Prohibition fostered a large underworld industry in many big cities, including Chicago and New York. The Jazz Age began soon after World War I and ended with the 1929 stock market crash. Victorious, America experienced an economic boom For years, New York was under the control of the Irish politicians of Tammany Hall, which assured that and expansion. Politically, the country made major advances in the area of women's independence. During the war, women had enjoyed corruption persisted. Bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling thrived, while police took money from economic independence by taking over jobs for the men who fought overseas. After the war, they pursued financial independence and a freer shady operators engaged in these activities and overlooked the illegalities. A key player in the era of lifestyle. This was the time of the "flappers," young women who dressed up in jewellery and feather boas, wore bobbed hairdos, and danced

Tammany Hall was Arnold Rothstein (Meyer Wolfsheim in the novel). Through his campaign the Charleston. Zelda Fitzgerald and her cronies, including Sara Murphy, exemplified the ultimate flapper look. In The Great Gatsby, Jordan contributions to the politicians, he was entitled to a monopoly of prostitution and gambling in New Baker is an athletic, independent woman, who maintains a hardened, amoral view of life. Her character represents the new breed of woman York until he was murdered in 1928. A close friend of Rothstein, Herman "Rosy" Rosenthal, is alluded to in America with a sense of power during this time. As a reaction against the fads and liberalism that emerged in the big cities after the war, in Fitzgerald's book when Gatsby and Nick meet for lunch. Wolfsheim says that "The old Metropole.... I the U.S. Government and conservative elements in the country advocated and imposed legislation restricting the manufacture and can't forget so long as I live the night they shot Rosy Rosenthal there." This mobster also made distribution of liquor. Its organisers, the Women's Christian Temperance Movement, National Prohibition Party, and others, viewed alcohol as campaign contributions, or paid off, his political boss. When the head of police, Charles Becker, tried to a dangerous drug that disrupted lives and families. They felt it the duty of the government to relieve the temptation of alcohol by banning it receive some of Rosenthal's pay-outs, Rosenthal complained to a reporter. This act exposed the entire altogether. In January, 1919, the U.S. Congress ratified the 18th Amendment to the Constitution that outlawed the "manufacture, sale, or corruption of Tammany Hall and the New York police force. Two days later, Becker's men murdered transportation of intoxicating liquors" on a national level. Nine months later, the Volstead Act passed, proving the enforcement means for such Rosenthal on the steps of the Metropole. Becker and four of his men went to the electric chair for their measures. Prohibition, however, had little effect on the hedonism of the liquor-loving public, and speakeasies, a type of illegal bar, cropped part in the crime. up everywhere. One Fitzgerald critic, Andre Le Vot, wrote: "The bootlegger entered American folklore with as much public complicity as the outlaws of the Old West had enjoyed." This period in Fitzgerald’s life – that marked the collapse of old, traditional morality and values in favour of an obsession with free market capitalism – was central to the crafting of his characters and the events of his narratives.

The Jazz Age is important for all kinds of symbolic reasons: primarily, the sense of ‘fun’ that it came to represent. This led to a cultural realignment: of generation against The 1919 World Series was the focus of a scandal that sent shock waves around the sports world. The Fitzgerald's editor, Maxwell Perkins, generation, of women against men. In turn, what we see when we look at the Jazz Age Chicago White Sox were heavily favoured to win the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Due commissioned a full-colour, illustrated is a period in which old assumptions are being questioned, which is to say that many to low game attendance during World War I, players' salaries were cut back. In defiance, the White jacket design from the Spanish artist Francis young Americans came to rebel against their elders; the subject of women’s sexuality Sox threatened to strike against their owner, Charles Comiskey, who had refused to pay them a Cugat. Cugat had worked previously on came to the fore and was celebrated once more. These were times – in the urban areas higher salary. The team's first baseman, Arnold "Chick" Gandil, approached a bookmaker and movie poster and sets and was employed as at least – of great social change. However, this period is also a creature of it economic gambler, Joseph Sullivan, with an offer to intentionally lose the series. Eight players, including left a designer in Hollywood. The Art Deco piece condition: as social wealth and mobility increased because of greater wealth and fielder Shoeless Joe Jackson, participated in the scam. With the help of Arnold Rothstein, Sullivan aspiration, so too did the sense of freedom and hope enjoyed by the middle and upper that he produced for the novel shows the raised the money to pay the players, and began placing bets that the White Sox would lose. The classes. Fitzgerald takes these ideas as central to his narrative: the proliferation of parties Sox proceeded to suffer one of the greatest sports upsets in history, and lost three games to five. outlined eyes of a woman looking out of a in the novel reflects the sense of celebration and fun that is a characteristic of the time. When the scandal was exposed, due to a number of civil cases involving financial losses on the part midnight blue sky above the carnival lights Equally, the complicated sexual relationships of the characters, and the male desire for of those who betted for the Sox, the eight players were banned from baseball for life and branded of Coney Island in Manhattan. The piece Daisy Buchanan, reflects the emerging acceptance in the New York of the time, that the "Black Sox." In the novel, Gatsby tells Nick that Wolfsheim was "the man who fixed the World was completed seven months before the women could be sexually powerful and confident women. However, it is also interesting Series back in 1919." Shocked, Nick thinks to himself, "It never occurred to me that one man could novel, and Fitzgerald may have used it to to consider the impact of the ending on the characters: all of the partying and joviality is start to play with the faith of fifty million people—with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing inspire his own imagery. He calls Daisy the replaced with a sense of foreboding and disappointment. Indeed, we come to see that a safe." Gatsby himself is tied to possibly shady dealings throughout the course of the book. He "girl whose disembodied face floated along all of the hollowness of the decadence and materialism comes to bear on the characters takes mysterious phone calls and steps aside for private, undisclosed conversations. It was said that the ark cornices and blinding signs" of New of Fitzgerald’s novel, much in the same way as it does on their real-life counterpoints in "one time he killed a man who found out that he was nephew to von Hindenburg and second the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash. cousin to the devil." York.

Historians and economists now believe that the 1920s in the United States saw levels of economic growth seen only afterwards in the 1950s and 1990s. That is, periods of Fitzgerald’s life was marked by excess and tragedy: he was an alcoholic for much

sustained economic development which brought about a general social sense of wealth and affluence for all members of US society. Indeed, the name the ‘roaring of his life and his wife, Zelda, suffered from schizophrenia. However, this hides a life twenties’ - as this period is referred to in Europe - reflects the growth of wealth and materialism during this period. That said, the greater financial and economic growth lived in celebrity during the 1920s in New York; Fitzgerald and his wife were major in the United States is counterpointed by a period of moral paradox. On the one hand this is the period of Prohibition: on the other, a time of greater acceptance for the players in New York society, thanks, in part, to the cultural elite’s reception of his Ku Klux Klan. This morally questionable counterpoint underlies the movement towards a morally ambiguous country that appears to be dispensing with the virtues of its novel. However, Fitzgerald also spent much of his time in financial difficulty Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence. However, these moral questions are further obscured by a period in which man seems to be at the forefront of having to fund his alcoholism and his wife’s medical care. In turn, Fitzgerald had to borrow money from his literary agent who eventually refused to help him, invention and adventure: in 1925 the colour television is invented; in 1927 Charles Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic on his own. These moments of invention move the focus leaving the author to abandon his long-time friend. Arguably, this points to one of away from moral and theological abstracts to that which man can achieve materially. It is in this way that the tension between what some historians see as a spiritual the many complex themes of his novels: the idea that money is itself an evil that decline, and others a booming decade, come to the fore. Fitzgerald, it seems, is interested in all aspects of the 1920s in his novels, and particularly in The Great Gatsby. pervades much that is good; certainly in Gatsby it brings the characters little by Jay Gatsby is a character who was engaged in bootlegging. At the same time, he is almost celebrated by Nick Carraway, which confuses the moral paradigm further. The way of happiness. novel therefore, much like America in the 1920s, is a paradox of virtue and vice; morality and materialism

Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 24, 1896. He was the only son of his middle Everyone in the novel is money-obsessed, whether they were born with money (Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and Nick to a lesser class Catholic family. His father worked for Proctor and Gamble, but he failed in his career. Although his mother's extent), whether they made a fortune (Gatsby), or whether they're eager for more (Myrtle and George). So why are the family was wealthy and well-known in the Midwest, she was rather eccentric. As a youth, F. Scott was taught the traditions of the upper class, but his family did not have the financial means to live that way. Fitzgerald strove, characters so materialistic? How does their materialism affect their choices? Get a guide to each of the characters' material however, to be a good student and a successful athlete; as a result, he was a promising and popular young man. He motivations and how they shape the novel. also had an interest in literature and published fiction in his high school magazine. In 1911, Fitzgerald went to Newman Academy, a Catholic preparatory school in New Jersey. Here he continued to write fiction and also developed an interest in drama and had two of his plays produced by a local company.

In 1913, Fitzgerald was accepted to Princeton, where he continued to write. He also fell in love with Ginerva King, a Building on the money and materialism theme, the novel draws clear distinctions between the kind of money you have: old girl from the upper crust of Chicago Society. Distracted by her and his extracurricular activities, his grades dropped money (inherited) or new money (earned). And there is also a clear difference between the lifestyles of the wealthy, who live so low in 1915 that he had to leave school for a while. He returned to Princeton in 1916, but was distraught when his on Long Island and commute freely to Manhattan, and the working class people stuck in between, mired in Queens. By the love affair with Ginerva was terminated by her. As a result, he decided to quit college and join the army in 1917, end of the novel, our main characters who are not old money (Gatsby, Myrtle, and George) are all dead, while the inherited- wanting to experience the war in Europe. Instead, he was sent to Alabama, where he met the lovely, wild, and money club is still aliv e. What does this say about class in Gatsby? Why is their society so rigidly classist? Learn more about undisciplined socialite, Zelda Sayre. She refused to marry him, for he could not support her. As a result, he went to the various social classes in Gatsby and how they affect the novel's outcome. New York in 1919, after being discharged from the army, in hopes of earning a fortune in the literary world so he could win Zelda as his bride. When his first novel was accepted for publication, Fitzgerald had the success and acclaim he had sought.

The American Dream is the idea anyone can make it in America (e.g. gain fame, fortune, and success) through enough hard In 1920, Fitzgerald married the eighteen year-old Zelda, and they moved to New York City. Soon afterwards, they work and determination. So is Jay Gatsby an example of the dream? Or does his involvement in crime suggest the Dream isn't had a daughter, “Scottie.” In spite of their parenthood, Fitzgerald and Zelda played hard and drank excessively, actually real? And where does this leave the Wilsons, who are also eager to improve their lot in life but don't make it out of the living beyond their means and becoming famous for their partying and outrageous scenes. They also travelled novel alive? Finally, do the closing pages of the novel endorse the American Dream or write it off as a extensively and knew all the expatriate American writers in England and France. Despite their glamorised Learn what the American Dream is and how the novel sometimes believes in it, and sometimes sees it as a reckless marriage, it was very tumultuous. fantasy? fantasy. With no real career, F. Scott had time to devote to writing. This Side of Paradise, his first novel, was published in 1920. Encouraged by the attention it drew, Fitzgerald began to devote more time to his literary career. The Beautiful and the Damned, his second novel, and Tales of the Jazz Age, a collection of stories, were both published in 1922 and won Fitzgerald additional praise. In 1923, he produced a play, The Vegetable, which did not do well at All of the major characters are driven by love, desire, or both, but only Tom and Daisy's marriage lasts out of the novel's five all. His next novel, however, became his greatest success; he published The Great Gatsby in 1925, and it quickly major relationships and affairs. So is love an inherently unstable force? Or do the characters just experience it in the wrong brought him praise from the literary community, but it failed to give him the needed financial security he sought. A way? Get an in-depth guide to each of Gatsby's major relationships. year later he published, All the Sad Young Men, a collection of short stories.

Increasingly, Fitzgerald’s lifestyle and problems with Zelda negatively affected his writing. During the 1920s, he often tried reordering his life by moving from place to place; but he could not escape from his problems or his reputation. Nick narrates Gatsby two years after the events in question, and since he's obviously aware of the tragedy awaiting not only By 1930, Zelda had her first breakdown and went for treatment to a Swiss clinic. Fitzgerald tried to write during this Gatsby but Myrtle and George as well, the novel has a sad, reflective, even mournful tone. Is the novel saying that period and finally completed his next novel, Tender is the Night, which was published in 1934. His last novel, The Last Tycoon, was published in 1940 and made into a film. ambition is inherently dangerous (especially in a classist society like 1920s America), or is it more concerned with the danger of Gatsby's intense desire to reclaim the past? Explore those questions here. In 1934, Zelda was hospitalised in the United States for treatment and never came out of an institution again. In response to the loss of Zelda, Fitzgerald totally drowned himself in alcohol, and his later works do not have the polish or control of his earlier ones. In order to support himself and pay Zelda’s hospital bills, he went to Hollywood to try his hand at screen writing. While in California, he met Sheila Graham, a twenty-eight year old British newspaper correspondent. She became his dear friend and helped Fitzgerald fight his alcoholism. The novel is full of bad behaviour: lying, cheating, physical abuse, crime, and finally murder. Yet none of the characters ever answer to the law, and God is only mentioned as an exclamation, or briefly projected onto an advertisement. Does the novel Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in 1940, a time when he was almost forgotten as an author; in fact, by 1939, none push for the need to fix this lack of morality, or does it accept it as the normal state of affairs in the "wild, wild East"? of his previous books were even in print. Zelda died eight years after her husband, when her mental hospital residence caught fire. Since their deaths, there has been a great deal of interest in their lifestyle, and a movie was even made about her. There has also been a new interest in Fitzgerald as a writer. He is now remembered as an uneven writer, a troubled man, and a representative of the golden age of American modernism. The Great Mutability just means "subject to change," so this theme is about how changeable (or not!) personal identity is. Gatsby, however, is now accepted as a remarkable piece of literature. Do people really change? Or are our past selves always with us? And how would this shape our desire to reclaim parts of our past? Gatsby wants to have it both ways: to change himself from James Gatz into the sophisticated, wealthy Jay Gatsby, but also to preserve his past with Daisy. Does he fail because it's impossible to change? Because it's impossible to repeat the past? Or both? Before you start work on your coursework, it’s essential that you have a thorough understanding of the rules. Failing to conform to the rules – inadvertently or not – Plan your structure may result in your coursework (or possibly even your entire qualification) being disqualified, so it’s a serious matter. Once you’ve completed your research, the process of writing up begins.  No plagiarism – this is particularly dangerous given the ready availability of relevant information on the internet these days. Make sure everything is in Before you get down to the actual writing, however, it’s advisable your own words; you’ll need to sign a declaration stating that it’s your own original work. to write a plan for how you’re going to structure it –  There’s only so much help your teacher can give you. I can provide guidance on what you need to include, and on what the examiners will be looking essentially an essay plan. Your opening thesis is the most for. You can ask me questions, but I’ll usually only be able to check through your first draft once and offer broad hints on updating it. There should be no important. written feedback.  Check the word count, and stick to it. Find out whether footnotes, appendices and bibliographies are included in the word count. You MUST have an argument. Without a clear line of argument, what  Check what topics you’re allowed to do your coursework on; you all need to do different texts and cannot pick one of the set texts. are you actually saying about your topic?

All your ideas must support this argument and you may wish to Select your topic wisely include some evaluative points which actually counter your main idea. Ideally, choose something you’re genuinely interested in, as your enthusiasm will come across and you’ll find it more enjoyable to write. If there’s something you’ve been working on for the course so far that you’ve particularly enjoyed, you may be able to focus more on this as part of your coursework – for example, particular The final pre-submission check genres or play forms. For science coursework, you’ll need to choose something to investigate that you can measure, change and control; it should be what’s called a ‘fair test’, meaning that you have to acknowledge all the controls you use in the experiment and why.  : have a read through your completed piece of Try not to pick a topic for which the scope is too vast, as you’ll struggle to research it properly and you’re unlikely to do it justice, and it’ll be hard to keep within the Sense check word limit. Ask your teachers for some guidance on choosing your topic if you’re not sure what to write about; they might even tell you a bit about what previous work and check that it all makes sense. Make sure you haven’t contradicted yourself anywhere, or repeated yourself, or students have done to give you some inspiration. laboured the point. If there are any facts that you may have meant to look up to double check their accuracy, do so now. Plan how long it’s going to take  Word count: ensure that the completed work falls within the Never leave your coursework until the last minute, even if this is your normal approach to essays and it usually works for you. Make sure you understand when word count, and double check whether the bibliography the deadlines are, including time for submitting a first draft for comments from your teacher. Then schedule blocks of time for working on it, allowing plenty of should be included in the word count. If you’ve exceeded it, time before the deadline to cater for any unexpected delays. Allow ample time for making corrections based on teacher feedback on your first draft, and keep you’ll need to work through the piece and tighten up your some time aside before the deadline for final editing and proofreading. writing, omitting unnecessary information, reordering sentences Because actual deadlines are few and far between, you’ll need to take responsibility for the writing process and impose some deadlines on yourself to ensure it’s so that they use fewer words, and so on. finished in time. Write down your deadlines on a calendar, with the coursework broken into stages and dates assigned to each, by which time each task should be  Proofread: check your spelling and grammar, and ensure that complete. You can base your stages on the next few points in this article – research and data gathering, a structure plan for the piece of work, writing up, and so on. there are no typos. Don’t just use the spellcheck – go through it with a fine toothcomb, manually, and if you can, ask someone Conducting your research and gathering data to read through it for you to see if they spot anything you As coursework is primarily a research exercise, the research phase is crucial, so don’t be tempted to skimp on it and go straight to writing up. Use as many different haven’t. resources as you can to gather data: books, journals, newspapers, television, radio, the internet and anything else you think might be relevant.  Formatting: check that you’ve included page numbers, and that the font and line spacing is consistent throughout the You have to use critics in your coursework. A successful essay will interrogate the critics. This means that you will evaluate and argue the perception that the critic work. Ensure that the font is plain and easy to read, such as takes stating how your own perception is aligned (or not) with the critical view. You should also think about where else the critical view may be true or not across Arial or Times New Roman. your text. Critical views must be used alongside your argument to add depth, not simply placed in with no analysis after.  Bibliography: check that you’ve included everything, that the format is the same for all sources mentioned, and that the You must also ensure that you use a range of sources – not just online sources. You should go to the library and read as widely as you can. right information is included for each.

You must also ensure that if you include a literary theory, you have a narrow focus that uses specific individuals. For example, if you are exploring a Feminist Once this stage is complete, you’re ready to submit your coursework approach you should argue that Simone de Beauvoir argues through a feminist lens … along with your declaration that it’s entirely your own work. Get ready for a feeling of immense satisfaction when you finally send off your hard work! Footnotes and bibliography It’s important that you always use your own words in your coursework to avoid the possibility of falling foul of plagiarism rules. However, it’s acceptable to quote from another source, as you would in any piece of academic writing, but you must make sure that you state where it is from and use quotation marks to show that it’s a quote from somewhere else. The best way of citing another work is to use a footnote; word processors will allow you to insert one, and it just puts a little number at the end of the sentence and another in the footer of the document, into which you put the name of the author and work, and the page within that work that the quote can be found. At the end of your piece of work, include a bibliography that includes a list of every external source you’ve used in the creation of your coursework. Stick to a set formula when including books. A common format is: Author Surname, Initial. (Date) – Title of Book, page number For example: Lewis, C.S. (1960) – Studies in Words, p. 45 When you get to university, you’ll be expected to include footnotes and bibliographies in all your essays, so it’s a good habit to get into and coursework gives you good practice at it. I have a booklet that outlines how footnotes and bibliographies should look as well as explaining how the graphology of your essay should look too.

A feminist approach to the The Great Gatsby might focus not only on the female characters such as Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle, The above approaches privilege the female characters within the text, but it is also but other minor female characters and a selection of female party guests. possible to consider the novel in terms of the ways it is constructed, particularly the non -linear ways in which the narrative proceeds. Where there are layers of narrative Independent women voices, several climactic episodes or ambiguity, feminist critics might claim that this is a more ‘feminine’ style of writing ( ecriture feminine ), despite being written by a man for Many of the female characters are seen enjoying the freedoms of the ‘flappers’ in the Jazz Age. Jordan in particular resists a mixed audience. The choice of Nick, a male narrator, is also open to feminist analysis. He is to some a very feminine character, despite maintaining his focus on social pressure to conform to feminine norms. She plays golf, seems androgynous in her appearance, doesn’t have a ‘home influence’ or a chaperone, drives, drinks alcohol and attends Gatsby’s parties. Catherine, Myrtle’s sister, claims to live a Gatsby’s experience as a subject. similarly independent life, visiting other countries and sharing her accommodation with a ‘girlfriend’ rather than a husband or Feminist criticism might also explore the novel in terms of genre: The Great Gatsby is family. ostensibly a ‘love story’ and uses mostly domestic settings, but it intersects with several

other genres, including ‘mystery’ , ‘quest’ and ‘bildungsroman’, and it is as absorbed Dependent women with cars and wealth, male competition and display, as it is with romance.

Daisy and Myrtle are more conventional in that they are married, although they are both prepared to have affairs. Daisy is

presented as being extremely seductive in Nick’s description, with special emphasis given to her voice. However, she is finally

revealed as false, ultimately corrupt in her carelessness and concern for money. Her bitterness and cynicism is signalled early in The representation of the other female party guests can be interpreted as more the novel as she expresses a devastating critique of women’s position in society with reference to her daughter: critical, and degrading: some are named, but others are merely ‘Beluga’s girls’ or four girls… never quite the same ones in physical person but they were so identical one I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool. with another that it inevitably seemed that they had been there before.

Myrtle’s characterisation is more focussed on her physicality, and she is more quickly undermined as artificial, corrupt and Some women suffer indignity at the hands of men: even grotesque. Her death is undignified and stresses the destruction of specifically feminine aspects of her: her left breast is

‘swinging loose’ and her mouth is ‘ripped’. It is possible to argue that Myrtle is punished severely for her sexuality, while Daisy,  you got her dress all wet when you stuck her head in the pool less overt about her illicit relationship with Gatsby, and a less sensual character altogether, is able to resume her life with Tom  the dispute ended in a short struggle, and both wives were lifted, kicking, into

once she has abandoned Gatsby. the night.

None of them are abused as much as Myrtle, whose nose is broken by Tom and who is

locked up by George when he discovers her infidelity. Feminist analysis might also explore: Other images of women in the novel might include the dreamlike drunken woman on the stretcher, in a scene imagined by Nick as representing his idea of the East. This  The attitudes towards women expressed by any of the characters woman is a casualty, dependent on men to carry her, but utterly powerless as she is  The power relations between men and women incapacitated. She has no identity and ‘no one cares’; a feminist might ask if she is

 Ways in which patriarchal values are enforced or resisted by the characters. meant to represent all women or a type of woman (the ‘flapper’ type?) or if she represents all of American society in the East. The idealisation of Daisy, and the struggle between Tom and Gatsby over her, as if she is a possession or token, would be a clear starting point. The dialogue mostly refers to Daisy in the third person or demands that she reinforce the statements of either male, with the final declaration from Tom: ‘She’s not leaving me!’ Tom is a particularly domineering and powerful male figure, oppressive towards male and female characters alike, and he seems to be almost a caricature of patriarchy, Feminist criticism focuses on the power relationships between genders and the ways pieces of literature has been mocked subtly by Daisy and Jordan in Nick’s presence: shaped according to them. During the sass's, many changes had begun to counter the evident inequality between men and women. Views readily changed from politics to social lives as woman's hemlines were raised and risks We’ve got to beat them down,’ whispered Daisy, winking ferociously towards the fervent sun. were taken. The confusion of this time for most men is seen in The Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays the new sexual and social freedoms of the sass's while maintaining a strong anti-feminism attitude Tom’s hypocrisy, as he defends the family while engaging in numerous affairs, doesn’t necessarily undermine his power. throughout the novel. However, the ideal of the ‘nuclear family’ (certainly a powerful concept in the 1920s) is undermined by his actions. Throughout the novel, marriage, often seen in feminist criticism as a patriarchal construct, is a failed institution. Infidelity is the Fitzgerald portrays woman as a minor role in society that are reliant on men and are seen as nothing more than a norm, with misunderstanding, discord and violence erupting in every relationship (‘I’ve got my wife locked in up there’). status symbol. Nick even emphasizes the lack of definition of the woman characters in saying that Catherine, Perhaps most problematic for some feminist readers is Nick’s comment, phrased to assume the reader’s agreement: Myrtle's sister, has 'a blurred air to her face': and all women at Gatsby parties look alike. Nick perceives and ‘Dishonesty in a woman is something you never blame deeply.’ Whilst Gatsby idealises women, creating an unachievable recognizes woman as intentionally making themselves indistinguishable and unintelligent seeming for men. Daisy image of Daisy, Nick moves towards stereotyping women and, even though his attitude is accepting, this is a negative idea of also falls into this same roll as she famously says, 'that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful title women which feminist critics might challenge. fool'.

As women were beginning to break the bandages of male chauvinistic views, Fitzgerald dwelled on women's role pre-suffrage. Woman in the novel are described as having sadistic love affairs in secret and their husbands' abruptly putting a stop to them as soon as their unfaithful deceitful behaviour was exposed. The Great Gatsby suggests that Fitzgerald sided with the majority at the time as women were portrayed as merely the property of men and the further they fell into freedom, the further they fell into evil.

Tom and Daisy never work, and Tom is said to be extraordinarily rich. He was a footballer, but having retired from this at a

A Marxist approach to The Great Gatsby might be very young age, is now ‘restless’ and diverts himself with acquiring commodities, reading racist texts and his many affairs. The darker aspects of the American economy are concerned with the representations of social class, and Nick is one of the less wealthy characters, and works in the stock exchange, but is still financially secure as his family is embodied in the figures of Gatsby, Wolfsheim the ways in which power and wealth are attained and and the menacing, shadowy voices of Slagle and retained by the characters. Looking at the novel as a economically stable enough to support him in his work. Nick’s occupation as a ‘bond man’ is never described in detail; it involves trading in debt, which was a growing aspect of the economy, enabling the boom in consumer spending which supported the other callers. Bootlegging, fixing sporting events whole, it is seen to depict mostly the very wealthy and cheating are clear examples of a social and growth in manufacture. This was a new type of stock trading at the time and Nick has to learn about it himself. members of society, who do not work and spend much economic system which is unfairly organised to of their time at leisure. There are some minor Gatsby is introduced at the height of his power and success, and is associated purely with pleasure and extravagantly expensive privilege some people over others. Gatsby also characters who are less wealthy, and a smaller number pursuits such as throwing parties, driving luxury cars and going out in a hydroplane. However, we see hints of Gatsby’s work, in seems to use a network of contacts in order to of servants and workers who are glimpsed working in the secretive phone calls and references to gangster activity, and it becomes clear that his wealth is based on criminality. escape justice, as he presents a ‘white card’ to the the novel. policeman when caught speeding.

An element of Gatsby’s life which would be interesting to a Marxist However, a Marxist reading might closely examine the moment when Gatsby appears critic is the revelation that he began life as the son of ‘shiftless and to prioritise love over money: unsuccessful farm people’ and had been consistently determined to As with feminist interpretations, Marxist readings of the novel might highlight any change his economic status. Marxist ideology would not recognise this as “Well, there I was, way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute, and all forms of challenge to the status quo. There is no overt criticism of the social and an achievement, since this mobility merely reinforces the unfair of a sudden I didn’t care. What was the use of doing great things if I could have a economic system but it could be argued that Nick’s narrative implicitly criticises the economic divide between rich and poor as opposed to dismantling the better time telling her what I was going to do?” hedonism and excess of the characters depicted, and by extension, the period in system completely. The ambiguity of this passage leaves the reader uncertain whether ambition has really which the novel is set. been abandoned or whether Gatsby has found a way to incorporate his relationship For some critics, Gatsby himself represents America, his dream the American Dream, with Daisy into his ‘business’. and his death the inevitable failure of that ideal; this can lead directly into a Marxist Another comment about Gatsby, explaining: exploration of the text, using the American Dream as a starting point for examining the motivations and outcomes of each character. The problem with this approach is “He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her that there is an inescapable seductiveness associated with wealth in this novel. Nick perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God” expresses this in his use of words such as ‘gorgeous’, ‘thrilling’ and ‘lovely’. His The highest status female characters in the text do not work, although description of Daisy’s voice is a very good example of this, and it is only revealed Jordan is apparently ‘absolutely in training’ as she is a professional Implies that his relationship limits his ambition. This is expressed in religious terms but towards the end of the novel that her voice is ‘full of money’ and that this is the true golfer. However, her reputation is tainted by rumours of cheating, we may have a worldly meaning. These are matters of great importance for interpreting the novel, since so many readers see Gatsby as tragically devoted to Daisy, whereas it source of her attractiveness. The glamour of the novel exerts a powerful force to never see her working, and Tom dismisses her claim to be in training can be argued that he is always primarily devoted to money and that Daisy merely obscure the reality of this society, and this must be attributed to the use of Nick as a with the comment, ‘How you ever get anything done is beyond me.’ represents money. narrator, a character who is morally ambivalent to the extent that he is quite Moreover, Daisy and Jordan are often presented as motionless, sitting complicit in the cover-up surrounding the deaths of Myrtle and Gatsby. or reclining, and when they do move it is ‘languidly’.

