Ch 7 general questions, ‘The Great Gatsby’

Ch 7 questions (hot day in late August)

1. What is meant by the sentence”So the whole caravansary had fallen in like a card
house at the disapproval in her eyes.” at the beginning of the chapter?
Caravansary: gatsby's house is like a caravansary. He hired entirely new staff, and stopped
the caravansary in order to please daisy. The disapproval in her eyes is because she doesn’t
like parties, the wildness. He calls of his parties for Daisy.

2. Compare the scene in the Buchanan’s house with that in Ch 1. What are the
similarities and differences?
House is darker, covers on window.
Telephone call.

3. How would you describe Daisy as a mother and why is Gatsby so surprised to see
the child?

Daisy doesn’t really have compassion for her own child. In the beginning of the book it’s
even mentioned that she doesn’t have hope for her future. Dismisses her child, isnt close
with her? He was surprised that Daisy had changed since he had gone of to war. To gatsby
the last five years don’t exist, so to see the changes in Daisy is really surprising to him, it is
as if he isn’t aware of it until he actually sees the child.

4. Nick finally realises that Gatsby’s statement “Her voice is full of money.” is true. Why
is this significant do you think?
You can hear her privilege and wealth just from hearing her speak. She never really faces
the consequences. “High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl”. Indiscreet:
high in society.

5. What’s ironic about the sudden sounds of Mendelssohn’s wedding march from the
 ballroom one floor down at the Plaza?
Daisy is in the hotel with her husband Tom, which she doesn’t love, and Jay Gatsby; the man
she actually loves. But there will never be a wedding march for Daisy and Gatsby.

6. What do we find out about Gatsby’s time at Oxford, his drug.-stores and a man called
Walter Chase?
(Tom accuses Gatsby of never attending Oxford) He only attended Oxford for five months,
in an army program. Drugstores were a bootleg job, selling grain alcohol over the counter.
Walter Chase was involved with the bootlegging. Tom says Gatsby was the one who let
Chase get locked up.

7. Put the following paragraph in its context: ”But with every word she was drawing
further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on
as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling
unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room.”’
Daisy ultimately chooses tom over Gatsby. His dream - to have daisy- is dead. He tried to
defend himself but ultimately Daisy chose Tom.

8. What do you think the heat represents in this chapter?

As previous chapters Ftizgerald, uses weather to represent what characters are feeling. I
think the heat represents the tension between Daisy, Tom and Gatsby. Tom sees the way
Gatsby and Daisy look at eachother. Its the tension leading up to the scene on the plaza
hotel. Tension ready to explode. (Also the feelings Jay Gatsby has for Daisy, he loves her and
it really shows in this chapter. )

9. What does Nick mean when saying” So we drove on toward death through the
cooling twilight.”?
Nick realizes it’s his birthday, he’s thirty and only getting closer to death. Foreshadowing to
myrtle's death.

10. Explain how Nick feels about Jordan and Gatsby when back at the Buchanan’s house.
He feels she lets things slip too easily, like she doesn’t care, and doesn’t have a sense of
morality. He breaks off their relationship

11. What’s the significance of what Nick sees through the pantry window?
He saw Daisy and Tom talking intently to each other, right after the Myrtle situation. It
looked as if they’d been conspiring together. Tom was talking very intently to Daisy.

12. What’s the importance of the very last sentence where Nick leaves Gatsby “So I
walked away and left him standing there in the moonlight - watching over nothing.”?

This quote reveals how empty Gatsby’s dream actually was. Gatsby has been chasing the
dream of having Daisy, something he thought he could achieve. But in this chapter he’s
starting to get confronted with the truth. The dream is unattainable.