1. The Great Gatsby
*For every question, go back through the novel and locate the scene, key incidents and quotes. Then mark them with a sticky note and analyze.

2. What To Look For… Consider color-coding the sticky
Create a key/legend in the front cover of your book with sticky notes to show these:
Red=characters
Blue=symbolism
Green=key quotes
Pink=major events
Use whatever colors you have. This is just an example.
If you have your own copy of the novel, you can do this with highlighter colors, too.
Consider color-coding the sticky
notes to help you organize the
following items as you read:
Character details/descriptions
Color Symbolism and Imagery
Key quotes spoken by character
Major events/catalysts to plot

3. The East vs. West Eggs
Compare the “palaces” to the “less fashionable” side.
Consider the settling of America when you look at this. We settled from East to West, so East equals OLD MONEY, while the West equals NEW MONEY.

4. The Buchanan Mansion How does Fitzgerald describe this?
Does this house fit New York?
If not, where else might you see a house like this?
What does he say about the lawn? Windows? Colors?

5. Nick’s Bungalow How does Nick describe his own house?
Consider the concept of cardboard.
What does his house overlook? How does this help his perspective as narrator?
What does his house represent about him?

6. Gatsby’s Mansion
In relation to Nick’s bungalow, where is this? Why do you think Fitzgerald would set it this way?
How is the house/mansion described? What impression is he trying to create here? (more than just “I’m wealthy”)
What does this tell you about Gatsby, without even meeting him?

7. Nick Carraway
Yale-educated, West Egg narrator who claims to “reserve all judgments” (although he does not succeed); Eyewitness of the action
Neighbor to Jay Gatsby; house conveniently located between both sides
2nd Cousin of Daisy Buchanan but with no prior emotional connection
Works on Wall Street as a Bond Salesman

8. Tom Buchanan Outrageously wealthy husband of Daisy
Attended New Haven with Nick and known for his aggressive behavior; polo player
Has a mistress & prefers to meet her in the city, rather than on East Egg
The Rise of the Coloured Empires—emphasizes his racism

9. Daisy Buchanan Born in Louisville, KY to an Old Money family
Wife of Tom Buchanan $$$
Socialite and mother to young Pammy
Past connection to Gatsby
Always known to wear white; name symbolizes outer purity masking inner focus on material wealth

10. Jordan Baker Childhood friend of Daisy
Represents the “new women” of the 1920s
First to mention Gatsby’s name and to reveal Tom’s affair
Competitive golfer; Rumor surrounds her
Focus on her “Gray, sun-strained eyes” and “golden arms”—emphasizing the emptiness in wealth
Attends Gatsby’s party and has a brief entanglement with Nick
Described as a carless driver; claims that it takes two to make an accident

11. Myrtle Wilson Lover of Tom Buchanan who lives in the Valley of Ashes
Influenced by her surroundings; known for her extravagant yet poor taste; a poor man’s Daisy—social climbing intentions
Fitzgerald’s two key words to describe her:
“vitality” and “smoldering”—consider the “fire” metaphor—she was not dead inside like everyone who lived in the Valley of Ashes
Seeks a dog as a “child” with Tom; accepts Tom’s abuse as part of her desire to ascend social class

12. George Wilson
Owner of the filling station/mechanic’s garage in the Valley of Ashes; symbolic of the working class failure
Appears lifeless when compared to his wife Myrtle; physical description indicates that his dream has died (pale eyes, covered with dust)
Central focus on the Eyes of TJ Eckleberg as the eyes of God
The only character who works with his hands/physically labors to earn money
Married for love, not status, but cannot provide material possessions to satisfy Myrtle

13. Jay Gatsby The fabulously wealthy, West Egg protagonist
(consider why he must build his house on this side…)
$30 million mansion which is an imitation of a French castle
Throws weekend parties during the summer in homes of attracting Daisy to them
Mysterious history—track the rumors that surround him
“an extraordinary gift for hope”—the novel’s optimist
Suspicious business connections

14. In Chapter One… This chapter establishes the following:
Characters: Nick, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, a glimpse of Gatsby
East vs. West Egg: Old vs. New Money (look at the descriptions of the houses)
Relationships and Cheating
Nick is Daisy’s 2nd cousin, but they are not close.
Nick and Tom went to Yale (college) together, but were not friends; in fact, Nick says that most people hated Tom.
Jordan and Daisy are childhood friends from Louisville, KY. Think—Southern belles.
Nick and Gatsby are next door neighbors, but look at the difference in their houses.
Tom is cheating on Daisy “with some woman from New York.”
Jordan Baker likes to hear gossip. Nick also finds her attractive and thinks he remembers a story about her (which will come up later).
Gatsby, for this chapter, remains a mystery. The only info you get about him is that he is reaching for a green light across the bay. Whose is it? :D
4) Color symbolism: white, blue, yellow and grey (consider what they mean/their significance is in relation to the characters)
5) Nick is the NARRATOR, so it is through his eyes that we see things.
6) The word “RESTLESS(ness).” What is it that makes everyone this way? Note who this term is linked to.