Myrtle differs from these women in that her socio-economic status is much lower, but she is more active in seeking to attain the symbols of Socially aspirational, Gatsby hides his origins, concocting elaborate stories to pretend George Wilson is the antithesis of Gatsby, someone who has worked hard and wealth when she is staying at Tom’s apartment and using his money. he has a higher status. This highlights the distinctions made in American society diligently for a long time, without gaining wealth or status. Wilson comes into She is single-mindedly acquisitive: between ‘old money’ (inherited wealth, based on a long family tradition of wealth) contact with the wealthy people of West Egg and East Egg, as he attempts to and the ‘newly rich’ such as Dan Cody and Gatsby (each becomes a millionaire in a I’m going to make a list of all the things I’ve got to get. A massage and make money from repairing and trading used cars and selling gas, but his short space of time). Tom and Mr Sloane, in Chapter 6, clearly recognise the subtle a wave and a collar for the dog and one of those cute little ashtrays hard work seems to facilitate their easy lives. Even in killing Gatsby, it could social distinction, while Gatsby does not, leaving him excluded from their supper party. where you touch a spring, and a wreath with a black silk bow for be argued that Wilson is exploited by Tom, doing the work that Tom is not mother’s grave that’ll last all summer. Nick’s comments would require consideration in a Marxist reading of the text: willing to undertake. It could be argued that, as Tom’s mistress, and in many ways similar to “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic A Marxist reading of the text would focus on Wilson as a representative of the the wives in the rest of the novel, Myrtle has access to his wealth in conception of himself. He was a son of God – a phrase which, if it means anything, proletariat, and the depiction of the valley of ashes, located on the journey return for her domestic and sexual contribution to the partnership. means just that – and he must be about His Father’s Business, the service of a vast, between Long Island and New York City. It has been said that Fitzgerald Daisy, in this respect, is very similar to Myrtle as she values Tom’s vulgar and meretricious beauty.” based this location on the Corona Ash Dumps, a place where ashes were wealth so highly that she prefers Tom despite her apparent love for dumped from coal furnaces. This waste product of a booming industry is Gatsby. This occurs twice, underlining the idea that Daisy appraises Such a blasphemous claiming of Jesus’ words from the New Testament in Luke 2:49) perhaps analogous with the idea of workers being dispensable and worthless. Tom’s wealth as greater and more secure. Gatsby and Tom are equally establish Gatsby as having great ambition, if not delusions of grandeur. The ‘business’ Aside from Michaelis, who has a role as narrator via Nick, almost all the other degraded in this competition, yet each encourages Daisy to judge appears, however, to be very worldly and ‘vulgar’, a reference to the pursuit of money workers in the text are anonymous, such as Nick’s ‘Finnish woman’, the them in material terms rather than on any personal aspects. – the total opposite of Christ’s teaching in Luke 6:20-21. faceless chauffeurs, butlers and other servants.

As The Great Gatsby secured its place in the American canon, Nick Carraway’s narration of the American dream found its way into most people’s lives. Although many modern critics today consider Carraway an unreliable narrator, the book is commonly taught emphasising his reliability. This pedagogical approach seems at first to be in bad faith. An investigation of the specific nature of Carraway’s narration and the place of Gatsby in the American canon suggests a pedagogical justification for what might otherwise seem a wrongheaded approach. When teaching Gatsby as a literary text it may be best to underline Nick Carraway’s unreliable narration; but the best approach to teaching the book as a critique of the American dream may be to reinstate Carraway as a It would be naive to expect a slow- thinking, sentimental, and occasionally dishonest narrator to be totally reliable. When trustworthy guide. Interestingly enough, F. Scott Fitzgerald does not seem to have intended any unreliability in the story’s narration. an element of distortion is added, the challenge of perception becomes prodigious. Carraway is particularly susceptible to

Fitzgerald’s letters to his editor, Max Perkins, concerning The Great Gatsby contain no indication of Carraway’s unreliability. Max alcohol in The Great Gatsby. On the afternoon of Myrtle's party, he states, "I sat down discreetly in the living-room and Perkins writes, “You adopted exactly the right method of telling it, that of employing a narrator who is more of a spectator than an read a chapter of Simon Called Peter—either it was terrible stuff or the whiskey distorted things, because it didn't make actor: this puts the reader upon a point of observation on a higher level than that on which the characters stand and at a distance any sense to me" (p. 19). A couple of weeks later at Gatsby's party, he notes, "I had taken two finger-bowls of that gives perspective” (Fitzgerald & Perkins, 82). Perkins is convinced by Carraway’s narration and believes him to give the reader champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound" (p. 31). But the greatest insight possible into the story and its characters. Moreover, criticism of The Great Gatsby at the time of publication does whiskey and champagne are not the only agents of distortion in The Great Gatsby. The East, in particular the two Eggs, not hint at Carraway’s unreliability. Until 1966, critics like E. Fred Carlisle, who calls Carraway “mature” and “informed” saw Carraway as reliable (Carlisle, 351). is an "enchanted wood," a "magical country”; indeed, it has the authenticity of Universal Studios. The houses tend to be re-creations and the people actors and actresses playing either self-conceived, as in the case of Gatsby, or socially- determined roles. In addition, Gatsby is a producer, a "regular Belasco" (p. 30), and perhaps prefiguration of Monroe Stahr. He attempts to re-create the past by conjuring what he imagines to be Louisville-type parties on the lot of his History of Unreliability Carraway’s untrustworthiness entered into literary criticism in the 1960s. The acceptance of a property. Curiously, Daisy finds even these too realistic, preferring the twice-removed gestures of "the moving-picture reliable Carraway at the time of publication falls under the definition of unreliability as explained and understood by director and his Star". Wayne Booth thirty years after publication. Booth, an American literary critic, defines unreliability as a narrator “at a distance” “who is presented as if he “spoke throughout for the norms of the book” but “does not in fact do so” and instead “pretends to qualities which the author denies him.” (Booth, 182-183). To begin with, Nick is not very intelligent. He draws attention to this fact by stating that Jordan Baker avoids "clever, shrewd men," and then admits to being "slow-thinking" himself.4 Secondly, it is generally accepted that Nick has at least a minor problem with Critics interested in the role of Nick Carraway as narrator in The Great Gatsby may be divided into two rather broad honesty. He lies to himself, and consequently the reader, about his relationship with a girl back home; he is challenged by Jordan, "I groups. The majority position is the traditional one: Nick is considered quite reliable, basically honest, and ultimately thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person" (p. 120); and, after Gatsby's death, he praises Catherine's character for changed by his contact with Gatsby.1 A variation of this interpretation has Carraway stumbling to his conclusion, lying to a judge. It would be incorrect to call Carraway a compulsive liar, but a mistake not to be wary of any further inconsistencies. thereby accounting for a number of discrepancies in his narration; in short, Nick progresses from innocence to In addition, it might be noticed that, while Nick has his two Midwestern feet firmly on the ground, his mind is not totally averse to a little sentimentality. Gatsby becomes his romantic hero by the end of the 1922 summer and is portrayed as such, sometimes to an experience before finally locating a moral vision.2 Against this position may be found a small number of critics who hold that Nick is quite unreliable: a sentimentalist at least, and possibly dishonest and immoral.3 Hence, The Great Gatsby is embarrassing extent, throughout the course of Nick's memoir. Lines such as, "Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn" (p. 1), are ultimately quite humorous in view of Carraway's beside-himself tendency to cheerlead. This is most either a deceptively tricky novel, or one that is artistically flawed in both character and structure. Both camps seem to agree on one point: the character of Gatsby remains static throughout die book; at the end he is still waiting for Daisy's obvious in the Plaza Hotel room confrontation between Tom and Gatsby; Nick says of his hero, "I wanted to get up and slap him on the back. I had one of those renewals of complete faith in him that I'd experienced before" (p. 86). telephone call, clutching, as it were, to his quixotic dream. The critical controversy merits a brief return to the text as our final understanding of Gatsby is almost entirely dependent upon the reliability of Carraway's narration.

The character of Gatsby does not remain "static" throughout the course of the summer's events; it is only Nick's conception of him that does.

This is evident in the symbolic portrayal of Gatsby's own house. It is first described as "a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in For all these obstacles, the reliability of Nick's narration is quite surprising. His "slow-thinking" is Normandy, with a tower on one side" (p. 4); in short, it is a palace, a castle out of a fairy tale. A couple of days before Gatsby's reunion with channelled into caution, his dishonesty is rare and ultimately acknowledged, and his break with Daisy, the mansion is "blazing" the peninsula with light; Gatsby is outside, "glancing into some of the rooms" (p. 54), savouring his dream at Jordan signals an astute, if slow to crystallise, moral sense. He has never had much difficulty seeing its peak. But, after his contact with Daisy, the "enchantment" of the house begins to dissipate. Before a couple of weeks have passed, the through the artifices of the East, perhaps because Tom and Daisy are such splendid examples of its mansion has lost its imaginative quality altogether, reflecting instead Gatsby's actual state: secretive and criminal. After Gatsby's ridiculous opulence. His tendency to an almost cinematic sentimentality is, however, never quite held in check; vigil before the altar of Daisy, after she has kept him waiting until four o'clock in the morning before turning out the light, Gatsby returns this leads to a misrepresentation of one of the most crucial scenes in the novel: to his house to do a mental inventory with Nick. Carraway first observes, "There was an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere, and the If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with rooms were musty, as though they hadn't been aired for many days" (p. 98). They throw open the French windows of the drawing room, a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he and Gatsby tells the true story of his past, relating the history of his love for Daisy. Nick notes, "It was dawn now on Long Island and we found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new went about opening the rest of the windows downstairs, filling the house with grey-turning, gold-turning light" (p. 101). The vacuity of his world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about . . . dream slowly "dawns" upon Gatsby; by noon, he has dismissed any last straws of hope and has once again begun to take charge of his life. like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees, (p. 108)

The description is melodramatic; that Gatsby would actually find leaves "frightening" and a rose As narrator, Nick is in the tradition of Bardeby's employer: a good enough fellow, prudent, slightly obtuse but, nevertheless, willing to help if he can. As "grotesq ue" is unlikely. In fact, Nick's projection of what his hero "must have felt" before death does Bartleby remains an enigma for his employer, so the East remains for Carraway "distorted beyond my eyes' power of correction" (p. 118). The employer is not at all correspond to Gatsby's movements of the day. For a man who has been broken by a blinded by the categories of the rational mind, whereas Carraway is distracted by an aptitude for sentimentality. Fortunately, Nick does not walk away dream, Gatsby has had a good breakfast with Nick, puts on his bathing suit at two o'clock, and goes completely empty -handed, and this is why the "Marlow e method" works so well. Nick's rejection of Jordan (and all that she represents) is surely a healthy to his garage for a pneumatic mattress. He uses the pool for the first time all summer, a summer sign, and one that cannot be dismissed as easily as a number of commentators have attempted.7 Still, Carraway ultimately misses the moral of his which has been marked by his obsession with an illusory dream. If anything, this suggests adjustment summer with Gatsby: one can neither go back in time, nor succeed in re-creating the past. Nick's return to the Midwest is not only a geographical retreat, but an attempted escape into an idyllic past. The sentimentality of his reminiscences stops just short of making angels in the snow: "That's my Middle and redirection —the pool, a baptism to life. Referring to Daisy's telephone call, Nick states, "I have an West—not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the drilling returning trains of my young, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the idea that Gatsby himself didn't believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared" (p. 108). The frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow" (p. 118). Nick's attempt at re-creating die past—the memoir of the fact that Nick himself had earlier in the afternoon tried to get Gatsby on the phone four times—only summer of 1922—is likewise doomed to failure. In detective-like fashion, he doggedly puts the pieces together, but finally succeeds in resurrecting only a to discover that the line was being "kept open for long distance from Detroit" (p. 104)—subtracts from shell of the events. In both his life and memoir, Nick glosses over Gatsby's final alternative to retreat—to make a stand, and adjust— suggesting a not the profundity of this observation. By afternoon, Gatsby was in no way expecting to hear from Daisy. very optimistic future ahead. So Nick beats on, boat against the current, being "borne back ceaselessly into the past."

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald blends the intense symbolism and figurative Before we can fully understand Postmodernist literature, we must first review some of the tenets of Modernism. language of modernism with the social and psychological believability of Modernism is marked by a strong and intentional break with tradition. This break includes a strong reaction against established religious, political, and social views. Think of how realism. Realism was a literary movement that originated in the mid- F. Scott Fitzgerald makes a strong and intentional break with the institution of marriage via the marriage of Daisy and Tom Buchanan. nineteenth century, and seeks to depict the world and people as they really are.

Realist writers employ specific details and psychologically complex, believable  Modernists believe the world is created in the act of perceiving it; that is, the world is what we say it is. Nearly all the characters in The Great Gatsby (with the occasional character s to provide insight into human nature and society. They were reacting exception of Nick Carraway) who live in his or her own reality. For example, Gatsby creates and lives in his own world separate from reality in which he can recreate the against romanticism, a previous dominant nineteenth-century school of literary past and win Daisy’s love. thought, which portrays an idealised world characterised by intense emotion.  Modernists do not subscribe to absolute truth. All things are relative. Something is moral or immoral according to specific situations. For example, do you believe the Realist authors George Eliot, Henry James, and Mark Twain set their novels in characters in The Great Gatsby believe that it is wrong to commit adultery at any time and in any given situation? Probably not. They most likely believe that some recogni sable locations, incorporated acute observations and meticulous detail, instances of adultery are less immoral than others depending on the situation.  Modernists feel no connection with history or institutions. Their experience is that of alienation, loss, and despair – clear links with Gatsby. and were more interested in complex, flawed characters than traditional  Modernists champion the individual and celebrate inner strength. archetypes. Their plots often prioritised characters’ emotional conflicts over  Modernists believe life is unordered. dramatic external events. While all realism, whether set in a country manor or  Modernists concern themselves with the sub-conscious. on the Mississippi, contains social commentary, social realism specifically critiques  Modernism is characterised by a "Westernisation" of many formerly traditional societies and nations and a resulting change in their values (often they are the detriment of a social or political issue—for example, Charles Dickens’s Bleak House satirizes the formerly traditional society and nation). These "modern" values include a belief in the desirability of industrialisation, individual political rights, democracy, mass the complicated legal system of Victorian England. literacy and education, private ownership of the means of production, the scientific method, public institutions like those in the West, middle class Western value systems, a disbelief in—or at least a questioning of—the existence of God, and (sometimes) the emancipation of women Modernism was a literary and artistic movement that began in the 1900s, as a response to the rise in technology and urbanisation in the wake of the Industrial "Postmodern" is the term used to suggest contemporary literature of the last half of the 20th century. It is different from Modernism is several ways Revolution. Like realists, modernist writers were interested in the individual, internal experience, and drew on theories of the unconscious to mine their  Whereas Modernism places faith in the ideas, values, beliefs, culture, and norms of the West, Postmodernism rejects Western values and beliefs as only a small part of the characters’ inner lives. But modernists were also interested in stylistic human experience and often rejects such ideas, beliefs, culture, and norms experimentation, fashioning new literary forms to explore breakdowns in  Whereas Modernism attempts to reveal profound truths of experience and life, Postmodernism is suspicious of being "profound" because such ideas are based on one traditional modes of communication and questioning the very nature of reality particular Western value systems. Whereas Modernism attempts to find depth and interior meaning beneath the surface of objects and events, Postmodernism prefers to dwell on the exterior image and itself. Their work expressed concerns about automation at the turn of the  avoids drawing conclusions or suggesting underlying meanings associated with the interior of objects and events. century, and, later, horror at the First World War and its aftermath. Following  Whereas Modernism focused on central themes and a united vision in a particular piece of literature, Postmodernism sees human experience as unstable, internally the war, several American writers, including Fitzgerald, moved to Paris and contradictory, ambiguous, inconclusive, indeterminate, unfinished, fragmented, discontinuous, "jagged," with no one specific reality possible. Therefore, it focuses on a began meeting at the home of the poet Gertrude Stein. The writers of this so- vision of a contradictory, fragmented, ambiguous, indeterminate, unfinished, "jagged" world. called “Lost Generation” strove to represent the struggle of the individual in  Whereas Modern authors guide and control the reader’s response to their work, the postmodern writer creates an "open" work in which the reader must supply his own the face of the chaos, anonymity, and alienating effects of modernity. In Ulysses, connections, work out alternative meanings, and provide his own (unguided) interpretation. It is important to keep in mind that the postmodern author rarely provides closure; it is up to the reader to put all the pieces together based on his/her interpretation. Did Gatsby’s death and its aftermath bring closure to you as a reader? James Joyce incorporated made-up words and obscure references, representing  Whereas the Modernist novel mourns the loss of a coherent world, the postmodern novel celebrates and revels in the chaos. the impossibility of truly understanding anything in the world. Stream-of- consciousness, another non-traditional narrative form, was popularized by Additional Characteristics of Postmodernism in Fiction Virginia Woolf in Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, and sought to replicate the continuous, unedited nature of individual thought.  Irony, absurdity, playfulness & black humour: treating serious subjects as a joke, sometimes with emotionally distant authors. Playfulness is central to postmodernism; it reinforces the idea that there is no organising principle in a chaotic world. Because he was writing at the height of modernism and interacted with famous  Distrust: proponents of the movement such as Gertrude Stein, Fitzgerald is most often o of theories and ideologies; remembered as an American modernist, and Gatsby has many modernist o of the author/narrator, undermining his control of one voice o of modern assumptions about culture, identity, & history, elements. At the end of the book Nick references the artist El Greco, a 16th  Pastiche (mixing genres) as an homage to or a parody of past literary styles century painter who has been called “the first modernist” for the way his  Metafiction: making the artificiality of writing apparent to the reader, i.e. deliberate strategies to prevent the usual suspension of disbelief, drawing attention to the paintings distorted figures and fractured colour to investigate surface reality. conventions of literature Similarly, many of Gatsby’s descriptions – “blue smoke,” a “grotesque” rose,  Poioumena: purporting to be one kind of narrative, when it’s really another, exploring the boundaries of fiction and reality “shining dust,” are poetic distortions of reality. The characterisation of  Historiographic metafiction: fictionalising actual events and figures from history automobiles, and technology in general, as dangerous yet alluring also reflect  Temporal distortion: events can overlap, repeat, or multiple events can occur simultaneously, often to achieve irony. modernist anxieties about automation. At the same time, Gatsby does not fully  Technoculture and hyper-reality: worlds & characters inundated with information, focused on technology in everyday life, swamped by products and bombarded belong to modernism because of its many realist attributes such as setting, by advertising, ambiguity about what’s real and what’s simulated. detail, and social commentary. Gatsby’s satiric portrayal of many characters  Paranoia: subverting or parodying the belief that there is some power or ordering system behind the chaotic postmodern world. The postmodernist believes that the critiques American concepts of social mobility, and the novel on a whole can be search for order is pointless and absurd.  : sprawling canvas and fragmented narrative i.e. looking disorganised and filled with playful language for its own sake. read as an examination into the false promise of the American Dream. Maximalism  : short, ‘slice-of-life’ stories where readers have to use their own imaginations to create the story. Unexceptional characters, economy with words. Spare Fitzgerald’s approach to character is more realist than modernist in that he Minimalism style: anti adjectives, adverbs and meaningless details. explores how characters function in their social milieu, rather than concentrating  Faction: blending fact and fiction, especially historical novels or those using real living personalities e.g. world politicians or celebrities. entirely on the inner world of one or two protagonists. Ultimately, the novel  Magic realism: imaginary themes and subjects, with a dream-like quality, mixing the real with the fantastic, surreal and bizarre. Time shifts, dreams, myths and fairy utilises both styles in following modernist Ezra Pound’s dictate to “make it new.” stories as part of the narrative, arcane erudition, inexplicable events, elements of surprise or abrupt shock.  Intertextuality: quotations, references and allusions, designed to make apparent that every text absorbs and transforms some other text somewhere.

The Great Gatsby can be considered a tragedy in that it revolves around a larger-than-life hero whose pursuit of an impossible goal blinds The Great Gatsby is an example of literary realism because it depicts the world as it really is. Realist novels him to reality and leads to his violent death. According to the classical definition of tragedy, the hero possesses a tragic flaw that compels employ geographically precise settings and locations, factual historic events, and accurate descriptions of social him to reach for something or attempt something that precipitates a disastrous result. Writers employ the conventions of tragedy to explore systems to reflect and implicitly critique contemporary society. Realist writers strive to reflect a world the reader characters’ relationship to fate and free will, and provide a catharsis, or emotional release, in audiences. Gatsby’s tragic flaw is his inability recognises, and provide insight into how human nature functions in this reality. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s to wake up from his dream of the past and accept reality. His obsession with recapturing his past relationship with Daisy compels him to a characters move through Manhattan landmarks such as the Plaza Hotel, Pennsylvania Station, and Central life of crime and deceit. He becomes a bootlegger, does business with a gangster, and creates a false identity. He is rumoured to have killed Park. East and West Egg are recognizable as fictionalised versions of the real towns of East and West Hampton. a man. He briefly attains his goal of being reunited with the object of his obsession, but wilfully blinds himself to the reality of the situation: References to the First World War and Prohibition situate the novel in a specific time and place. The great that Daisy is no longer the young woman he fell in love with in Louisville. Rather, she is a married mother with no real intention of leaving economic disparity of the early 1920s, presented in the contrast between Gatsby’s extravagant parties and the her husband. While Gatsby’s criminal behaviour is self-destructive, his tragic refusal to see reality ultimately leads to his death. destitute families living in the valley of ashes, also realistically portray the social order of the novel’s time.

Despite telling the story of Gatsby’s downfall, Nick does not present him as a particularly dark character, instead expressing admiration for Fitzgerald’s frank acknowledgement of sex, adultery, and divorce further ground the plot in reality.

Gatsby’s “extraordinary gift for hope” and “romantic readiness.” But Gatsby’s romantic hopefulness functions as a flaw, rather than a virtue.

It leads him to crime, violence, and ultimately a form of suicide, when he takes the blame for Myrtle’s death. One could argue that the rigidity of the American class system means Gatsby is fated to fail to achieve his dream, an example of tragedy being determined by fate.

Another interpretation is that Gatsby wilfully chooses his dream over reality, a counter example of tragedy being impelled by free will. Nick Fitzgerald’s use of irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to mock hypocritical social types also qualifies The Great suggests this interpretation when he says, about Gatsby’s last moments, “He must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a Gatsby as a social satire. Characters in social satires are frequently unsympathetic, functioning as emblems of high price for living too long with a single dream.” Either way, Gatsby’s inherent flaw leads to his ruin and the death of several characters, social problems in order to highlight inequality and injustice. In Gatsby, many of the minor characters serve as as in the classic definition of tragedy. symbols of the mindless excess and superficiality of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald catalogues the many guests at

Gatsby’s parties with humorous disdain: the three Mr. Mumbles, the man in the library who is shocked to discover

the books on the shelves are real, the group who “flipped their noses up like goats at whosoever came near,” the

The Great Gatsby is also an example of modernism, a literary and artistic movement that reacted against the girls whose last names were “either the melodious names of flowers… or the sterner ones of the great American romantic, often sentimental novels and art of the Victorian period, and reached its height during and after World capitalists.” Fitzgerald satirises capitalism in general with the figure of the man selling puppies outside the train

War I. Modernist writers were concerned with the individual’s experience in a rapidly industrializing society, and station who bears “an absurd resemblance to John D. Rockefeller.” By comparing a powerful tycoon to a street rallied to modernist poet Ezra Pound’s declaration “Make it new!” Fitzgerald, who was part of the same group as vendor, Fitzgerald satirises the self-importance of the American ruling class.

Pound, said his goal for The Great Gatsby was to write “something new.” In the novel, the encroachment of But while some social satire retains a superficial tone throughout, The Great Gatsby goes deeper into human modernity is seen in the descriptions of the valley of ashes, as well as the “red-belted ocean-going ships,” trains, and fallibility. The tragedy at the book’s end, in which Myrtle Wilson, Gatsby, and George Wilson all die in quick most of all, automobiles. The sardonic descriptions of the latest innovations, such as “a machine which could extract succession, is treated without humour. This chain of events illustrates the heartlessness of the characters involved, the juice…of two hundred oranges…if a little button was pressed two hundred times,” implies a certain amount of but also reveals Gatsby’s humanity, and treats him as a character worthy of the reader’s sympathy after Daisy anxiety about the increasing automation of everyday life. Fitzgerald portrays both the exhilaration of urban abandons him. Nick’s comment that Gatsby is “better than the whole damn bunch put together,” and his loyalty landscapes – “the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye” – after Gatsby is killed suggests that Gatsby’s death has true consequence. This solemn tone contrasts with the and the lonely anonymity of workers in the “white chasms” of the city. But in other aspects Fitzgerald deviates from lighter, more satiric tone of the book’s beginning. Satire is often limited in its ability to engage emotions of modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Their novels Mrs. Dalloway and Ulysses both follow one or sadness, sympathy, and melancholy, and Fitzgerald uses a more serious tone to communicate these emotions. He two characters over the course of a single day, and are narrated in a stream of consciousness style of interior expands his main characters, especially Nick and Gatsby, beyond caricature into fully realised, believable monologue, while Gatsby has a more traditional plot and narrative style. individuals.

Narrator Nick Carraway discusses his family background and recent experiences, including college (university), the Great War, moving to the East (of the USA), settling in his new house and going into the ‘bond business’. Nick having rented a small house on the promontory of West Egg, the action begins with his visit to the East Egg house of his distant cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, whom Nick knew from College as a skilled footballer from a wealthy family. He also meets their guest Jordan Baker, who confides that Tom has a mistress. During the visit Nick observes and gains some insight into the nature of the Buchanans’ relationship. When he returns to his rented house at night, he notices his neighbour, Jay Gatsby, making a mysterious gesture towards Daisy’s house in the ‘unquiet darkness’.

