1. The Great Gatsby

2. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE OPENING CHAPTER OF A NOVEL
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE OPENING CHAPTER OF A NOVEL? TIP: THOSE ASPECTS WILL BE THE MAIN ONES FOR DISCUSSION IN THIS CHAPTER.
QUESTION

3. Intra-fictional Narrator
Who is the narrator?
What is he like as a character? And as a narrator?
What does he think about the others?
How do we know?

4. What do we learn about Nick?
Believes he is objective and fair
‘I am inclined to reserve all judgements’
Wealthy
‘My family have been prominent, well-to-do people’
A war veteran
‘I participated in that […] Great War.’

5. What do we learn about Nick?
In East Egg at the Buchanan’s he feels social awkward and uncomfortable:
I was almost surprised into murmuring an apology for having disturbed her by coming in.
Again a sort of apology arose to my lips.
‘You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy,’ I confessed[...]‘Can’t you talk about crops or something?’

6. Envious of Tom Buchanan:
It was hard to realise that a man in my generation was wealthy enough to do that.
Ambivalence towards the Buchanan’s:
‘Their interest rather touched me and made them less remotely rich – nevertheless, I was confused and a little disgusted as I drove away’.

7. Narrative Voice/technique
Retrospective narrative recalling events from one year ago:
‘In my younger and more vulnerable years’
‘When I came back from the East last autumn’
Reminiscing tone but also foreshadows the story he (the narrator) is about to tell:
‘No – Gatsby turned out alright at the end;’

8. Nick as an Inadequate/Unreliable Narrator
I must have stood for a few moments listening […]
I could have sworn he was trembling.
And so it happened that in a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all.

9. Setting West Egg ‘the less fashionable of the two’
‘small eyesore’ of Nick’s house
Which contrasts with the ‘colossal affair’ of Gatsby’s mansion
East Egg
‘white palaces of fashionable East Egg’

10. Characters Jordan Baker ‘Slender, small-breasted girl’
‘wan, charming, discontented face’
Daisy Buchanan
‘sad and lovely’
‘absurd charming little laugh’
Tom Buchanan
‘supercilious manner’
‘hard mouth’
‘arrogant eyes’
‘a cruel body’