The Great Gatsby

By F Scott Fitzgerald
 Tom, Jordan and Daisy
 The description of Tom conveys a strong impression of confidence/arrogance, power and
violence:‘the enormous power of that body’ (p12). His glistening boots point to the
attraction and seduction that go with that power.
 He establishes his domination over Nick through his tone and body. ‘He seemed to say…
I’m stronger and more of a man than you are’ (p12)
 In contrast, the introduction of Daisy and Jordan is dream-like and ethereal (extremely
delicate and light in a way that seems not to be of this world), everything seems to be
floating: ‘Two young women were buoyed up, as though upon an anchored balloon’ (p 13)
There is a haughtiness and self-satisfaction about them but suggested rather than asserted.
 Jordan is distant and intimidating, while Daisy is warm but in an exaggerated and
disingenuous way: ‘I’m paralysed with happiness’ p14
 The description hints at the idea that their world is one of appearances, a harmonious
bubble that could easily burst. ‘… there was a boom… the caught wind died out… the two
young women ballooned slowly to the floor’ p 13
 Chapter two
Talking points
 The Valley of Ashes
 Myrtle and Mr Wilson
 Dr T J Eckleburg
 The party (compare w party in chapter one)
 Gatsby
 Chapter 3 - Fitzgerald’s style

 Rebuild the following sentences !

 As soon as I arrived / without looking purposeless

and alone / but the two or three people / stared at
me in such an amazed way / that I slunk off in the
direction of the cocktail table / of whom I asked
his whereabouts / — the only place in the garden /
and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his
movements / where a single man could linger / I
made an attempt to find my host
 and during the course of her song
/she had decided ineptly /she was
weeping too /that everything was
very very sad — /she had drunk a
quantity of champagne/ she was not
only singing,
 Short answer questions
 What differentiates Nick from the majority of the guests at the party?
 Which acquaintance does he see at the party?
 What gentlemanly thing did Gatsby do for a girl who had torn her gown on a chair?
 Why did the man with owl-eyed spectacles go to the library?
 Where and when had Gatsby seen Nick before?
 What does Gatsby offer Nick to do the next morning?
 Why does Jordan leave Nick on his own at one point?
 What do most of the remaining men and women seem to be doing at the end of the
party?
 What incident happens outside Gatsby’s house after the party?
 Chapter 4 - Basic content

1. What do we learn about Gatsby’s past life?

2. Who is Wolfshiem?

3. What does Nick learn about Daisy and Gatsby from Jordan?
 answers
1. He’s the son of wealthy people in the middle West
 He was educated at Oxford
 He lived a bohemian life in Europe (Paris, Venice, Rome)
 He fought in WWI and was awarded a medal and made Major

2. He’s an acquaintance of Gatsby’s, probably someone he does

business with. W is a professional gambler.

3. He learns that Daisy and Gatsby had an affair many years ago
 Chapter 4: Gatsby’s
mysterious past
 Show that Gatsby has got a mysterious, shady side with
elements from the first four chapters
 Chapter 4: Gatsby’s
mysterious past
 Nick thinks he’s lying about going to Oxford
 Rumours (bootlegger, killed a man)
 Dodgy acquaintances: Wolfshiem the gambler who wears human
molars as cufflinks
 ‘unfinished sentences’ p 63
 We don’t know what he wants Jordan to tell Nick and why he can’t
tell him himself
 Reaction when he meets Tom in the cafe

 Why do you think Nick still wants to spend time with him?
 Chapter 4
 P 64 ‘the very phrases… threadbare’

 What phrases is Nick refering to?