Issues of perspective are highlighted in the first part of this chapter and profoundly affect the rest of the novel. However, Fitzgerald is subtle in raising these issues, deliberately leaving the reader with the difficult decision of which ‘window’ to choose. The main purpose of this first chapter is to introduce the characters and setting of the book. Nick Carraway, the narrator Turning over in my mind ever since - The first idea that Nick presents us with has the effect of destabilising readers’ judgements from the outset. of the entire story, is clearly depicted. He is a young man in his late twenties who grew up in the Midwest in a prominent, respected middle class family with Scottish ancestry. He says he is a decent human being who was taught at an early Whenever you feel … you’ve had - Criticism, meaning here the negative assessment of someone’s ideas or achievements, is undermined by the age to reserve judgment, a trait which has made him a confidante to many people in his life. He graduated from New mitigating factor of disadvantage. The opening few lines create uncertainty in the reader and a sense of only having partial knowledge of the Haven (Yale) in 1915, and then served in the military in World War I. When he returned to the Midwest after the war, he meanings. quickly grew restless and found his small hometown to be too confining. As a result, he has come to New York City to learn the bond business, like many of his friends. He has rented a home on West Egg, one of two identical (in Victim … unjustly accused - The ineffectiveness of his father’s advice is demonstrated by what has happened to Nick at college among his peers, appearance) egg- shaped islands located on Long Island Sound, twenty miles from the city. His house is a small and establishes him as the recipient of ‘plagiaristic’ and ‘marred’ revelations. In conferring a sense of superiority on the holder, it’s also condemned as bungalow, renting for $80 per month; it is really an eyesore located between two large m ansions. The one on his right is ‘snobbish’. Nick thus undermines himself and his father still further. a “colossal affair,” fashioned after a City Hall in Normandy, France, complete with marble swimming pool and forty acres of lawn and gardens. Nick has learned that a Mr. Jay Gatsby owns and inhabits the mansion. The narrati on takes Reserving judgements - Nick reveals that he does not always follow his father’s advice himself, further destabilising the reader. place more than a year after the incidents described, so Nick is working through the filter of memory in relaying the story's events. The reader knows immediately that the story has already taken place and that Nick is telling it to us In uniform and at a sort of moral attention for ever - Nick’s experience in the East has made him yearn for moral certainties. through the filter of time. He is distanced from the events at hand and is recounting them by way of memory. It is Only Gatsby - In yet another change of direction, Nick then exempts Gatsby from this decision, introducing his character at a point where the imperative that readers trust him, then, because time can distort memories, and the reception to the story hinges largely on his impartiality and good judgment. To ensure that readers don't think Nick is superhuman in his goodness, however, reader has already been so disorientated that they no longer know how they should regard the narrative. Fitzgerald gives him a mortal side. Nick's reservation of judgment about people is carefully calculated ("snobbish," as he Represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn - Gatsby is introduced negatively. even says) and even Nick, the rational narrator, can be pushed too far. His tolerance has a limit, and it is the challenge to this limit that forms the basis of the book at hand. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures … something gorgeous about him … find again - Nick changes tack and is positive about his neighbour, within a conditional framing clause. Can we trust anything Nick says? He has twisted and turned endlessly in this East Egg is located across a small bay from West Egg, but they are separated by more than a body of water. West Egg is opening page of the novel, and concludes by making a judgement on Gatsby, which is tied up very closely with his subjective and possibly unreliable the less fashionable island, peopled with flashy mansions built by new money; in contrast, East Egg is filled with the reactions to events which are not yet revealed to us: – Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in fashionable, substantial, and sturdy palaces representing the old guard and inherited wealth. It is on East Egg that Nick the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men. Carraway’s distant cousin Daisy lives with her husband Tom Buchanan. Tom, who was at Yale with Nick, was a football - Nick recounts his family history, leading to his experience in the Great War (America’s involvement in the 1914-18 conflict started when hero in college and comes from an enormously wealthy Chicago family. After marrying Daisy, the two of them “drifted” My family for several years from place to place, including a year’s stay in France. Now Tom has brought his polo ponies east and she declared war on Germany in 1917) and explaining his restlessness and eventual arrival East in Spring 1922. established himself and his family in an elaborate Georgian Colonial mansion on East Egg, of which he is very proud. So much fine health to be pulled down out of the young, breath-giving air - Nick’s initial experiences are very positive and there is a strong sense of ambition (‘high intention’) to succeed at many things. However, this is immediately undercut with the phrase, ‘that most limited of all Nick has been invited to dinner at the Buchanans. When he arrives at their home, he is amazed at its size and the specialists, the ‘well-rounded man’’ and the final comment: This isn’t just an epigram – life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, expansive grounds that run from the house for a quarter of a mile down to the beach. Tom Buchanan, his thirty year old after all. host, is standing on the wide front porch, dressed in his riding clothes. Nick immediately notices that Tom has changed since his college days. Although still blond, handsome, and muscular, he appears more sturdy and arrogant; in fact, Nick Midas and Morgan and Maecenas - Nick refers to: King Midas for whom, according to Greek legend, everything he touched turned to gold. comments that Tom has a “cruel body, capable of enormous leverage,” an analysis which foreshadows Tom’s future J.P.Morgan (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913), an American financier and banker of enormous wealth. Maecenas (29 April 70 BC – October 8 BC), a actions. Tom is an impressive figure, dressed for a sport linked closely with people of wealth and means ("effeminate Roman politician whose name was a byword for wealth and generosity to the arts. swank" as Nick calls it). He stands boldly, with "a rather hard mouth," "a supercilious manner," "two shining arrogant eyes," and speaks with "a touch of paternal contempt." Clearly, Tom is not a gentle and sensitive man. Rather, he is harsh and powerful, caring little for social equality and protocol. He has rank and privilege and that's the way he wants to keep it. The first words out of his mouth — "I've got a nice place here" — bring home his inbred superiority as well. As Another key theme introduced at the dinner party is that of societal expectation. Much of The Great Gatsby centres on appearances the story unfolds, Tom serves as a foil to Gatsby, marking a striking contrast from Gatsby's newly found wealth and and the rift between who or what one is and who or what society wishes or expects. Fitzgerald has already given a sense of this dreamy nature. dichotomy when first introducing the Buchanans: They're expected to be gracious and generous, but instead seem shallow and superficial. Just as Nick prepares to head home for the night, Daisy calls for him to wait because she "forgot to ask [him] something, and In total contrast to Tom’s appearance, Daisy, Tom’s wife and Nick’s cousin, appears to be light as a feather. It is an it's important." "We heard you were engaged to a girl out West," Daisy begins. Nick denies the rumour flatly: "It's a libel. I'm too poor" appropriate image, for there is not much depth to her. She sits inside the living room on a sofa and is dressed in a (curiously, his response also brings home another of the story's key themes — wealth — and as the story unfolds, money and marriage lightweight, white garment that is rippling in the breeze, giving the young woman the image of floating. Her voice, light are at its heart). Daisy insists, "But we heard it . . . we heard it from three people, so it must be true." Nick, aware of what they are and thrilling to Nick, intensifies the cool, airy picture of her appearance, but as she speaks, Daisy reveals that her purpose in life, like her looks, is also “flitting.” She tells Nick that they will all have to plan to do something, but it is referring to, reveals that the hometown gossip over his engagement was, in fact, part of what brought him East; he had "no intention of beyond Daisy to make any plans. She even says of herself that each year she looks forward to June 21, the longest day of being rumoured into marriage." Nick, strong enough to withstand social pressure, becomes a striking contrast to the people introduced the year, and then manages to miss it each time. Throughout the evening, she continues with such inconsequential throughout the rest of the story who will, time after time, succumb to the power of suggestion, oftentimes to dire ends. chatter. When Nick looks in her eyes, he sees the true Daisy, for they hold a sadness and absence of desire. Fitzgerald Nick, strangely "confused and a little disgusted" as he drives home, finds an equally curious sight waiting for him when he arrives at his sets the women, Daisy and her friend Jordan Baker, in a dreamlike setting, emphasizing their inability to deal with house. While sitting outside, he sees Gatsby's silhouette as he crosses to the water. Nick, seeing something in Gatsby's behaviour that reality. Both young women, dressed entirely in white (suggesting purity or, in contrast, a void of something such as suggests he wishes to be alone, remains in the shadows watching. Gatsby proceeds to the water and stretches out his arms toward the intellectualism), are engulfed by the expansiveness of the room in which they are sitting. In one of Fitzgerald's many water, trembling. Nick, looking to see what Gatsby was gesturing to, finds nothing but "a single green light, minute and far away, that evocative and imagistic passages, he notes how both women's dresses are "rippling and fluttering as if they had just been might have been the end of a dock." This single green light has gone on to become one of the most famous symbols in all of American blown back in after a short flight around the house." As Tom shuts the windows and the breeze dissipates, "the two literature (see the Chapter 5 commentary for an explanation). It appears here, in Chapter 5, and again at the book's end. The light young wome n ballooned slowly to the floor." Hardly could a more languid image be created. These are not people who concern themselves with eking out a living. marks Daisy's house — Gatsby's gesture toward it, as the later chapters show, is a gesture of love.

Instead of being the warm centre of the world the middle-west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe — so I Based on real settlements called East and West Hampton, these are two very wealthy residential areas on Long Island, separate d by a bay. decided to go east and learn the bond business. West Egg - Gatsby's house is in West Egg, which Nick, aware he is oversimplifying, describes as 'the less fashionable' of the two, although he adds that the differences between the areas are 'bizarre and not a little sinister'. Although Gatsby's house is huge and lavish, it is tasteless, showing his lack The contrast between the east coast of the United States and the Midwest is an important theme in The Great Gatsby . The United States of America grew from east to west, beginning with the independence of the original 13 colonies (of of real sophistication. Nick sneers at it for being unattractive and looking like a copy of a Normandy Hôtel de Ville. This suggests its design is which New York State is one, and which are all represented in the US flag by the 13 red and white stripes) in the late inappropriately grandiose for a dwelling house. It is significant that it is an imitation, as Gatsby himself is an imitation. The fact it is obviously new is a 1780s after the War of Indepe ndence against Great Britain. There then followed the colonisation of the southern states in negative feature because it means it has a lack of heritage, something Tom mocks Gatsby for when he calls him "Mr Nobody from Nowhere". Fitzgerald's use of personification in the phrase "a thin beard of raw ivy" is effective in again demanding comparison with its occupant. The the early and mid -19th century and the settling of the Midwest and west in the mid and late 19th and early 20th century. ‘East’ as used by Nick and others really means the northeast – New England (the states of Massachusetts, image is comic, but also suggests youth and vulnerability, as well as a wish for concealment – just as Gatsby is concealing his real self. Nick's house, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire), New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. It contains the which he mocks as a "small eyesore" , is also in West Egg. However, Nick has admitted his family are 'well -to-do' and his poverty is only assumed. cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and the capital, Washington, amongst others, as well as the six Ivy League When he describes his little house as "squeezed between two huge places" , this looks forward to Nick being caught in the emotion al crossfire colleges, including New Haven (Yale) college in Connecticut, alma mater of Nick and Tom. It was in the northeast that between Gatsby and the Buchanans. the first colonists arrived, that the American Revolution began, that the American War of Independence was fought and that both the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence were drafted and signed. In 1922, to an even East Egg - Daisy and Tom live in East Egg, which is much more exclusive and where the old money set live. The phrase "indiscernible barbed greater extent than today, the East was the cultural, commercial, political and historical hub of the United States. wire" used in chapter eight sums up the social barrier between the two 'Eggs' which even money can't penetrate. While East Egg is also expensive and luxurious, it is beautiful: The word 'palaces' evokes connotations of royalty, and although they have no titles, the Buchanans are the American In 1922 the Midwest, by contrast, contained very few large cities, with the notable exception of Tom Buchanan’s home equivalent of aristocrats. 'Glit tered' perhaps suggests hardness and impenetrability as well as beauty. The use of plurals suggests that with the city, Chicago, Illinois. The Americans who settled the Midwest in the 19th century were, for the most part, immigrant Buchanans, money is no object: following on from a huge lawn are "sundials and brick walks and burning gardens". Nick is enchanted by his farmers eager leave the crowded cities of the East for the vast tracts of fertile land to the west. Their great migration first view of their house: The Buchanans' house is was driven largely by a movement called Manifest Destiny, the belief that bringing civilisation to the west was ordained "the front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold." the epitome of good taste: 'Georgian colonial' suggests an illustrious ancestral background, although we learn later Tom actually bought the house by God. Nick, Gatsby, Tom, Daisy and Jordan reverse this natural trend by moving back to the east coast. Nick says that when he informed his aunts and uncles of his intention to move East they reluctantly agreed while looking at him from "an oil man". Daisy's drawing room seems as delicate and charming as Daisy herself on first appearance: "a bright rosy-coloured space, with ‘grave, hesitant faces.’ Wise elders that they are, they sense something ominous in this reverse migration. Nick’s fragilely bound into the house" …with a "frosted wedding -cake" of a ceiling and a '"wine -coloured" rug. However, Nick's description relatives are right, of course, though Nick realises this only in chapter nine as his East coast dream fades with the includes discordant notes : the breeze blowing through the open windows causes the curtains to "whip and snap" and a picture to "groan" . summer. As he prepares to head west once more, he begins reminiscing about his youth: These sharp, negative monosyllables hint at the tensions in the household. Most significantly, Daisy's house has a private dock on the water with a "green light". It is this which comes to symbolise Gatsby's dream.

One of my most vivid memories is of coming back west from prep school and later from college at Christmas time…When we pulled out into the winter night and the real snow, our snow, began to stretch out beside us and twinkle against the windows, and the dim lights of small Wisconsin stations moved by, a sharp wild brace came suddenly into - a little world the human race or human nature seen as an epitome (see EPITOME SENSE 1) of the world or the universe the air. We drew in deep breaths of it as we walked back from dinner through the cold vestibules, unutterably aware of Microcosm : our identity with this country for one strange hour before we melted indistinguishably into it again.

Macrocosm - 1: the great world - a complex that is a large-scale reproduction of one of its constituents This contrasts sharply with Nick’s sensation in chapter two during the gathering in Myrtle’s flat in Manhattan on a warm summer evening when he feels ‘within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelle d by the inexhaustible variety of life.’ In the fresh, wild air of the Midwest he has an identity; but in the East any sense of belonging is quickly trample d Microcosm and macrocosm are two aspects of a theory developed by ancient Greek philosophers to describe human beings and thei r place in the by something unpleasant. Continuing his reflection of the Midwest, Nick says, universe. These early thinkers viewed the individual human being as a little world whose composition and structure correspond to that of the universe, or great world. Kosmos at this time meant "order" in a general sense and implied a harmonious, and therefore beautiful, arrangement of That’s my middle we st—not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns but the thrilling, returning trains of my parts in any organic system; hence it also referred to order in human societies, refle cted in good government. Comparisons between society and the youth and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted human being, as well as society and the universe, were varieties of microcosmic theory. windows on the snow. I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house in a city where dwellings are still called through decades by a family’s name. I see The Great Gatsby brings about a microcosm of what is really bigger with adultery, prostitution and affairs. F.Scott Fitzgerald creates a world that is now that this has been a story of the West, after all--- Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, plagued with sex. Consent anger in a relationship can lead to physical violence. The main characters of the novel illustrates these sort of behaviours. and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life. Those who are out of control lead a path towards destruction of themselves and others. Reputations of many of the character are left tarnished because the truth has finally been revealed. Gatsby's reputation is ruined after the death of Myrtle.

New York is sort of a microcosm of American society and the American dream. Hope and dream are the two major ingredients of this dream. Wilson represents the working class who must constantly struggle to make ends meet. The Buchanan’s, on the other hand, have unimaginable  Who might we want to criticise in this novel? wealth. In Fitzgerald's America, if you are not rich, at least you can hope and dream to become something. Ironically Gatsby, who has become  Of whom might Nick be critical? something, is looked down upon by the old establishment. Still, chapter one sets us up for what defines the characters that we meet in the novel. o Do they fit the criteria of not having ‘the advantages that you’ve had’? Even people of wealth, having achieved the "dream", hope to be happy.  Do you assume that the ‘advantages’ are monetary? o What other kinds of advantage might there be? The author wished to reveal the falsehood and degradation of the American Dream through the character of Jay Gatsby, who represents a  ‘he meant a great deal more than that.’ What more do you think Nick’s father meant? microcosm of the experience of a nation. In the twenties, it was as though the privileged classes closed ranks to protect themselves from the ugliness o Could the idea of criticism be extended to include literary criticism or interpretation? of the world as it emerged from the Great War and being plunged into a depression. Their wealth acted as a shield against grubby reality.  Look more closely at the characters of Daisy and Tom. At the end of the novel, Nick comments that they are ‘careless people’. Can you find any evidence showing them to be careless or corrupt? Fitzgerald has a great way of making The Great Gatsby presents a harsh picture of the world he sees around him. The 1920s marked a time of great o Does this comment extend to Jordan or Nick himself? post-war economic growth, and Fitzgerald captures the frenzy of the society while making The Great Gatsby into an accurate microcosm. Fitzgerald had no way of foreseeing the stock market crash of 1929, the world he presents in The Great Gatsby seems clearly to be headed for disaster. They  Consider the structure of this chapter – how does Nick order his recollections and his thoughts here? incorrectly place their faith in superficial means, such as money and materialism, while neglecting to manage the compassion and sensitivity that, in o What narrative devices does he use? fact, separates humans from objects.

This chapter opens with a description of the ‘valley of ashes’, between West Egg and New York, and an advertisement which fea tures the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. Nick then narrates a meeting with Tom’s mistress who lives with her husband George Wilson , at a garage in that ‘waste land’. Nick, Tom and Mrs Wilson travel into New York and to an apartment, where guests are invited and everyone gets drunk. Mrs Wilson, now identified as Myrtle, spends Tom’s money on numerous luxury items, including a puppy, clothing, perfume and magazines, and makes highly critical comments about her husband. Tom’s deceitfulness is compounded by the information which Myrtle’s sister offers Nick. She asserts that Tom’s wife refuses to divorce him because she is Catholic, and that this is the barrier to Tom marrying Myrtle. The ‘elaborateness’ of Tom’s lie shocks Nick, given that he knows his cousin is not a Catholic. As the party becomes increasingly drunk, Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose in response to her saying Daisy’s name. Nick leaves the party at this point, following one of the guests, Mr McKee. He seems to spend some brief time in Mr McKee’s home and then finds himself half-asleep at the railway station at four o’clock in the morning.

Valley of ashes - This location is crucial to the novel as a symbol of cultural and spiritual bankruptcy, which commuters from Myrtle is associated with desire and restlessness, and the remainder of the chapter reveals that, while she is an object of physical gratification for Tom, her true desires are for material objects. Myrtle’s purchases are related by West Egg must experience in their daily journey to New York. We are told that the motor road tries to ‘shrink away’ from this place, using personification to suggest the responses of the drivers themselves. Even on the train, ‘the passengers can stare at the Nick: two society magazines, cold cream, perfume, a puppy and then items for the puppy. She later decides to dismal scene for as long as half an hour’ or must ‘halt there … at least a minute’ – forcing some contemplation of its existence. The ‘make a list of all the things I’ve got to get’. We are told that the dust of the valley does not settle on Myrtle as she connotations of ‘ashes’ (death, fire, sterility and, in religious terms, the mortality of flesh and the folly of materialism) are heavily ‘moved closer to Tom’, so in her aspiration to gain wealth and status she escapes the dust, albeit temporarily. underlined in this passage. The fusion of mythical and realist elements in the description of this valley is reminiscent of T S Eliot’s Myrtle transforms herself still further as she changes her dress and exudes an ‘impressive hauteur’. However, poem The Waste Land, which concerns itself with spiritual decay. Myrtle’s attempts to reinvent herself are presented as artificial, and she suffers humiliation and pain at the hands

Fitzgerald uses nightmarish and hellish imagery to describe this location, inverting the usual agricultural landscapes associated with of Tom. American prosperity. The valley is a ‘fantastic farm’ where normal objects (wheat, hills, gardens, houses, chimneys, men) are made - Nick, Tom and Myrtle go to Tom’s apartment in New York, and more guests of ashes, but are ‘grotesque’, alive, growing and moving about. Company commenced to arrive are invited for a small-scale party (compared to the grand and excessive parties at Gatsby’s house). Myrtle’s sister,

Fantastic – associated with fantasy, rather than the more modern positive meaning. This word has undergone semantic Catherine, and the McKees appear, and Nick joins Tom in drinking whisky. The effects of the alcohol are conveyed change since the writing of the novel. by the narrative style from this point: it becomes tentative and confused (‘it didn’t make any sense to me’) with time passing unnoticed: “It was nine o’clock – almost immediately afterwards I looked at my watch and found it - There is a sense of work being done in this location, but the language emphasises the A line of grey cars… comes to rest was ten. The mood is increasingly unpleasant as Nick perceives Myrtle as: revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot proximity to death as the line of cars (reminiscent of a funeral procession) ‘gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest’. through the smoky air and the repetition of the words ‘shrill’ and ‘shout’.”

Ash-grey men - This suggests that the inhabitants are between life and death, reinforced by their moving ‘dimly and already Nick witnesses more of Tom’s dishonesty – his ruse about Daisy’s Catholicism. The subsequent discussion of crumbling through the powdery air’. (See Earth, clay, dust.)In terms of the American Dream, and the goal of economic wealth, marriage between Mrs McKee and Myrtle proceeds on the assumption that marriage is inevitable and that these figures are excluded and faceless. The phrase ‘dumping ground’ reinforces the idea of these men being the detritus of women are acquired by men. The tension of the party leads eventually to violent action by Tom in response to American society. Myrtle saying Daisy’s name and defying him: “Making a short, deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” Nick reports this with Tom’s full name, and a matter-of-fact tone, as if making a legal Swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from statement. Tom’s easy violence is further evidence of his character and also functions as a foreshadowing of your sight - This is an even more disturbing image, as the workers’ activity is hidden and menacing. The mention of spades Myrtle’s death, which directly results from her competition with Daisy for Tom’s affection. Nick’s subsequent reinforces the funerary image created by the line of cars. departure from the party (with Mr McKee) suggests that the men are escaping female hysteria and confusion. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg - This feature is located ‘above the grey land’ and is actually a giant advertising hoarding, Mr McKee - Nick’s departure from the party with Mr McKee around midnight and subsequent visit to Mr McKee’s indicating the dominance of commercialism in American culture. The decay of this hoarding, as it has been abandoned and then apartment is related in a discontinuous chronology, reflecting the advanced stage of drunkenness that Nick has ‘dimmed a little by many pointless days, under sun and rain’ further develops the sense in which commercial enterprise has had a reached. The passage ends with him finding himself ‘lying half-asleep in the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania negative and lasting impact. The connotations of the eyes as they ‘brood on over the solemn dumping ground’ suggest that there is Station’ around four o’clock in the morning. The intervening hours are represented in two short scenes, in the a higher level of awareness, even a deity, with a greater perspective than that of mere human underneath the ‘gigantic’ elevator and in Mr McKee’s bedroom. Both of these scenes could be read as having homoerotic undertones. billboard. Mr McKee has earlier been described as a ‘pale, feminine man’ and Nick notes that he was compelled to wipe his Nick refers to the billboard as if it is real, with a ‘persistent stare’. Ironically, Wilson misinterprets the eyes as being the eyes of God, face, because a ‘spot of dried lather’ had ‘worried me all afternoon.’ This is one of the few tender moments in Chapter 8, in an attempt to assert the importance of private moral values over the public appearance of virtue. (‘You may fool associated with Nick, along with his kiss with Jordan at the end of Chapter 4. me, but you can’t fool God!’). This is a futile claim precisely because the omniscient ‘God’ here is artificial and only a symbol of commercialism. Small Foul River - This detail is reminiscent of Hades and the River Styx, especially with the reference to ‘barges’ passing through.   List the different aspects of Chapter 2 which are concerned with religion. Myrtle / Wilson - Having set the scene in this chapter, Fitzgerald then introduces two important characters, Tom’s mistress  What are the differences between the party at Tom’s flat and the other parties in the novel? (Myrtle) and her husband (George Wilson, known as Wilson).  Nick observes several betrayals in this chapter – which do you find the most shocking and why?  ‘I knew he was below me….But if I hadn’t met Chester, he’d of got me sure.’ How does Mrs McKee’s - The location is again important in identifying the Wilsons’ social status and role in The interior was unprosperous and bare comment reflect on the marriage of Daisy and Tom? the novel.  Fitzgerald is here depicting the poorer members of American society – why do you think he chooses to The dust-covered wreck of a Ford which crouched in a dim corner - Cars are symbolic throughout The Great Gatsby, as give Wilson the occupation of repairing cars? objects associated with technological progress and consumerism in America. The image of the wrecked car is a particularly  List all the occupations of characters in the novel and consider their significance. powerful sign of progress leading to disaster. Personification suggests oppression and the threat of violence within Wilson’s garage. o What ideas about American society are conveyed by these details? The dust covering the car is a reminder that the valley of ashes affects everything which resides there.

Whereas Chapter 1 ended with the mysterious Gatsby reaching out to his dream in the night, Chapter 2 opens with a striking contrast. Nick tells us about a stretch of land lying "about half way between West Egg and New York" which is so desolate that it is merely a "valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into the ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses . . . [and] with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air." As the geographic midpoint between what is in effect the suburbs and the city, the Near the garage where Wilson and Myrtle live is an valley of ashes, a dreamless, colourless place bound on one side by a putrid river, is home to the sorts of people that the wealthy citizens of the Eggs and the sophisticated people of the city are content to abandoned advertising billboard that is another overlook. important piece of symbolism. It is an ad for T.J. Eckleburg, an eye doctor. The ad consists of the gigantic The ashen quality of the community is reflected in every element — including the dilapidated billboard of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, perhaps the second most memorable image in The Great Gatsby. In many eyes of the doctor staring out at the road. The meaning regards, the mysterious eyes hovering above the valley of ashes serve as spiritual force. They are, as George Wilson says, the eyes of God. The faceless eyes hover over all that goes on in the book — a book of this symbol is that of judgment, and accountability, decidedly void of traditional spirituality. The eyes, in this sense, represent the lack of Godliness in the lives of the characters, and by extension, the society on which Fitzgerald comments. The 1920s, for a further discussed in the symbolism section. The eyes are certain sect of society, were characterised by an increasing freedom and recklessness — Gatsby's parties are perfect testament to the growing debauchery of the upper class. Through Doctor Eckleburg's sign, located at the place where Tom goes to meet his mistress Fitzgerald indicates that although people are turning away from traditional (established) morality and rules of socially acceptable behaviour, neglecting to tend to their spiritual side, the eyes of God without guilt. The garage also ends up being an continue to watch all that passes. Even though God's image may become increasingly removed from daily life (just as the face surrounding Eckleburg's enormous eyes has faded and disappeared), His eyes continue to witness all that passes. Through the eyes the reader has an implicit call to action, reconnecting with a lost spiritual connection. important location in later chapters and the eyes will take on a greater meaning in light of those later events. After Nick and Tom get off the train (notice how Tom orders Nick around and announces what it is they are going to do; these are clear indicators of Tom's nature and continue to mark him as the story continues), they proceed to George Wilson's repair garage. Much can be learned about Wilson, as well as everyone trapped in the valley of ashes, through the brief exchange. There is little about Wilson to When Myrtle goes out with Tom and Nick she spends indicate he will ever be anywhere but the desolate wasteland of the valley. He is common, "blond," "spiritless," "anæmic" and only faintly handsome. His business totters on the brink of failure, and he seems money on many silly things, including a new puppy. She ignorant of what goes on around him. It is unlikely that he is, in Tom's elitist words, "so dumb he doesn't know he's alive," but he does seem trapped by an unnameable force. takes full advantage of Tom's money. It is ironic that since she has his money to spend, she becomes very arrogant towards the less well-off, even though she and her Myrtle Wilson appears in striking contrast to her husband. Although she does not possess the ethereal qualities of Daisy, in fact, she appears very much of the earth, she does possess a decided sensuality, as well a degree of ambition and drive that is conspicuously absent in her husband. After a few attempts at social niceties (showing that Myrtle, despite being trapped in a dead-end lifestyle, aspires in some husband have very little money themselves. As a sense to refinement and propriety), Nick and Tom leave, with the understanding that Myrtle will soon join them to travel into the city to the apartment that Tom keeps for just such purposes. It is worth character, her actions are commentary on wealth and noting, however, that Myrtle rides in a different train car from Tom and Nick, in accordance with Tom's desire to pander, in this small way, to the "sensibilities of those East Eggers who might be on the class. Her attitude exemplifies what money can do to a train." The irony runs deep, giving a greater sense of Tom's character. He is bold about his affair, not worrying that Daisy knows, but he sees the need to put up a pretence on the train, as if that one small person. Also, Tom's senseless attack on Myrtle goes back gesture of discretion makes up for all the other ways in which he flaunts his affairs. As soon as the group arrives in New York, Myrtle shows herself to be not nearly as nondescript as is her husband. She is, to the issue of consequence. Tom need not worry about however, far from refined, despite how she may try. Her purchases at a newsstand (two tabloid-like publications), as well as the way she painstakingly selects just the right taxicab (lavender with grey any reaction to what he does, so he has no fear. upholstery) suggests that she is concerned with appearance and fashion, aspiring to be part of the jet-set that she reads about in her magazines and which, she thinks, she can gain entrée to through her wealthy lover.

At the apartment in New York, after "throwing a regal homecoming glance around the neighbourhood," Myrtle undergoes a transformation. By changing her clothes she leaves behind her lower-class First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of ashes between trappings, and in donning new clothes she adopts a new personality. She invites her sister and some friends to join the afternoon's party, but her motivation for doing so goes beyond simply wanting to enjoy West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of their company. Her intent is largely to show off what she has gained for herself through her arrangement. It is irrelevant to Myrtle that what she has gained comes through questionable means; clearly, for desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. her (and Tom, too), the morality of infidelity is not an issue. Her affair with Tom allows her to gain something she wants — money and power — and therefore it can be justified. It represents the moral and social decay that results from

As Nick describes, when Myrtle changes her clothes, she exchanges her earlier "intense vitality" (clearly a positive and refreshing attribute) for "impressive hauteur" (a decidedly unappealing quality invoking the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. Nick's respect and disgust simultaneously). While entertaining, Myrtle comes across as perceiving herself to be superior, although that isn't hard to do, given the people with whom she surrounds herself. The McKees, for instance, are trying desperately to be accepted by the upper class, but are really shallow, dull people. Mr. McKee, despite his attempts to be seen as an artist, is conventional (even boring) in his The valley of ashes also symbolizes the plight of the poor, photography. He skill is technical, at best, rather than artistic, as he would have people believe, as evidenced by the completely unoriginal titles he gives his photos — 'Montauk Point — the Gulls' and like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes and 'Montauk Point — the Sea.' As Myrtle has more and more to drink, she becomes increasingly belligerent, ordering people about and assuming a false sense of social superiority, casually offering derogatory lose their vitality as a result. comments about various types of people — in many ways, mirroring Tom's sense of social superiority. By this point she sees herself not only as superior to her guests, she is Tom's equal. All this changes, however, when Tom brutally reminds her of her place in his life. After bringing up Daisy's name, Tom and Myrtle stand "face to face, discussing in impassioned voices whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name." Myrtle, made bold by the whiskey, begins to shout Daisy's name while Tom, exhibiting the brute force Nick has known he was capable of since first meeting him, quickly hits Myrtle with his open hand, breaking her nose. The shocking violence of this incident is calculated and underscores a nastier side of life that most people would like to ignore. Through Tom's assault, Fitzgerald not only demonstrates more about Tom and his callousness toward humanity, but also suggests a hidden side to the Jazz Age. Although most people associate good times and carefree abandon with the reverie of the 1920s, Fitzgerald suggests a much darker side. Tom is a decidedly unpleasant man, held in check by very few rules. The reader must wonder, if he is capable of this sort of violence, what else is he The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, capable of? In just the second chapter of the book, Fitzgerald is already showing the seedy side to a supposedly charmed life. The incident piques the reader's interest, shocking and appalling as it is, making bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the reader wonder to what depths this society will fall — in the book and in real life, as well. the valley of ashes. They may represent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral wasteland, though the

It is appropriate to briefly exploring the tones of homoeroticism that underlie the party at Tom and Myrtle's. Catherine, Myrtle's sister who is "said to be very beautiful by people who ought to know" (again novel never makes this point explicitly. Instead, throughout the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaning introducing the notion of rumours and truth, as well as the idea that a certain portion of society has the right to set standards for other portions), speaks in couched terms about her travels and living arrangements with "a girl friend at a hotel." Although this does not, in any way, indicate that Catherine is a lesbian, it does introduce the possibility. As Fitzgerald shows by the afternoon's party, anything because characters instil them with meaning. The connection can happen. It's a wild time — people, particularly the trendy people, are eager to break established boundaries. It is not unlikely that they would challenge established social mores, as well. Nick, himself, between the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God exists only in has an encounter shrouded in mystery in this chapter, which again hints at challenging the accepted sexual morality of the time — homosexuality was not commonly spoken of at this time in history George Wilson’s grief-stricken mind. This lack of concrete significance contributes to the unsettling nature of the image. At the end of the chapter, Nick says that after he sees McKee home, after a curious use of ellipses by Fitzgerald, he "was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his Thus, the eyes also come to represent the essential underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands." Fitzgerald very purposely skirts the issue, dropping hints, but no concrete evidence, and leaves the reader to ponder the possibility of a sexual encounter meaninglessness of the world and the arbitrariness of the mental between the two men. Some may argue that looking at this chapter's homoeroticism is pointless; if the author had wanted to focus on it, he would have made it more pronounced in the text. What these process by which people invest objects with meaning. Nick critics overlook, however, is the possibility that Fitzgerald is hinting at it, just as the society of which he was a part, hinted at it. By refusing to make the book's underlying homoeroticism pronounced, he is explores these ideas in Chapter 8, when he imagines Gatsby’s mirroring the refusal of society at large to acknowledge a lifestyle choice that was socially unacceptable in most circles. The hints of homoeroticism also bring into focus the debauchery which marks The final thoughts as a depressed consideration of the emptiness of Great Gatsby. The 1920s, Fitzgerald suggests, was not just a time of challenging social boundaries. It was also a time of changing sexual — and even spiritual — boundaries. symbols and dreams.

