1. The Great Gatsby 1-3

2. Themes The Roaring 20s The American Dream Past and Future Class (Old money, new money, no money) Love?

3. Symbols Green Light  symbolic of the unattainable dream (the American Dream) Gold  Wealth, decay East Egg and West Egg  Old Wealth vs. New Wealth (except for Nick, who is actually “old” wealth) Valley of Ashes  representative of that “foul dust” floating in the wake of the American Dream. The West Egg is full of those who prospered during the booming economy of the 20s. NYC is full of “mystery and beauty.” The Valley of Ashes is in between, symbolic of those left behind during the Roaring 20s The Eyes of Dr. Eckleburg  the eyes of God, linked to Gatsby, waste of the past, anything else???

4. Characters Nick—introverted, wealthy, observer Gatsby—reclusive, sketchy, mysterious, new money, friendly, has fun parties Tom— old wealth, athletic, arrogant, racist, unfaithful, unintelligent, sexist, violent, socialite Daisy—smarter than she acts, acts ignorant, pretty, neglectful of her child, wealthy, a voice like money Myrtle—vivacious, vivid, unfaithful, entitled George—clueless, deadened, bland, dull and lifeless, sad Jordan –famous golfer, outgoing, liar

5. Figurative Language, Syntax, Diction in The Great Gatsby

6. From Chapter 1—the two women on the couch We walked through a high hallway into a bright rose-colored space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding cake of the ceiling—and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea. The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room and the curtains and rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.

7. From Chapter 1—Tom Buchanan He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body. His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.

8. Chapter 2—First paragraph About half way between West Egg and New York the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operations from your sight.

9. Chapter 4-5 Nick, about Gatsby on page 64: “He was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car with that resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American—that comes, I suppose, with the absence of lifting work or rigid sitting in youth and, even more, with the formless grace of our nervous, sporadic games. This quality was continually breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness.” Gatsby is, in a sense, the version of America that is young, restless, and goal- oriented. However, we also have characters in the book that represents another version of America: George Wilson--worn down and tired, and Tom Buchanan— wealthy, careless, and cruel. What about Nick? Does he represent a version of America as well?

10. Chapters 4-5 P. 78 – "It was a strange coincidence," I said. "But it wasn't a coincidence at all." "Why not?" "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay." P. 78--“Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.” Nick is talking about Gatsby now. To what night is he referring? How did Gatsby “come alive” to him? What does this quote mean?

11. Page 91, about Gatsby: “He hadn't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real. Once he nearly toppled down a flight of stairs.” Page 93, on Gatsby’s feelings toward being reunited with Daisy: “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. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.”

12. Page 95, the song Klipspringer plays: “One thing’s sure and nothing’s surer The rich get richer and the poor get—children. In the meantime, In between time----” What is the significance of the lyrics?

13. Page 96: “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.” What’s the meaning of this quote? To what situation in the novel is this referring?

14. Symbolism Gold (yellow)—Gatsby’s car, gold-colored tie (84), jonquils and pale gold odor (90), pink and yellow billow of clouds (94) The Green Light—Gatsby shows Daisy the green light on pages 92-93; Nick speculates on how perhaps the light has lost its significance now. The rain starting and stopping—Gatsby asks Daisy what she thinks about the rain stopping and she says she’s glad “Her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her unexpected joy.” Does the rain stopping seem to hold a deeper meaning for Gatsby and Daisy?

15. The mantelpiece clock--the years Gatsby has spent away from Daisy, stuck in the past—years, in a sense, wasted. To Gatsby, time had no meaning without Daisy, and he was stuck in the past. The shirts—”They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.” Representative of the wealth and time spent to win Daisy’s love. Proof, in a way, of how hard he is willing to work to be with her.

16. Syntax Pg. 92—Polysyndetons “He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with strips and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue. ” Why use the polysyndetons? What is the effect?

17. Syntax Glance at a page in either chapter 4-5. Excluding dialogue, how does Fitzgerald craft the majority of his sentences? Are they short, simple, and abrupt? Long and complex? How does his sentence crafting add to the overall tone of this novel? To the scenes he creates?

18. 1/29/16 Chapters 4-6 Quiz Journal Check Chapter 6 Discussion Syntax/Diction Worksheets on passages from Chapters 1-3 HW: Complete unfinished questions from worksheets and read Chapter 7 Study Round 4 Vocab

19. Gatsby Chapter 6 Jay Gatsby=James Gatz Met a man named Dan Cody