 Chapter 4 scene analysis
 P 67 from ‘Over the great bridge’ to ‘without any particular
wonder’
 What sort of atmosphere does Fitzgerald create and how
does he use language to create it?
 How is contrast used?
 What vision of the city do we have?
 Chapter 4 scene analysis
P67
 The scene is both mesmerizing and ominous
 The first paragraph is aesthetically pleasing and full of surreal, dreamlike
imagery (‘flickering lights’, ‘sugar lumps’). We have an impression of
mystery, beauty and promise: ‘Anything can happen’
 The second paragraph is darker (‘hearse’, ‘dead man’, ‘tragic’)
 The imagery is flamboyant, such as the description of the limousine with three
‘modish negroes’ or ‘Gatsby’s’ splendid car’, but there is a hint of tension in
the phrase ‘haughty rivalry’.
 We feel that in the city, we can expect the best… or the worst.
 For example, the ‘sugar lumps’ can remind us of the story of Hansel and
Gretel: is the city a trap?
 Background: harlem
renaissance
 Harlem renaissance PBS
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ozfYC9CZE
 Harlem renaissance
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir0URpI9nKQ
 First 2 minutes
 Video 1
 Harlem 1910 v 1925
 What drove African Americans to NY
and other big cities in the north?
 What new freedom did black artists
find in the north?
 What was the cultural movement
called?
 What was the ‘niggerati manor’?
 What was the origin of the term
‘niggerati’ ?
 What was ‘Fire?’
What was the main themes of the
story ‘Cordelia the crude’
What was allowed in the Harlem
clubs and cabarets that was illegal in
much of the rest of the country?
Why did the black elites not like
jazz?
What are the common points
between jazz and American
democracy?
 What new medium emerged in the 20s?
 Who was Oscar Micheaux?
 How was the representation of black people different in
Micheaux’s films?
 To which famous film was Micheaux’s film a bold rebuttal?
 How were black people represented in that film?
 Oscar Micheaux’s films -
answers
1. What new medium emerged in the 20s?

The cinema

2. Who was Oscar Micheaux?

He was the first black independent film maker

3. How was the representation of black people different in Micheaux’s films?

His films showed a whole range of black characters who were assertive, articulate, sophisticated,
strong and trying to ‘do something’.

4. To which famous film was Micheaux’s film a bold rebuttal?

The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith

5. How were black people represented in that film?

It was a vicious portrayal of African Americans. Black men were played by whites in black face which
made them grotesque. The black characters were shown to be lusting after white women, as a
threat/ danger.
 Harlem Renaissance
 Who were Langston Hughes Alain Locke, Countee Cullen,
Claude Mckay, Zora Neale Hurston
 What does the speaker mean by ‘subservient attitude’?
 If We Must Die

BY CLAUDE MCKAY

If we must die, let it not be like hogs Kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly
If we must die, O let us nobly die, pack,

So that our precious blood may not be shed Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

 The Harlem Renaissance
 1918–37
 blossoming of African American culture, particularly in the
creative arts
 most influential movement in African American literary history.
 participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from
the white stereotypes that had influenced black peoples’
relationship to their heritage and to each other.
 They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and
bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen
by whites, reinforce racist beliefs.
 the movement laid the groundwork for all later
African American literature and had an enormous impact on
subsequent black literature and consciousness worldwide.
 Harlem attracted a remarkable concentration of intellect and
talent and served as the symbolic capital of this cultural
awakening.
 Can money buy happiness?
 https://hbr.org/2016/06/why-rich-people-arent-as-happy-as-
they-could-be
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/05/10/mone
y-does-buy-happiness-says-new-study/#475931f040b5
 Chapter 6
 Study questions (gatsby2013guide)
 What impact did Dan Cody have on Jay Gatsby?
 Chapter 6-answers
 P96 that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the
world
 He got his new name
 He decided to drink little
 He became rich, although he didn’t get Cody’s money (so
he became rich thanks to Cody’s influence, not his money)
 Chapter 6 Tom and Gatsby
 P 98-99
 From ‘I went over to his house one Sunday afternoon’ to
‘That so?’

 Comment on the interaction between Tom and Gatsby in this

passage and compare their attitudes
 Tom and Gatsby-answers
 I’m delighted to see you / delighted that you dropped in: Gatsby’s enthusiasm seems forced,
he might be uncomfortable
 He was profoundly affected by the fact that Tom was there  feels uncomfortable, maybe
threatened
 Awkward small talk (‘Did you have a nice ride? Etc)
 Gatsby is interested in Tom (‘Moved by an irresistible impulse’)
 He provokes him ‘I know your wife’
 Tom replies coldly, he doesn’t want to engage (‘That so?’) and turns to Nick
 In the end Gatsby has ‘control of himself’, but Tom leaves. Tom is more interested in Gatsby
than he lets on. Later on, after the party, he says: ‘I’dlike to know who he is … I’ll make a
point of finding out’ (p 104)
 In conclusion, Gatsby is unsettled at first, but then seems excited by the presence of his rival.
Tom acts cool, but deep down he wants to expose Gatsby and eliminate him as a rival.
 Chapter 6: Tom and Gatsby
 The conversation between T & G at p 98-99 is uneasy and reveals the tension between
them through implicit meaning.
 It starts with small talk, but Tom interrupts Gatsby.

