Characters
This mysterious millionaire lives in West Egg.
Who is Jay Gatsby?
Nick rents a small house in this Long Island community.
What is West Egg?
This enormous advertisement watches over the Valley of Ashes.
What are the eyes of Dr T. J. Eckleburg?
This character throws enormous parties at his West Egg mansion.
Who is Jay Gatsby?
The music, dancing and drinking at Gatsby’s parties reflect changing attitudes following the devastation of this major global conflict.
What is World War I?
This character is Nick’s cousin.
Who is Daisy Buchanan?
Nick visits these two relatives/acquaintances for dinner in East Egg.
Who are Tom and Daisy Buchanan?
This woman is George Wilson’s wife and Tom Buchanan’s mistress.
Who is Myrtle Wilson?
Nick receives one of these, making him unusual among Gatsby’s guests.
What is a formal invitation?
Gatsby’s guests represent this emerging 1920s culture of leisure, nightlife and pleasure-seeking.
What is the Jazz Age (OR Roaring Twenties)?
This mechanic owns a garage in the Valley of Ashes.
Who is George Wilson?
At the end of the chapter, Nick sees Gatsby reaching toward this distant object across the water.
What is the green light?
Tom takes Nick and Myrtle to an apartment in this city.
What is New York City?
This is Fitzgerald's repeated use of conjunctions such as “and” when describing the food, music and crowds at Gatsby’s party.
What is polysyndeton?
A major American offensive in northern France near the end of the war.
What is the Battle of the Argonne Forest?
This professional golfer becomes romantically involved with Nick.
Who is Jordan Baker?
Tom reveals his racist worldview by discussing a book called this.
What is The Rise of the Coloured Empires?
Fitzgerald’s comparison of the valley’s ashes to “wheat” is an example of this technique.
What is a simile?
In Gatsby’s library, this drunken guest is amazed that Gatsby’s books are actually real.
Who is Owl Eyes?
The aimless partying, heavy drinking and disillusionment of Gatsby’s guests reflect this post–World War I generation of writers and young adults who felt alienated from traditional values.
What is the Lost Generation?
At Myrtle’s apartment party in Chapter 2, these guests are introduced as Myrtle’s sister and the downstairs neighbours.
Who are Catharine and the McKees?
Daisy tells Nick that she hopes her daughter will grow up to be this kind of person.
What is “a beautiful little fool”?
In the description that “ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke,” Fitzgerald gives the waste material human or living qualities through this technique.
What is personification?
Jordan Baker says she likes large parties because “they’re so intimate,” creating this rhetorical contradiction.
What is a paradox?
Gatsby’s ability to acquire spectacular wealth despite his humble origins reflects belief in this national ideal.
What is the American Dream?