QUOTES There was something gorgeous about him… it was extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person….No - Gatsby turned out all right in the end; it is what preyed upon Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men. (6-7)
Nick reveals he was without hope after knowing Gatsby.
Foul dust – this foreshadows a symbol in the book, ash heaps. (Ch. 2)
Abortive – fruitless
“…the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope” (6) Long sentence structure reflects decadent and deep thought.
Marred – blemished
Suppressions – restraints
“…life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all” (9)
What does Nick mean by this?
Allusion to Kant and his church steeple, mentioned in Ch. 5
What does this imply about other characters in the novel?
“’I’m p-paralyzed with happiness’”/ “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it”/ “‘Do they miss me’”/ “ ‘Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it?’”
Characterization of Daisy (use of dialogue/ imagery)
Alludes to the cover's art
“Their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire”
foreshadows the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg (Ch. 2)
“To the wingless a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size” (9)
The eggs are divided by cultures of people.
“ ‘Civilization’s going to pieces’” (17) –
This is one of those sentences that is really reflecting the author’s viewpoint. This is what the nation thought after WWI.
DAISY: “ ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool’ ”
What does this reveal about Daisy?
What does this reveal about women during that time period? Is it still applicable now?
Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope (6).
McCarron-Trivelli
English 11R The Great Gatsby
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Can the quest for happiness ever end?
What are the limitations of the human condition?
How do flawed perceptions affect an individual?
Where does decadence fit in to humanness?
Is there such thing as equality?
READING SCHEDULE
Ch. 1 – Due April 24
Ch. 2 – Due April 29
Ch. 3 – Due May 1
Ch. 4 – Due May 3
Ch. 5- Due May 7
Ch. 6 - Due May 10
Ch. 7- Due May 14
Ch. 8 - Due May 17
Ch. 9 - Due May 21
Ch. 10 - Due 24
Ch. 11 - Due May 28
Chapter I
OPENING THOUGHT
Dad’s advice: “ ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’” (5)
“I’m inclined to reserve all judgments…” Does this get at the truth of the above statement? Is it possible to reserve all judgment?
“I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men”
“…a sense of fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth” (6)
“I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sense of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart” (6) – Excess of righteousness.
Vocabulary
Aesthetic – appreciation of beauty Decadence - excess Levity - humor Debauchery - sin
Chapter II and III
Vacuous - blank/empty. “happy vacuous bursts of laughter.” (51) THEME - Happiness is empty/ unattainable. Existential – life is absurd – man must assign his own meaning. Florid – ornate Provincial - simple/unsophisticated Corpulent – fleshy, plump Convivial – warm/welcoming Obstetrical – pertaining to childbirth Prodigal (44). – reckless, wasteful Homogeneity – uniform/ identical “Instead of rambling, this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity” (49).
The language
NICK: “The scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental and profound” (51) Because of drinking. Reality itself is absurd.
“… Through the sea-change of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing light” (45)
“People were not invited – they went there.” (45)
Gatsby acts as a mirror, reflecting what his guests want and need to see. For Nick, he is entranced: It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced – or seemed to face – the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood just so far as you wanted to be understood, believe in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. (53)
CHARACTERIZATION OF GATSBY:“You look at him sometime when he thinks nobody’s looking at him. I'll bet he killed a man” (48).
“It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him for those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world” (48).
COLOUR
In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars (43).
Yellow cocktail music (44)
HOW DO WE KNOW ANYONE? EMPTY/VAPID
Introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names (44).
“Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the part with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission” (45)
Woman crying at party. (56) Black rivulets running down her cheeks.
COMMENTARY ON THE AMERICAN DREAM:
“I was struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about…. They were … agonizingly aware of the easy money … convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key” (46)
SIGNIFICANT ALLUSION:
“The first supper” (48) juxtaposed with the last supper – Jesus portends that someone at the supper would betray him.
Ch. 3/4
“He’s just a man named Gatsby” (53)
Build tension and romance around Gatsby – we hear about him before we meet him, even in Chapter Two when Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, inquires about him: “They say he’s a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s” (37). This is the fourth, although implicit, reference to WWI in the text. Wilhelm and Wilhelm II were emperors of Germany – 1871 – 1918. WWI: 1914-1919.