15. Words Speak Loudly…
Look at quotations to demonstrate characterization. Highlight them as you go.
Ex:
Nick says he is “inclined to reserve all judgments,” but he is our narrator. He also says that he wanted the world to be at a “moral attention” after coming back from the war, but he moves to a place that lacks morality (i.e. cheating, lies, corruption, etc.).
Daisy talks about Tom bruising her little finger and you get an undertone of violence.
Jordan is the first to reveal both Tom’s affair and knowledge of Gatsby. This shows that she likes to gossip.
Now you try…

16. In Chapter Two…The Ashes vs. The Party
Consider the following locations/items/concepts:
The Valley of the Ashes
What does this symbolize? Who lives/works there? What is Fitzgerald saying about the working middle class? What happens to their “American Dream”?
Wilson’s Garage
What do you learn about George and Myrtle Wilson? How is their marriage?
What uncomfortable scene occurs here with Nick and Tom Buchanan?
What does this do to Nick, who says he “reserves all judgments”?
Tom and Myrtle’s NYC Apartment
Why do they have this? What does this show you about how they value marriage? What is Myrtle trying to achieve with Tom? What things does she buy to symbolize this goal?
What occurs here? Details that are important: Skewed perceptions as a result of alcohol; what Nick learns about Myrtle’s perception of marriage to George?

17. Chapter 3: Gatsby’s Party
In this Chapter, consider all that you learn about Gatsby through Nick’s eyes. As you read, please mark the following areas:
What type of party does Gatsby hold/how often? Who attends? What is his motivation for these expensive extravaganzas?
Who Is That Man??
What RUMORS are gathered about Gatsby? Why would those be useful? Consider each one and what they insinuate about him.
What do you learn about Gatsby’s participation at his own parties?
Who is also there (besides Nick)? Why?
What is Nick’s first encounter with Gatsby like?
What do you learn about Gatsby from: a) the woman’s story about tearing her dress? “Owl Eyes” in the library? Why go through the trouble?
Remember: All of the parties you will see in this novel include illegally acquired alcohol. How does this twist the perceptions of both Nick and the guests? How does this “blur the lines of truth/reality”?

18. Chapter Four: The Lunch & the (Partial) Truth about Gatsby
How – or rather, with what – does Chapter Four begin? What is such attention to detail meant to convey about
Gatsby’s parties? What is the “subtle tribute” they all pay him?
Nick and Gatsby’s Drive to NYC. Consider these aspects:
1) When Gatsby first arrives, what aspect of his behavior contradicts his elegant dress and car? What does it indicate about his character?
2) During the car ride, Gatsby makes a number of seemingly wild claims. Where does he claim to have been raised? Where educated? How does he describe his war experience? What does he explain has motivated all of it?
3) What is Nick’s opinion of New York City? How might this parallel Tom’s view? Gatsby’s?
Meyer Wolfsheim and Lunch:
1) Of what material are Meyer Wolfshiem’s cufflinks made? After Wolfshiem leaves the table, Gatsby explains that he was responsible for a famous crime: what is it? Why is Nick so incredulous?
2) During lunch, who does Nick spot across the room? After introducing the two of them, what happens to Gatsby?

19. Chapter Four: Summer Love
Jordan Baker’s Recap of Daisy’s Youth:
1) How did Daisy and Jordan know one another in Louisville? How did Jordan first encounter Jay Gatsby?
2) A year afterward, whom did Daisy marry? What gift did she receive? In what kind of state did Jordan find Daisy on the night of her wedding? Where was the gift?
3) What is significant about Jordan’s story of Daisy’s behavior the night before her wedding? (What was Daisy clutching in her hand?)
4) What minor embarrassment was Tom involved in shortly after they returned from the honeymoon?
5) What does Gatsby want Nick to do? Why has Gatsby “read a Chicago paper for years”?