‘I suppose the automobiles –’

‘Yeah’
 Then Gatsby provokes Tom by saying that he knows his wife. Tom pretends not to be
affected:

‘That so?’
 Finally, Gatsby accepts an invitation to have dinner, not realising that the invitation is not
genuine
 This scene is an example of the hypocrisy of Tom and his world. Behind cordial
appearances lies much harsher and crueler intentions. In contrast, Gatsby naivety redeems
him.

Redeem: compensate for the faults or bad aspects of.

 Chapter 6
 Why did Tom and Daisy find the party ‘loathsome’?
 Tom and Daisy’s
impression of the party
 P 102 she wasn’t having a good time
 P 103 the rest offended her – and inarguably because it wasn’t a gesture
but an emotion ...raw vigour ... Herded ... Something awful ...
Simplicity
 P 104 a lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you
know
 Get this menagerie together
 More interesting… she said with an effort. You didn’t look so interested
 P 105 ‘She didn’t like it,’ he said immediately.
 Chapter 6
How did Gatsby measure the success of his party?

By how much Daisy liked it. Since she didn’t, the party is a
failure.
 Chapter 6
 When Nick told Gatsby that ‘you can’t repeat the past’,
Gatsby replied, ‘why of course you can’. Do you agree with
Nick or Gatsby?
 Chapter 6
 Whether you agree with Nick or Gatsby, one of the themes
of the novel is the refusal to move on, and the fact that
people sometimes prefer to dream of the return of a golden
age rather than face up to the future.
 Chapter 7
1. ‘I turned to Gatsby and was startled at his expression. He
looked (…) as if he had killed a man.’ (p 128)

In your opinion, why does Gatsby look so shocked?

2. What tragic incident happens on the way back from New York?

3. In the final scene (p 136 to 139) why is gatsby waiting outside

Tom and Daisy’s house?

4. Imagine what Tom and Daisy are saying to each other in the
drawing room (p 138)
 Chapter 7
1. ‘I turned to Gatsby and was startled at his expression. He looked (…) as if he had killed a man.’
(p 128)

In your opinion, why does Gatsby look so shocked?

HE S REALISED THAT DAISY ACTUALLY LOVES TOM

2. What tragic incident happens on the way back from New York?

MYRTLE IS RUN OVER BY GATSBY’S CAR AND DIES. DAISY WAS DRIVING BUT GATSBY
DECIDE TO TAKE THE BLAME

3. In the final scene (p 136 to 139) why is gatsby waiting outside Tom and Daisy’s house?

HE WANTS TO MAKE SURE THAT TOM DOESN’T BEAT UP DAISY.

4. Imagine what Tom and Daisy are saying to each other in the drawing room (p 138)

THEY MIGHT BE TALKING ABOUT THE DAY, THEIR FEELINGS TOWARD EACH OTHER OR
THE CAR ACCIDENT. TOM MIGHT BE TALKING HER INTO SOMETHING, AS HE
TALKS ‘INTENTLY’ AND SHE ‘NODS IN AGREEMENT’.
 CHAPTER 8
1. How does Fitzgerald use weather and the seasons to highlight change in
this chapter? Give another example of that in the novel.

2. How does nick’s statement: ‘you’re worth the whole bunch of them put
together’ show a change in Nick from the beginning of the novel? Do you
agree with him? Why?

3. How does Mr Wilson view TJ Eckleberg? P 152

4. How does George Wilson spend the night after the accident?

5. What evidence had Wilson found that his wife was having an affair? P 150

6. How do you think Wilson got Gatsby’s name? Does any evidence in this
chapter point to any particular person? P 153