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Nick is attracted to Gatsby's personality.
Why doesn't Nick judge Gatsby harshly?
Long Island's West Egg
Where does Nick live in the summer of 1922?
Nick is well-connected and attended a prestigious school.
How does Nick differ from other people living in his neighborhood (West Egg)?
His lover
Whom does Jordan suggest Tom is talking to on the phone during Tom and Daisy's dinner party?
Looking out over the water
What is Gatsby doing the first time Nick sees him?
Tom's lover
Who lives at the garage that Tom and Nick visit?
An ash heap
What sits in the valley between the East and West Egg?
He finds them repulsive yet fascinating.
How does Nick feel about the other partygoers at the party with Myrtle and Tom?
She is sensuous and desperate.
Which of the following statements best describe Myrtle?
Tom hits Myrtle in the face.
Why does the party at Myrtle's apartment break up?
He regularly throws lavish parties.
What reason does Nick give for Gatsby's popularity?
A man Nick runs across in Gatsby's library
Who is Owl Eyes?
They served in the war together.
How do Gatsby and Nick know one another?
She's dishonest.
How does Nick characterize Jordan?
San Francisco
What city does Gatsby FIRST tell Nick he is from?
A white card
What does Gatsby show the police officer when his car is pulled over?
He meets the shady figure Wolfshiem.
What leads Nick to believe Gatsby might have acquired his money illegally?
Daisy's dock
According to Nick, what was Gatsby looking at the night Nick first saw him?
Invite Gatsby to his house while Daisy is there
What does Jordan say Gatsby wants Nick to do?
He is eager for Nick to arrange a meeting with Daisy.
Why is Gatsby nervous when he meets Nick outside his house after Gatsby asked Jordan to ask Nick to arrange a meeting?
It rains.
What happens before Gatsby meets Daisy that makes him so anxious?
Nick is offended that Gatsby is offering to pay him for his help.
How does Nick feel about Gatsby's offer to compensate him for his help by hiring him?
His collection of nice shirts
What does Gatsby show Daisy that makes her cry?
He feels Gatsby and Daisy have forgotten him anyway.
Why does Nick decide to leave Gatsby's mansion after Daisy and Gatsby finally meet again?
A wealthy copper mogul
Who is Dan Cody?
Daisy does not have a good time.
Why is Gatsby upset after the party where Daisy and Tom both come?
A farm in North Dakota
Where was Gatsby born?
He is only interested in Daisy.
Why does Gatsby stop throwing parties?
His wife is cheating on him.
Why does Wilson want to move out West?
Calling people "old sport"
What does Tom make fun of Gatsby for?
He realizes that Daisy is not going to leave him for Gatsby.
Why does Tom let Gatsby and Daisy drive home together?
They are eating chicken.
What are Daisy and Tom doing when Nick checks in on them after the accident?
Tom has good social standing and was acceptable to her parents.
What reasons does Gatsby give for Daisy's original decision to marry Tom?
He has never used it and wants to take a swim.
Why does Gatsby want the gardener to wait to drain the pool?
Gatsby is better than Daisy and her friends.
What does Nick tell Gatsby before leaving him?
The Dr. Eckleburg billboard reveals this to him.
Why does Wilson conclude that Myrtle was killed by her lover?
George Wilson
Who kills Gatsby?
Gatsby's father
Whom does Nick meet before Gatsby's funeral?
He thinks Gatsby deserved it.
How does Tom feel about Gatsby's death?
He thinks they are spoiled and destructive.
What does Nick conclude about the Buchanans?
She claims to have another lover.
How does Jordan react to Nick breaking up with her?
Grotesque
What does Nick consider the East to be?
He becomes a rich man, then throws lavish parties and just kind of hopes she attends
How does Gatsby attempt to win Daisy's heart?
Jay Gatsby
Which of the following characters would be considered "new money"?
Daisy Buchanan
Tom Buchanan
Meyer Wolfsheim
Jay Gatsby
He's a gambler
Tom has a lot of really terrible qualities. Which of these ISN'T one of them?
He's an adulterer
He's a gambler
He's sexist
He's racist
Bootlegging during the Prohibition Era
It's strongly implied that Gatsby earns his money through unscrupulous means. What are they?
West Egg is "new money"; East Egg is "old money"
What's the difference between West Egg and East Egg?
Daisy Buchanan
Who was driving the car when Myrtle Wilson was struck and killed?
The stretch of garbage land between West Egg and New York City
What is the "valley of ashes"?
Friends of Myrtle who visit to Myrtle's apartment party
Who are Mr. and Mrs. McKee?
Myrtle Wilson
Who is Tom cheating on Daisy with?
Nick Carraway
Who am I?
I am the novel's narrator, I am a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, I often serve as a confidant for those with troubling secrets. After moving to West Egg, a fictional area of Long Island that is home to the newly rich, I quickly befriends= my next-door neighbor, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. As Daisy Buchanan's cousin, I facilitate the rekindling of the romance between her and Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is told entirely through my eyes; his thoughts and perceptions shape and color the story.
Who am I?
Jay Gatsby
Who am I?
