AP English Lit/Mr.

Kirby Name: Taylor Bosarge

LITERARY ANALYSIS DATA SHEET

Significant biographical details about the author:

Title: The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald was a soldier in World War I and met a
woman while stationed in Alabama. She would only
agree to marry him until he made enough money to
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald support her want for a lavish lifestyle. This
demand sent Fitzgerald to writing and publishing
his first novel. This novel made him a success and
Date of Publication: April 10, 1925 was enough to make his woman agree to marry him.
They went through the Roaring 20’s living off his
literary fame and money until the Great Depression
Sources: hit in which Fitzgerald struggled with alcoholism
and his wife with depression. He died in the middle
Sparknotes.com of writing a novel.

Information about the period (literary, historical, artistic,
philosophical, etc.):
The Great Gatsby is set in the Roaring 20’s a time of
illegal alcohol and speakeasies. The young adults of this
generation were survivors of World War I and determined
to forget their past with the extravagant lifestyle of
bootlegging and parties.
Identify the genre and specify how this work fits its
characteristics:
The genre of the Great Gatsby is a jazz age novel for the
obvious reason that is set in the jazz age and the plot and its
characters are all based on the time period they are living in.
This novel is further characterized as a Jazz Age novel because
of the fact that the author wrote and lived in the Jazz Age
period.

Provide a brief synopsis (include exposition, main conflict(s), climax, resolution, and major plot points):
Nick Carraway has just moved in next door to the Great Gatsby and across the river from his cousin Daisy Buchanan.
Daisy is unaware that Gatsby has moved right across the river from her just so he could be closer to her and see the green
light of her house. Gatsby has become incredibly wealthy and throws amazing parties just to impress Daisy. Gatsby
hasn’t seen Daisy in years since he left. Daisy and Gatsby used to be in love but then he left and Daisy married Tom
Buchanan, but Tom has a girlfriend and Daisy is not happy with him. Gatsby meets Nick at a party and then later arranges
a meeting between him and Daisy and Nick’s house. Some would say Gatsby and Daisy meeting after all these years is
the climax but it could also be when Gatsby and Tom meet in the Plaza Hotel. Daisy then rejects Gatsby and she drives
with Gatsby home in Gatsby’s car. She is speeding and kills Myrtle, Tom’s girlfriend. Gatsby claims that he was driving
so Daisy won’t get in trouble and then he is later murdered at his house by Myrtle’s husband.
Literary Analysis Data Sheet page 2

Identify and explain the use and effect of three literary
techniques:
Symbols- the green light across from Gatsby’s house
representing Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future.
Motifs- the geography: the separation of the old money
and new money with the new money in West Egg and
the old in East Egg
Themes- the decline of the American dream as
portrayed by Gatsby and his rise to fortune and fame
but his rejection and loneliness caused by the woman he
loved ultimately ending in his murder.
Cite and quote one example of each:
“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future
that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then,
but that’s no matter—.”
“That’s my Middle West . . . the street lamps and sleigh
bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now that this has been
a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy
and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we
possessed some deficiency in common which made us
subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.”
“The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long
Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself”

Significant Quotes
Cite and quote three significant passages: Explain the significance of each passage or explain how it relates to
-“I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best the work as a whole:
thing a girl can be in this world, a
-Daisy says this and sums up what is expected for a woman in the
beautiful little fool.” 20’s. Daisy often tries to play this role to avoid the deeper
- “He had one of those rare smiles with a problems in her life because she believes it would be easier to
be simplistic and beautiful like everyone expects so as not to
quality of eternal reassurance in it, that have to deal with the realism of the world.
you may come across four or five times in
life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole -This quote is the first real analysis of Gatsby by Nick and shows the dramatics and
charm of himself. It shows how is shown to the outside world and is slowly
external world for an instant and then
deconstructed throughout the novel.
concentrated on you with an irresistible
prejudice in your favor. It understood you -The East is full of parties and loose moral values while the West is the more
just as far as you wanted to be traditional moral value representative. This quote also brings an end to the
understood, believed in you as you would geographic motif that is used throughout the novel.
like to believe in yourself.”
-That’s my Middle West . . . the street
lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark. . .
. I see now that this has been a story of
the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby,
Daisy and Jordan and I, were all
Westerners, and perhaps we possessed
some deficiency in common which made
us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.
Literary Analysis Data Sheet page 3

Characters
Record information for each significant major character in the work
Name Role in the story Significance or Purpose Adjectives
Jay Gatsby Main Character He is in love with Daisy and brings Mysterious, charming,
mystery to the novel with his sketchy handsome
past

Nick Carraway Narrator/Main Lives next to Gatsby and is the Quiet, intelligent,
Character connective tissue that reunites observant
Gatsby and Daisy

Daisy Buchanan The object of Gatsby’s affection Smart, passionate,

Main Character beautiful

Tom Buchanan Main Character Daisy’s cheating husband Rude, immoral, loud

Jordan Baker Minor Character Nick’s love interest Tan, athletic

Myrtle Wilson Minor Character Tom’s girlfriend Dumb, fierce vitalitly

George Wilson Minor Character Myrtle’s Husband Lifeless, naïve

Literary Analysis Data Sheet page 4

Describe the setting(s) and explain its/their significance:
The setting is 1920s New York and Long Island. It puts
the characters directly in the middle of the Jazz Age and
all the parties, people, and customs that come with that
age.
Identify and explain the theme(s) of the work:
One theme is the decline of the American dream in
the 1920s. Gatsby rises to wealth on his illegal
bootlegging and becomes famous for his many
parties. He is the epitome of the American dream
because of his success and throughout the book he
declines emotionally like the American dream does
during the Great Depression.

The emptiness of the upper class is another. They are

inconsiderate and self-serving and think about
Identify and explain key metaphors, symbols, or motifs: themselves only and not at all of the poor lower class.
The green light is a symbol for Gatsby’s hopes and dreams.
The valley of ashes is a symbol of the result of the social and
moral decay of the pursuit of wealth and power and the
actual people who live in poverty.
The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg represent the eyes of
God looking down on the moral destruction of a society that
pursues wealth and fun above all.

The motif of geography is explored in the division of the

west and east egg. The west being of traditional morals and
the east being the opposite with its fast money and loose
morals.
The weather is also a motif, when Daisy and Gatsby reunite
it is pouring rain like the awkwardness of their meeting and
then when their love is back the sun comes out. When
Gatsby is killed in the pool there is a chill in the air.

Write at least three questions or topics for class discussion:

Did Fitzgerald write this novel to cope with his own life?
Did Gatsby even believe his lies?
How does Nick quietly observe all that happens throughout the novel with minimum reaction?