1. Vocabulary Unit 6 Choosing the Right Word
Warm Up
Vocabulary Unit 6 Choosing the Right Word

2. “What I Think and Feel at 25”
Read the essay by F. Scott Fitzgerald and answer the questions that follow it with a partner.
How does Fitzgerald’s view of being 25 relate to the characters in the novel?

3. Gatsby Chapter 4 Questions
How is figurative language used at the start of this chapter?
What’s the deal with the names on p ?
“ ‘I’ll tell you God’s truth’ ” (65). Really?
What’s the deal with the medal from “[l]ittle Montenegro” (66)?
What is Wolfsheim’s role in here?
What happened “[o]ne October day in nineteen-seventeen—” (74)?
“ and yet there’s something in the voice of hers” (77). We don’t know what it is yet, but we’ll find out soon enough . . .
How does Nick feel about Jordan? How does he describe her (79-80)?

4. Some Chapter 4 Thoughts
On pages 64-66, find the quotes that show that Nick’s perception of Gatsby has changed. Why isn’t Gatsby “great” here?
66-67, Gatsby regains his status. What does it?
“Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder” (69). What is significance here?

5. Gatsby Ch. 5 Review
•Why does Nick think that his “house was on fire” (81)? •Why does Gatsby decorate Nick’s house (84)? •Describe Gatsby’s behavior at Nick’s house. •How many years has it been since Daisy and Gatsby have been together? (87) •Who is Dan Cody? (93) •What are Gatsby’s “enchanted objects” (93)? •Why does Daisy “tumble short” of Gatsby’s dreams (95)?

6. Some Chapter 5 Thoughts
“The exhilarating ripple of her voice was wild tonic in the rain. I had to follow the sound of it for a moment, up and down, with my ear alone, before any words came through. A damp streak of hair lay like a dash of blue paint across her cheek, and her hand was wet with glistening drops as I took to help her from the car” (85).
How is Fitzgerald characterizing Daisy here? Is she being elevated as well?
How has Gatsby changed around Daisy (86 to 89)?

7. “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” (91).
“He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence. 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” (91-92).
“Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. 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” (93).
The Changing Daisy

8. The Changing Daisy Continued
“As I went over to say good-by I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby’s face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Almost five years! 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, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (95-96). What is Gatsby realizing about Daisy and his dream?

9. Ch. 6 Gatsby Review
1. What is the “underground pipeline to Canada” (97)? 2. What role did Dan Cody play in Gatsby’s life? 3. What does “a promise that the rock of the world was founded on a fairy’s wing” (99) mean? 4. What filled out the “vague contour of Jay Gatsby” into “the substantiality of a man” (101)? 5. “But the rest offended her” (107). Who is offended and about what? 6. What does Gatsby want Daisy to tell Tom? 7. “ ‘I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before’” (110). What does this quote have to do with all that “rock of the world” and “vague contour” stuff? 8. How is stream of consciousness used in this chapter?

10. How is Gatz/Gatsby characterized here?
“But his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night. A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the wash-stand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor. Each night he added to the pattern of his fancies until drowsiness closed down upon some vivid scene with an oblivious embrace. For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; 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” (99).

11. The Worst Party of the Summer
“Perhaps his presence gave the evening its peculiar quality of oppressiveness — it stands out in my memory from Gatsby’s other parties that summer. There were the same people, or at least the same sort of people, the same profusion of champagne, the same many-colored, many-keyed commotion, but I felt an unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn’t been there before. Or perhaps I had merely grown used to it, grown to accept West Egg as a world complete in itself, with its own standards and its own great figures, second to nothing because it had no consciousness of being so, and now I was looking at it again, through Daisy’s eyes. It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment” (104).
What makes it so bad?
How does this quote also apply to Gatsby’s view of the world?

12. Gatsby: Romantic or insane?
‘I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’ I ventured. ‘You can’t repeat the past.’ ‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’ He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. ‘I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,’ he said, nodding determinedly. ‘She’ll see.’ He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was ” (110).

13. Chapters 1-6 Preparation
The Great Gatsby
Chapters 1-6 Preparation

14. Things so far… You are evaluating characters and events thus far.
This is a chance to gather quotes that relate to various motifs and characters.
You will spend a certain amount of time with each poster.
As a group, find quotes that relate to the concept at the poster.
Put these on the poster, include the citation!
Poster focuses: Approach to Wealth, View of Girls, Dreams, Reality, Nick’s views of Gatsby, Gatsby vs. Gatz
For some, quotes can be about any character. Just indicate.

15. Step Two At each poster, gather quotes to use.
Your group should also critique the quotes on the poster
Are these strong representatives of concept or person?
Is something included that doesn’t seem to provide greater analytical potential?
Is there anything that should be added?