20. Chapter Five: A Shallow Reunion
BEFORE THE REUNION…PREPARATIONS: 1) As Nick approaches his house at the beginning of the chapter, what does he notice about Gatsby’s house? (hint: it’s at night) Why is Gatsby “glancing into some of the rooms”? 2) After Nick tells Gatsby that he has spoken about “the matter” with Jordan Baker, what does Gatsby try to offer Nick? Why does Nick refuse his offer? 3) On the day of the meeting, who arrives in the morning from Gatsby’s house? On what errand? What might that indicate about the suitability (in Gatsby’s eyes) of Nick’s house for a meeting with Daisy? 4) What is Gatsby’s demeanor just before Daisy arrives for tea? Why? “TEA” WITH DAISY/FIRST ENCOUNTER: 1) When she finally arrives, what does Gatsby do? How does he make his entrance? Once face to face, how do Gatsby and Daisy respond to one another? What can you tell about how they feel about each other? 2) What is symbolic of Gatsby almost breaking the clock on the mantelpiece? 3) How has Gatsby’s behavior changed when Nick comes back inside after leaving Gatsby and Daisy alone? 4) Does Gatsby really believe, as he tells Daisy, that his house is always full of interesting, celebrated people?

21. Chapter Five: Touring Gatsby’s House
1) How does Daisy react to Gatsby’s house? What about the house surprises Nick? (hint: what does he keep expecting?) Why does Nick compare Gatsby to “an over wound clock”?
2) What does Nick mean when he says that Gatsby “revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from [Daisy’s] eyes”?
3) What does Gatsby do that brings Daisy to tears? What might she really be crying about?
4) After Gatsby points out the green light on Daisy’s dock to her, Nick states “Now it was a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” What does he mean?
5)Why does Nick wonder if after five years, perhaps Daisy can’t possibly meet Gatsby’s expectations?
6) Do you feel this reunion with Daisy was everything Gatsby hoped it would be? Why or why not?

22. Chapter Six: Truths and Awkward Party
Will the Real Jay Gatsby Please Stand Up? Truths…
Nick refers to Gatsby as the Son of Whom? What do you think he means?
What was Jay Gatsby’s real name? What does the change in name signify in terms of Gatsby’s development as an ideal? (hint: what does Gatsby’s dream have to do with his character?)
3. Who is Dan Cody? What role did he play in Gatsby’s life? How much money did he inherit from Cody? Did the money or the experience matter more in shaping Gatsby’s destiny?
4. While at Gatsby’s house one afternoon, who arrives on horseback? How does Gatsby react, and what does he offer them? After Gatsby is invited to a dinner party, how do the others react? What about Gatsby might offend them?
Let The Awkwardness Begin!
When Tom attends one of Gatsby’s parties several weeks later, what is the effect (at least in Nick’s eyes)?
How does Gatsby introduce Tom to various people? How does Tom react? Ultimately, how does Daisy feel about the party, the first of Gatsby’s that she has attended?
3. What does Gatsby want Daisy to say to Tom? What do you think Nick’s opinion is of such a desire? To Nick’s consolation that “you can’t repeat the past,” how does Gatsby respond? What does he then go on to affirm?

23. Chapter Seven: That’s One Awkward Ride!
Strange Things Are Happening!
1. Why does Gatsby fire all his servants at the beginning of the chapter? With who has he replaced them?
What is the purpose of Gatsby’s phone call (why doesn’t he simply walk over?) to Nick? What does Nick suspect?
3. Describe the weather on the day of the lunch. How does it play into the events of the chapter?
Just after Daisy kisses Gatsby “on the mouth,” who walks in? Why is Gatsby so surprised?
After staring at Gatsby for a moment while at lunch, Daisy breaks the gaze and then says, “You always look so cool” (125). How does Nick translate this remark? What effect does it have on Tom? What does he immediately do?
6. Nick begins to say that Daisy’s voice is “full of” something and then interrupts himself. How does Gatsby finish his sentence?
Car Ride into the City
1. Describe the driving arrangement as the group heads into New York? Who drives what? Who sits in whose car?
On the way to New York, Tom realizes he needs gasoline and is forced to stop at Wilson’s shop. When Wilson emerges, what does Nick notice about him? What surprising secret does he share with Tom? How does Nick put the two together? Who oversees the entire scene at the gas pumps?

