Vocabulary
adjective - incorrect; wrong
What is "erroneous"?
The end of this unprecedented war left many soldiers, women, young people, and others disillusioned with traditional values that no longer spoke to a world which had been thrusted into violent, global warfare.
What is World War I (WWI) or The Great War?
In chapter seven, George Wilson is physically sick when Tom, Nick, and Jordan arrive at his gas station. He is sick because he has just __________________.
What is... discovered that his wife is cheating on him?
The Great Gatsby takes place on this island and in this state.
What is Long Island, New York?
The daughter of Tom and Daisy Buchanan.
Who is Pammy?
adj - having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy; cocky
What is "supercilious"?
These illegal taverns sold alcohol and were wildly popular during the 1920s due to Prohibition. In these places, people could also listen to music and dance. They were also often operated by organized crime members.
What are speakeasies?
Which character "instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now" Nick "saw that this was because ____ felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. _____ was incurably dishonest. She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage" (Fitzgerald 57-8).
Who is Jordan Baker?
The events of The Great Gatsby occur over the course of this season of this year.
When is summer of 1922?
The Great Gatsby is written in what type of narration/point of view?
What is first person?
a mark, trace, or visible evidence of something that is no longer present or in existence
What is "vestige"?
In 1910-20, a mass movement of African Americans occurred in the south. Natural disasters put many black families out of work in sharecropping, resulting in thousands moving north to Harlem. As a result, this Black pride movement began in the 1920s and 1930s, during which Black art, music, and literature were thriving and being appreciated by audiences of all races.
What is the Harlem Renaissance?
In their youth, this character's "heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night. A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the washstand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor. Each night he added to the pattern of his fancies until drowsiness closed down upon some vivid scene with an oblivious embrace. For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality; a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy's wing" (Fitzgerald 99).
Who is Jay Gatsby (a.k.a James Gatz)?
"And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first plucked out the _________ at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and 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 in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night" (Fitzgerald 180).
What is the green light?
adj - painstaking; meticulous; strict attention to minute details
What is "punctilious"?
adj: generous in forgiving an insult or injury; free from petty resentfulness or the need to seek retribution
What is "magnanimous"?
The growth of this industry became the backbone of a new consumer goods-oriented society. By the mid-1920s it ranked first in value of product, and in 1982 it provided one out of every six jobs in the United States. The boom of this industry impacted jobs, social life, and transportation of goods/services.
What is the automobile industry?
This character's voice is full of something that Nick had never been able to identify. When he hears it aloud for the first time, he realizes, "That was it. I'd never understood it before. It was full of _________ - that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the symbols' song of it... High in a white palace the kings daughter, the golden girl" (Fitzgerald 120).
Who is Daisy?
What is money?
"'God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing. You may fool me, but you can't fool God!' Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at ______________, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night. 'God sees everything.'" (Fitzgerald 159-60).
What are the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleberg?
What "didn't stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment, and then disappeared around the next bend" in chapter seven (137)?
What is "the death car"?
What is Gatsby's car?
adj/adv: not restrained by moral or ethical principles; dishonest; corrupt
What is "unscrupulous" or "unscrupulously"?
In the 1920s, this vision or concept changed as people started to desire the acquisition of material things rather than just opportunity, individualism, and happiness. To Fitzgerald, this idea was corrupted by the easy flow of money and relaxed social values.
What is the American Dream?
The following two quotes suggest this about Nick as a narrator:
1. "In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgements" (Fitzgerald 1).
versus
2. "I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very carless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (Fitzgerald 179).
How is Nick a biased narrator, despite being established as nonjudgemental?
Fitzgerald intentionally created the setting of The Great Gatsby to symbolize the socio-economic classes and the divide between them during the 1920s. These are the three places on Long Island where the novel takes place, and these are the classes that each represents.
Where is East Egg and the old money class?
Where is West Egg and the new money class?
Where is the Valley of Ashes and the working/lower class?
The following are examples in The Great Gatsby of the style of this literary movement:
Nick Carraway says, “I wanted the world to be in uniform and to stand at a sort of moral attention forever” as he retreats from the modern world (theme of alienation)
Plays with perspective, such as the flashback told by Jordan in chapter four
Moral uncertainty and the catastrophe of WWI with Nick and Gatsby as veterans of the war
Examples of the new industry and mass entertainment (new and replaceable clothing, cars, etc.)
Standard beginnings, transitions, and endings are omitted in the novel as a whole and within chapters in order to tell the stories in a way that mirrors Nick's complex thoughts
What is American Modernism?