The chapter opens with a description of Gatsby’s parties and his hospitality. Nick is invited and attends, where he meets Jordan again, and has several conversations with other guests. Some of the guests gossip about Gatsby and the origins of his wealth. Jordan and Nick search for Gatsby, ending up in the library, where they meet a man with owl-eyed spectacles who enthuses about the books being real. Nick eventually meets Gatsby, having mistaken him for one of the guests. Jordan is summoned to speak privately with Gatsby, and meanwhile Nick witnesses several scenes of drunken marital discord. As he is leaving, a car crashes into a ditch. Nick’s final view of the party is of Gatsby’s isolation and the emptiness of the house. Nick then reflects on the events he has narrated so far, which comprised ‘three nights several weeks apart’ and claims that these are not representative of his experiences overall in New York over that summer. He gives a more generalised picture of his life, especially focussing on New York at night. He also recounts his developing relationship with Jordan and comments on her deceitfulness and carelessness, ending the chapter with a comment that he himself needs to disentangle himself from a relationship ’back home’, while also claiming that: “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”

In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths - This romantic and glamorous image of Gatsby’s A bizarre and tumultuous scene Nick’s final experience at the party is of a Everyone's gossip about Gatsby shows that no one at the party parties, using colour imagery and a simile, establishes Gatsby’s parties as superior to the New York experience of Chapter 2. car crash, and many aspects of this foreshadow the crash involving Myrtle. has any real understanding of who he is. During a song played by The scale is immense – quantified to impress the reader: ‘two hundred oranges’ and ‘a whole pitiful of oboes and trombones the orchestra, everyone in the crowd becomes very romantic and Violently shorn of one wheel… the amputated wheel The language here and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums.’ sentimental yet, as Nick points out, "but no one swooned anticipates the physical damage done to Myrtle when she is hit by Gatsby’s car. backward on Gatsby and no French bob touched Gatsby's The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun - Light is an important feature of the party, here shoulder and no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby's head defying nature. A man in a long duster – in the early days of motoring, drivers exposed to for one link". His detachment from the group of people he is the elements covered up their clothes by wearing a loose-fitting, long, light coat entertaining seems odd. Why would he have them at his home if Moving her hands like Frisco - Joe Frisco (1889 – 1958) was an American vaudeville performer famous for his jazz dance known as a duster coat, often made from buff coloured canvas or linen. he was not close to them? There are several reasons. Possibly routine. Gatsby threw those parties in the hopes that Daisy would come to ‘I wasn’t driving. There’s another man in the car.’ The crowd one of them and he could see her again. Another possibility is that Gilda Gray (October 24, 1901 – December 22, 1959) was a Polish American actress and dancer who became famous for her misidentifies Owl Eyes as the ‘criminal’ in this car crash, and he has to exonerate throwing parties was what Gatsby always thought wealthy dance called the shimmy. In 1922, the setting for the events of Chapter 3, she was the headline performer in the box office himself by pointing to the true culprit. When this happens to Gatsby, later in the people did, and so for appearances, he must throw parties too. He hit, Ziegfeld Follies. novel, he protects the identity of Daisy as the culprit, and has to experience the is always working on his image and this may be part of the image consequences of this. he is trying to accomplish. Since, as we find out later in the novel, I’ll bet he killed a man - Gatsby inspires sensationalist gossip, placing him as a German spy, a murderer and an Gatsby actually grew up poor. The opulent parties may be a way A sudden emptiness … gesture of farewell. Gatsby’s pathos derives from American soldier during World War I. As a whole, the novel does little to resolve the enigma of Gatsby, of which this is an for him to tell himself that he has arrived and to make sure early example. Gatsby himself has not yet appeared in the novel, except viewed at a distance in the darkness at the end of his loneliness and yearning, and this elegiac moment in the novel underlines the everyone is aware that he is a man of great wealth, just like he Chapter 1. superficiality and transitory nature of Gatsby’s parties. always wanted to be. When Nick calls on Jordan, she drives him through the city. It is during this drive that one of the most Gatsby’s library / Owl Eyes - Nick’s description of the ‘high Gothic library’ emphasises its lack of authenticity, precisely Merely casual events - Nick retreats from this part of the narrative here, important words in the book is first used: careless. Nick describes because it is so realistic: ‘probably transported complete from some ruin overseas.’ Nick and Jordan meet a man there who focussing for the remainder of the chapter on his working life in New York and Jordan as a "careless" driver. She seems unconcerned that she is drunkenly contemplating the room. Owl Eyes, as Nick later dubs him, exhibits great cynicism in examining the books and his relationship with Jordan, and denying that the events he has related so far drives so poorly. Nick asks, "Suppose you met somebody just as ascertaining that ‘They’re real’, then celebrating the achievement of realism. Owl Eyes still observes that ‘if one brick was were as prominent in his life as they might seem to the reader. careless as yourself?" and she replies "I hope I never will". removed the whole library was liable to collapse’ which has clear implications for Gatsby himself. Fitzgerald uses the word careless to describe many of the I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others … wasting characters. This attitude is closely tied to the theme of It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. – Owl Eyes describes Gatsby as being like David Belasco (1853 – 1931), a the most poignant moments of night and life. Nick depicts life in New consequence and responsibility. At the end of the chapter Nick theatrical producer contemporary with Fitzgerald well known for his illusions of naturalism on stage. York as busy, crowded, adventurous and exciting, but also highlights his says of himself, "I am one of the few honest people that I have exclusion from it, creating a sense of melancholy which echoes the earlier image ever known". Although this may seem important in understanding I was brought by a woman named Roosevelt – Fitzgerald continues name dropping, mentioning a member of the of Gatsby isolated in the midst of his own party. his character, the quote must be looked at carefully. Nick is saying one of most prestigious New York families – two members of the Roosevelt clan were American presidents. this of himself but it may not necessarily be true. Nick seems to lie Then it was something more - Nick’s account of the relationship with Jordan several times in the book and here again the untrustworthy I’m Gatsby… I thought you knew, old sport. I’m afraid I’m not a very good host. When Gatsby finally speaks to emphasises that he ‘wasn’t actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.’ nature of the first person narrator is exemplified. Nick, it is without introducing himself and leads to this awkward revelation. Nick’s description of him at this point focuses on Nick his smile and presents it as having a quality of knowingness: It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply… believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at accepts Jordan’s dishonesty in terms of her femininity, but notes that it stems your best, you hoped to convey. The extended description of the smile leads to a narrative volte-face: ‘Precisely at that from being unable to accept ‘being at a disadvantage’. Jordan, as a  What are the connotations of moths? (used in opening) point it vanished…’, which prefigures the disappearance of Gatsby himself a few moments later, prompted by a telephone sportswoman, is extremely competitive, which is a valued personal quality in  How many colours are included in the description of the call from Chicago. American culture, and the idea of her cheating, which is echoed in Chapter 4 by party? the idea of Meyer Wolfsheim having fixed the World’s Series, goes to the very o What are their connotations? an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed heart of the cultural tension between gaining supremacy and retaining This is Nick’s first direct description of Gatsby, which combines positive and negative aspects in an uneasy  How are the female party guests referred to in Chapter being absurd. integrity. 3? balance. The terms ‘elegant’ and ‘roughneck’ seem contradictory, but hint at a narrative of self-improvement, whereby  Nick notes ‘the sea-change of faces and voices and colour Gatsby transcends his class to achieve the high status associated with the mansion and the party. Nick completes his you’re a rotten driver Nick’s criticism of Jordan leads to a discussion of ‘careless’ people, and Jordan’s comment that ‘it takes two to make an accident’, under the constantly changing light.’ Can you find other representation of Gatsby with the final comment: Some time before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that examples of water imagery to describe groups of people? he was picking his words with care. Following this, he and Jordan also indulge in speculation about Gatsby’s origins and which both illustrates her irresponsible attitude in expecting others to ‘keep out  Movement and change are strongly emphasised in the credentials, with Jordan rejecting the story of Gatsby’s Oxford background. of my way’, and presents the concept that disaster strikes when careless people collide with each other. This association between driving and social responsibility description of the party. What are the implications of this for the rest of the novel? Gatsby, standing alone … formed with Gatsby’s head for one link Gatsby is often presented by Nick as being has already been introduced with the car crash at the party, but is developed at isolated from others, and even when surrounded by guests at his own party, he is set apart. several key points in the novel, most notably in the car crash which kills Myrtle.  Examine the car crash description. o How is sound used in this passage? women were now having fights with men said to be their husbands – Nick observes a series of scenes arising from I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known. Nick’s self- o What techniques are used to convey the confusion which has caused this accident? marital discord and infidelity: the weeping singer who has ‘had a fight with a man who says he’s her husband’; the hissing assessment follows a brief consideration of his dishonourable behaviour within ‘angry diamond’ of a wife who recognises that she must compete with a ‘young actress’; and the argumentative wives who an existing relationship (he refers to it euphemistically as ‘that tangle back o How does Nick respond to this confusion and what does this remind you of? are ‘lifted, kicking, into the night’ by their sober husbands. Jordan later ‘tantalises’ Nick by referring to an ‘amazing’ story home’ and a ‘vague understanding’ from which he must extricate himself). Thus which she has promised to keep secret. The context of marital dysfunction, usurpation and reclamation, may suggest that Nick seems to exhibit his own dishonesty while claiming to be honest. As in  How is Jordan important as a character in this novel? o Consider her role in narrating the story, as well the story is of a similar nature. The story is deferred until the next chapter and does indeed lead to catastrophically Chapter 1, this kind of comment not only destabilises our opinions of the other disrupted relationships. characters, but also undermines our confidence in Nick as a narrator. as the salient features of her personality.

In Chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby, we finally—finally!—we get to see one of Gatsby's totally off the hook parties! And, it more than lives up to the hype as far as Nick is concerned. Even more excitingly, we finally get to meet the man, the In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. myth, the legend himself—Gatsby, in the flesh! So why then does this reveal, which the novel has been building toward

for 2.5 chapters, seem so anticlimactic? If one had no knowledge of US history one could easily finish The Great Gatsby under the false impression that in 1922 alcohol was legal: Jay Gatsby’s abound with it; Tom and Myrtle frequently get drunk on it; characters are forever inquiring whether they need more of it; waiters casually take orders for it. What is remarkable is that in 1919 the US Congress passed a Nick describes watching endless parties going on in Gatsby's house every weekend. Guests party day and night and Constitutional amendment which made it illegal to sell, produce, transport or import alcohol, though not to own it or drink it. then on Mondays servants clean up the mess. Everything is about excess and a sense of overkill. Each weekend, guests After years of controversy, the National Prohibition Act was repealed in 1933. are ferried back and forth to Manhattan by Rolls-Royce, crates of oranges and lemons are juiced, an army of caterers sets up tents and lighting, food is piled high, the bar is overwhelmingly stocked, and there is a huge band playing. It's ‘Drinking’, writes Sarah Churchwell in Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby, ‘was a great an even bigger deal than it sounds because all this is happening during the Prohibition, when alcohol was supposedly leveller, not because it made everyone equally drunk, but because it made everyone equally guilty.’ Interestingly, though, of unavailable. The first night Nick goes to Gatsby's for a party, he's one of a very few actually invited guests. Everyone the five main characters in the novel, one is teetotal and three drink very little. Daisy becomes horribly drunk the night before else just crashes. At the party, Nick is ill at ease. He knows no one. There's a surprising number of English people at the her wedding to Tom, and thereafter, having never drunk before, does not drink again, which is why, according to Jordan, she party, who seem desperate to get their hands on American money. is able to survive in Tom’s ‘fast crowd’. Gatsby, his mansion forever awash with whiskey, remains scarred by memories of Dan Cody having his hair washed in champagne by a swarm of preying women, one of whom cheats him (Gatsby) out of his share No one knows where Gatsby himself is. Nick hangs out near the bar until he sees Jordan Baker. Nick and Jordan chat of Cody’s inheritance. Nick says in chapter two that the informal gathering at Myrtle Wilson’s New York apartment marks with other party people. A young woman tells them that at another one of these parties, when she ripped her dress by only the second time in his life that he has been drunk. In chapter one Jordan Baker refuses the cocktails that Tom and Daisy’s accident, Gatsby sent her a very expensive replacement. They gossip about what this odd behaviour means. One house staff offer because she is ‘in training.’ Only Tom, insecure, ignorant and ‘supercilious’, drinks heavily and regularly, with rumour has it that Gatsby killed someone, another that he was a German spy. Food is served, which Nick and Jordan unpleasant consequences. eat at a table full of people from East Egg, who look at this insane party with condescension. They decide to find Gatsby since Nick has never actually met him. In his mansion, they end up in the library, which has ornately carved New York in 1922 was a city of Highballs, the whiskey-based cocktail so beloved of the speakeasy clientele. We get a sense of bookshelves and reams of books. A man with owl-eyed spectacles enthuses about the fact that all these books are its ubiquity in chapter four when the head waiter in Meyer Wolfshiem’s cellar restaurant says simply 'Highballs?' and receives actually real—and about the fact that Gatsby hasn't cut their pages (meaning he's never read any of them). an affirmative reply from Gatsby. That Fitzgerald could so easily create this verisimilitude is testament to both his skill as a writer and his own love of drinking. Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda moved to Manhattan in 1922, by which time it was clear Back out in the garden, guests are now dancing, and several famous opera singers perform. Some partygoers also that the ‘Great Experiment’ of Prohibition was failing: drunkenness and debauchery were increasing along with criminality. perform relatively risqué acts. Nick and Jordan sit down at a table with a man who recognizes Nick from the army. The young Fitzgeralds limited themselves to just the first two. After talking about the places in France where they were stationed during the war, the man reveals that he is Gatsby. Gatsby flashes the world's greatest and most seductive (not sexually, just extremely appealingly) smile at Nick and When after less than a year in New York the couple returned to the Midwest they had an unshakeable reputation as the leaves to take a phone call from Chicago. Nick demands more information about Gatsby from Jordan, who said that pinnacle of Highball society. Those who spent time with them in this period noted how fun, free, gay and witty they were, or Gatsby calls himself an Oxford man (meaning, he went to the University of Oxford). Jordan says that she doesn't seemed. However, in the Fitzgeralds’ marriage, as in The Great Gatsby, alcohol is often the accompaniment to misery. believe this, and Nick lumps the info in with all the other rumours he's heard (that Gatsby had killed a man, that he Throughout the novel characters are either far too drunk or drinking for the wrong reasons. In chapter two Tom ‘tanks up’ was Kaiser Wilhelm's nephew that he was a German spy, etc.). during lunch and later breaks Myrtle’s nose. In chapter three Nick, alone and confused at Gatsby’s party, thinks about getting ‘roaring drunk from sheer embarrassment’ until Jordan Baker arrives. Together they wonder the grounds looking for Gatsby, When Jordan is suddenly and mysteriously asked to speak to Gatsby alone, Nick watches a drunk guest weep and but find only the man they dub Owl Eyes, who, by his own admission, has been drunk for a week. When later in the evening then pass out. He notices fights breaking out between other couples. Even the group of people from East Egg are no Nick begins to have a ‘gay time’ it is only because he has happened upon the sober company of Jay Gatsby. As he is leaving longer on their best behaviour. Despite the fact that the party is clearly over, no one wants to leave. As Nick is getting the party that evening he witnesses a drunken man try to drive away from a crash that has knocked out one of the wheels of his hat to leave, Gatsby and Jordan come out of the library. Jordan tells Nick that Gatsby has just told her something his car. amazing—but she can't reveal what. She gives Nick her number and leaves. Nick finds Gatsby, apologises for not seeking him out earlier. Gatsby invites him to go out on his hydroplane the next day, and Nick leaves as Gatsby is summoned to a phone call from Philadelphia. The first glimpse of Gatsby reveals a man who stands apart from the type of guests he routinely hosts at his parties. Much to Fitzgerald's credit, the reader, just like Nick, falls into the trap of interacting with Gatsby before his identity is ever revealed. Nick strikes up a He waves goodbye from the steps of his mansion, looking lonely. Outside, the man with the owl-eyed spectacles from conversation with someone of a bit more substance than the typical party guest — someone who asks him questions about himself and is the library has crashed his car. An even drunker man emerges from the driver's seat of the wreck and is comically but somewhat interested in him (albeit a general passing interest). In fact, Nick remarks that Gatsby possesses "a quality of eternal also horrifyingly confused about what has happened. Suddenly, the narrative is interrupted by present-day Nick. He reassurance . . . that you may come across four or five times in life." His smile, Nick asserts, "believed in you as you would like to believe in thinks that what he's been writing is probably giving us the wrong idea. He wasn't fixated on Gatsby during that yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey." The understanding projected through Gatsby's smile is not without its roots — the incidents in his past (especially those discussed in Chapter 6) have led him to summer—this fixation has only happened since then. That summer, he spent most of his time working at his second or value a well -crafted appearance. third-tier bond trading company, Probity Trust, and had a relationship with a co-worker. He started to really like the crowded and anonymous feel of Manhattan, but also felt lonely.

The image of Gatsby is one of extreme propriety. From the "majestic hand" that signed Nick's invitation to the full-sized orchestra and exquisite catering, Gatsby appears the perfect gentleman. He is gracious and kind-hearted (or else how could he put up with his own In the middle of the summer, Nick reconnects with Jordan Baker and they start dating. He almost falls in love with her guests?), a combination that gives rise to rumours. He is, however, set apart from the guests, both mentally and physically. Nick indicates and discovers that under her veneer of boredom, Jordan is an incorrigible liar. She gets away with it because in the that during the course of the evening, as men and women began to move closer to each other in gestures of flirtation, Gatsby was rigid upper-class code of behaviour, calling a woman out as a liar would be improper. Nick suddenly remembers the strikingly marginalized. No one sought to rest her head on his shoulder, no friends sought him out to join their small and intimate groups. story he had read about her golfing career: Jordan was accused of cheating by moving her ball to a better lie, but the Gatsby, the host, remained strikingly aloof from his guests. Nick, likely, is one of the first people to ever realize this. (Again, as a testament witnesses later recanted and nothing was proven. When Nick complains that Jordan is a terrible driver, she answers to his general nature, Nick comes off as a credible and trustworthy narrator.) Just as one may think that Gatsby will have nothing to do that she relies on the other people on the road to be careful instead of her. Nick wants to take their relationship with any woman, however, he sends for Jordan Baker, wishing to speak to her privately. When Jordan returns, Fitzgerald, wanting to maintain suspense for a bit longer, withholds the purpose of their discussion, but Jordan says that it was "the most amazing thing," which is further, but reigns himself in because he hasn't fully broken off the non-engagement back home that Tom and Daisy finally discussed at the end of Chapter 4. had asked him about earlier. He claims that he is one of the few honest people that he's ever met.

Chapter 4 continues the account of Gatsby’s hospitality, detailing the events on a Sunday morning after the Saturday night of drunken revelry. We are told ‘the world and its mistress’ came to his house and Nick substantiates this with a long list of names of those who attended the parties at Gatsby’s mansion during the summer. Next, Nick tells us that a ‘restless’ Gatsby came to his house, ‘one morning late in July’. During a car ride Gatsby presents his own account of his origins, and introduces the idea that Jordan will speak to Nick about a mysterious ‘matter’. They pass the valley of ashes (glimpsing Myrtle) and a dead man in a hearse, as well as a limousine carrying black passengers and driven by a white chauffeur. Nick meets Gatsby for lunch at noon and meets Meyer Wolfsheim, whose stories are edged with criminality and violence. He also provides another perspective on Gatsby, supporting the idea that he was educated at Oxford (‘Oggsford’) and claiming that he is a ‘man of fine breeding’. By chance, Tom is also in the restaurant, but when Nick introduces him, Gatsby immediately disappears. That afternoon, Jordan tells Nick about the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. In 1917 Daisy was unmarried (Daisy Fay), lived in Louisville and had a romance with Gatsby, a young officer in the World War in which America had joined in April 1917. However, she married Tom Buchanan in June 1919, although a letter received on the eve of her wedding almost caused her to cancel it. Jordan goes on to explain that Gatsby hopes to meet Daisy at Nick’s house, with Nick inviting her to tea under false pretences. Nick does not respond but instead kisses Jordan.

the world and its mistress This wordplay (adapting the cliché ‘the world and his wife’) implies Gatsby’s gorgeous car - Nick’s description of the car combines both positive and negative lexis, with the overall effect being ‘disconcerting’. Colour imagery is used to suggest that all the relationships in this novel are undermined by infidelity and might suggest that sophistication and pleasure, particularly in the words ‘cream’ and ‘caramel’. The interior of the car is ‘green leather’ suggesting wealth, which enables Gatsby to replicate Gatsby’s parties encourage or endorse infidelity - he later admits that he hoped to encounter the nature in a luxurious manner. Very positive adjectives are used: ‘triumphant’, ‘rich’, ‘gorgeous’ (used twice) and ‘pretty’, along with light imagery which suggests wealth, married Daisy at one of his parties. The ‘world’ is illustrated by Nick’s very long list of guests. Most aspiration and power: ‘bright with nickel’ and ‘mirrored a dozen suns’. Negative language is woven closely among the positive ideas, and undermines our capacity to of this list is respectable and often double-barrelled names (‘Doctor Webster Civet’ and ‘the simply admire the car. Fitzgerald uses ‘swollen’, ‘monstrous’, ‘rocky’, ‘lurched’ and ‘labyrinth’ to suggest the dangers of this powerful vehicle, and imply the ways in which Chester Beckers’), suggesting the upper echelons of society. However, there are several examples wealth can be a corrupting and destructive force. The final image of the car associates it with a bird: ‘With fenders spread like wings, we scattered light through half of marital discord: “G. Earl Muldoon, brother to that Muldoon who afterwards strangled his wife.” Astoria’ and then this is abruptly replaced with the ‘jug-jug-spat!’ of the police motorcycle which halts Gatsby. Two of the guests (Beluga and Beny Clenahan) bring ‘girls’ who are described as interchangeable.

Twinkled hilariously This phrase highlights the superficiality of the guests at Gatsby’s house. It Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge - Nick makes this observation after he sees a limousine with a white chauffeur and black passengers. More on is all the more trivial when set against the religious observances clearly expected on Sunday Attitudes to race in 1920s America: Black people owning cars would have signified the reversal of social conventions in the ’20s as most of America was still very segregated, morning (‘church bells rang in the villages onshore’). with black Americans being generally too poor to buy cars. Nick responds to the ‘rivalry’ of the ‘modish negroes’ with mocking laughter, but recognises that Gatsby is similar in being a member of the underclass who has gained social status and wealth in post-war America. The old-fashioned terms ‘negroes’ and ‘bucks’ have undergone He’s a bootlegger… second cousin to the devil. The gossip surrounding Gatsby suggests semantic derogation, as they are now regarded as offensive racial terms, the latter being more often used to denote a male animal. Today, they are taboo words and used illicit activity. During Prohibition, bootleggers made money by illegally transporting / trading for effect as such. Fitzgerald’s use is probably more casual, in keeping with the linguistic habits of the time. alcohol. My friend Mr. Wolfsheim - Meyer Wolfsheim is characterised firstly as a Jew, with particular facial features verging on caricature (he has a flat nose which is commented Accepted Gatsby’s hospitality … knowing nothing whatever about him - Nick on in several ways, a large head and tiny eyes). His ‘business’ seems to involve threats and menace and he appears to inspect his environment in a paranoid manner. His highlights the irony and hypocrisy of the gossipers as they indulge in wild rumour, while enjoying Gatsby’s generosity. cuff buttons are human molars, which introduces an air of gruesome horror to the characterisation, later hinted at by the ‘ferocious delicacy’ with which he eats his food. Later, Gatsby identifies him as a gambler, who fixed the baseball World’s Series in 1919, as well as having close connections with the murder of Rosy Rosenthal at the Drowned last summer up in Maine - The tragic fate of one of Gatsby’s guests foreshadows Metropole Hotel (both actual historical events with strong links to Jewish gangsters). Wolfsheim may have been based on the figure of Arnold Rothstein, a major criminal of the demise of Gatsby. Nick’s list of guests is also punctuated with examples of snobbery, this period. Gatsby’s association with this member of the criminal underworld seems to confirm the gossip about his origins. It is ironic, then, that Wolfsheim vouches for eccentricity, infidelity, car accidents, murder and suicide. All together, they present a chaotic, Gatsby as a ‘man of fine breeding’ who is ‘very careful about women’. dysfunctional society and a less than ideal view of American success. He was no longer there - Gatsby disappears twice in this chapter. His first departure is prompted by a business telephone call, and this time he is trying to avoid meeting Restlessness - Gatsby is described as being in constant motion: “Never quite still… always a Tom Buchanan. This elusive behaviour is also mirrored by the swift departure of Wolfsheim from the restaurant. tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand”. This is connected with the spirit of the nation when Nick comments that this is ‘peculiarly American’ and exhibited in One October day in 1917… - This new narrative is given by Jordan, explaining to Nick the history of Daisy and Gatsby, from the point of view of Jordan as Daisy’s friend. the ‘formless grace of our nervous sporadic games’. It complements the earlier allusions made by Gatsby to a ‘very sad’ event that had occurred in the past. The repetition of ‘straight’ in ‘sitting up very straight on a straight chair’ implies that this narrative is to be trusted, and the degree of detail adds to the verisimilitude, especially as the events are dated and located very precisely. In this He had litt le to say - Nick discovers this about Gatsby, and presents him as a two-dimensional narrative, Daisy has a relationship with the young officer Gatsby in 1917 and almost elopes with him in the winter of 1917, but her family intervenes. She returns to socialising character at this point. It is ironic, then, that immediately after this comment Gatsby embarks on by autumn 1918, is engaged in February 1919 and marries Tom in June 1919. On the eve of her wedding, we are told that she almost cancels the wedding, rejecting Tom’s the detailed revelation about his origins. expensive pearls and clinging to a letter. The use of contrast in “as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress – and as drunk as a monkey” emphasises Daisy’s traumatic - realisation that she wants to ‘change’ her mine’. The letter disintegrates ‘like snow’ when Daisy is forced to sober up, and she accepts Tom as a husband ‘without so much as I’ll tell you God’s truth… his whole statement fell to pieces… Then it was all true. a shiver’ the next day. It is implied that the mysterious letter came from Gatsby, as it causes such a profound shift in Daisy’s intentions, but we should also note that Daisy Nick plays with the reader throughout this part of the narrative (delivered by Gatsby but conforms to society’s expectations of her, and chooses the wealthy Tom and his status symbols over Gatsby: “the pearls were around her neck and the incident was over.” mediated by Nick), as he alternates between believing and disbelieving what Gatsby has to say.