The title character and protagonist of the novel, I am a fabulously wealthy young man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg. I am famous for the lavish parties he throws every Saturday night, but no one knows where I come from, what I do, or how I made my fortune. As the novel progresses, Nick learns that I was born James Gatz on a farm in North Dakota; working for a millionaire made him dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth. When I met Daisy while training to be an officer in Louisville, I fell in love with her. Nick also learns that I made his fortune through criminal activity, as he was willing to do anything to gain the social position I thought necessary to win Daisy. Nick views me as a deeply flawed man, dishonest and vulgar, whose extraordinary optimism and power to transform my dreams into reality make me "great" nonetheless.
Who am I?
Daisy Buchanan
Who am I?
Nick's cousin, and the woman Gatsby loves. As a young woman in Louisville before the war, I was courted by a number of officers, including Gatsby. I fell in love with Gatsby and promised to wait for him. However, I harbor a deep need to be loved, and when a wealthy, powerful young man named Tom Buchanan asked me to marry him, I decided not to wait for Gatsby after all. Now a beautiful socialite, I live with Tom across from Gatsby in the fashionable East Egg district of Long Island. I am sardonic and somewhat cynical, and behave superficially to mask my pain at my husband's constant infidelity.
Who am I?
Tom Buchanan
Who am I?
I am Daisy's immensely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick's social club at Yale. Powerfully built and hailing from a socially solid old family, I am an arrogant, hypocritical bully. My social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and I never even consider trying to live up to the moral standard I demand from those around him. I have no moral qualms about my own extramarital affair with Myrtle, but when I begin to suspect Daisy and Gatsby of having an affair, I become outraged and force a confrontation. I am trash.
Who am I?
Jordan Baker
Who am I?
I am Daisy's friend, a woman with whom Nick becomes romantically involved during the course of the novel. A competitive golfer, I represent one of the "new women" of the 1920s—cynical, boyish, and self-centered. I am beautiful, but also dishonest: I cheated in order to win my first golf tournament and continually bend the truth.
Who am I?
Myrtle Wilson
Who am I?
Tom's lover, whose lifeless husband George owns a run-down garage in the valley of ashes. I possess a fierce vitality and desperately look for a way to improve my situation. Unfortunately for me, I choose Tom, who treats me as a mere object of his desire.
Who am I?
George Wilson
Who am I?
Myrtle's husband, the lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop at the edge of the valley of ashes. I love and idealize Myrtle, and is devastated by her affair with Tom. I am consumed with grief when Myrtle is killed. I am comparable to Gatsby in that both are dreamers and both are ruined by their unrequited love for women who love Tom.
Who am I?
Owl Eyes
Who am I?
The eccentric, bespectacled drunk whom Nick meets at the first party he attends at Gatsby's mansion. Nick finds me looking through Gatsby's library, astonished that the books are real.
Who am I?
Klipspringer
Who am I?
The shallow freeloader who seems almost to live at Gatsby's mansion, taking advantage of his host's money. As soon as Gatsby dies, I disappear-I do not attend the funeral, but I do call Nick about a pair of tennis shoes that I left at Gatsby's mansion.
Who am I?
Meyer Wolfsheim
Who am I?
Gatsby's friend, a prominent figure in organized crime. Before the events of the novel take place, I helped Gatsby to make his fortune bootlegging illegal liquor. My continued acquaintance with Gatsby suggests that Gatsby is still involved in illegal business.
Who am I?
Nick thinks he's dishonest and lacking in taste, but still compelling.
What is Nick's attitude toward Gatsby?
Arrogant and bullying
What best describes Tom?
The East Egg
Where do Daisy and Tom live?
He idealizes her and is tortured by her infidelity.
What is George Wilson's attitude toward Myrtle?
A freeloader, who lives on Gatsby's mansion
Who is Klipspringer?
He couldn't stand having to work as a janitor.
Why did Gatsby drop out of college?
A dreamer
What can Gatsby best be described as?
To learn the bond business
Why does Nick move to New York?
Daisy's affection
What does Gatsby hope to achieve in his pursuit of wealth?
Daisy
Who is driving the car that kills Myrtle?
In the early 1920s
When do the events described in this novel take place?
True
TRUE or FALSE: Nick comes from "old money."
America
What does Nick compare the green light of the Buchanan's dock to?
The eyes of God
What does George Wilson believe the Dr. Eckleburg billboard represents?
Hollow
What does Nick find the upper classes, as represented by Jordan, Tom, and Daisy, to be?
Geography and the Weather
What are some motifs in The Great Gatsby?
Throughout the novel, places and settings epitomize the various aspects of the 1920s American society that Fitzgerald depicts. East Egg represents the old aristocracy, West Egg the newly rich, the valley of ashes the moral and social decay of America, and New York City the uninhibited, amoral quest for money and pleasure. Additionally, the East is connected to the moral decay and social cynicism of New York, while the West (including Midwestern and northern areas such as Minnesota) is connected to more traditional social values and ideals. Nick's analysis in Chapter 9 of the story he has related reveals his sensitivity to this dichotomy: though it is set in the East, the story is really one of the West, as it tells how people originally from west of the Appalachians (as all of the main characters are) react to the pace and style of life on the East Coast.