Vacuous - blank/empty. “happy vacuous bursts of laughter.” (51) THEME - Happiness is empty/ unattainable. Existential – life is absurd – man must assign his own meaning. Florid – ornate Provincial - simple/unsophisticated Corpulent – fleshy, plump Convivial – warm/welcoming Obstetrical – pertaining to childbirth Prodigal (44). – reckless, wasteful Homogeneity – uniform/ identical “Instead of rambling, this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity” (49).
“They’re real” LIBRARY –49-50 Stoddard Lectures
The Right books
Real vs. illusionary
Repetition of real. WHY
OWL EYES: “I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library” (50).
Again, the symbol of vision is layered, yet again, in OWL EYES.
NICK: “The scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental and profound” (51)
Because of drinking. Reality itself is absurd.
“… Through the sea-change of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing light” (45).
“People were not invited – they went there” (45). Simple sentence implies significant unveiling of theme Gatsby acts as a mirror, reflecting what his guests want and need to see. For Nick, he is entranced:
It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced – or seemed to face – the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood just so far as you wanted to be understood, believe in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey (53).
CHARACTERIZATION OF GATSBY: “You look at him sometime when he thinks nobody’s looking at him” (48).
“It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him for those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world” (48).
Characterizes Gatsby and juxtaposes him with all the rest of the party-goers ( the crowd, the proletariat, The masses) Connect to Nick’s first assertion in Ch. 1 – he scorned what preyed upon Gatsby.
Party is microcosm for world after WWI: animalistic, predators (Nick) act like they are at an amusement park – don’t want intimate knowledge of Gatsby or each other. Girls who ripped her dress: “‘I like to come,’ Lucille said. ‘I never care what I do, so I always have a good time’” (47). \
“Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder” (73). P. 52-53 P.48
Kill a man
Once was a German spy
In Ch. 2 – a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm
Jordan says large parties are intimate (54) – Why? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
COLOR
In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars (43).
“like a brisk yellow bug” (43).
Yellow cocktail music (44)
“Enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s front lawn” (44).
“pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold” (44).
“verandas are gaudy with primary colors” (44).
“constantly changing light” (45).
“one of these gypsies in trembling opal” (45).
“ a chauffeur in a uniform of robin’s egg blue” (45).
“Jordan’s golden shoulder” (84).
HOW DO WE KNOW ANYONE? EMPTY/VAPID – Do we ever get to know Gatsby? Daisy’s insincerity….
“The men and girls came and went like moths” (43).
“Introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names” (44).
“Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the part with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission” (45)
Woman crying at party. (56) Black rivulets running down her cheeks.
Commentary on American Dream:
“I was struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about…. They were … agonizingly aware of the easy money … convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key” (46)
"… with that resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American…” (68).
“Repairing the ravages of the night before” (43).
EPIGRAPH: HIS GOLD HAT: “He wants her to see his house” (84).
“A phrase began to beat in my ears … ‘There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired” (85).
SIGNIFICANT ALLUSION:
“The first supper” (48) juxtaposed with the last supper – Jesus portends that someone at the supper would betray him.
VISION: “The city seen from the QueensboroBridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its wild promise of all the mystery and beauty of the world” (73).
BIRTH OF NOTHING: “He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor” (83).
DAISY: “Next day at five o’clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver…” (81).
“Perhaps Daisy never went in for amour at all—and yet there’s something in that voice of hers…” (82). Ch. 5 “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (101).
Why does Fitzgerald make “the day agreed upon was pouring rain” (88)?
How does the description of Gatsby’s house and his desire to have Daisy see it relate to the epigraph? (“‘My house looks well, doesn’t it?’ he demanded. ‘See how the whole front of it catches the light’” (95). “‘He wants her to see his house,’ she explained” (84).)
Why are there so many references to light? (“the peninsula was blazing with light” (86); “his house blazed gaudily” (88); ‘See how the whole front of it catches the light’” (95); “he literally glowed”
And to boot, why so much talk of Gatsby’s damn house?
"There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams--not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion." “The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain” (90).
“I think that voice held him most with its fluctuating, feverish warmth because it couldn’t be over-dreamed—that voice was a breathless song” (101). “There was nothing to look at from under the tree except Gatsby’s enormous house so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple, for half an hour” (93).
Alludes to earlier mention of steeple in ch. 1
obstinate about being peasantry” (93). “But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding, He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room” (94).
“I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes” (96-97).
His gold hat
“He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock” (97). “Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her” (98).