The evidence to substantiate Gatsby’s claims is a medal and a photograph, both of which are It was touching to see them together - Jordan initially presents the relationship as ideal, with Daisy engrossed in her new husband, but quickly undermines this idea uncritically accepted by Nick. The main features of Gatsby’s narrative are his rich family, his with the understated comments on Tom’s car crash: “Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night, and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl who was with him orphan status, education at Oxford, time spent in Europe, and military service for which he was got into the papers, too, because her arm was broken – she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel.” Tom’s implication in a car crash where a woman is awarded honours. seriously injured foreshadows the crash involving Myrtle. The juxtaposition of this story with the subsequent detail of Daisy’s maternity further incriminates Tom. Something very sad that had happened to me long ago - Gatsby refers to his rejection by Perhaps Daisy never went in for amour at all - Jordan speculates that Daisy would have been able to avoid scandal because she never drank. However, Jordan Daisy in this oblique manner, and Nick mocks this and the style of delivery in his comments to the merely values Daisy’s temperance as an opportunity for her to ‘time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don’t see or care’, using reader: ‘I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter’. the euphemism ‘little irregularity’ to refer to infidelity.

The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge - This description of New York is extremely The sun had gone down…. hot twilight - This short interlude in the narrative told by Jordan allows Fitzgerald to relocate Jordan and Nick, introducing an idyllic scene beautiful, being associated with sunlight, ‘white heaps and sugar lumps’ and offering an infinitely of innocence: “the clear voices of children, already gathered like crickets on the grass, rose through the hot twilight. Their song has dark elements, however, with the theme renewable sense of wonder: “Always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all of an alien figure, ‘The Sheikh of Araby’, whose possessiveness leads to the predatory pursuit of a lover: “At night when you’re asleep into your tent I’ll creep –“. This image the mystery and beauty in the world.” Nevertheless, Fitzgerald emphasises the temporary and is immediately followed with the revelation that Gatsby had deliberately chosen his mansion in order to pursue Daisy. Nick reflects a short while later, that: “There are only illusory nature of the city: it is built ‘with a wish out of non-olfactory money’ and the oxymoron of the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired, reducing society to an aggressive and primitive paradigm.” Nick’s role in relation to Gatsby and Daisy is to be a pander, the ‘constant flicker’ suggests an optical effect which dazzles and confuses. The passing image of a perhaps fulfilling the ‘busy’ category. dead man in a hearse and his tragic friends, further emphasises the idea that wealth is transitory, overshadowed by death. I drew up the girl beside me - Nick presents his embrace with Jordan using negative language: “I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs…” but his action confirms the reality and substantiality of his relationship, compared with the experiences of Gatsby and Tom.

“Suddenly I wasn't thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more but of this clean, hard, limited person who dealt in universal scepticism and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm. A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired." (4.164)  How might the image of the city be compared with Gatsby’s idea of Daisy? Nick thinks this about Jordan while they are kissing. Two things to ponder: Which one does he think he is: the pursued or the pursuing? The busy or the tired? Perhaps we are meant to match  What else, apart from social mobility, might Nick mean these adjectives up to the two people involved in the main love story, in which case Gatsby is both the pursuing and the busy, while Daisy is the pursued and the tired. when he says that, ‘Even Gatsby could happen, without any If Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby are locked into a romantic triangle (or square, if we include Myrtle), then Jordan and Nick are vying for the position of narrator. Nick presents himself as the objective, particular wonder’? non-judgmental observer – the confidant of everyone he meets. So it's interesting that here we get his perspective on Jordan's narrative style – "universal scepticism" – right after she gets to take  Using the details of Jordan’s story as a starting point, try to over telling the story for a huge chunk of the chapter. Which is the better approach, we are being asked, the overly credulous or the jaded and disbelieving? Are we more likely to believe Jordan

create a timeline of the events in the novel. when she says something positive about someone since she is so quick to find fault? For example, it seems important that she be the one to state that Daisy hasn't had any affairs, not Nick.  How does the narrative structure compare with a

chronological order of events?  How is Daisy presented in Chapter 4? o What colour is associated with her? Unreliable Narrator. Finally, we get a chance to see what a different kind of narrator would do with this story when Jordan takes over the storytelling duties for a while. She is o What does Jordan mean when she says, ‘there’s judgmental, quick to mock her subjects, but the story she tells is psychologically cohesive and doesn't contradict what we now know of the characters. We are left wondering whether a narrator something in that voice of hers…’? who puts all their biases up front is better than one who pretends to be totally objective like Nick.  The events of Chapter 4 take place over the course of a single day (although the stories told relate to earlier Society and Class. The list of East and West Egg names clearly ties into Tom's earlier fixation on the book about the "white race" being in danger of being overwhelmed by "other races". Here, events). Note down the references to light throughout the we see that the people who until very recently were newcomer immigrants to America are now becoming rich enough to populate West Egg – and it is because of this seeming chapter encroachment that the old money society is circling its wagons ever more. It is interesting that Gatsby's mansion is a kind of demilitarized zone where these two groups of people encounter each other.  How do they alter to reflect the passage of time?

The American Dream. Gatsby's attempt to sell Nick on an origin story of himself as the scion of a wealthy family again points to his desire for self-invention and self-mythologizing. It also shows that he doesn't want to present himself as an American Dream success story, but instead as an old money part of the upper crust. The more Gatsby seems to reveal about himself, the more he deepens the mystery – it's amazing how clichéd and yet how intriguing the "sad thing" he mentions immediately is. It's also interesting that Gatsby uses his – he's not sharing his past with Nick to origin story as a transaction form a connection, but as advance payment for a favour. At the same Fitzgerald has written a tragic satire on American civilisation, with the implicit invitation to disentangle the idea of which the personages and events are outward symbols. The individuals time, there's a lot of humour in this scene. Imagine any time you told portrayed stand for the classes (but not in the Marxian sense) to which they belong. That is nothing new: the same is true of every serious literary work of art. anyone something about yourself, you then had to whip out some physical The Jew who appears in The Great Gatsby is not the villain of the piece, but he is easily its most obnoxious character. His name is Meyer Wolfsheim. He is a gambler by profession. His nose is flat object to prove it was true! and out of both nostrils two fine growths of hair “luxuriate.” His eyes are “tiny.” When he talks he “covers” Gatsby with his “expressive nose.” We first glimpse him in a mysterious conversation In a novel so concerned with fitting in, with rising through social ranks, and with Gatsby about a man named Katspaugh. When, at this point, the narrator, Nick, comes in and meets him, Wolfsheim mistakes him for somebody else whom Gatsby has mentioned and he with having the correct origins, it's always interesting to see where those immediately begins to talk of a business “gonnegtion.” That “gonnegtion” runs like a theme through the whole book whenever Nick thinks of Wolfsheim. who fall outside this ranking system are mentioned. Just he Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel has long been criticised for its portrayal of Wolfsheim as more Jewish caricature than character. In the book “Anti-Semitism: A Historical Encyclopaedia of Prejudice and earlier described loving the anonymity of Manhattan, here Nick Persecution,” Richard Levy notes that Fitzgerald’s Wolfsheim memorably and “pointedly connected Jewishness and crookedness” (this one, not of the nose variety). In 1947, Milton Hindus, an as he sees an finds himself enjoying a similar melting-pot quality assistant humanities professor at the University of Chicago, published an article about “Gatsby” in Commentary that declared, “The novel reads very much like an anti-Semitic document.” indistinctly ethnic funeral procession ("south-eastern Europe" most likely Hindus argued that although on the whole he considers “Gatsby” to be an “excellent” novel, he found the story and the characters “general and representative rather than particular and means the people are Greek) and a car with both black and white people confined.” “The Jew who appears in ‘The Great Gatsby,’ ” he wrote, “is easily its most obnoxious character.” in it. Hindus attributed this to the prevailing anti-Semitism of the age. Fitzgerald was, after all, part of the American avant-garde of the 1920s, an era in which a rapidly rising middle class was What is now racist terminology is here used pejoratively, but not radically redefining notions of privilege and access. The power shift in social classes was destabilising, and as the uncultured masses began to mix with the wealthy elite (consider Gatsby, as well necessarily with the same kind of blind hatred that Tom demonstrates. as the legions attending his legendary parties), the old guard who disapproved sought comfort in “an allegiance to tradition and hatred of the contemporary bourgeoisie.” All of which, Hindus Instead, Nick can see that within the black community there are also social argued, lent itself nicely to a general cultural wariness of the Jew. ranks and delineations – he distinguishes between the way the five black men in the car are dressed, and notes that they feel ready to challenge And as if party crashing wasn’t distasteful enough, other prevailing traditions of the time — religious and literary — also found ways to scapegoat the Jew as the cause of contemporary ills. him and Gatsby in some car-related way. Do they want to race? To Melding both, Hindus observed that “the New Testament can be regarded as a drama in which the Jews play the role of villain,” a narrative trope that greatly influenced the avant-garde compare clothing? It's unclear, but it adds to the sense of possibility that writers of Fitzgerald’s time — Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, among others. Equally incensed by the ascendance of the middle class, whose social and economic gains effectively denied the literary the drive to Manhattan always represents in the book. class — with its superior education and cultural erudition — its rightful place in the American social strata, the Jew became a stand-in for the despised bourgeoisie. And in circles whose standards for social decorum did not permit open anti-Semitism, the writers were thus given license to “flaunt” in their work the anti-Semitic seething that was otherwise “concealed by the rest of polite Nick's amazemen t at the idea of one man being behind an enormous society.” event like the fixed World Series is telling. For one thing, the powerful gangster as a prototype of pulling-himself-up-by-his- But this was not your grandmother’s European anti-Semitism. Hindus eventually concluded that Fitzgerald’s dislike of the Jews “was a superficial, merely ‘fashionable’ thing” — by which he bootstraps, self-starting man, which the American Dream holds meant, that as an observer and chronicler of culture, Fitzgerald’s understanding of Jews would have been of the “habitual, customary, ‘harmless,’ unpolitical variety” and not the insidious kind that resulted in the pogroms, expulsions and inquisitions of Jewish history. up as a paragon of achievement, mocks this individualist ideal. It also connects Gatsby to the world of crime, swindling, and the This brand of temperate anti-Semitism has been tempered even further by the latest film incarnation of Fitzgerald’s classic. Director Baz Luhrmann has said he quite purposively cast the non- underhanded methods necessary to effect enormous change. In a smaller, Jewish, Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan in the role of Meyer Wolfsheim. In an interview with Yahoo’s Wide Screen blogger Will Perkins, Luhrmann admitted to a noncontroversial casting less criminal way, watching Wolfshiem manoeuvre has clearly rubbed off on Gatsby and his convolutedly large-scale scheme to get Daisy's attention strategy. “I was trying to solve the issue of Meyer Wolfsheim because there’s a big question there,” Luhrmann said. “Fitzgerald draws the character in what some might say is a by buying an enormous mansion nearby. very broad, anti-Semitic manner.”

Nick returns home and finds Gatsby’s house ‘lit from tower to cellar’, has a conversation with Gatsby in which they arrange the meeting with Daisy and refuses to accept a business offer which he sees as being in return for bringing Daisy to Gatsby. He describes himself as ‘light-headed and happy’, presumably because he has kissed Jordan. Nick invites Daisy to tea and she happily agrees to leave her husband behind and in ignorance of the meeting. Before Daisy arrives, Gatsby is a nervous wreck and almost abandons the whole meeting. He pretends to arrive after Daisy, and their initial meeting is strained and tense, verging on the hysterical, with Nick noting that, ‘it wasn’t a bit funny’. Nick leaves them for half an hour and when he returns they are reunited and highly emotional. They all go to Gatsby’s house so that Gatsby can show Daisy his wealth. He demonstrates the excess of his life, numerous rooms in various styles, and then his own apartment, with his bedroom ‘the simplest room of all’. Here Daisy brushes her hair and examines his ‘stacks’ of clothing. She is so impressed with his shirts that she cries. They listen to music played by ‘the boarder’ Ewing Klipspringer and then Nick observes that Gatsby seems bewildered, possibly doubtful of Daisy, as she is now a reality, although Daisy’s voice reignites the emotion. Nick leaves the two together at the end of the chapter. I was afraid for a moment that my house was on fire - Nick realises that the ‘blazing’ light is actually Gatsby’s excessive illumination of his own house, but the element of fear and alarm is notable. The silence and intermittent light ‘as if the house had winked into the darkness’ is I was afraid for a moment that my house was on fire - Nick realises that the ‘blazing’ light is actually Gatsby’s almost ghostly and Nick experiences it as ‘unreal’. The image of the blaze and Gatsby’s suggestion of a ‘plunge in the swimming-pool’ excessive illumination of his own house, but the element of fear and alarm is notable. The silence and intermittent light ‘as if foreshadow the tragic outcome of his pursuit of Daisy. the house had winked into the darkness’ is almost ghostly and Nick experiences it as ‘unreal’. The image of the blaze and Gatsby’s suggestion of a ‘plunge in the swimming-pool’ foreshadow the tragic outcome of his pursuit of Daisy. Who is ‘Tom’? - Daisy colludes with Nick, although she doesn’t know what he is planning. She asks Nick later if he is in love with her, and plays along with his mock-gothic, ‘That’s the secret of Castle Rackrent…’ Who is ‘Tom’? - Daisy colludes with Nick, although she doesn’t know what he is planning. She asks Nick later if he is in love with her, and plays along with his mock-gothic, ‘That’s the secret of Castle Rackrent…’ Gatsby, pale as death … glaring tragically into my eyes. - Gatsby has disappeared from Nick’s living-room and reappeared on his doorstep in order to pretend nonchalance, and the language is heavy with ominous references. The description of Daisy and Gatsby’s meeting Gatsby, pale as death … glaring tragically into my eyes. - Gatsby has disappeared from Nick’s living-room and verges in this way on the comic, and even becomes farcical, as Gatsby is rendered helplessly clumsy and Nick makes some ridiculous comments. reappeared on his doorstep in order to pretend nonchalance, and the language is heavy with ominous references. The None of the characters are amused, but rather they are tortured and overwhelmed by the emotions of this event. Gatsby almost falls down his description of Daisy and Gatsby’s meeting verges in this way on the comic, and even becomes farcical, as Gatsby is rendered own stairs as he is so ‘dazed’ by the presence of Daisy, and this might be interpreted as a hint of his ‘fall’ later in the novel. helplessly clumsy and Nick makes some ridiculous comments. None of the characters are amused, but rather they are tortured and overwhelmed by the emotions of this event. Gatsby almost falls down his own stairs as he is so ‘dazed’ by the ‘It’s an old clock,’ I told them idiotically. - The clock on Nick’s mantelpiece almost falls because Gatsby is attempting to feign presence of Daisy, and this might be interpreted as a hint of his ‘fall’ later in the novel. nonchalance. He is resting his head on the face of the clock, which then tilts, and he catches it ‘with trembling fingers’. Nick emphasises the comic elements of this encounter, as the tension and suffering of the lovers affects even himself. The clock image is used later in the chapter to describe ‘It’s an old clock,’ I told them idiotically. - The clock on Nick’s mantelpiece almost falls because Gatsby is attempting Gatsby ‘running down like an overwound clock’. to feign nonchalance. He is resting his head on the face of the clock, which then tilts, and he catches it ‘with trembling fingers’. Nick emphasises the comic elements of this encounter, as the tension and suffering of the lovers affects even himself. He literally glowed… well-being radiated from him … an ecstatic patron of recurrent light - The transformation of Gatsby, once The clock image is used later in the chapter to describe Gatsby ‘running down like an overwound clock’. he is reunited with Daisy, is profound, and recalls the earlier imagery of blazing light in this chapter. Gatsby’s comment on his house at this point, ‘See how the whole front of it catches the light’, also echoes this image. He literally glowed… well-being radiated from him … an ecstatic patron of recurrent light - The transformation of Gatsby, once he is reunited with Daisy, is profound, and recalls the earlier imagery of blazing light in this There are several narrative loops in this chapter: chapter. Gatsby’s comment on his house at this point, ‘See how the whole front of it catches the light’, also echoes this image.  Gatsby begins to talk about a ‘gonnegtion’ that he mentioned in the previous chapter There are several narrative loops in this chapter:  The house is associated with ‘ghostly’ visitors  Owl Eyes is imagined laughing as the door to the ‘Merton College Library’ closes, possibly mocking the illusion that Gatsby has created.  Gatsby begins to talk about a ‘gonnegtion’ that he mentioned in the previous chapter  The house is associated with ‘ghostly’ visitors They’re such beautiful shirts - Daisy is very emotional about the shirts and indeed all of Gatsby’s possessions. Her comment is nonsensical and  Owl Eyes is imagined laughing as the door to the ‘Merton College Library’ closes, possibly mocking the illusion that shallow, but can be interpreted as an oblique reference to the man. She doesn’t comment directly on Gatsby, but is very quick to identify with Gatsby has created. her surroundings, even brushing her hair with his gold hairbrush. Her tears may represent her realisation that she passed up the chance of marrying Gatsby for the sake of material security - which would have come her way anyway. They’re such beautiful shirts - Daisy is very emotional about the shirts and indeed all of Gatsby’s possessions. Her comment is nonsensical and shallow, but can be interpreted as an oblique reference to the man. She doesn’t comment directly on Gatsby, but is very quick to identify with her surroundings, even brushing her hair with his gold hairbrush. Her The Love Nest / Ain’t we got fun- These were popular songs from the early 1920s, played by Ewing Klipspringer (known as ‘the boarder’ tears may represent her realisation that she passed up the chance of marrying Gatsby for the sake of material security - because he seems to have taken up residence at Gatsby’s home, taking advantage of Gatsby’s hospitality). Gatsby has finally brought Daisy to which would have come her way anyway. his home, and would like to resume his relationship with her, making his home a ‘love nest’. However, it soon becomes clear in the next chapter that she has different intentions.

A profound human change - Nick notes that the timing of Daisy and Gatsby’s reunion coincides with ‘the hour of a profound human change’ as the workers return home from New York. This sense of homecoming is perhaps a reflection of Gatsby’s and Daisy’s return to each other, with ‘excitement … generating on the air’. However, there are also ominous hints of catastrophe in this passage too: “the wind was loud and there was a faint flow of thunder along the Sound.”  Compare the description of Daisy as she approaches Nick’s house with the description of Gatsby. - Nick considers the possibility that Gatsby has harboured unrealistic expectations in his long wait for  How many words from the semantic field of fear can you find in this chapter? The colossal vitality of his illusion Daisy (‘Almost five years!’) and imagines that he might be bewildered or doubtful now that he is faced with the real Daisy: “There must have  Explore the use of light imagery in this chapter. been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams. Acknowledging the power of the imagination, Nick states that:  How is the weather used to comment on the events in the chapter? “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart.” Gatsby’s capacity for imagining and dreaming is  Klipspringer plays two popular songs to his listeners. What associations might Fitzgerald want his readers highly valued by Nick. In Chapter 1 he noted that Gatsby had: “some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life… an extraordinary gift for to make? hope, a romantic readiness” and notes that it was ‘what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams’ which made Nick  How far do you feel the reader gains an understanding of Gatsby’s inner life? temporarily retreat from humanity.  Nick comments at the end of Chapter 5 that it was ‘the hour of a profound human change’, referring to the homecoming of commuters from New York. What else might this phrase apply to? That voice held him most … a deathless song - Daisy’s voice has been commented on several times as being captivating and seductive. Here, Nick connects it with the comments on Gatsby’s idealism, and the ironic use of song in the chapter. The adjectives ‘feverish’ and ‘deathless’ are disturbing, and suggest Daisy’s power is perhaps malign or unnatural.

Chapter 5 introduces the heart of the matter: Gatsby's dream of Daisy. Through Nick, Gatsby is brought face-to-face "You're selling bonds, aren't you, old sport?"..."Well, this would interest you. It wouldn't take up much of your time and you might pick up a nice bit of with the fulfilment of a dream that he has pursued relentlessly for the past five years of his life. Everything he has done money. It happens to be a rather confidential sort of thing." has been, in some sense, tied to his pursuit of Daisy. In a sense, Daisy's and Gatsby's encounter marks the book's high point — the dream is realised. What happens after a dream is fulfilled? Unlike other novels in which characters work to I realize now that under different circumstances that conversation might have been one of the crises of my life. But, because the offer was obviously overcome adversity only to have their dreams realised at the end of the book and live happily ever after (or so the and tactlessly for a service to be rendered, I had no choice except to cut him off there. (5.22-25) implication goes), Gatsby has his dream fulfilled early, suggesting to astute readers that this won't be the typical rags- to-riches story. The second half of the book describes what happens when one chases, then obtains, one's dream. The Nick recognises that what he quickly dismissed in the moment could easily have been the moral quandary that altered his whole future. It seems end need not be "happily ever after." that Nick thinks this was his chance to enter the world of crime – if we assume that what Gatsby was proposing is some kind of insider trading or similarly illegal speculative activity – and be thus trapped on the East Coast rather than retreating to the Midwest. It’s striking that Nick recognises When Gatsby arrives, for the first time he shows his vulnerability and uncertainty. Up to this point, he has been that his ultimate weakness – the thing that can actually tempt him – is money. In this way, he is different from Gatsby, whose temptation is love, collected in every situation, but when facing the biggest challenge he's faced in years, his sulking, self-conscious and Tom, whose temptation is sex – and of course, he is also different because he resists the temptation rather than going all-in. Although Nick’s behaviour is nearly embarrassing — the generally graceful man stammers in fright, not unlike a young boy. For the first refusal could be spun as a sign of his honesty, it instead underscores how much he adheres to rules of politeness. After all, he only rejects the idea time, Jay Gatsby seems unsure of himself. because he feels he “had no choice” about the proposal because it was “tactless.” Who knows what shenanigans Nick would have been on board with if only Gatsby were a little smoother in his approach?

He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with At one point, in his nervousness, he knocks a broken clock off the mantel, catching it just before it hits the ground. The 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 symbolic nature of this act cannot be overlooked. Although on one level it is just another awkward incident caused by inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock. (5.114) Gatsby's nervousness, it goes beyond that. The fact the clock is stopped is significant. In a sense, the clock stopped at a specific point in time, trapped there forever, just as Gatsby's life, in many regards, stopped when he was hit with the On the one hand, the depth of Gatsby’s feelings for Daisy is romantic. He’s living the hyperbole of every love sonnet and torch song ever written. realization that while he was poor, he could never have Daisy. Gatsby is, in essence, trapped by his dreams of ideal After all, this is the first time we see Gatsby lose control of himself and his extremely careful self-presentation. But on the other hand, does he love with Daisy, just as the clock is trapped in that exact moment when it stopped working. Following this analysis actually know anything about Daisy as a human being? Notice that it’s “the idea” that he’s consumed with, not so much the reality. The word through to its final conclusion, one must wonder if Fitzgerald isn't also trying to say that Gatsby's dream stopped his “wonder” makes it sound like he’s having a religious experience in Daisy’s presence. The pedestal that he has put her on is so incredibly high there’s growth in some respects (specifically emotionally); he's been so busy chasing a dream rather than enjoying reality, that like the clock, he is frozen in time. nothing for her to do but prove disappointing. 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 The clock symbolizes the passage of time, and Gatsby wants to turn back time because in the five years since he has 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 seen Daisy, she has married Tom and had a child. If he could destroy the clock, he would be able to turn back time. 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 However, it is clear that Gatsby has a distorted view of time--for example, he thinks Daisy is late when she isn't one. (5.121) (though he knows exactly how long it has been since he has seen Daisy) --and he will never be able to turn back the clock. Almost immediately when he’s finally got her, Daisy starts to fade from an ideal object of desire into a real life human being. It doesn’t even matter

In The Great Gatsby, time is of crucial importance. The word itself, and other words related to it, recur frequently. how potentially wonderful a person she may be – she could never live up to the idea of an “enchanted object” since she is neither magical nor a Time is important thematically, being related to Gatsby’s dr eam, which is deeply concerned with the desire to thing. There is also a question here of “what’s next?” for Gatsby. If you have only one goal in life, and you end up reaching that goal, what is your escape or defeat time, to ‘repeat the past’. This aspect of his dream is comparable to one of the ideas inherent in life’s purpose now? English Romanticism. Coleridge temporarily escaped from time’s domination when he had the vision which led to his writing ‘Kubla Khan’ (1797). The odes of Keats which Fitzgerald so admired also include the longing to escape from time; to soar above it like the nightingale, or to be removed from it like the Grecian urn. The urn, in particular, i s praised and celebrated because it has achieved timelessness. Gatsby’s ‘mythic’ status suggests that he too is timeless . Love, Desire, and Relationships. After an earlier chapter of Tom and Myrtle together, we get a chapter of Daisy and Gatsby together. At first glance, the pairs are diametric opposites. Tom and Myrtle are crass and vulgar , constantly chattering about nothing, driven by materialism and physical desire, without a drop of love or romance between them. On the other hand, Gatsby and Daisy are modest and embarrassed, almost speechless, overwhelmed by feelings , and have a physical comfort with Symbolism: Gatsby's Shirts. Gatsby showers Daisy with his array of exquisite shirts in a display that is at the same each other that Tom doesn’t inspire either in Daisy or in Myrtle (both of whom he physically hurts in varying degrees). Gatsb y’s love for . On the one hand, this odd moment is like a male bird’s time self -congratulation and also a submissive plea Daisy has an otherworldly quality that is several times described in either mythic or religious terms. But already the chapter anticipates complicated mating dance – the shirts are the peacock’s plumage. These shirts are a visual representation of how far that elevating the relationship to such heights makes a fall almost inevitable. Gatsby has come – he can literally cover Daisy with his riches. But on the hand, the desperate way he shows them off ties into Nick’s observation that “think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it Morality and Ethics. Nick is tempted by what he later comes to realize is the moral quandary of his life. Twice, Gatsby offers to do drew from her well -loved eyes” (5.111). He wants her approval and is putting all of himself out there for her to pronounce judgment on. some kind of business with him. There are two ethical challenges in this offer.

Motifs: Weather . For the first time, the novel dwells at length on an extreme weather event. The  First, Gatsby is suggesting that Nick needs to be paid for services rendered – that asking Daisy to tea and letting intermittent downpour sometimes limits and sometimes facilitates Daisy and Gatsby’s afternoon together. The rain Gatsby see her at Nick’s house is a transaction that needs to be reimbursed somehow. This casts an oddly pimp -and-prostitute allows for moments of physical comedy. For example, Gatsby’s plan to “accidentally” drop by Nick’s house during tea vibe on what Nick is being asked to do, which would dispel some of the fairy-tale romance that Gatsby is ostensibly going for. with Daisy falls apart when he makes his appearance soaking wet (meaning that he obviously wasn’t simply trying to visit Nick – who would do that in that kind of weather?). The rain also creates physical and emotional boundaries, allowing Daisy and Gatsby to stay in their pri vate world. Literally, this happens when they can’t tour the mansion’s  Second, since it comes on the heels of their encounter with Mr. Wolfshiem, Gatsby’s business proposition is most likely grounds and have to stay in his house. But more importantly, this happens when the rain creates a mist that hides illegal (Insider trading? Speculation? Printing fake bonds? There are several possibilities.). It connects Nick to the lawless Daisy’s house across the bay from view. She doesn’t have to think about her marriage or her daughter – she can exist criminality that in this novel is associated with the new “Wild East.” with Gatsby surrounded by magical -sounding “pink and golden billow of foamy clouds” (5.134).