24. Chapter Seven (part 2): The Hottest (and Deadliest) Day of Summer
Arguments: Tom vs. Gatsby…Who’s Going to Win? (and why?)
Where do they all end up once they arrive in New York? At a moment of extreme tension in the room, what sound “explode[s]” from downstairs? What’s the irony?
2. As Tom begins his relentless interrogation of Gatsby about his claim to be an “Oxford man,” what does Gatsby do to renew Nick’s faith in him? After Tom’s outburst about causing a “row” in his house, how does Tom end his tirade? What does it echo from Chapter One?
What does Gatsby tell Tom that he has evidently wanted to say for a very long time? Why does he keep insisting that Daisy repeat it? Why doesn’t she? When she finally does say it, what happens?
4. When Tom reveals the results of his “investigation,” what do we learn about Gatsby?
At the end of the horrible scene, what does Nick suddenly realize? With what does the prospect fill him?
Death, It Comes in Threes (and this is the first)
1. Who is Michaelis, the young Greek? What is the story he tells at the “inquest”? In particular, how does the story end?
2. As the policeman is taking statements from witnesses, what does Tom hastily confer with Wilson about?
3. After returning to Tom’s house, Nick asks to be left alone outside and then takes a short stroll along the gravel. Whom does he meet? What is his reaction to Nick’s recount of the scene at Wilson’s garage? Who was driving Gatsby’s car?
4. When Nick returns to the house to check on things, what does he see? What does it portend in the relationship between Tom and Daisy? What might they be discussing?

25. Chapter Eight: Repeating the Past…Can We?
1. When waiting all night for the signal from Daisy, what does Gatsby explain happened? How does it make him feel? What is the effect on “Jay Gatsby” the persona? (hint: what does Tom’s “hard malice” effectively do?)
2. What does Gatsby recall about his first impressions of Daisy and her house five years ago in Louisville? Under what pretenses did he allow Daisy to fall in love with him? What surprised him?
3. When Gatsby left for war, how did Daisy initially cope? What led her to Tom Buchanan? (hint: what was something inside her “crying for”?)
4. When did Gatsby return to Louisville? What happened while he was there that permanently attached his Dream to Daisy herself?
5. At their parting, what does Nick tell Gatsby that he’s “always been glad [he] said”? Why is it ironic?
6. How does Nick’s relationship with Jordan end? Does he seem upset about it?

26. Chapter 8: G’s Go Down
1. In the episode in the garage, what question does Michaelis continually ask Wilson? When Wilson explains how he told Myrtle, “you may fool me but you can’t fool God,” whose eyes is he staring out at? What might be the significance?
2. Some time during Wilson’s hunt for the owner of that cream car, Nick explains that Wilson had “an easier, surer way of finding out what he wanted to know” – speculate on who this source might be.
3. How does Nick imagine Gatsby’s end? Why, after the death of Gatsby’s Dream, does Nick describe it as a kind of mercy killing, a blessing in disguise?

27. Chapter 9: Wrapping Up
1. As the chapter opens, what hasty conclusions are drawn about the circumstances surrounding Gatsby’s death?
2. When Nick phones Daisy to inform her, what is the response? How does Meyer Wolfshiem respond? How do the rest of Gatsby’s acquaintances – Klipspringer in particular – respond? What does this indicate about their loyalty?
3. Why does Nick take on the responsibility for Gatsby’s funeral arrangements?
4. When Nick pays a visit to Meyer Wolfshiem at the Swastika Holding Company, what does Wolfshiem tell him about Gatsby’s past? How might this relate to the information gleaned about Gatsby’s post-war life from Chapter VIII? What is Wolfshiem’s parting philosophy about friendship?
(note: in 1925, when The Great Gatsby was published, the swastika was not widely known as a symbol of the Nazi Party, and in fact was simply a popular decorative symbol. And of course, Wolfshiem would not have allied himself with the Nazis, being himself a Jew.)
5. What two poignant mementos from Gatsby’s childhood does his father show Nick? What do they indicate about his character early on?
6. Who surprisingly attends the funeral?

28. Chapter Nine Part Deux
1. Nick concludes, toward the end of the chapter, that upon looking back at the story, he realizes that it was really a story of the… what? How does this declaration implicate all the story’s major characters?
2. What transpires in the final conversation between Jordan and Nick?
3. When Nick sees Tom Buchanan “one afternoon late in October,” what does Tom claim about his role in Gatsby’s death? Does Nick feel more anger or pity? What does he ultimately conclude about people like Tom and Daisy?
4. In the last episode of the book, where is Nick sitting? What does he imagine about the island itself on which he is resting? How is this connected to Gatsby’s Dream and the green light?