Ch. 5/6 “‘Can’t repeat the past?’ He cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can’” (116). Laudable – worthy Ineffable – beyond words Meretricious – attractive but worthless Savory – flavorful Florid – ornate Antecedents – background Ingratiate – get in with Turgid –self-important, swollen Dilatory – slow, tardy
“’My house looks well, doesn’t it?’ he demanded. ‘See how the whole front of it catches the light?’” (95).
Light imagery. Why? What is purpose?
And, of course, the gold hat
EXISTENTIALISM: His heart was in a constant, turbulent riot….they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing. (105) - paradox (contradiction) 99 “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before” (117).
EVERYTHING IS PERSPECTIVE AND THEREFORE SAD: DAISY’S EYES: It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment. (111) 104
RELIGION: Out of the corner of his eye Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalk really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees-he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder. (117) 112 RELIGIONAND REINVENTION/TRANSFORMATION: His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people – his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God…. And so he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. (104) (98)
“ He was left with a singularly appropriate education; The vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out to the substantiality of a man”
Look at semi-colon use here.
What does appropriate education suggest? How does this support and counter the American Dream?
QUESTIONS
How does Dan Cody represent the divide between the initial, pure American Dream and the dream perverted?
“The yacht represented all the beauty and glamour of the world” (106).
How is the spell of the party, the hope, the waiting broken by Daisy’s arrival? Does Gatsby realize it?
“gave the evening its peculiar quality of oppressiveness—it stands out in my memory from Gatsby’s other parties that summer”
How does this Chapter serve to remind the reader that Nick is telling a story of the past? Why does it make Gatsby’s statement about such ironic?
Ah, Daisy’s use of voice again….Where? Why?
Ch. 7
“So he gave that up and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room”
VOCAB Harrowing – Distressing Desolate – bleak, deserted Inviolate – free from injury, outrage. Rancour/ rancor – bitter Portentous – either pompous and pretentious, or crucial, fateful,
VISION AND VOICE “Daisy … laughed her sweet, exciting laugh” (122). “ ‘She’s got an indiscreet voice,’ I remarked. ‘It’s full of—‘ I hesitated. ‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly” (127).
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 cymbal’s song of it…High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl….” (127). “her voice, dropping an octave lower, filled the room with thrilling scorn”
“So the whole caravansary had fallen like a house of cards in her eyes” (120).
BROKEN DREAMS/ NO ACTION - LIKE ECKLEBURG “as though she had never, all along, intended doing anything at all. But it was done now. It was too late” (139). “Over the ashheaps the giant eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg kept their vigil but I perceived, after a moment, the other eyes were regarding us with peculiar intensity” (131).
GATSBY’S ILLUSION Daisy states, “You resemble the advertisement of a man” (125).
Why the constant mention of the heat? Why is it appropriate?
“In her heart she never loved anyone except me” (137). “Daisy, that’s all over now. Just tell him the truth—that you never loved him—and it’s all wiped out forever”
The desire to repeat the past – annihilate the present.
“Gatsby’s eyes opened and closed. “‘You loved me too?’”
Simple sentences. Why no semi-colon?
How is the eye movement symbolic?
“So he gave that up and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room”
NICK’S WITNESS: “It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and thee well” (131). “I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous menacing road of a new decade” (143).
How does the double meaning of portentous work here?
East Egg
West Egg
The Green light
VOCAB
Epigram – saying, axiom
Pungent – strong ( pungent odor)
Incredulously – disbelievingly, skeptically
Languidly - slowly
QUOTES
There was something gorgeous about him… it was extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person….No - Gatsby turned out all right in the end; it is what preyed upon Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men. (6-7)
- Nick reveals he was without hope after knowing Gatsby.
- Foul dust – this foreshadows a symbol in the book, ash heaps. (Ch. 2)
- Abortive – fruitless
“…the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope” (6) Long sentence structure reflects decadent and deep thought.“…life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all” (9)
“’I’m p-paralyzed with happiness’”/ “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it”/ “‘Do they miss me’”/ “ ‘Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it?’”
- Characterization of Daisy (use of dialogue/ imagery)
- Alludes to the cover's art
“Their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire”- foreshadows the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg (Ch. 2)
“To the wingless a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size” (9)- The eggs are divided by cultures of people.
“ ‘Civilization’s going to pieces’” (17) –DAISY: “ ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool’ ”
Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope (6).
McCarron-Trivelli
English 11R The Great Gatsby
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Can the quest for happiness ever end?
What are the limitations of the human condition?
How do flawed perceptions affect an individual?
Where does decadence fit in to humanness?