Nick opens this chapter as ‘About this time’ and describes the increasing celebrity of Gatsby so that he is pursued by a journalist seeking information about him. Nick then presents a detailed account of Gatsby’s origins, focussing on his relationship with Dan Cody and his reinvention of himself from ‘James Gatz’. The narrative is a ‘short halt’ in the progress of the story and out of chronological order, as Nick says, ‘He told me all this very much later, but I’ve put it down here.’ When the chronological narrative resumes, several weeks have passed since Daisy and Gatsby are reunited, and it is Sunday afternoon at Gatsby’s house. Nick recounts the arrival of Tom, with two companions, at Gatsby’s house, and then a party there which Tom and Daisy attend. Tom makes an excuse and pursues a young woman, while Daisy spends some time with Gatsby and the rest of the time being disgusted with West Egg. Tom attacks Gatsby’s character, classing him as a ‘bootlegger’ and then vowing to ‘make a point of finding out’. After the guests have all gone, Gatsby and Nick discuss Daisy and the reasons for Gatsby’s ‘unutterable depression’. Gatsby has found that Daisy ‘doesn’t understand’ and that the reality of their relationship is not what he dreamed. Crucially, Gatsby and Nick disagree over whether the past can be repeated and Gatsby explains that he wants to recover something lost from the past. He wanted to recover something, some idea of himself, perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. - Gatsby’s search for something undefined, but which Daisy represents or embodies, is like a ‘quest’. This undermines the notion that Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy is born out of true love, but suggests James Gatz of North Dakota - This chapter begins to dismantle the Gatsby myth, detailing the origins of rather that she is being exploited to restore a lost reality. The language used here, is highly abstract and symbolic: Gatsby in less glamorous terms than the previous narratives from Gatsby and Jordan (both in Chapter 4). We are encouraged to view this as truthful since Nick offers a detailed and authoritative narrative (based on  ‘a secret place above the trees’ Gatsby’s account), claiming an omniscient stance in some of his statements, such as: “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful  ‘gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder’ to the end.” The moment of invention is identified as the moment when Gatsby saw Dan Cody arrive in his  ‘wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath’ yacht on Lake Superior. The lake has been the source of Gatsby’s livelihood up to this point, but then he  ‘she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.’ becomes a companion to the rich Cody (in the previous chapter, he describes Cody as having been his ‘best friend’). One autumn night, five years before - This account of a kiss between Daisy and Gatsby is yet another disruption of the chronology, and it seems that this is a memory being recounted by Gatsby in the novel’s ‘present’ (just after the party which Daisy and Tom attended together). Moreover, it is a memory The unreality of reality - Nick describes the young Gatsby as having a highly active imagination: he is with visionary or surreal elements such as the ‘ladder’ of housing blocks. haunted by ‘grotesque and fantastic conceits’ and a ‘universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain’. The effects of this imagination are that Gatsby’s perception of reality is destabilised: he is aware of the When he kissed this girl … the incarnation was complete – ‘unreality of reality’ and a ‘promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing’. Because of this fluidity in his perception, he is able to invent a new identity, abandon his parents (‘his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all’) and take up a new life with Dan Cody.  The use of ‘wed’ is developed in Chapter 8 as Gatsby says he ‘felt married to her that was all.’  The idea that his mind will ‘never romp’ may be interpreted as a limiting experience, a ‘fall’ from the divine, anchoring Gatsby to the mortal Cody was fifty years old then - Cody is a successful older man, a kind of father figure for Gatsby, and has ‘perishable’ world. (See http://www.crossref-it.info/repository/big-ideas-bible/Garden-of-Eden,-Adam-and-Eve,-'Second-Adam'?jump=h2-2) gained his wealth from the trade in metals (silver and copper are mentioned, with an indirect reference to gold  Nevertheless, the use of flower imagery ‘blossomed’ presents this as a positive idea in the ‘Yukon’). He is exploited by unscrupulous women, eventually falling victim to Ella Kaye, as is insinuated  The question of what has been incarnated is left unresolved. by the comment that “Ella Kaye came aboard one night in Boston and a week later Dan Cody inhospitably died.” Cody is labelled ‘the pioneer debauchee’ here, as Nick recalls the photograph in Gatsby’s bedroom, and An elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words … uncommunicable for ever. - Nick’s own sense of loss is prompted by Gatsby’s determination to is associated with excessive drinking and ‘gay parties’ (‘gay’ then meant ‘wild’, ‘brilliant’, ‘flamboyant’ - this recover and reinstate the past. The loss is all the more terrible because neither Gatsby nor Nick knows what they have lost. The elusiveness of memory and word has undergone semantic change since the novel was written). Gatsby has learnt from him to avoid understanding is part of the tragedy of this novel, and is revisited in the final lines: ‘It eluded us then, but that’s no matter…’ drinking and there is a reference to ‘his singularly appropriate education’, possibly the experience of five years as Cody’s personal assistant. The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God--a phrase which, if it means

He told me all this very much later - With this account of Gatsby’s time with Dan Cody, Nick disrupts the anything, means just that--and he must be about His Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty. (6.7) chronology of the novel in order, he says, to respond to ‘those first wild rumours’ and ‘clear this set of misconceptions away’. He undermines the story of Dan Cody by commenting that; “I had reached the point of Here is the clearest connection of Gatsby and the ideal of the independent, individualistic, self-made man – the ultimate symbol of the American Dream. It’s telling that in describing Gatsby this way, Nick also links him to other ideas of perfection. First, he references Plato’s philosophical construct of the ideal believing everything and nothing about him.” The choice of presenting this information at this point in the novel, just after Gatsby and Daisy are reunited, must be considered. Nick highlights the fact that Gatsby loses form – a completely inaccessible perfect object that exists outside of our real existence. Second, Nick references various Biblical luminaries like Adam and touch with him for several weeks, almost teasing the reader with silence on the subject of the two lovers. The Jesus who are called “son of God” in the New Testament – again, linking Gatsby to mythic and larger than life beings who are far removed from lived next event in this chapter is the arrival of Tom Buchanan with two companions at Gatsby’s house, creating a experience. Gatsby’s self-mythologizing is in this way part of a grander tradition of myth-making. narrative tension which is heightened now by the reality of Daisy’s unfaithfulness. But the rest offended her--and inarguably, because it wasn't a gesture but an emotion. She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented "place" that ‘I know your wife,’ continued Gatsby, almost aggressively. - Gatsby is more confident than in his last Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village--appalled by its raw vigour that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that encounter with Tom (where he disappeared before he could be introduced), and even invites him to supper. herded its inhabitants along a short cut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand. (6.96) Tom expresses to Nick his disapproval of Daisy’s association with Gatsby, and attends Gatsby’s next party in order to reinforce his status as Daisy’s husband. Just as earlier we were treated to Jordan as a narrator stand-in, now we have a new set of eyes through which to view the story – Daisy’s. Her snobbery is deeply ingrained, and she doesn’t do anything to hide it or overcome it (unlike Nick, for example). Like Jordan, Daisy is judgmental and critical. Unlike The rest offended her - Daisy does not like Gatsby’s party and ‘was appalled by West Egg’, with its ‘raw vigour’ and ‘obtrusive fate’, whilst lacking the ‘old euphemisms’. Nick comments that she ‘saw something awful Jordan, Daisy expresses this through “emotion” rather than cynical mockery. Either way, what Daisy doesn’t like is that the nouveau riche haven’t learned to in the very simplicity she failed to understand’. This may be interpreted as a dissatisfaction with Gatsby and his hide their wealth under a veneer of gentility – full of the “raw vigour” that has very recently gotten them to this station in life, they are too obviously newly-rich milieu, and sits uneasily with her sense of wonder at Gatsby’s house and its environs in the previous materialistic. Their “simplicity” is their single-minded devotion to money and status, which in her mind makes the journey from birth to death (“from chapter. It also contradicts her concern (imagined by Nick) that: “some unbelievable guest would arrive… nothing to nothing”) meaningless. would blot out those five years of unwavering devotion”.

Each change tipped out a little of her warm human magic upon the air - Daisy is singing along to the music at Gatsby’s party, and Nick notes the power of her voice once again.  What parallels can you draw between Gatsby and Cody?  Using the details in this chapter, add to the timeline created from Chapter 4 ‘I feel far away from her,’ he said. ‘It’s hard to make her understand.’ - Gatsby explains to Nick  How are colour and light imagery used to describe the events of the ‘autumn night’? that he wants Daisy to deny she had ever loved Tom, and then marry him from her old home in Louisville. He  How do you interpret the idea of something that has been lost? is determined ‘to fix everything just the way it was before’. Gatsby’s sentiments highlight his unreal image of o What do you think it is? Daisy, as well as heightening the pathos of fixing his passion on someone too shallow to appreciate it. o How can it be recovered?

If Chapter 5 showed Gatsby achieving his dream, Chapter 6 demonstrates just how deeply his dream runs. Much of the mystery surrounding Gatsby is cleared away in this chapter The American Dream. It’s not a coincidence that in the same chapter where we learn and the reader learns more about who he really is, where he comes from, and what he believes. After seeing Gatsby and getting to know him, Nick presents the real story of his about James Gatz’s rebirth as Jay Gatsby, we see several other versions of the same kind of ambition that propelled him: past. By holding the actual story until Chapter 6, Fitzgerald accomplishes two things: First and most obviously, he builds suspense and piques the reader's curiosity. Second, and of equal importance, Fitzgerald is able to undercut the image of Gatsby. Ever so subtly, Fitzgerald presents, in effect, an exposé. Much as Nick did, one feels led on — Gatsby is not at all the man he claims to be. Fitzgerald wants the readers to feel delighted, glad for someone to succeed by his own ingenuity, while also a little unnerved at the ease in which  A reporter on the make follows a hunch that Gatsby might turn out to be a Gatsby has been able to pull off his charade. story.  Nick spends weeks courting the aunt that controls Jordan’s life and money. The final incident of the chapter is the party at its end, the first and only party Daisy attends, and is, in many ways, unlike any party Gatsby has hosted so far. Up to this point, the  And in the deep background of the party, a movie star’s producer tries to take their relationship from a professional to a personal level. purpose of the parties was twofold: to get Daisy's attention or, failing that, to make contact with someone who knows her. Now, for the first time, she's in attendance (with Tom, no less), so the party's purpose must necessarily change. Daisy and Gatsby have become increasingly comfortable with each other and even Tom is beginning to feel somewhat threatened by Daisy's "running around alone." At the party, Gatsby tries his best to impress the Buchanans by pointing out all the famous guests. Tom and Daisy, however, are Everyone in the world of the novel is out to climb higher, to get more, to remarkably unimpressed, although Tom does seem to be having a better time after he finds a woman to pursue and Daisy, not surprisingly, is drawn to the luminescent quality of reach further. Plus, we see the people at the very top of the social hierarchy (Tom the movie star (who is, in many ways, a sister to Daisy). By and large, though, Tom and especially Daisy are unimpressed by the West Eggers. The "raw vigour" of the party disgusts and Daisy) repeatedly look down their noses at this social climbing and generally act them, offending their "old money" sensibilitie s, providing another example of how the Buchanans and the people they represent discriminate on the basis of social class. After Tom and Daisy head home, Nick and Gatsby debrief the evening's events. Gatsby, worried that Daisy didn't have a good time (after all, the Daisy in his dream would have a good petty and miserable - which creates that sense that even for those at the top, happiness and fulfilment are elusive. time), shares his concern with Nick. Carraway, always the gentle voice of reason, reminds his friend that the past is in the past and it can't be resurrected. Most would agree with this, which makes Gatsby's "Why of course you can!" even more striking. There is no mistaking Gatsby's personality: He's like an errant knight, seeking to capture the illusive grail. Motifs: Alcohol. Despite his idolizing of Dan Cody, Gatsby learns from his mentor’s He is living in the past, something the reader may not have known, had he not realized his dream of reuniting with Daisy. Although it would be going too far to say Gatsby is weak alcoholism to stay away from drinking – this is why, to this day, he doesn’t participate in in character, Fitzgerald creates a protagonist who is unable to function in the present. He must continually return to the past, revising it and modifying it until it takes on epic his own parties. For him, alcohol is a tool for making money and displaying his qualities which, sadly, can never be realized in the everyday world. Gatsby, just as he is at his parties and with the social elite, is once again marginali sed, forced to the fringes by wealth and standing. the vivacity of his dream.

Society and Class . A very awkward encounter between a couple of West Egg, Tom, and Gatsby highlights the disparity between West Egg money and East Egg money. To Gatsby is torn apart by the tension between the present and the past: in his own words, he lived his life in a certain way in order to forget something sad that had happened to him long ago Nick, the East Eggers are fundamentally different and mostly terrible: (Fitzgerald, 1992, p. 70). But, strangely enough, his actions in the novel tells us quite the opposite: he wants to stay in the past. For him, the past is both the source of great pleasure and great displeasure. How are we to reconcile Gatsby’s contradictory attitudes towards the past?  For fun, they ride horses, while Gatsby’s main vehicle is a car. Freud believed that we generally aim to reduce psychic tension by either keeping the quantity of excitati on we experience “as low as possible or at least to keep it constant (Freud, 1961a, p. 3)”. Freud  They issue invitations that they hope will get declined, while Gatsby not only calls this mechanism the “pleasure principle.” If the quantity of excitation increases, the excitation will be felt as disple asure. According to the pleasure principle, we avoid displeasure in favour of welcomes them into his home, but allows peop le to crash his parties and stay in pleasure. So far, there is nothing counterintuitive in what has been said; however, the relation between pleasure and displea sure becomes complicated (and a bit counter- intuitive) when we take his house indefinitely. Freud’s idea of the death instinct into consideration: “It seems, then, that an instinct is an urge inherent in organic life to restore an earlier state of things” (Freud, 1961a, p. 30). By taking the death  They accept hospitality without so much as a thank you, while Gatsby feels instinct into consideration, we might claim that Gatsby is exhibi ting masochistic behaviour. He is, in a sense, destroying himself by obsessing over the past. In fact, this ultimately does (indirectly) lead to such a sense of gratitude that his thanks are overwhelming (for example, when his demise and death. But maybe we should not take things so simply. Gatsby’s obsession with the past needs a d eeper analysis. By observing Gatsby’s inability to let go of the past, we should realise he offers to go into business with Nick when Nick agreed to ask Daisy to tea). that he has undergone a traumatic experience, and it is this experience which he is trying to repress. There is an unfortunat e cliché that during psychoanalytic sessi ons, the patient lies on a couch and reconstructs his past by retelling what they remember to their analyst. This method presupposes that the patient is able to remember everything including those memories which they have repressed. Although that is how psychoanalysis was born, Freud himself soon realised the limitations of this method (Freud, 1958, p. 141). This also demonstrates the fundamental inability to read people and situations correctly that plagues Gatsby throughout the novel - he can never quite learn how The mature Freud rightly understood that he should use other methods to find out what had been suppressed in his patients. Following this thread, Freud eventually realised that the patient “is to behave and react correctly. obliged to repeat the repressed material as a contemporary experience instead of, as the physician would prefer to see, remem bering it as something belonging to the past” (Freud, 1961a, p. 12). To put it different ly, the patient’s constant repetition of an action signals to the analyst that there is something repressed in the patient that is presenting itself as repetition. Following Freud, we cannot rely on Gatsby’s account of his past: what he tells us are either lies and distorted facts, or an idealised version of reality. The former refers to what Gatsby tells us about himself, and the latter refers to However far Gatsby has come from the 17-year- old James Immutability of Identity. how he saw his past with Daisy. Therefore, just like Freud, we need to rely on the symptoms which Gatsby exhibits by his acts of repetition. The drive to repeat consumes Gatsby. Take the following Gatz, his only way of hanging on to a coherent sense of self has been to fixate on his love dialogue as an example: “‘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 for Daisy. Now that he has reached the pinnacle of realizing all his fantasies, Gatsby 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 wants to recapture that past self – the one Daisy was in love with. 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 But Gatsby fails to repeat the past. So, what does he do instead? If we were asked, “What is it that Gatsby over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was . . .” (Fitzgerald, 1992, pp. 116 -117). Love, Desire, Relationships. No real life relationship could ever live up to actually keeps repeating?” the obvious answer would be: He throws lavish parties. These parties are what Gatsby is known for; consequently, if we want to investigate Gatsby’s psyche, we need to Gatsby’s unrealistic, stylized, ultra-romantic, and absolutist conception of understand why he keeps organising such parties. There are various answers to this question: for instance, we could answer that Gatsby is ashamed of his humble past, and now he is trying to love in general, and his love of Daisy, in particular. Not only that, but he demands compensate for it by showing off. But whatever reason we come up with, that reason is only a secondary cause; there is one ultimate cause because of which Gatsby organises his wild parties: Daisy. His encounter with Daisy (and their subsequent break-up) is the traumatic event which Gatsby cannot get over. Every little thing in Gatsby’s life is an object meant for someone else: even his car is meant nothing less of Daisy as well. His condition for her to be with him is to entirely disavow Tom and any feelings she may have ever had for him. It’s this aspect of their affair that to be seen by everyone. It is noteworthy that despite appearances, Gatsby is far from a happy person. Every act of repetition is a revisit to the painful past. We mentioned earlier that there is a complicated relation between pleasure and displeasure; the complication arises because although the act of repetition (by virtue of releasing psychic tension) might be experienced as something is used to defend Daisy from the generally negative attitude most readers have towards her character. pleasurable, “the greater part of what is re-experienced under the compulsion to repeat must cause the ego displeasure” (Freud, 1961a, p. 14). We could ask: why wasn’t Gatsby able to get over his break-up with Daisy? What was it that made this experience so traumatic? We can consider the loss of love as a traumatic event by giving two Daisy Buchanan's Motivations. Daisy’s reaction to Gatsby’s party is fascinating - different Freudian answers: Firstly, Freud points out that in civilisation, we use certain mechanisms to cope with civilisation and its discontents. There is something which is, strangely, both the answer to especially if we think that Gatsby has been trying to be the “gold-hatted bouncing our uneasiness in civilisation and the cause of our sufferings: “our relations to other men” (Freud, 1961b, p. 26). This relation finds its most radical form in love. Even though love can save us, it can be a lover” for her. She is appalled by the empty, meaningless circus of luxury, great danger when we are faced with the loss of the beloved. As Freud poetically puts it: “we are never so defenceless against suffering as when we love, never so helplessly unhappy as when we have snobbishly disgusted by the vulgarity of the people, and worried that Gatsby could be lost our loved object or its love” (Freud, 1961b, p. 33). In this sense, Gatsby’s reaction is quite understandable; nevertheless, there is a second reason which is more specific to Gatsby as an individual: attracted to someone else there. Daisy enjoyed being alone in his mansion with him, but Gatsby is a character with many narcissistic tendencies: he is proud of himself and boasts of being a self-made man. Even prior to becoming a wealthy person, he had exhibited narcissistic tendencies. the more he displays what he has attained, the more she is repelled. The gold-hatted Gatsby is a person with an inextinguishable drive: indeed, if he did not have such a drive, he could never have become so successful in life. Viewing oneself as someone who can get things done is one of routine simply won’t work with her when the Gatsby she fell in love with was an the hallmarks of a narcissist. For a narcissist, there cannot be any failures, yet there is one great failure in Gatsby’s life, and that is his relation with Daisy. As we are told by Freud, the loss of love leaves idealistic dreamer who was overwhelmed by simply kissing her - not the seen-it-all “a permanent injury to self-regard in the form of a narcissistic scar” (Freud, 1961a, p. 14). And this is precisely why Gatsby experienced the failure of his relationship with Daisy as a trauma. What keeper of a menagerie of celebrities and weirdos. Gatsby had created for himself was nothing more than an idealised past as a deadly mirage. The final line of the novel is overtly Freudian: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald, 1992, p. 189). We cannot escape our past: our traumas will always haunt us.

Because Daisy is often at his house, Gatsby has curtailed his parties and dismissed all his servants. Nick is invited to Daisy’s house, fearing a ‘rather harrowing scene’. The group of five (Daisy, Tom, Nick, Jordan and Gatsby) gather the next day in ‘broiling heat’. Gatsby is surprised to meet Pammy, Daisy’s daughter, briefly. Over lunch, Tom guesses that Daisy and Gatsby are lovers. To break the tension, everyone agrees to drive into New York. Tom asks to try Gatsby’s yellow car, taking Nick and Jordan. He boasts that he has just bought it when they refuel at Wilson’s garage. Wilson is still wanting a deal from Tom so he can move away with Myrtle, whom he has discovered is having an affair. Nick notices Myrtle watching them, who assumes Jordan is Tom’s wife. Everyone arrives at the Plaza Hotel and takes a room there, underneath which a wedding party is taking place. Gatsby speaks for Daisy, denying any love she ever had for Tom, and Tom refutes this, forcing Daisy to admit that she has loved both men. Tom also insinuates that Gatsby is a criminal and an overwhelmed Daisy withdraws from Gatsby. Gatsby and Daisy return home, this time in Gatsby’s car, the others following later. The narrative changes perspective to give Michaelis’ account of Myrtle’s last moments, who ran out from the garage and was killed instantly by a ‘yellow car’. Tom, arriving a little later, is careful to instil in Wilson the knowledge that he doesn’t own the car, and then leaves, believing that the driver of the ‘yellow car’ was Gatsby. When Tom, Nick and Jordan arrive at Daisy’s house, Tom dismisses them and Nick encounters Gatsby lurking outside. He reveals that it was Daisy at the wheel, but declares, ‘I’ll say I was’, and he recounts the death of Myrtle again. Nick checks to see if Daisy is safe, and discovers Daisy and Tom talking conspiratorially in the kitchen. Nick goes home, but Gatsby remains, ready to defend Daisy if needed.

Despite all that takes place in this chapter, the most important moment as far as gaining insight into the characters is The lights at his house failed to go on … his career … was over - The ending of Gatsby’s ‘career’ is associated with him reaching a zenith of when the group finally meet Daisy and Tom's baby. It brings an interesting consequence to the relationship of Gatsby and popular interest: ‘curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest’. His fall from grace is therefore the conventional tragic downturn, activating all the Daisy. When Gatsby first sees the baby Nick says "I don't think he had ever really believed in its existence before". Gatsby associated ideas of the genre of tragedy (Gatsby as a great man, a hero, making a tragic error, the interrelated roles of fate and personality, the and Daisy have been so wrapped up in their own relationship and their own happiness they have not even taken the idea of a corrupted world which can be restored by death). child into consideration. Yet Daisy is so possessive of her little girl. She eagerly tells the group that "She doesn't look like her father. She looks like me. She's got my hair and shape of the face". Not only does Daisy want to keep Tom's involvement Trimalchio - The reference to Trimalchio connects Gatsby with the image of someone who seeks to impress people with lavish parties, having in the child to a minimum, but the child is something that is totally hers. Given her life, Daisy has very little to control or become wealthy despite humble origins. This was such an important image to Fitzgerald that he almost named the novel ‘Trimalchio’ or hold on to. Her own husband comes and goes as he pleases and she has no job or means of independence. Her child is ‘Trimalchio in West Egg’. Some commentators have suggested that, as Trimalchio was a freed slave, this may indicate that Gatsby was a freed something she can hold up to the world as something that is entirely hers. Shortly after this Gatsby says that "Her voice is black slave, pale enough to pass for white. full of money", referring to Daisy. This simple line clearly shows how tied the idea of wealth to Daisy in his mind. If there is any true love between the two, it has been preserved by Gatsby's lust for wealth and possessions and Daisy becomes an unfamiliar butler with a villainous face squinted at me suspiciously - The signs of change are numerous, and the language is overtly another object to him at times. Like the green light, Daisy herself is symbolic to Gatsby of all that he can have. There is a negative: ‘sick’, ‘unfamiliar’, ‘villainous’, ‘squinted’, ‘suspiciously’, ‘grudging’, ‘sulkily’, ‘rudely’, ‘slammed’, ‘pigsty’, ‘fallen in like a card house’. The single-mindedness to Gatsby once he sets his sights on something. After the accident Gatsby seems oblivious to the fact image of a card house emphasises the role of fate in determining Gatsby’s status, although this is attributed to Daisy’s disapproval of the last party. that a woman was killed by he and Daisy. His only concern is for Daisy. As Nick explains what happened he says of that Silver idols - this image of Daisy and Jordan is very similar to the way in which Nick initially encounters them in Chapter 1. They are given almost "He [Gatsby] spoke as if Daisy's reaction was the only thing that mattered". Despite all that has happened Gatsby is still fixated on Daisy. divine status (and are worshipped by the men), but may also be seen as comic. They are wearing white, usually associated with simplicity and purity, but neither character can aspire to these ideals.

Bles-sed pre-cious - Daisy’s daughter, Pammy, is brought into the room briefly, between Daisy kissing Gatsby and Tom returning with drinks. The presence of the child disconcerts Gatsby, and draws attention to the complexity of Daisy’s relationships. Neither Tom nor Gatsby is ever seen  Look carefully at the language used to convey heat at the beginning of this chapter. interacting with the child, and her existence is almost entirely tangential, except possibly as a reminder that Daisy has strong family ties. o How is this developed in the rest of the chapter? o How does the heat distort Nick’s perception? Her voice struggled on through the heat, beating against it, moulding its senselessness into forms. - This heroic effort, against  How is language from the semantic field of metal used in this chapter? overwhelming opposition, is a motif of the novel, and the word ‘beat’ or ‘beating’ is also used on several occasions to recognise determination in o What is the role of money at this point in the novel? adversity. The final line of the novel uses this phrase also: ‘So we beat on…’ Out of context, this word has connotations of ‘heartbeat’, and may refer,  Explore the use of light in this chapter, and compare it with the ways in which light is used elsewhere, for in this way, to the human will to survive and persevere. In this specific passage, it may refer to the human impulse to make sense out of chaos. example in Chapter 2. o What effects are achieved by means of this technique? Her voice is full of money – Gatsby’s description of Daisy enables Nick to demystify Daisy’s power (he refers to it earlier as a ‘deathless song’  What does Fitzgerald achieve by using Myrtle in particular as the victim of Daisy’s poor driving and lack of that couldn’t be ‘over-dreamed’) and this recognition frees him from illusion about her). However, Gatsby is still enthralled, which may also imply care? something about the nature of his infatuation with her. I’ll take you in this circus wagon - Tom’s reaction to the discovery of Daisy’s infidelity is to assert himself powerfully (‘boisterously’) and to

usurp“Beat Gatsby’s me!" he car, heard which her Daisy cry. re"Throwsists. This me exchange down and of cars beat and me, partners you dirty sets uplittle the coward!" narrative (7.314) for a confusion Myrtle fightsover identities by provoking (which hasand already taunting. happened in a different car crash in Chapter 3). Myrtle will initiate this when she mistakes Jordan for Tom’s wife as she looks from her window with This is our first and only chance to see Daisy performing motherhood. And "performing" is the right word, since everything ‘jealousHere, she terror’. is pointing out Wilson’s weak and timid nature by egging him on to treat her the way that Tom did when he punched her about Daisy's actions here rings a little false and her cutesy sing song a little bit like an act. The presence of the nurse earlier in the novel. However, before we draw whatever conclusions we can about Myrtle from this exclamation, it’s worthwhile to - Gatsby cannot comprehend the notion of a compromised love, as expressed by Daisy, whereas, although Tom rejects the makes it clear that, like many upper-class women of the time, Daisy does not actually do any child rearing. At the Youthink loved about me the too context? of this remark. First, we are getting this speech third-hand. This is Nick telling us what Michaelis described same time, . The shock and statement,overhearing, he doesn’tso Myrtle’s struggle words with have the concept,gone through since he a himself double is maleunfaithful. filter. Only Second, Gatsby Myrtle’s maintains words the idealstand of in constancy isolation. and We fidelity. have no idea this is the exact moment when Gatsby is delusional dreams start breaking down surprise that he experiences when he realizes that Daisy really does have a daughter with Tom show how little he has what Wilson has been saying to her to provoke this attack. What we do know is that however "powerless" Wilson might be, he still has thought about the fact the Daisy has had a life of her own outside of him for the last five years. The existence of the child power enough to imprison his wife in their house and to unilaterally uproot and move her several states away against her will. is proof of Daisy's separate life, and Gatsby simply cannot handle then she is not exactly as he has pictured her to be. Neither Nick nor Michaelis remarks on whether either of these exercises of unilateral power over Myrtle is appropriate or fair—it is Finally, here we can see how Pammy is being bred for her life as a future "beautiful little fool", as Daisy put it. As Daisy’s makeup rubs onto Pammy's hair, Daisy prompts her reluctant daughter to be friendly to two strange men. simply expected that this is what a husband can do to a wife. So what do we make of the fact that Myrtle was trying to verbally emasculate her husband? Maybe yelling at him is her only recourse "What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon," cried Daisy, "and the day after that, and the next thirty years?" in a life where she has no actual ability to control her life or bodily integrity. The stark contrast here between the oddly ghostly

"Don't be morbid," Jordan said. "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."(7.74-75) nature of the car that hits Myrtle and the visceral, gruesome, explicit imagery of what happens to her body after it is hit is very striking. The car almost doesn’t seem real—it comes out of the darkness like an avenging spirit and disappears, Michaelis cannot tell

Comparing and contrasting Daisy and Jordan) is one of the most common assignments that you will get when studying what colour it is. Meanwhile, Myrtle’s corpse is described in detail and is palpably physical and present. This treatment of Myrtle’s body this novel. This very famous quotation is a great place to start. Daisy's attempt at a joke reveals her fundamental might be one place to go when you are asked to compare Daisy and Myrtle in class. Daisy’s body is never even described, beyond a boredom and restlessness. Despite the fact that she has social standing, wealth, and whatever material possessions she gentle indication that she prefers white dresses that are flouncy and loose. On the other hand, every time that we see Myrtle in the could want, she is not happy in her endlessly monotonous and repetitive life. This existential ennui goes a long way to novel, her body is physically assaulted or appropriated. Tom initially picks her up by pressing his body inappropriately into hers on the helping explain why she seizes on Gatsby as an escape from routine. On the other hand, Jordan is a pragmatic and train station platform. Before her party, Tom has sex with her while Nick (a man who is a stranger to Myrtle) waits in the next room, realistic person, who grabs opportunities and who sees possibilities and even repetitive cyclical moments of change. For example here, although fall and winter are most often linked to sleep and death, whereas it is spring that is usually seen and then Tom ends the night by punching her in the face. Finally, she is restrained by her husband inside her house and then run over. as the season of rebirth, for Jordan any change brings with it the chance for reinvention and new beginnings.

