Characters
Nick describes this character as having “two shining arrogant eyes” and “a cruel body.”
Who is Tom Buchanan?
This colored light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams.
What is the green light?
Gatsby made his fortune through this illegal business activity.
What is bootlegging?
Daisy says her daughter should be this because it’s “the best thing a girl can be in this world.”
What is "a beautiful little fool"?
Gatsby’s life story reflects the pursuit of this ideal: the belief that hardwork and ambition will allow one to achieve upward social mobility.
What is the American Dream?
Gatsby changes his identity at the age of seventeen after meeting this wealthy mentor on Lake Superior.
Who is Dan Cody?
This desolate place between West Egg and New York symbolizes the bleak reality of the working class.
What is the Valley of Ashes?
Gatsby’s schedule for self-improvement as a boy resembles the ideals of this famous American figure.
Who is Benjamin Franklin?
To whom is Jordan addressing when she says, "You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I?"
Who is Nick Carraway?
Nick relates that "it was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night—and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over." What literary device is used when Nick compares Gatsby to Trimalchio?
What is an allusion?
This character is linked to the 1919 World Series scandal.
Who is Meyer Wolfsheim?
These giant eyes watch over the Valley of Ashes from a billboard.
What are the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg?
Tom Buchanan gives George Wilson the information that leads Wilson to believe Gatsby is responsible for Myrtle’s death. What is that information?
What is Gatsby's yellow car?
Who says, “Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.”
Meyer Wolfsheim
The contrast between East Egg and West Egg highlights this social issue.
What is the distinction between old and new money?
He is often called “the boarder” because he essentially takes advantage of Gatsby’s hospitality, staying in his mansion and enjoying its luxuries without offering much in return. He is also a musician and plays the piano at Gatsby’s parties.
Who is Klipspringer?
Gatsby’s lavish gatherings symbolize this decade’s excess and carelessness.
What are the Roaring Twenties?
At the end of the novel, this character attends Gatsby’s funeral besides Nick and Gatsby’s father.
Who is Owl Eyes?
This character calls Gatsby “Mr. Nobody from Nowhere.”
Who is Tom Buchanan?
Fitzgerald repeatedly contrasts East Egg and West Egg to highlight differences in social class, values, and lifestyle. What literary device is primarily being used in this comparison?
This character arrives at Gatsby’s funeral carrying a tattered copy of his son’s schedule and proudly describes Gatsby as “a great man.”
Who is Henry Gatz?
During Gatsby and Daisy’s reunion, this object becomes a symbol of Gatsby’s attempt to control and preserve time, nearly falling and being caught in a tense moment.
What is the clock on Nick Carraway's mantel?
Gatsby claims to be from here when speaking with Nick.
What is San Francisco?
Whom is George Wilson addressing when he points at the Eyes of T.J Eckleberg billboard and exclaims, "I told her she might fool me but she couldn't fool God. I took her to the window—"
When describing the live music, the narrator Nick Carraway says the band is "a whole pit full of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums." What is the device that is used in the passage that refers to the repetition of a conjunction?
What is polysyndeton?