Is there such thing as equality?
READING SCHEDULE
Ch. 1 – Due April 24
Ch. 2 – Due April 29
Ch. 3 – Due May 1
Ch. 4 – Due May 3
Ch. 5- Due May 7
Ch. 6 - Due May 10
Ch. 7- Due May 14
Ch. 8 - Due May 17
Ch. 9 - Due May 21
Ch. 10 - Due 24
Ch. 11 - Due May 28
Chapter I
OPENING THOUGHT
Dad’s advice: “ ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’” (5)
“I’m inclined to reserve all judgments…” Does this get at the truth of the above statement? Is it possible to reserve all judgment?
“I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men”
“…a sense of fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth” (6)
“I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sense of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart” (6) – Excess of righteousness.
Vocabulary
Aesthetic – appreciation of beautyDecadence - excess
Levity - humor
Debauchery - sin
Chapter II and III
Vacuous - blank/empty. “happy vacuous bursts of laughter.” (51) THEME - Happiness is empty/ unattainable.
Existential – life is absurd – man must assign his own meaning.
Florid – ornate
Provincial - simple/unsophisticated
Corpulent – fleshy, plump
Convivial – warm/welcoming
Obstetrical – pertaining to childbirth
Prodigal (44). – reckless, wasteful
Homogeneity – uniform/ identical “Instead of rambling, this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity” (49).
The language
NICK: “The scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental and profound” (51) Because of drinking. Reality itself is absurd.“… Through the sea-change of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing light” (45)
“People were not invited – they went there.” (45)
Gatsby acts as a mirror, reflecting what his guests want and need to see. For Nick, he is entranced:
It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced – or seemed to face – the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood just so far as you wanted to be understood, believe in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. (53)
CHARACTERIZATION OF GATSBY: “You look at him sometime when he thinks nobody’s looking at him. I'll bet he killed a man” (48).
“It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him for those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world” (48).
COLOUR
In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars (43).
Yellow cocktail music (44)
HOW DO WE KNOW ANYONE? EMPTY/VAPID
Introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names (44).
“Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the part with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission” (45)
Woman crying at party. (56) Black rivulets running down her cheeks.
COMMENTARY ON THE AMERICAN DREAM:
“I was struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about…. They were … agonizingly aware of the easy money … convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key” (46)
SIGNIFICANT ALLUSION:
“The first supper” (48) juxtaposed with the last supper – Jesus portends that someone at the supper would betray him.
Ch. 3/4
“He’s just a man named Gatsby” (53)
Vacuous - blank/empty. “happy vacuous bursts of laughter.” (51) THEME - Happiness is empty/ unattainable.
Existential – life is absurd – man must assign his own meaning.
Florid – ornate
Provincial - simple/unsophisticated
Corpulent – fleshy, plump
Convivial – warm/welcoming
Obstetrical – pertaining to childbirth
Prodigal (44). – reckless, wasteful
Homogeneity – uniform/ identical “Instead of rambling, this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity” (49).
“They’re real”
LIBRARY –49-50 Stoddard Lectures
The Right books
Real vs. illusionary
Repetition of real. WHY
OWL EYES: “I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library” (50).
NICK: “The scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental and profound” (51)
- Because of drinking. Reality itself is absurd.
“… Through the sea-change of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing light” (45).“People were not invited – they went there” (45). Simple sentence implies significant unveiling of theme
Gatsby acts as a mirror, reflecting what his guests want and need to see. For Nick, he is entranced:
It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced – or seemed to face – the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood just so far as you wanted to be understood, believe in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey (53).
CHARACTERIZATION OF GATSBY: “You look at him sometime when he thinks nobody’s looking at him” (48).
“It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him for those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world” (48).
“Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder” (73).
P. 52-53 P.48
Kill a man
Once was a German spy
In Ch. 2 – a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm
Jordan says large parties are intimate (54) – Why? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
COLOR
In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars (43).
“like a brisk yellow bug” (43).
Yellow cocktail music (44)
“Enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s front lawn” (44).
“pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold” (44).
“verandas are gaudy with primary colors” (44).
“constantly changing light” (45).
“one of these gypsies in trembling opal” (45).
“ a chauffeur in a uniform of robin’s egg blue” (45).
“Jordan’s golden shoulder” (84).
HOW DO WE KNOW ANYONE? EMPTY/VAPID – Do we ever get to know Gatsby? Daisy’s insincerity….
