Jay Gatsby
Who sees how “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way… a single green light, minute and far away.”
Nick Carraway
"I lived at _____ Egg, the – well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them my house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season". Fill in the gap.
West Egg
What are the two meanings behind the green light symbolism?
Initially, it symbolizes his longing for Daisy and their past love, but later it also embodies the elusive nature of the American Dream and the illusion of a brighter future, which Gatsby ultimately fails to grasp.
“This is an unusual party for me. I haven’t even seen the host.” What is Gatsby's party a smokescreen/distraction from?
To shield the illusion of the man himself - Jay Gatsby.
"People were not invited, they went there." Where?
“He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly… It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it.” Where does Nick meet Gatsby for the first time?
At Gatsby's party (the first one).
"The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming-pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden." Whose mansion was this?
Jay Gatsby
"God sees everything, repeated Wilson". What does Wilson point to when he says this.
The billboard of TJ Eckleberg.
Who says this quote? “This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop too—didn’t cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?”
Owl Eyes.
“He and this _________ bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter.” Fill in the gap.
Wolfshiem.
“My family all died and I came into a good deal of money.” What is the most important thing we learn about Gatsby when he says this to Nick?
He is a liar/he has constructed a fake persona/he wants to impress Nick with his social status
"From _____Egg, then, came the Chester Beckers and the Leeches, and a man named Bunsen, whom I knew at Yale . . . and a whole clan named Blackbuck, who always gathered in a corner and flipped up their noses like goats at whosoever came near . . . " Which Egg do these partygoers come from?
East Egg.
"It was a rich cream colour, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-box and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns. Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory, we started to town." What does Gatsby's car symbolise?
a)The author uses cars as symbols of wealth and status reflecting the recklessness and lack of values among the rich people.
b)Gatsby's luxurious yellow car becomes a deadly symbol when Daisy hits Myrtle with it. And it reveals how rich people can escape consequences while less privileged suffer.
"The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception off himself. He was a son of God – a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that – and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty." What is this saying about G's identity?
It is an illusion. A fabrication. Made up.
"They used to go there by the hundreds, but no one came [to G's funeral]". What does this illustrate about the morals at the time?
Real, genuine feelings were replaced by greed and status, and how people become disconnected and damaged when they strayed from reality, traditional values and morality.
“Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever." What is Nick saying that Gatsby realises about Daisy?
That it may not be as powerful anymore - the symbol, the green light (Daisy) has become reality. Can she live up to the dream?
"This is a valley of ashes, - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air". What does this setting represent in the novel?
It represents the moral and social decay that happened in 1920's America. This is where the working class live and it highlights on the social inequalities of the era. It's a wasteland/dumping area both literally and metaphorically. It's where forgotten members of society live
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us." What is the orgiastic future?
Amazing, fantastical dreams that we can never reach.
Gatsby states "can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!" What does this show about his beliefs about Daisy?
That they belong in the past. They are an illusion.
They were _________ people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast ___________, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made..." Fill the 2xgaps
Careless, carelessness
“He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky… and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass.” What does Gatsby realise at the end?
How even beauty can turn ugly/how a dream can die/how his dream for Daisy is over
"After Gatsby's death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes' power of correction." What 'East' is Nick referring to?
The East Coast (New York)
C9: "And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world." What is the 'fresh green breast of the new world"?
Nick imagines that America was once a goal for dreamers and explorers, just as Daisy was for Gatsby. He pictures the green land of America as the green light shining from Daisy’s dock. A dream. The American Dream. Hope.
“His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." What is the reality of Gatsby's dream?
That it is already behind him. He was chasing an illusion.
"This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism!" Who was Belasco?
In The Great Gatsby, the reference to "Belasco" is an allusion to the famous theatrical producer David Belasco, known for creating exceptionally realistic stage sets.