Only the dead dream fought on … that lost voice across the room. - Gatsby has been vanquished by Tom, partly "She's got an indiscreet voice," I remarked. "It's full of——”. I hesitated. "Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly. That was it. I'd never because he manages to discredit Gatsby, and because he cites ways in which he and Daisy are united, but partly also because understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it. . . . Daisy lacks the will to leave Tom. She is described as hesitating, reluctant and frightened, although she can also be seen as High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl. . . . (7.103-106) strong because she makes the honest admission that she did love Tom once. Here we are getting to the root of what it is really that attracts Gatsby so much to Daisy. Nick notes that the way Daisy speaks to Gatsby is ‘You two start on home, Daisy,’ said Tom. ‘In Mr Gatsby’s car.’ - Tom is fully in control now, and demonstrates his enough to reveal their relationship to Tom. Once again we see the powerful attraction of Daisy's voice. For Nick, this voice is full of triumph by directing the actions of Gatsby and Daisy. The swapping back of cars is also symbolic of Tom’s victory. "indiscretion," an interesting word that at the same time brings to mind the revelation of secrets and the disclosure of illicit sexual activity. Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade - Nick’s announcement that he is thirty on this Nick has used this word in this connotation before—when describing Myrtle in Chapter 2 he uses the word "discreet" several times to explain day leads to his very pessimistic anticipation of future misery as ‘a decade of loneliness’, but this is alleviated by the presence the precautions she takes to hide her affair with Tom. But for Gatsby, Daisy's voice does not hold this sexy allure, as much as it does the of Jordan, ‘too wise to ever carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age’. promise of wealth, which has been his overriding ambition and goal for most of his life. To him, her voice marks her as a prize to be collected. This impression is further underscored by the fairy tale imagery that follows the connection of Daisy's voice to money. Much like Michaelis…. was the principal witness at the inquest - The next section of narrative is the account by Michaelis, princesses who is the end of fairy tales are given as a reward to plucky heroes, so too Daisy is Gatsby's winnings, an indication that he has provided via Nick whom we must imagine to have been at the inquest. His narrative is seamlessly merged with the account in succeeded. the newspapers, as well as Nick’s own style of expression - the car is said to have ‘wavered tragically’ and of Myrtle’s mouth is described as: “ripped a little at the corners, as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long.” 'The Great Gatsby' culminates in the deaths of Gatsby and Myrtle. Whilst there are several (some more metaphorical) ways in which

Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick, dark blood with the Fitzgerald depicts death within 'The Great Gatsby', Gatsby's and Myrtle's deaths are interesting to further examine as they depict the deaths dust. - The choice of active verbs ‘knelt’ and ‘mingled’ imply that Myrtle has in some way determined how she would die, of two very different people, in very different ways. although this is balanced with the passive form ‘extinguished’. The image of her kneeling is also unnerving, as this is not a conventional death position. The later image of her lying on a work-table also has unconventional connotations, as if she is an Myrtle, mistress to Tom and unfaithful to her own husband is hit and killed when Daisy accidentally drives into her. It is reported that engine or part that can be fixed. Furthermore, the sense of denial of her death is found here also: “wrapped in a blanket… as Myrtle's breast is 'ripped' off during the incident. This symbol of femininity being so aggressively attacked and the visceral nature of the though she suffered from a chill in the hot night.” language used differs greatly to the image of Gatsby's death. Whilst Gatsby is portrayed as divine being in his death, Myrtle is a symbol of destroyed womanhood. I know what kind of car it was! - Tom is quick to intervene and dissociate himself from the car, telling Wilson that the car wasn’t his, even though he had earlier claimed that it was (‘I bought it last week’) and had offered to sell it to Wilson. Tom It is also worth noting the amount of time each death occupies on the page. The entire eighth chapter is dedicated almost exclusively to handles the situation expertly, mainly relying on his physical strength (‘picking up Wilson like a doll’), his authoritative manner describing the death of Gatsby and the narration allows us to 'see' the terrible scene. However, Myrtle's death is only reported to us through and a well-timed departure. Nick notes, when they arrive back at Tom’s house, that he speaks ‘gravely and with decision’, the conversations of those with a further degree of separation from the reader. Gatsby is granted a greater degree of intimacy and therefore ominously anticipating a revenge move from Tom, as Tom believes Gatsby to have killed Myrtle and to have failed to stop. we expect a reader may feel his death more profoundly. Or perhaps one could argue that the nonchalant brevity through which Myrtle's I’d be damned if I’d go in - Nick’s reaction to the invitation to go in Tom’s house, and even have some supper, is one of death is reported could inspire feelings of anguish and sympathy for her? revulsion. He rejects ‘all of them’ including Jordan, whose comment that ‘it’s only half past nine’ seems to trivialise the death further. Nick thereby rejects their pragmatic moral values, and his choice of ‘damned’ has religious connotations to suggest Another point is that, in spite of the differences of the two characters (one, an upper class gentleman and the other a working class mistress) that their behaviour will lead to divine punishment. and their eventual demise, is that they are similar in their desires. Both are desirous of a lover who is already married. Though Myrtle appears to have consummated her desire a little more than Gatsby (by having sexual relations with Tom) both appear to die in pursuit of Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table… conspiring together - This passage is the the object of their desire. Myrtle dies running out to Tom's car and Gatsby dies defending Daisy's reputation. It is fascinating then to analyse final betrayal of Gatsby as Daisy and Tom unite despite their failures (perhaps represented by the plate of cold fried chicken just what this means in terms of Fitzgerald's portrayal of death in regards to gender and desire. It appears that within 'The Great Gatsby' between them). It is left unclear what their plans are but it is a glimpse into the hidden manoeuvrings of those with social desire is considered to be deadly and that women face a crueller fate than men should they succumb to it. power. Gatsby is excluded, waiting outside in the dark. Myrtle’s accidental death acts to reinforce the bond between Daisy and Tom, which had already proved to be stronger than that between Daisy and Gatsby. Tom’s power and authority are Myrtle, like George and Gatsby, was obviously not born into money, and instead is relying on her own wits to make it in 1920s America. In a repeatedly noted in the aftermath of Myrtle’s death. manner quite similar to Gatsby's, she consciously adopts a different persona to try and get access to a richer circle (while George seems to be the only one relying on honest work—his shop—and honest relationships, through his loyalty to Myrtle, to improve his lot in life). The sacredness of the vigil… watching over nothing - Gatsby is described as holding a vigil for Daisy, using religious But Myrtle aims too high, and ends up killed when she mistakes Gatsby's yellow car for Tom's, and runs out in the road assuming the car will language to describe his actions. This scene in the dark has strong religious connotations, as Gatsby is in the garden, a luminous stop for her. figure who is ready to sacrifice himself for Daisy’s redemption, the night before his own death. In some respects, he is a Christ- like figure, although his focus is very narrowly upon saving one person. The futility of his actions is emphasised by Nick, in saying that he was ‘watching over nothing’ and his insight leads him to try warning Gatsby at the beginning of the next In the same way that Gatsby overestimates his value to Daisy, Myrtle overestimates her value to Tom. Even if Tom had been driving the car, and even if he had stopped for her, he would never have whisked her away from George, divorced Daisy, and married her. chapter. Furthermore, the fact she assumed the garish yellow car was Tom's shows how little she understands the stiff, old money world Tom comes from. Myrtle's complete misunderstanding of Tom, as well as her violent death, fit the overall cynical message in the book that the American Dream is a false promise to those born outside of the wealthy class in America. As hard as anyone tries, they don't And so, the promise that Daisy and Tom are a dysfunctional couple that somehow makes it work (Nick saw this at the end of stand a chance of competing with those in America born into the old money class. They will never understand the strange internal rules that Chapter 1) is fulfilled. For careful readers of the novel, this conclusion should have been clear from the get-go. Daisy complains govern the old money set, and will never stand a chance of being their equal. about Tom, and Tom serially cheats on Daisy, but at the end of the day, they are unwilling to forgo the privileges their life entitles them to. This moment of truth has stripped Daisy and Tom down to the basics. They are in the least showy room of their mansion, sitting with simple and unpretentious food, and they have been stripped of their veneer. Their honesty makes what they are doing—conspiring to get away with murder, basically—completely transparent. And it is the fact that they can In a sudden panic over his discovery that his wife has taken a lover, Tom exclaims “Nowadays people begin by sneering at tolerate this level of honesty in each other besides each being kind of a terrible person that keeps them together. Compare family life and family institutions and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage their readiness to forgive each other anything—even murder!—with Gatsby’s insistence that it’s his way or no way. between black and white.” In addition to Tom’s double standards for his own and his wife’s behavior (as well as his racism). This statement reveals Tom’s assumptions that the moral structure of society rests on the stability of the patriarchal family and Critical Idea: The image of Tom and Daisy holding hands, while discussing how to flee after Daisy kills Myrtle, is the that the stability of the patriarchal family rests on the conformity of women to patriarchal gender roles. With the narration crux of their relationship. They are willing to forgive each other everything. Are they secretly the most romantic communicated through the vehicle of Nick, Tom is ridiculed. couple in the book?

This chapter opens with Gatsby’s rejection by Daisy, and Nick’s visit to Gatsby’s house, which is now dusty and musty with being unused. From Gatsby, Nick hears the tale of Dan Cody (recounted in Chapter 6) as well as further details about Gatsby’s first relationship with Daisy. He had come to see her as a ‘grail’ and ‘felt married to her’, but the war intervened and Tom Buchanan replaced Gatsby. Daisy sent a letter to Oxford to reject Gatsby. The season is now turning to autumn, Nick comments, and Gatsby decides to use the pool before it is drained ready for the falling leaves. Nick tells Gatsby that he is ‘worth the whole damn bunch put together’ and then leaves to go to work. At his office, he speaks to Jordan on the telephone as they finish their relationship. Nick then narrates what happened at the garage during the previous night as Wilson slowly came to the conclusion that Myrtle’s lover deliberately killed her. The following morning an obsessed Wilson sets out to avenge his wife. Nick reconstructs the rest of the events using police information, the testimony of the chauffeur and the butler and his own imagination of Gatsby’s feelings. We see how Gatsby is finally disillusioned, just as his murderer approaches and shoots him in the pool. Nick focuses on the moving water, taking ‘its accidental course with its accidental burden’. The chapter ends with Wilson’s death, as a completion of the movement towards ‘holocaust’ that began in Chapter 5, once Gatsby had regained his lost love.

He stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. But it was all going by too Chapter 8 displays the tragic side of the American dream as Gatsby is gunned down by George Wilson. The death is brutal, if not unexpected, and brings to an end the life of the paragon of idealism. The myth of fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever. (8.30) Once again Gatsby is trying to reach something Gatsby will continue, thanks to Nick who relays the story, but Gatsby's death loudly marks the end of an that is just out of grasp, a gestural motif that recurs frequently in this novel. Here already, even as a young man, he is trying to grab hold of an ephemeral era. In many senses, Gatsby is the dreamer inside all of everyone. Although the reader cheers him as he memory. pursues his dreams, one also knows that pure idealism cannot survive in the harsh modern world. This chapter, as well as the one following, also provides astute commentary on the world that, in effect, allowed "They're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together." I've always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and the death of Gatsby. As the men search Gatsby's house for cigarettes, the reader learns more about both Nick and Gatsby. Nick moves further and further from the background to emerge as a forceful presence in understanding smile, as if we'd been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time. His gorgeous pink rag of a suit made a bright spot of colour against the white steps the novel, showing genuine care and concern for Gatsby, urging him to leave the city for his own and I thought of the night when I first came to his ancestral home three months before. The lawn and drive had been crowded with the faces of those who guessed protection. Throughout the chapter, Nick is continually pulled toward his friend, anxious for reasons he at his corruption--and he had stood on those steps, concealing his incorruptible dream, as he waved them goodbye. (8.45-46) can't exactly articulate. Whereas Nick shows his true mettle in a flattering light in this chapter, Gatsby It’s interesting that here Nick suddenly tells us that he disapproves of Gatsby. One way to interpret this is that during that fateful summer, Nick did indeed doesn't fare as well. He becomes weaker and more helpless, despondent in the loss of his dream. It is as if he disapprove of what he saw, but has since come to admire and respect Gatsby, and it is that respect and admiration that come through in the way he tells the refuses to admit that the story hasn't turned out as he intended. He refuses to acknowledge that the story most of the time. It’s also telling that Nick sees the comment he makes to Gatsby as a compliment. At best, it is a backhanded one – he is saying that illusion that buoyed him for so many years has vanished, leaving him hollow and essentially empty. Gatsby is better than a rotten crowd, but that is a bar set very low (if you think about it, it’s like saying “you’re so much smarter than that chipmunk!” and calling that high praise). Nick’s description of Gatsby’s outfit as both “gorgeous” and a “rag” underscores this sense of condescension. The reason Nick thinks that he is For the first time in the novel, Gatsby sets aside his romantic view of life and confronts the past he has been praising Gatsby by saying this is that suddenly, in this moment, Nick is able to look past his deeply and sincerely held snobbery, and to admit that Jordan, Tom, trying to run from, as well as the present he has been trying to avoid. Daisy, it turns out, captured Gatsby's and Daisy are all horrible people despite being upper crust. Still, backhanded as it is, this compliment also meant to genuinely make Gatsby feel a bit better. love largely because "she was the first 'nice' girl he had ever known." She moved in a world Gatsby aspired Since Gatsby cares so, so much about entering the old money world, it makes Nick glad to be able to tell Gatsby that he is so much better than the crowd he's to and unlike other people of that particular social set, she acknowledged Gatsby's presence in that world. Although he doesn't admit it, his love affair with Daisy started early, when he erroneously defined her not desperate to join. Nick tries to imagine what it might be like to be Gatsby, but a Gatsby without the activating dream that has spurred him throughout his life. merely by who she was, but by what she had and what she represented. All through the early days of their For Nick, this would be the loss of the aesthetic sense - an inability to perceive beauty in roses or sunlight. The idea of fall as a new, but horrifying, world of ghosts courtship, however, Gatsby tormented himself with his unworthiness, knowing "he was in Daisy's house by a and unreal material contrasts nicely with Jordan’s earlier idea that fall brings with it rebirth. colossal accident," although he led Daisy to believe he was a man of means. Although his original intention was to use Daisy, he found out that he was incapable of doing so. When their relation became intimate, he However much Nick has been backgrounding himself as a narrative force in the novel, in this chapter, we suddenly still felt unworthy, and with the intimacy, Gatsby found himself wedded, not to Daisy directly, but to the start to feel the heavy hand of his narration. Rather than the completely objective, non-judgmental reporter that he has set out to be, Nick begins quest to prove himself worthy of her. (How sad that Gatsby's judgment is so clouded with societal to edit and editorialize. First, he introduces a sense of foreboding, foreshadowing Gatsby’s death with bad dreams and ominous dread. Then, he expectation that he can't see that a young, idealistic man who has passion, drive, and persistence is worth talks about his decision to reveal Gatsby’s background not in the chronological order when he learned it, but before we heard about the argument more than ten Daisys put together.) in the hotel room. The novel is a long eulogy for a man Nick found himself admiring despite many reasons not to, so this choice to contextualize In loving Daisy, it turns out, Gatsby was trapped. On one hand, he loved her and she loved him, or more and mitigate Tom’s revelations by giving Gatsby the chance to provide context makes perfect sense. However, it calls into question Nick’s version of precisely, he loved what he envisioned her to be and she loved the persona he presented to her — and events, and his interpretation of the motivations of the people around him. He is a fundamentally unreliable narrator. therein lies the rub. Both Daisy and Gatsby were in love with projected images and while Daisy didn't realize this at first, Gatsby did, and it forced him more directly into his dream world. After the war (in By the end of this chapter, the rich and the poor are definitely separated - forever, by death. Every main which Gatsby really did excel), Gatsby could have returned home to Daisy. The only difficulty with that, character who isn’t from the upper class - Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson - is violently killed. On the other hand, those from the social elite - Jordan, however, would have been that in being with Daisy, he would run the risk of being exposed as an Daisy, and Tom - can continue their lives totally unchanged. Jordan brushes these deaths off completely. Tom gets to hang on to his functionally imposter. So, rather than risk having his dream disintegrate in front of him, he perpetuated his illusion by studying at Oxford before heading back to the States. Daisy's letters begged him to return, not dysfunctional marriage. And Daisy literally gets away with murder (or at least manslaughter). Only Nick seems to be genuinely affected by what understanding why he wasn't rushing back to be with her. She was missing the post-war euphoria he has witnessed. He survives, but his retreat to his Midwest home marks a kind of death - the death of his romantic idea of achievement and sweeping the nation and she wanted her dashing officer by her side. Eventually Daisy moved again into success. society, feeling the need to have some stability and purpose in her life. However, Daisy's lack of principle shows when she is willing to use love, money, or practicality (whichever was handier) to determine the direction of her life. She wanted to be married. When Tom arrived, he seemed the obvious choice, and so In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald pins the story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy during the summer season, and parallels their love story Daisy sent Gatsby a letter at Oxford. along with the climax of the summer heat. The novel also ends with Gatsby's death right as the impending presence of Autumn approaches. In the beginning of the novel, when we first meet Nick, before Gatsby is seen for the first time, Fitzgerald writes, "And so with the sunshine and the Gatsby's death, alone in his pool, brings forth a couple of distinct images. On the one hand, his death is a rebirth of sorts. Gatsby has done nothing more than follow a dream, and despite his money and his questionable business great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with dealings, he is nothing at all like the East Egg socialites he runs with. One admires him, if for no other reason than his the summer." The change or progression into the summer opens up the story and thrusts the plot line forward. It is in the summer weather that ability to sustain a dream in a world that is historically inhospitable to dreamers. His death has, in a sense, removed Gatsby throws his lavish parties, Jordan and Daisy are able to sit around all day embodying the definition of conspicuous consumption, and Daisy him from his mortal existence and allowed him rebirth into a different, hopefully better, life. As Nick says, Gatsby "must and Gatsby momentarily rekindle their lost love. The summer seems to represent the rebirth of "life" for the characters of the novel. During the have felt that he had lost the old warm world" when his dream died, and found no reason to go on. In that sense, Wilson's murdering him is a welcome end. On another level, Gatsby's death at the hands of George Wilson makes his summer season, the action of the novel takes place, and becomes a transition period. Nick moves in next to Gatsby, Gatsby finally find's Daisy quest complete. His dream is completely dead, but he can make one more chivalric gesture: He can be killed in Daisy's again, and the characters constantly travel to New York City through the Valley of Ashes. The summer is a period of movement where the period stead. By lying in the pool, Gatsby is doing nothing to protect himself, as if he is saying that he won't refuse whatever is of time outside the summer becomes stagnant. ahead of him. In some sense, Gatsby helps Wilson by refusing to be proactive in his own defence. Until the very end, Gatsby remains the dreamer, that most rare of jewels in the modern world.

As the summer ends, as the seasons transition into fall, it is then that Gatsby's story falls apart. While Gatsby is laying in the pool, under the falling

The reason the word “nice” is in quotation marks is that Gatsby does not mean that Daisy is the first pleasant or amiable Jordan’s pragmatic opportunism, which has so far been a positive foil to Daisy’s listless inactivity, is suddenly revealed to girl that he has met. Instead, the word “nice” here means refined, having elegant and elevated taste, picky and fastidious. be an amoral and self-involved way of going through life. Instead of being affected one way or another by In other words, from the very beginning what Gatsby most values about Daisy is that she belongs to that set of society that Myrtle’s horrible death, Jordan’s takeaway from the previous day is that Nick simply wasn’t as attentive to her as she he is desperately trying to get into: the wealthy, upper echelon. Just like when he noted the Daisy’s voice has money in it, would like. here Gatsby almost cannot separate Daisy herself from the beautiful house that he falls in love with. Nick is staggered by the revelation that the cool aloofness that he liked so much throughout the summer - possibly

Notice also how much he values quantity of any kind – it’s wonderful that the house has many bedrooms and because it was a nice contrast to the girl back home that Nick thought was overly attached to their non-engagement - is corridors, and it’s also wonderful that many men want Daisy. Either way, it’s the quantity itself that “increases value.” It’s not actually an act. Jordan really doesn’t care about other people, and she really can just shrug off seeing Myrtle’s almost like Gatsby’s love is operating in a market economy – the more demand there is for a particular good, the higher mutilated corpse and focus on whether Nick was treating her right. Nick, who has been trying to assimilate this kind of the worth of that good. Of course, thinking in this way makes it easy to understand why Gatsby is able to discard Daisy’s thinking all summer long, finds himself shocked back into his Middle West morality here humanity and inner life when he idealises her.

This description of Daisy’s life apart from Gatsby clarifies why she picks Tom in the end and goes back to her hopeless ennui Clearly Wilson has been psychologically shaken first by Myrtle’s affair and then by her death - he is seeing the giant eyes and passive boredom: this is what she has grown up doing and is used to. Daisy’s life seems fancy. After all, there are orchids of the optometrist billboard as a stand-in for God. But this delusion underlines the absence of any higher power in the and orchestras and golden shoes. novel. In the lawless, materialistic East, there is no moral centre which could rein in people’s darker, immoral impulses. The motif of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes runs through the novel, as Nick notes them watching But already, even for the young people of high society, death and decay loom large. In this passage for example, not whatever goes on in the ashheaps. Here, that motif comes to a crescendo. Arguably, when Michaelis dispels Wilson’s only is the orchestra’s rhythm full of sadness, but the orchids are dying, and the people themselves look like flowers past delusion about the eyes, he takes away the final barrier to Wilson’s unhinged revenge plot. If there is no moral authority their prime. In the midst of this stagnation, Daisy longs for stability, financial security, and routine. Tom offered that then, watching, anything goes. and he continues to offer it now.

“The holocaust was complete” - This final phrase includes Wilson in an image of dramatic death and sacrifice. (The novel Even though he can now no longer be an absolutist about Daisy’s love, Gatsby is still trying to think about her was written before the Holocaust of Nazi Germany took place, so this word had different connotations from those it has feelings on his own terms. After admitting that the fact that many men loved Daisy before him is a positive, Gatsby is now.) While Gatsby can be seen as sacrificing himself in order to save Daisy from punishment, the nature of Wilson’s willing to admit that maybe Daisy had feelings for Tom after all, just as long as her love for Gatsby was supreme. Gatsby’s sacrifice is less clear. One possible interpretation is that Myrtle and Wilson, along with Gatsby, are all sacrificed in order to ambiguous admission that “it was just personal” carries several potential meanings: save the less worthy characters from any loss of status, wealth and freedom and to preserve their corrupt world. Wilson is certainly deranged and has been cruel to his wife, but his death is an expression of his pain, caused at least in part by  Nick assumes that the word “it” refers to Gatsby’s love, which Gatsby is describing as “personal” as a way of Tom and then by Daisy. emphasising how deep and inexplicable his feelings for Daisy are.

 But of course, the word “it” could just as easily be referring to Daisy’s decision to marry Tom. In this case, what is The absence of a church or religious figure in Wilson’s life, and his delusion that the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are a “personal” are Daisy’s reasons (the desire for status and money), which are hers alone, and have no bearing on the higher power, underscores . Characters are love that she and Gatsby feel for each other. how little moral clarity or prescription there is in the novel’s world driven by emotional or material greed, by selfishness, and by a complete lack of concern about others. The people who Rot, decay, and death are everywhere in this chapter: thrive - from Wolfshiem to Jordan - do so because they are moral relativists. The people who fail - like Nick, or Gatsby, or Wilson - fail because they can’t put aside an absolutist ideal that drives their actions. In this chapter, that sense of  Gatsby’s house is in a state of almost supernatural disarray, with “inexplicable amount of dust everywhere” (8.4) forward momentum recurs, but in a twisted and darkly satiric way through the Terminator-like drive of after he fires his servants. Wilson to find the yellow car and its driver. He walks from Queens to West Egg for something like six or seven hours, finding evidence that can’t be reproduced, and using a route that can’t be retraced afterward. Unlike Gatsby, forever

 Amidst the parties and gaiety of Daisy’s youth, her “dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor” (8.19). trying to grasp the thing out he knows well but can’t reach, Wilson homes in on a person he doesn’t know but unerringly reaches.  Nick’s phrase for the corruption and selfishness of the upper-class people he’s gotten to know is “rotten crowd” (8.45), people who are decomposing into garbage.

 Gatsby floats in a pool, trying to hang on to summer, but actually on the eve of fall, as nature around him turns  What meanings and ideas are suggested by the subtle water references in the opening paragraph of Chapter 8? “f rightening,” “unfamiliar,” “grotesque,” and “raw” (8.110). o Can you find other references to water in this chapter? o What does the phrase ‘leg of transit’ mean and how does this develop ideas in the novel?  This imagery culminates in figurative and literal cremation, as Wilson is described as “ashen” (8.110) and his murder-  How much of Gatsby’s narrative of the relationship with Daisy can be said to be Gatsby’s and how much of it is Nick’s? suicide as a “holocaust” (8.113). o For example, consider the description of Tom’s ‘bulkiness’ and Daisy’s ‘relief’.  How are narrative perspectives used to recount the final few hours of Gatsby’s life? By the way, remember that when Fitzgerald uses the word “holocaust,” he isn’t talking about what happened in Nazi o How many different ‘voices’ can you detect behind Nick’s overview? Germany - he is writing about 20 years before WWII. Instead, the word “holocaust” here means a sacrificial offering that is  How is time handled in this chapter, particularly in recounting the events leading to Gatsby’s death?  What are the implications of the phrase ‘a new world, material without being real’? burned on an altar - unrooted to any specific religion, Wilson’s actions evoke an atavistic, pagan ritual sacrifice.

From a distance of ‘two years’ afterwards, Nick remembers the next few days as an ‘endless drill’ of people entering and leaving Gatsby’s house. The truth about Gatsby is distorted by ‘grotesque’ newspaper reports and Catherine’s presentation of her sister Myrtle as a woman of virtue. Nick feels that he is responsible for Gatsby and tries to ‘get somebody’ for his funeral and to show friendship for him. Several telephone calls yield no answers: Daisy and Tom have gone away, Meyer Wolfsheim is unavailable, and the only caller assumes Gatsby is alive and reveals some criminal activity involving bonds. Gatsby’s father arrives. He is grieving but also impressed by his son’s wealth. He shows Nick a book with an inscription by Gatsby dated 1906 and talks of his son’s ambition to ‘get ahead’. Klipspringer declines attending the funeral, as does Wolfsheim, despite a visit from Nick. Wolfsheim claims that he ‘made’ Gatsby: “I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter” Very few people attend the funeral: the servants, Nick, Henry Gatz. Owl-Eyes turns up at the graveside and is shocked at the paucity of mourners, referring to Gatsby as a ‘poor son-of-a-bitch’. Nick then digresses from the story of Gatsby, to remember his prep school and college days, in particular the experience of returning West. He comments that he sees the East as ‘haunted’ and ‘distorted’ and that he, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom and Jordan are all Westerners who cannot adapt to Eastern life. As Nick prepares to go back West he has several encounters. First, he contacts Jordan one last time, about their relationship. She says she is soon to marry (though he doubts this is true) but is still upset that he finished the relationship over the telephone. She calls him a ‘bad driver’ (a metaphorical reference to the ‘crash’ of their relationship) and not an ‘honest, straightforward person’. In late October, Nick accidentally meets Tom Buchanan and challenges him about what he said to Wilson in the afternoon just before Gatsby’s death. Tom’s answer indicates his belief that Gatsby ran over Myrtle. Nick comments that Tom and Daisy were ‘careless people’, like children, smashing things up, and then leaving the mess for others to clean up. Nick’s final encounter is with Gatsby’s house, and the novel closes with a night scene on the beach where he contemplates human efforts to shape the world and futile attempts to attain an elusive dream.