“The men and girls came and went like moths” (43).
“Introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names” (44).
“Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the part with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission” (45)
Woman crying at party. (56) Black rivulets running down her cheeks.
Commentary on American Dream:
“I was struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about…. They were … agonizingly aware of the easy money … convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key” (46)
"… with that resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American…” (68).
“Repairing the ravages of the night before” (43).
EPIGRAPH: HIS GOLD HAT: “He wants her to see his house” (84).
“A phrase began to beat in my ears … ‘There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired” (85).
SIGNIFICANT ALLUSION:
“The first supper” (48) juxtaposed with the last supper – Jesus portends that someone at the supper would betray him.
VISION: “The city seen from the QueensboroBridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its wild promise of all the mystery and beauty of the world” (73).
BIRTH OF NOTHING: “He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor” (83).
DAISY: “Next day at five o’clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver…” (81).
“Perhaps Daisy never went in for amour at all—and yet there’s something in that voice of hers…” (82).
Ch. 5
“No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (101).
"There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams--not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion."
“The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain” (90).
“I think that voice held him most with its fluctuating, feverish warmth because it couldn’t be over-dreamed—that voice was a breathless song” (101).
“There was nothing to look at from under the tree except Gatsby’s enormous house so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple, for half an hour” (93).
Alludes to earlier mention of steeple in ch. 1
obstinate about being peasantry” (93).
“But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding, He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room” (94).
“I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes” (96-97).
His gold hat
“He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock” (97).
“Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her” (98).
Ch. 5/6
“‘Can’t repeat the past?’ He cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can’” (116).
Laudable – worthy
Ineffable – beyond words
Meretricious – attractive but worthless
Savory – flavorful
Florid – ornate
Antecedents – background
Ingratiate – get in with
Turgid –self-important, swollen
Dilatory – slow, tardy
“’My house looks well, doesn’t it?’ he demanded. ‘See how the whole front of it catches the light?’” (95).
EXISTENTIALISM: His heart was in a constant, turbulent riot….they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing. (105) - paradox (contradiction) 99
“I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before” (117).
EVERYTHING IS PERSPECTIVE AND THEREFORE SAD: DAISY’S EYES: It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment. (111) 104
RELIGION: Out of the corner of his eye Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalk really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees-he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder. (117) 112
RELIGIONAND REINVENTION/TRANSFORMATION: His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people – his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God…. And so he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. (104) (98)
“ He was left with a singularly appropriate education; The vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out to the substantiality of a man”
QUESTIONS
How does Dan Cody represent the divide between the initial, pure American Dream and the dream perverted?
How is the spell of the party, the hope, the waiting broken by Daisy’s arrival? Does Gatsby realize it?
How does this Chapter serve to remind the reader that Nick is telling a story of the past? Why does it make Gatsby’s statement about such ironic?
Ah, Daisy’s use of voice again….Where? Why?
Ch. 7
“So he gave that up and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room”
VOCAB Harrowing – Distressing
Desolate – bleak, deserted
Inviolate – free from injury, outrage.
Rancour/ rancor – bitter
Portentous – either pompous and pretentious, or crucial, fateful,
VISION AND VOICE
“Daisy … laughed her sweet, exciting laugh” (122).
“ ‘She’s got an indiscreet voice,’ I remarked. ‘It’s full of—‘ I hesitated. ‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly” (127).
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 cymbal’s song of it…High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl….” (127).
“her voice, dropping an octave lower, filled the room with thrilling scorn”
“So the whole caravansary had fallen like a house of cards in her eyes” (120).
BROKEN DREAMS/ NO ACTION - LIKE ECKLEBURG
“as though she had never, all along, intended doing anything at all. But it was done now. It was too late” (139).
“Over the ashheaps the giant eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg kept their vigil but I perceived, after a moment, the other eyes were regarding us with peculiar intensity” (131).
GATSBY’S ILLUSION
Daisy states, “You resemble the advertisement of a man” (125).
Why the constant mention of the heat? Why is it appropriate?
“In her heart she never loved anyone except me” (137).
“Daisy, that’s all over now. Just tell him the truth—that you never loved him—and it’s all wiped out forever”
“Gatsby’s eyes opened and closed. “‘You loved me too?’”
- Simple sentences. Why no semi-colon?
- How is the eye movement symbolic?
“So he gave that up and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room”NICK’S WITNESS: “It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and thee well” (131).
“I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous menacing road of a new decade” (143).