How is Geography a motif?
As in much of Shakespeare's work, the weather in The Great Gatsby unfailingly matches the emotional and narrative tone of the story. Gatsby and Daisy's reunion begins amid a pouring rain, proving awkward and melancholy; their love reawakens just as the sun begins to come out. Gatsby's climactic confrontation with Tom occurs on the hottest day of the summer, under the scorching sun (like the fatal encounter between Mercutio and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet). Wilson kills Gatsby on the first day of autumn, as Gatsby floats in his pool despite a palpable chill in the air—a symbolic attempt to stop time and restore his relationship with Daisy to the way it was five years before, in 1917.
How is the Weather a motif?
The Green Light, The Valley of Ashes, and the Eyes of Doctor TJ Eckleburg
What are some symbols in The Great Gatsby?
Situated at the end of Daisy's East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby's West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby's hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Because Gatsby's quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. In Chapter 9, Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation.
What does the Green light symbolize?
First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley of ashes also symbolizes the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result.
What does the Valley of Ashes symbolize?
The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. They may represent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral wasteland, though the novel never makes this point explicitly. Instead, throughout the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaning because characters instill them with meaning. The connection between the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God exists only in George Wilson's grief-stricken mind. This lack of concrete significance contributes to the unsettling nature of the image. Thus, the eyes also come to represent the essential meaninglessness of the world and the arbitrariness of the mental process by which people invest objects with meaning. Nick explores these ideas in Chapter 8, when he imagines Gatsby's final thoughts as a depressed consideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.
What do the Eyes of Doctor TJ Eckleburg symbolize?
The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s and The Hollowness of the Upper Class
What are some of the themes of The Great Gatsby?
On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomized in The Great Gatsby by the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night—resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. A person from any social background could, potentially, make a fortune, but the American aristocracy—families with old wealth—scorned the newly rich industrialists and speculators. Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand for bootleg liquor among rich and poor alike. Fitzgerald positions the characters of The Great Gatsby as emblems of these social trends. Nick and Gatsby, both of whom fought in World War I, exhibit the newfound cosmopolitanism and cynicism that resulted from the war. The various social climbers and ambitious speculators who attend Gatsby's parties evidence the greedy scramble for wealth. The clash between "old money" and "new money" manifests itself in the novel's symbolic geography: East Egg represents the established aristocracy, West Egg the self-made rich. Meyer Wolfshiem and Gatsby's fortune symbolize the rise of organized crime and bootlegging. As Fitzgerald saw it (and as Nick explains in Chapter 9), the American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. In the 1920s depicted in the novel, however, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East Coast. The main plotline of the novel reflects this assessment, as Gatsby's dream of loving Daisy is ruined by the difference in their respective social statuses, his resorting to crime to make enough money to impress her, and the rampant materialism that characterizes her lifestyle. Additionally, places and objects in The Great Gatsby have meaning only because characters instill them with meaning: the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg best exemplify this idea. In Nick's mind, the ability to create meaningful symbols constitutes a central component of the American dream, as early Americans invested their new nation with their own ideals and values. Nick compares the green bulk of America rising from the ocean to the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. Just as Americans have given America meaning through their dreams for their own lives, Gatsby instills Daisy with a kind of idealized perfection that she neither deserves nor possesses. Gatsby's dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dream in the 1920s is ruined by the unworthiness of its object—money and pleasure. Like 1920s Americans in general, fruitlessly seeking a bygone era in which their dreams had value, Gatsby longs to re-create a vanished past—his time in Louisville with Daisy—but is incapable of doing so. When his dream crumbles, all that is left for Gatsby to do is die; all Nick can do is move back to Minnesota, where American values have not decayed.
What is the theme The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s?
One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of wealth, specifically, how the newly minted millionaires of the 1920s differ from and relate to the old aristocracy of the country's richest families. In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy. Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce, and does not pick up on subtle social signals, such as the insincerity of the Sloanes' invitation to lunch. In contrast, the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance, epitomized by the Buchanans' tasteful home and the flowing white dresses of Daisy and Jordan Baker. What the old aristocracy possesses in taste, however, it seems to lack in heart, as the East Eggers prove themselves careless, inconsiderate bullies who are so used to money's ability to ease their minds that they never worry about hurting others. The Buchanans exemplify this stereotype when, at the end of the novel, they simply move to a new house far away rather than condescend to attend Gatsby's funeral. Gatsby, on the other hand, whose recent wealth derives from criminal activity, has a sincere and loyal heart, remaining outside Daisy's window until four in the morning in Chapter 7 simply to make sure that Tom does not hurt her. Ironically, Gatsby's good qualities (loyalty and love) lead to his death, as he takes the blame for killing Myrtle rather than letting Daisy be punished, and the Buchanans' bad qualities (fickleness and selfishness) allow them to remove themselves from the tragedy not only physically but psychologically.
What is the theme The Hollowness of the Upper Class
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