Characters
This narrator and Gatsby's neighbor tells the story and works in the bond business
Nick Carraway
The single small light always visible across the bay on Daisy’s dock.
the green light
Where (which "Egg") does Nick Carraway live when the novel begins?
West Egg
Name the two Long Island communities that represent different social classes in the novel.
West Egg and East Egg
The wealthy, arrogant husband of Daisy who attends Yale and plays polo
Tom Buchanan
The billboard with enormous, bespectacled eyes that overlooks the valley of ashes.
The Eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg
Why does Gatsby throw extravagant parties for years?
To attract Daisy and create proximity so she might attend or notice him; to project wealth and status.
How does the setting of the Valley of Ashes affect the characters who live or pass through it?
It shows the moral and social decay behind the glittering wealth; it traps characters like George Wilson and highlights inequality.
Daisy’s friend and a professional golfer who is dishonest and has a cynical personality.
Jordan Baker
What the Valley of Ashes most directly symbolizes about 1920s society.
Ashes symbolizes social and moral decay, the cost of industrialization, and the plight of the poor.
What event leads to Myrtle Wilson’s death
Myrtle runs into the road and is struck by Gatsby's car (Daisy is driving).
In what way does New York City function as a contrast to the Eggs (West/East Egg)?
New York City is chaotic, morally ambiguous, and permissive—where illicit affairs and business deals happen—contrasting the Eggs’ ostentation and trying-to-be-respectable surface.
The woman who is Tom Buchanan’s mistress and wife of the garage owner.
Myrtle Wilson
Gatsby’s lavish parties and his mansion function as a symbol of both wealth and this.
The American Dream/matterial success as a facade
Explain why Gatsby waits outside Daisy’s house after the accident.
He wants to protect Daisy and take the blam to preserve their future.
Describe how the time period (the 1920s) shapes characters’ behaviors and choices in the story.
The Roaring Twenties’ prosperity, consumerism, social mobility, and moral looseness push characters toward hedonism, risk-taking, and the pursuit of quick wealth.
The man who claims to have fixed the 1919 World Series and is a shady associate of Gatsby.
Meyer Wolfsheim
Gatsby’s collection of shirts, and Daisy’s reaction to them, symbolize this aspect of their relationship.
Materialism and using wealth to win love
Summarize Gatsby’s plan to reunite with Daisy and why it ultimately fails.
He recreates himself (Jay Gatsby), buys a mansion across the bay, stages parties, and enlists Nick to arrange a tea so Daisy will visit; it fails because social differences, Daisy’s fear/indecision, Tom’s power, and tragic events intervene
Analyze how Fitzgerald uses specific settings (Gatsby’s mansion, the Valley of Ashes, the Plaza Hotel) to advance the novel’s themes.
Gatsby’s mansion = illusion of success and longing; Valley of Ashes = moral decay and consequences of carelessness; Plaza Hotel = social clashes and the climax where truth and conflict erupt.