The Great Gatsby Chapter 5

Question #1 Gatsby’s actions in preparing for Daisy’s arrival seem both flamboyant and absurd. What does he do? Why? He has the lawn cut – sends a truckload of flowers. Everything has to be perfect for his reunion with Daisy.

Question #2 Discuss Gatsby’s actions once Daisy arrives. He is stiff and formal at first. How do we know that he is nervous? His movements are awkward. How does he try to impress her? He tries to impress her with his possessions.

Question #3A Toward the end of the chapter, Nick attempts to explain “the expression of bewilderment that had come back into Gatsby’s face.” What explanation does Nick give? He has been living with the fantasy of Daisy for so long that he doesn’t know how to react to the reality of her.

Question 3B Why, in his opinion, is Daisy not at fault? Nick thinks that no one could live up to Gatsby’s expectations.

Question #4 Describe Daisy’s reactions during the course of her meeting with Gatsby. At first they are both awkward and embarrassed. Daisy cries, then laughs. They become more comfortable around each other. Daisy cries again when she sees the shirts. Her emotions are a roller coaster.

Question #5 Has Nick been affected by the meeting between Daisy and Gatsby? In what way? He now understands the magnitude of Gatsby’s dream. He admires Gatsby and wants him to succeed.

Plot In the opening of the chapter, Nick arrives home and finds Gatsby walking across the lawn. He invites Nick to Coney Island and then suggests a swim in the pool. Nick agrees to invite Daisy. Gatsby wants a few days to get ready. Gatsby offers Nick a “little business on the side,” but Nick turns him down.

The Big Day Rain Gatsby is so nervous he can hardly function. He hasn’t slept, and he is very pale. He is terrified that if Daisy agrees to renew their relationship, it won’t be the same.

The Big Day Daisy arrives dying to know why Nick has invited her over. Gatsby goes out back and walks around to the front door. He is as pale as death standing in a puddle. His paleness and the rain reinforce our sense of his fear, his insecurity, and his gloom.

The Big Day Gatsby goes into the living room, leaving Nick in the hall with us to imagine what the first moment was like. Gatsby is so nervous he knocks over Nick’s clock and then catches it. This has been critiqued to mean he is attempting to “stop time.”

Symbolism They muddle through tea and Nick goes off and leaves them alone for half an hour and when he returns the sun is shining. Gatsby and Daisy are now happy. Fitzgerald uses “glowed,” “well-being,” “radiated,” and “exultation” to describe Gatsby, which suggests he has come alive again. He has rediscovered his dream.

Epigraph “Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry ‘ Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!” Thomas Parke D’Invilliers

Epigraph Gatsby has symbolically worn the “gold hat.” Gatsby has “bounced high” accumulating possessions for this moment, so that when Daisy sees them she will cry out, like the lover in the poem, “I must have you.” He has accumulated great possessions and wealth.

Shirts Gatsby overwhelms Daisy with signs of his affection and when he takes his shirts, ordered from England, out of his cabinet and throws them on the bed, she bends her head into the shirts and begins to cry. The shirts symbolize Gatsby’s extraordinary dedication to his dream.

The Green Light In the final scene Gatsby tells Daisy about watching the green light at the end of the dock. It has become the symbol of his dream for a long time. Gatsby has believed that once he has Daisy he will be completely happy. He now has her, and the light is just a light again.

Final Scene Nick leaves at dusk. Klipspringer, “the boarder,” comes from his room to play the piano. (“Ain’t We Got Fun?)