truth

Shows toms indigression

New York city

Face is above it

It looks vibrant, chaotic, pulsing

Its coney island with the farris wheels

Fun place but a sad face looking down on it

Suggesting daisy and dr. tj eckelberg

All are looking are always watching but can't do anything about it, helpless watching

Nick is helplessly watching gatsby

When he first met Gatsby he went for a full paragraph just talking about what he looks likes

He feels seen, special, understood

He sees gatsby's lying but he is able to move past him but when jordan lies a tiny bit he thinks she is the worst person

Describes him as glowing

Sees him in a holy, angelic way

Stares at his house for 30 mins like someone looks at a church

Describes him as attractive,

But does he love gatsby or the idea of him/his life

Gatsby's emotions when he sees Daisy

Overwound clock

Trying to act comfortable but is super awkward and unnatural

Leaned head against broken clock

Metaphor relationship between Gatsby and Daisy

Not the right time but ironically is the right time because it represents the past/time has stopped/the past has caught up with them

She is married

He wants to go back into the past/reclaim time

The last time the clock told the time was in the past

This moment is like in the past

When the clock falls gatsby catches it

Shows that he is trying to control it and save it

Represents his hope to save it/forshadows the demise of their relationship

Seems desperate, frantic plea to reclaim the past

Tragic irony because even though the time is not correct it is still ticking shows that times are moving on without him

Idiom: Broken clocks are right 2x a day

Shows that the time was right/will be right again

He can make it right but it will only be right for a minute

Throwing shirts

throws his wealth at daisy/this is what you let me for

Nice quality, all over the world expensive

Soft colors (cheery, peaceful, etc.) represent their relationship/gentilness vs. her relationship with tom

Shirts represent his love

All the colors represent memories

Lavender color - soothing, eternal, comforting

The different shirts represent variety of experiences/opportunities with Gatsby

She could have had it all

Trying to buy her love

But she does not love him for his money and that is much like tom

Irony with gatsby and tom love daisy as a symbol of love

Green Light

Daisy light on her dock

Means warning and danger and also go giving messages

Green is envy, wealth, oxidizing/eats at him/old, used to be shiny,

Light is new life, growth, spring, new life, hope

So close yet so far

James Gatz

Becomes Jay gatsby

Eschews his family and his past and reinvents himself

"Self-made man " fixture of American Dream

Rags to riches - Hortio Alger (novelist)

Hardwork and perseverance = success

When looks out on Dan Cody's yacht he is wearing a torn green jersey

Green: wealth, envy and new beginnings

Dan Cody

who shaped gatsby

Does not have a good marriage

Ella kaye

Gold digger - stole the money he gave to Gatsby

Did she kill Cody?

He died the day after she came on board

Maybe that is why they say that Gatsby murder someone

Foreshadowing:

he let a woman consume everything

Big drunker

Gatsby eschews alcohol bc of dan cody's dissolution

Mr. Sloane

Dramatic Irony

Mysterious

Wealthy

East Egg

Gatsby sees them and because he is with Daisy thinks that he can hang out with him

Shows that even though he may have money but no class

Money can't buy you class

He thinks that it can and he can do anything he wants to but he will never be accepted by the Sloane's and Tom and Daisy

Even though he thinks that Daisy will want him but she is part of that class and she will not want him

Effects/symbolism of the weather

Reflects characterization (tom temper exploding)

Daisy - has repressed emotions and festering anger, shows that she is looking for distraction

Heat is reflecting the plot arc

Bubbled over

Frenetic adj - feverish, suffocating

Foreshadowing; headed towards fall

Fall is when things change and dying, rebirth and her and toms relationship with tom

Flat character

A character who embodies a single quality and who does not develop in the course of a story

Round character

A character who demonstrates some complexity and who develops or changes in the course of a work

Grey Sun-Strained Eyes

Allusion to Athena (called grey eyed Athena), Goddess of wisdom and war (Jordan is described as a cadet), Implies Jordan is smart aware morally grey

Beautiful little fool

how women were supposed to be, Daisy is very smart but pretends to be dumb aware of her choice, wants her daughter not to know that pain, "Knowledge is pain" is pain she knows, wants her to be oblivious to the outside world

Daisy's voice

"Her voice is full of money", has murmuring voice/seductive, wants attention/draws people to her , alludes to sirens

list of name of people who came to gatsby's party

Bragging; name dropping, Nick acts like he is above it but he cares about $/fame etc. social climber, some of these names are real people so in a way Fitzgerald is name dropping he feel like Nick, lengthy lists of guests who gossip/use him/don't know him, juxtaposition with nick himself who "knows" gatsby, juxtaposition = contrast, Nick is insecure

Much like tom, jordan (they all have facades), they all are different but like the same

Someone is always watching

TJ Eckleburg!!!! Gatsby is watching Daisy, Nick is watching Gatsby Theme is watching, windows as a symbol perspective, No one is watching nick he is an outsider

Owl eyes

a lot like TJ Eckleburg, looking through Gatsby's library, astonished that the books are real, attends Gatsby's funeral besides Nick and Mr. Gatz

Dr. TJ Eckleburg's billboard

Humanized AND dehumanized

Always watching over

Brooding, intensified sadness

Dim eyes, seems disappointed in the valley

Abandoned; check how Nick projects his own feelings

It's giving God but like powerless and abandoned and dead

Nick watches everyone like the billboard and Gatsby does to a bit

The Car

Unique, Flashy, Special, Rich-looking (Metaphor for Gatsby),

Cream (remember, white means purity and privilege, but this is OFF-white!) Swollen, misshapen, inflated (kind of pretentious, resembles a big ego)

THE INSIDE: GREEN LEATHER! Snakelike, jealousy

Layers of glass: bulletproof, possibly protecting from danger (criminal image? mobster connections?)

Defunct Mantlepiece Clock

Overwound, not working, metaphor for how Gatsby and Daisy used to work but don't, not on the right time, (not the right time for them to fall in love), Gatsby is chasing the past, feels like old times, is it the right time? Time has stopped, past has caught up, when the clock falls, Gatsby catches it. He's trying to control the past and save it, foreshadows the death of their love, grasping on to memories, life has moved forward without him like how the clock moves at the wrong time, a broken clock is right twice a day, G and D's relationship will only work for this moment,

Throwing Shirts

throwing his wealth at daisy, she feels bad because she could've had that (they're expensive), colors are soft to represent his love, each shirt represents a memory that she's reliving, she could've had it all, she isn't used to love, both Gatsby AND tom throw their wealth at Daisy for her love

Gatsby's Past

"Self-made-man", rags to riches, "Wearing a "torn green jersey", represents envy and wealth, new life, "Platonic conception of self" references plato, people create themselves, the self is immortal, "He was a son of God", almost christlike; takes on the sins of others (possible foreshadowing?), has a massive following, rags to riches, mysterious, reborn, perfect (irony), Nick thinks Gatsby is like god, which is ironic because he is very sinful

Major Themes

-Vision

-Hope

-Social class/elitism

-Lying/deception/corruption

- American Dream

-Destruction/recklessness/violence

- Wealth

-Isolation/loneliness

-Love

-Loyalty

-the past/time

-discontentment

Symbols

-the green light

-T.J. Eckleburg

-Daisy's pearls

-Daisy's letter from Gatsby

-Gatsby's shirts

-colors (green, gold, white, silver, blue)

-Gatsby's books

-Myrtle's possessions

-Gatsby's boyhood schedule

-religious imagery