Just like during his life, after his death, rumours swirl around Gatsby. Usually, death makes people treat even the most ambiguous figures with the respect that’s supposedly owed to the dead. But Gatsby’s death only invites The structure of this final chapter is almost a series of episodes in which Nick encounters various people from Gatsby’s life (Meyer Wolfsheim, more speculation, gawking, and a circus-like atmosphere. Note that even here, Nick still does not acknowledge his Slagle, Henry C Gatz, Klipspringer, Owl-eyes), leading up to the funeral. After this, more episodes ensue, where Nick encounters significant feelings of friendship and admiration for Gatsby. Instead, he claims to be the point person for Gatsby is funeral because of a people from his life in the East (Jordan and Tom). Significantly, Daisy is absent throughout, while Gatsby remains a powerful presence even to general sense that “everyone” deserves someone to take a personal interest. But of course, there is no such right, as the final line. evidenced by the fact that Nick is the only person who cares about Gatsby as a human being rather than a sideshow. Just as The Great Gatsby began with Nick’s father reminding him about his upbringing, so it ends with Gatsby’s father reminding us about the childhood of James Gatz (Gatsby's real birth name). As one of the few mourners at Gatsby’s very sparsely attended funeral, Mr. Gatz worships After a little while Mr. Gatz opened the door and came out, his mouth ajar, his face flushed slightly, his eyes leaking isolated his son’s achievements in the way that no one whom Gatsby wanted to impress ever did. The Great Gatsby Chapter 9 ends with one of the and unpunctual tears. He had reached an age where death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise, and when he looked most famous last lines in all Western literature. around him now for the first time and saw the height and splendor of the hall and the great rooms opening out from it into other rooms his grief began to be mixed with an awed pride. (9.43) All along, the novel has juxtaposed the values and attitudes of the rich to those of the lower classes. However here, in this chapter, as Nick is starting to pull away from New York, the contrast shifts to comparing the values of the Midwest to those of the East. Here, the dim lights, the Gatsby’s father is the only person who has the kind of response to this mansion that Gatsby could have hoped for. Everyone realness, and the snow are natural foils for the bright lights and extremely hot weather associated in the novel with Long Island and the party else has found it either gaudy, vulgar, or fake. Perhaps this shows that for all his attempts to cultivate himself, Gatsby could scene. Nick’s summary judgment of Tom and Daisy seems harsh but fair. They are people who do not have to answer for their actions and are never escape the tastes and ambitions of a Midwestern farm boy. free to ignore the consequences of what they do. This is one of the ways in which their marriage, dysfunctional as it is, works well. They both Gatsby was unable to parlay his hospitality into any genuine connection with anyone besides Nick, who seems to have liked understand that they just don’t need to worry about anything that happens in the same way that everyone else does. It is interesting to him despite the parties rather than because of them. This highlights a clash of values between the new, anything- consider how this cycle will perpetuate itself with Pammy, their daughter. goes East and the older, more traditionally correct West. The East is a place where someone could come to a party One of the most arresting images in The Great Gatsby is Nick's vision of Gatsby stretching his arms out towards a small green light on the and then insult the host - and then imply that a murdered man had it coming! Compare this to the moment when Gatsby opposite shore of the bay. The mysterious, almost mystical nature of this gesture is a sure-fire sign that this green light is a feels uneasy making a scene when having lunch with Tom and Daisy because "I can't say anything in his house, old sport." symbol. Literally, The green light is a permanently lit electric lamp that marks the end of Daisy and Tom's boat dock. It's a way to warn (7.102). boats at night or during inclement weather that there is a structure there—this is why it is always on. Because the Buchanans' mansion is directly across the bay from Gatsby's mansion, Gatsby can always see the green light. The image of the green light at the end of Daisy's dock occurs for "When a man gets killed I never like to get mixed up in it in any way. I keep out. When I was a young man it was different--if a friend of mine died, no matter how, I stuck with them to the end. You may think that's sentimental but I mean it--to the bitter the first time at the end of the novel's first chapter. Before we have even met Gatsby, we get a description of him stretching out his arms towards something he can't reach—a gesture he will repeat over and over again. end….Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead," he suggested. "After that my own rule is to let everything alone." (9.95-99) One thing in particular is interesting about the introduction of the green light: it's very mysterious. Nick seems not to be quite sure where the light is, or what its function might be: Wolfshiem’s refusal to come to Gatsby’s funeral is extremely self-serving. He is using this quasi-philosophical excuse in order to protect himself from being anywhere near a crime scene. However, in a novel which is at least partly concerned with how morality can be generated in a place devoid of religion, Wolfshiem’s explanation of his behaviour confirms that the  Although physically bounded by the width of the bay, the light is described as impossibly small ("minute" means "tiny enough to be culmination of this kind of thinking is treating people as disposable. It also plays into the novel’s overriding idea that the almost insignificant") and confusingly distant. American Dream is based on a wilful desire to forget and ignore the past, instead straining for a potentially more exciting or more lucrative future. Part of forgetting the past is forgetting the people that are no longer here, so for Wolfshiem, even a  Even though we find out later that the light never turns off, here Nick only seems to be able to see the light when Gatsby is reaching close relationship like the one he had with Gatsby has to immediately be pushed to the side once Gatsby is no longer alive. out towards it. As soon as Gatsby disappears, Nick is in "darkness." The theme of forgetting continues here. For Nick, Gatsby the man is already “too far away” to remember distinctly. Perhaps  This vagueness and mystery is a good way for the novel to underscore the fact that this light is a symbol—it stands not it is this kind of forgetting that allows Nick to think about Daisy without anger. On the one hand, in order to continue just for the physical object that it describes, but for an idea within the book. What's the idea? I'll talk all about it in the next section of through life, you need to be able to separate yourself from the tragedies that have befallen. But on the other hand, this easy this article letting go of painful memories in the past leads to the kind of abandonment that follows Gatsby’s death.

In chapter 5, this appearance of the green light is just as vitally important as the first one, mostly because the way the light is presented now is On the last night, with my trunk packed and my car sold to the grocer, I went over and looked at that huge incoherent failure totally different than when we first saw it. Instead of the "enchanted" magical object we first saw, now the light has had its "colossal significance," of a house once more. On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the or its symbolic meaning, removed from it. This is because Gatsby is now actually standing there and touching Daisy herself, so he no longer moonlight and I erased it, drawing my shoe raspingly along the stone. Then I wandered down to the beach and sprawled out needs to stretch his arms out towards the light or worry that it's shrouded in mist. on the sand. (9.150)

However, this separation of the green light from its symbolic meaning is somehow sad and troubling. Gatsby seemingly ignores It’s fitting that Nick feels responsible for erasing the bad word. His whole project in this book has been to protect Gatsby's Daisy putting her arm through his because he is "absorbed" in the thought that the green light is now just a regular thing. Nick's observation reputation and to establish his legacy. Otherwise, without someone to notice and remark on Gatsby’s achievement, nothing that Gatsby's "enchanted objects" are down one sounds like a lament—how many enchanted objects are there in anyone's life? would remain to indicate that this man had managed to elevate himself from a Midwestern farm to glittering luxury.

The novel's last paragraphs also touch on most of the novel's overarching themes, symbols, It's clear that the novel is trying to universalize Gatsby's experience in some way. But there are multiple layers of meaning creating this and motifs: broadening of perspective.  What narrative devices are employed in this chapter to tell the story? The transformation of America from the idyllic, By ending the way it does, the novel makes Gatsby explicitly represent all humans in the present and the past. Compare this ending with o You could consider the use of letters and other types of pristine frontier to the polluted metropolis the last paragraph of Chapter 1: communication.  Fitzgerald selected Owl-eyes as one of the few mourners to attend The quest to win over a lost love, or the But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in Gatsby’s funeral, so what is the significance of his presence? imperfection of real love versus an ideal love a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing  How much imagery is related to eyes, seeing and perception in this except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had chapter? The way the past always influences, hangs over, vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness. (1.152) o What might this suggest? and directs the present  How far do you agree that this is, as Nick claims, ‘a story of the

The language of the novel's ending paragraphs and the last paragraph of the first chapter links Gatsby's outstretched arms with the West’? Reinvention and perseverance, the rags to riches hopes of the Dutch sailors (the people of the past). Just as Gatsby is obsessed with the green light on Daisy's dock, so the sailors coming to story versus the story of impersonation and  Nick claims that he ‘wanted to leave things in order and not just this continent for the first time longed for the "green breast of the new world." For both, these green things are "the last and greatest of all deception trust that obliging and indifferent sea to sweep my refuse away.’ human dreams": for Gatsby, it's his memory of perfect love, while for the sailors, it's the siren song of conquest. These two passages also How far do you think the final chapter of the novel achieves this? connect Gatsby with the way we live today. Just as Gatsby "stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way," so we also The appeal and ultimate disappointment of the  How does the writer use colour imagery in this chapter? promise ourselves "tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther." For all of us, life is all about constantly having to will American Dream, and specifically the sense that it ourselves into eternal optimism in the face of elusive dreams or challenging goals.  Where is water imagery found in this chapter? is fading away—just as New York has been completely transformed from "green breast of The last sentence of this novel is consistently ranked in the lists of best last lines that magazines like to put together. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne land" to corrupt city, all of America is escaping the pure dreams of its people back ceaselessly into the past.” So what makes this sentence so great?

On a formal level, the line is very close to poetry, using the same techniques that poems do to sound good: It is written almost in iambics. (Iambic is a meter that alternates stressed and unstressed syllables to create a ta-DA-ta-DA-ta-DA-ta-DA pattern). There's also a wave-like alliteration with the letter b, as we read the monosyllabic words "beat," "boats," "borne," and "back." (Alliteration is when words that start with the same sound are put next to each other.) Then this repeated b In chapter 9 he light has totally ceased being an observable object. Nick is not in Long Island any resolves into the matching unvoiced p of the word "past." (The sounds b and p are really the same sound, except when you say b you use your voice and when you say p more, Gatsby is dead, Daisy is gone for good, and the only way the green light exists is in Nick's you use the same mouth position but without using your vocal chords.) memories and philosophical observations. This means that the light is now just a symbol and nothing else. Other literary devices are at play as well:

There a double meaning in the word "borne" which can mean either "shouldered like a heavy burden" or "given birth to."The sentence uses the metaphor of trying to But it is not the same deeply personal symbol it was in the first chapter. Check out the way Nick row against the flow of current. We are like boats that propel themselves forward, while the current pushes us back toward our starting place. For boats, this happens in transitions from describing the green light as something "Gatsby believed in" to using it as space, on a body of water, while for people, this happens in time, in the relationship between the past and the future. something that motivates "us." Gatsby is no longer the only one reaching for this symbol— we all, universally, "stretch out our arms" toward it, hoping to reach it tomorrow or the Interpreting the Meaning of the Last Sentence of The Great Gatsby next day. There are three ways to interpret how Fitzgerald wants us to take this idea that we are constantly stuck in a loop of pushing forward toward our future and being pulled back by our anchoring past. In the beginning, the light stands for Gatsby's dreams, hopes, and desires to reunite with Daisy and recapitulate their beautiful month of love from five years earlier. This positive association connects 1: Depressing and Fatalistic with the color green. Green means go (stoplights were introduced in the 1910s-20s, so this was a relatively new association), green means spring, rebirth, and the start of new life. The positive If we go with the "heavy burden" meaning of the word "borne," then this last line means that our past is an anchor and a weight on us no matter how hard we try to go meaning also works well with the idea of a dock light. Daisy is a beacon, pulling Gatsby out of the forward in life. In this case, life only an illusion of forward progress. This is because as we move into the future, everything we do instantly turns into our past, and this darkness and steering him in the right direction. past cannot be undone or done over, as Gatsby attempted. However, during the novel, Gatsby's dream is revealed to be the delusional conviction that he This version of the ending says that people want to recapture an idealized past, or a perfect moment or memory, but when this desire for the past turns into an could ignore five years of events and Daisy's own personality and inner life to get what he wants. obsession, it leads to ruin, just as it lead to Gatsby's. In other words, all of our dreams of the future are based on the fantasies of a past, and already outdated, self. With this disappointment, the symbolic meaning behind the green light collapses. Daisy is not a magically perfect creature, but instead a fallible and deeply flawed person. The love Gatsby feels Uplifting and Hopeful 2: for her can only be played out as a secretive and morally questionable affair. And the green light loses its "enchanted" qualities and instead is revealed to be the not particularly reliable indicator If, on the other hand, we stick with the "given birth to" aspect of "borne" and also on the active momentum of the phrase "so we beat on," then the idea of beating on is an optimistic and unyielding response to a current that tries to force us backward. In this interpretation, we resiliently battle against fate with our will and our strength— that it actually is (suddenly, it becomes invisible in the fog). and even though we are constantly pulled back into our past, we move forward as much as we can. Finally, as Gatsby's dream is dashed, the green light stops being something that is his alone, and 3: Objectively Describing the Human Condition instead takes on a universal quality. Now it stands for the unreachable dream that lives inside all people. For Nick, life is a constant struggle between our past mistakes, experiences, and sense of In the final version of the last line's meaning, we take out the reader's desire for a "moral" or some kind of explanatory takeaway (whether a happy or sad one). Without reality, which pull us back and weigh us down, and the green light of unrealistic hope that drives us this qualitative judgment, this means that the metaphor of boats in the current is just a description of what life is like. In this way, the last line is simply saying that to think we will do better and achieve more the next day. The green light ends up standing for this dream of an "orgastic future"— that means a future lived at the height of orgasm—which is through our continuing efforts to move forward through new obstacles, we will be constantly reminded and confronted with our past because we can't help but repeat our own history, both individually and collectively. constantly getting farther and farther away, and that we keep trying to grab for, despite the impossibility of reaching it.

Almost every chapter of Fitzgerald’s novel uses colours in their purest shades to make readers get an insight into the different characters’ lives. Naturally, to . If it ended in love The way a story ends tends to shape our understanding of what we have just read fully fathom these colours mentioned, readers must also first understand the situations within which they are used. and marriage, then it must have been a love story. If it ended in death, then it was a tragedy. Green colour symbolism in the book So what do we make of the The Great Gatsby ending? Why is there so much death? Why doesn't anyone get their just comeuppance? Green has been mentioned nearly 18 times in the novel. Traditionally, green is associated with wealth, growth, Spring etc. It is also used to convey envy. Gatsby is thus shown to be an envious character as he is jealous of the fact that Daisy belongs to another man (Tom). Green is also used to represents the power of money which Gatsby has plenty of. Until the end Gatsby is hopeful that he can win Daisy with this power of Money. Another area depicting Green Why Is the Ending of a Book Important? colour symbolism in The Great Gatsby is the green car which is called the “death car’. Michaelis describes the car that kills Myrtle as light green, though it’s yellow. The witness of the tragic accident towards the end of the novel is actually not even sure whether the ‘death car is indeed green or yellow in colour’ – An ending tends to reveal the meaning (or lack of meaning) in everything that came before it. It's so experts believe this to be representative of the fact that only money brings death. a chance for the author to wrap up the preceding events with either an explanation that puts them into a broader context—or a chance for the author to specifically not do that. Perhaps the greatest and most important representation of Green colour in The Great Gatsby is the green light mentioned at the end of the novel which is used to depict that Gatsby remains a dreamer throughout. This colour thus represents an orgiastic future or romantic reunion which Gatsby continues to In general, endings come in many flavours. believes in. Sentences such as ‘tomorrow we will run faster and stretch our arms wider’ also reinforce this belief. Alternatively, in a human-being, green has less positive associations. Wilson’s face is described as ‘green’ and ‘physically sick’ with the shock of discovering his  Straightforward Explanations. These endings tell us how to feel about the book. For example, think wife’s infidelity, indicating very clearly the negative impact of Myrtle’s romantic hopes and striving for wealth. Wilson’s actions result in a chain of deaths of Aesop's fables, each of which ends in an explicit moral lesson, or think of Victorian novels (like those of and disillusion; the green of the spring is replaced with the yellow of autumn and a sense of decay. Charles Dickens) that end with the narrator giving rewards to the good characters and punishments to the bad ones. These endings close up the world of the novel, wrapping it in a neat bow. Use of Gold in The Great Gatsby

 Outward Connections. Endings can also be ways for the reader to open up the world of the novel Golden, brass or Gold has been used nearly 15 times in the novel. Traditionally, these colours symbolise wealth and riches and particularly old wealth. Gold into the real world. This type of ending can ask the reader a question as the final sentence (like and green used in the book thus contrastingly symbolise old wealth and new riches (Gold for Daisy and her husband Tom’s old wealth and green for newly Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises). Even more dramatically, this can mean ending the novel mid-action, acquired Gatsby’s wealth). Jordan, another character is also represented with Gold (‘I rested my arm on Jordan’s Golden shoulder’ or ‘with Jordan’s golden or even sometimes mid-sentence (like Kafka's The Castle). arm’). This is again used for representing old money. In chapter 7, Golden tea is served at the grey tea hour which indicates the turning light. Gold turning to yellow is used often through use of sentences like Yellow press, or yellow cocktail music etc. to symbolise beauty, old money and even sometimes,  Philosophical Abstractions. Finally, endings can zoom out of the world of the novel altogether and negativity. Thus the richness is only a cover, a short sensation. become places for a deeper analysis of the nature of life or of being human. This type of ending is often reflective and could easily be divorced from everything that has come before to form its own pithy White Colour Symbolism in The Great Gatsby wisdom. Daisy is of course the Golden girl but the author has also used white (used 49 times) to show fairness and innocence of her character. In fact, Fitzgerald has used white colour symbolism very effectively to portray Daisy character. Experts who have studied the novel in depth often use the example of an egg The ending of The Great Gatsby falls into this last category. The novel's abrupt and downbeat ending mostly (which is white on the outside but yellow inside to show Daisy) to explain this character. She seems pure and innocent outside but inside she is yellow and poses more questions than it gives answers. Why do Gatsby, Myrtle, and George Wilson die? Why does Daisy go corrupt- just like an egg. White is also vital to the novel as it has been used for portraying beauty, cleanliness, wealth, innocence, purity and also laziness back to Tom? Why does no one come to Gatsby's funeral? It all feels kind of empty and pointless, especially after and virginity. Another aspect of whiteness is its association with fantasy or surreal images in the text. These two examples are from chapters 4 and 6. The all the effort that Gatsby put into crafting his life, right? most striking example to combine the dazzling glamour and the surreal elements comes at the end of the novel, in Nick’s vision of the East, and West Egg in particular, which features a ‘drunken woman in a white evening dress’ in a scene of grotesque and nightmarish horror, where the woman loses her . F. Scott Fitzgerald was not particularly optimistic about That empty feeling is basically the whole point identity and her will and ‘no one cares’. In summary, it may be said that white is a superficially appealing colour which hides corruption or decay, being the capitalist boom of the 1920s. To him, America was just like Europe in its disdain for new money, and the elites therefore a symbol of deception. White is only once directly connected with decay, in Chapter 2 where Wilson is covered with a ‘white ashen dust’ (the ashes were scornful of the self-made men who were supposed to be the people living the ideals of the country. He saw are usually described as being grey). that instead of actually being committed to equality, the country was still split into classes—just less acknowledged ones. So, in the world of the novel, Gatsby, for all his wealth and greatness, can buy himself a Shades of red place in West Egg, but can never join the old money world of East Egg. His forward progress is for naught because he is in an environment that only pays lip service to the American Dream ideal of achieving success Red and gold books, wine coloured rug, crimson room, pink suit, red circle on water etc. are used for depicting richness, elegance, danger, tastelessness and through hard work. The novel is a harsh indictment of the idea of the American Dream. Think about death respectively. Pink may seem an ideal romantic colour, and is associated twice with the romantic Gatsby himself: his suit is said to be pink, once when it: the actually "successful" people—successful in that at least they survive—(the Buchanans, Nick, and Jordan) are Tom criticises it and then in Chapter 8 where Nick describes it as a ‘gorgeous pink rag of a suit’. Daisy’s bedroom emits a pink glow in Chapter 7 and Gatsby all old money; while those who fail (Gatsby, Myrtle, and George) are the strivers. is watching for any sign from her that he is needed: ‘she’s going to turn the light out and on again’. However, the pink glow seems to be an empty promise, Celestial Bodies. The moon, the sun, stars—these are all potential symbols. They don't play as prominent a role since Daisy merely came extinguishing all Gatsby’s hopes as she does this. Thus it is symbolic of an empty romance. in The Great Gatsby as they do in some other books, but you can still find a lot of significance in the way the moon tends to illuminate the truth. It's particularly evident in Chapters 8 and 9, when the moon makes Gatsby Black colour symbolism in the novel look like a criminal to Nick after Myrtle's murder, and when Nick imagines East Egg as a creepy El Greco Black wheel represents mourning, black wreath shows nervousness and black rivulets show sorrow. Black is also used to represent injury and gloomy setting. painting or as the lush shore Dutch sailors would have seen Words like black morning, black beach etc. show gloominess or an impending doom and Tom’s black eyes are shown to represent hostility and anger. If it's naturally-occurring, and if it intersects with the Plants, Nature, Weather Events, or Bodies of Water. In conclusion - The Great Gatsby is one of the most visual pieces of literature and many different colours are used repeatedly for its different characters in any way, chances are it can be read as a symbol of something. Weather, in particular, plays a key characters. For example, white is used for Daisy as Gatsby continues to think of her as his innocent bride, whereas she is actually yellow or function in this novel, especially when in extreme situations, like when Gatsby and Daisy's reunion is almost corrupted. Gatsby on the other hand is mostly linked with Green. Thus, Fitzgerald has used colour symbolism in The Great Gatsby to literally ruined by a downpour, or when the tense confrontation in the Plaza Hotel is made even more excruciating by the unrelenting heat. In each case, the weather can be interpreted as a symbol for the characters' emotions. paint a vivid canvas.

The title is the reader’s first encounter with a book, which means it usually declares the focus or theme of that book. The Great Gatsby is a title that can be read: Usually, when a novel is titled with the name of one of the characters, that either means that we’re about to read a biography or that the O Straightforwardly, as a declaration of Gatsby as a man who actually achieved the American Dream named person is the main character (for instance, Jane Austen’s Emma or J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter). So, here, the fact that “Gatsby” is in the title shows us that the focus of the story will be on him. In this case, this focus goes both ways. The novel is biograph ical, meaning, the O Ironically, since Gatsby’s greatness is a hollow sham and he is an amoral striver novel is the story of Gatsby’s life. But also, Gatsby is, in fact, the protagonist of the story. It’s helpful for the title to show us this, since in this

O As a measure of the depth of his inner life book the first-person narrator turns out not to be the main character. O As a stage name of sorts for Gatsby’s great performance of “upper-class WASP” Great? Great! Great. Now let’s investigate four possible readings of the second part of the title, which all depend on the meaning of the word “great.” •Fitzgerald wasn’t particularly happy with the name and instead was considering 1. Shallow and Straight-Faced - This version takes “great” as a straightforward compliment, meaning “wonderful.” In this version, Gatsby is O An allusion to Trimalchio, which would link Gatsby to another famously vulgar new-money guy great because he is the richest, coolest, handsomest dude, who drives the best car and throws the most banging parties. In this take, the title means total admiration: Gatsby is nothing but greatness. This reading of the title applies best in the beginning of the novel, when Gatsby is O Titles that focused more on the geography of the novel’s climactic scene all mysterious rumors, swirling success, and unimaginable luxury, and when Nick is in his thrall. O A broad American flag reference that calls into question the American Dream 2. Mocking and Ironic - On the other hand, we could be dealing with the “oh, that’s just great.” version of this word. As we - and the novel’s The Epigraph Poem of The Great Gatsby: The novel is prefaced by this four-line poem: characters - learn more about Gatsby, the initial fascination with him turns into disappointment. In this reading, the “great” turns bitter. In reality, Gatsby’s money comes from crime. His parties, house, and material wealth don’t make him happy. He’s a moral bankrupt who is Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; chasing after a married woman. And he hates his real self and has created a whole new fake persona to live out a teenage fantasy. This reading of the title works when Gatsby seems like a sad, shallow shell of “greatness”. If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, 3. Deep and Soulful - Another possibility is that “great” here means “intense and grand.” After all, even though Gatsby is a hollow shell of a Till she cry "Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, man who’s propped up by laundered money, Nick firmly believes that he stands head and shoulders above the old money set because everything Gatsby does, he does for the truest of true love. Nick, who starts out being on the fence about Gatsby, comes to think of his love I must have you!" for Daisy as something that elevates Gatsby. For Nick, this love marks Gatsby as the only one who matters of all the people he met during that summer ("They're a rotten crowd....You're worth the whole damn bunch put together" (8.45). —Thomas Parke D'Invilliers 4. Theatrical - The final possibility is that this “great” sounds like the stage name of a magician (like “The Great Cardini,” master card First, let's analyse the poem, and then we can talk about who D'Invilliers is. illusionist). This version of Gatsby is also completely fitting: after all, he literally transforms into a totally different man during the course of his “Then Wear the Gold Hat" life. And, it wouldn’t be the last time that the novel was interested in the way Gatsby is able to create a spectacle, or the way he seems to be acting on a stage rather than actually living. For example, Nick says Gatsby reminds him of a “turbaned ‘character’ leaking sawdust at every In the most basic sense, the poem is a piece of advice. We know this because the first words, “then wear," make it sound like we pore” (4.31), while one of Gatsby’s guests compares him to David Belasco, a famous theatre producer (3.50). are hearing the middle of a conversation. Someone has been complaining about his romantic problems with a specific “she," and the poem's speaker is answering with some tips on what to do. The advice the poem is: go out of your way to impress her with your wealth/status (" gold hat”), and with your derring-do (" bounce high”). Whatever you can possibly do to attract her So which of these versions is the correct one? All of them. One of the interesting things about this novel is that the title’s meaning shifts attention is worth it if she ends up won over, because then she will be insatiable (" I must have you”). Of course, this image of a depending on how far we’ve read, or how much time we’ve spent reflecting on what we’ve read, or what we ultimately choose to believe ‘gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover' is clownish at best and completely absurd at worst. The poem echoes the novel's plot and about Gatsby’s motivations and driving ambition. Which version of the “great” Gatsby appeals to you? characteri sations: Gatsby's approach to winning over Daisy is exactly that of the gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, desperate to try anything - including buying a giant mansion next door and throwing weekly parties in the vague hope that she would show Famous Alternate Titles - Did you know that Fitzgerald actually was not a huge fan of the title The Great Gatsby? It was pushed on him by up. The idea of putting on a hat as a way of burnishing your image is exactly what Gatsby has done in adopting his “Oxford Max Perkins, his editor, who was facing a deadline (and probably by his wife Zelda as well). Fitzgerald had a list of titles he actually man" persona, and relates to the way he is sometimes described as an actor or charlatan. (Nick calls Gatsby a "turbaned preferred to this one, and each of them reveals something about the novel, or at least about Fitzgerald’s sense of what the novel he wrote "character" leaking sawdust at every pore" (4.31), while owl-eye glasses party guest compares Gatsby to David Belasco, a famous was all about. Unlike the actual title the novel ended up with, the alternate titles vary in how zoomed in they are onto Gatsby. Let’s go theatre producer in Chapter 3). At the same time, the clear mockery of the image of this lover points to the craziness of Gatsby's through them to see what they reveal about Fitzgerald’s conception of his work. obsession and the absurdity of his monomaniacal quest for Daisy's heart. There is no dignity in the approach the poem recommends, as there is none in Gatsby's as well. This idea is further reinforced when we consider that Fitzgerald originally Trimalchio, or Trimalchio in West Egg wanted the novel to have a more satiric flavour (check out our article on The Great Gatsby's title for more details). The poem also connects with novel through the character of “she," who stands in for Daisy. It's important to note that the "she" in the poem This was Fitzgerald’s favourite title - it’s what he would have named his book if Max Perkins hadn’t interfered to say that no one would get is someone to impress and win over, and not someone to learn anything about. Just like Daisy in the novel, the poem's "she" is a the reference. Perkins may have been right. Trimalchio is a character in The Satyricon, a book by the Ancient Roman writer Petronius. Only fragments of this work survive, but basically, it’s a satire that mocks Trimalchio for being a nouveau riche social climber who throws wildly prize or an objective rather than a person. elaborate and conspicuously expensive dinner parties (sound familiar?). Trimalchio is arrogant and vulgar and very into displaying his Thomas Parke D'Invilliers - There is no such poet as D'Invilliers! Fitzgerald made him up, and made up this poem as well. In fact, wealth in tacky ways. In the fragment we have, Petronius describes one party at length. It ends with the guests acting out Trimalchio’s D'Invilliers is a minor character in This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald's earlier novel about Princeton. In that book, the main funeral as an ego-boost. It’s important to note that in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald does refer to Gatsby directly as Trimalchio at one point: character befriends D'Invilliers, who is a talented poet - but whose poems tend to ignore the problematic or unpleasant aspects of "...as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over" (7.1). Since The Satyricon is a satire, this alternate title suggests Fitzgerald reality. Here, the assumed name and invented persona of this poet also tie into the Gatsby journey, playing into the novel's key originally wanted to present Gatsby as a figure to be mocked rather than to appear more grand/mysterious. This attitude towards the theme of the mutability of identity. James Gatz transforms himself into the glamorous Jay Gatsby, and this poet is a cover novel’s main seeker of the American Dream paints Gatsby’s ambition to join elite society in an even darker and less flattering light than the identity for Fitzgerald. novel does now. Fitzgerald’s characterization of Jay Gatsby demonstrates the extent to which Gatsby transcends his own lowly roots and creates Among The Ash Heaps and Millionaires, or On The Road To West Egg the impression of being “great.” The tragedy of Gatsby having everything, then suddenly nothing, demonstrates his irrefutable These titles pan out, away from Gatsby and toward the geographic, social, and economic environment of the book. Both of these titles do distance from greatness. He may have been rich, temporarily romantically successful, and have died young, but simultaneously, this by giving us a sense of being between things, primarily the places with money and those without. Character-wise, these titles seem more the money lacked virtue and acceptable regard, his love was rendered futile by the past, which he could not change nor hold sway over, and his death was disappointingly unremarkable. Like Harry Houdini, Gatsby was a compelling — and daresay Nick-focused, since he is the one who shows us the differences between these two worlds. Also, by referring to the physical space that effective — illusionist, but that is all he amounted to be: an illusionist. His final fate — his fall from greatness — reveals everything separates Manhattan and the Long Island towns where the wealthy live, both of these titles directly reference the book’s climactic death, we wanted to, but could never be. which takes place on the road back to West Egg, right at the place where the richly symbolic valley of ashes is.