THE GREAT GATSBY

Chapter 1

Nick - Narrator

First Person narrator – Nick Carraway Advice from father: “Whenever you feel like

criticizing anyone, he told me, “just remember that all the people In this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had” (5). As a result, Nick claims that he is “inclined to reserve

all judgments” (5) “unjustly accused of being a politician” (5) Reserving judgments = infinite hope (hypocrisy)? “a sense of fundamental decency was parceled out at

birth” (snobbishly) (5) Brings into question intentions of father Good advice or bad? Nick – does he follow the advice or not?

Nick and Gatsby

Indication of Flashback: “When I came back from the East last autumn” Desire for uniform “moral attention” No more “riotous excursions with privileged glimpses

into the human heart” Contrasts feelings of disdain with those of Gatsby:

“Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction-Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away” (6).

Characterized by: An extraordinary gift for hope Romantic readiness

“It is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”

Nick’s Background

•Nick – BackgroundComes from “prominent, well-to-do-people” in the mid-westClaimed descendent of Dukes of Buccleuch – Scottish royalty (false)Family founded by Grandfather who sent a substitute to the Civil War (lack of moral conviction?)Began hardware business which gives the family the wealth of todayGraduated from New Haven (Yale)Participated in WWI which made him “restless” upon his return

o“the middle-west seemed like the ragged edge of the universe” (7).oOn the East: “It was sharply different from the West where an evening was hurried from phase to phase toward its close in a continually disappointed anticipation of else in sheer nervous dread of the moment itself” (17).

Nick in the East

Attempts to establish himself in the bond businessSettles in West Egg in a “weather beaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month”

oRoommate backs outoDogs runs awayoOnly company is a Finnish maid

Considers himself a “guide, pathfinder” as a man asks for directions – believes himself to be a permanent resident.Attempts to educate himself in finance:

o“I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew (8)…to become the most limited of all specialists, the ‘well-rounded’ man” (9).

Midas – in Greek mythology had the power to turn anything he touched to goldMorgan – powerful Welsh family (?)Maecenas - political advisor to Octavious in the Roman Empire; name has come to personify wealth

East Egg v. West Egg – The Buchanans

Novel begins in the spring of 1922. (7) East Egg vs. West Egg

“two unusual formations of land” Identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay…To

the wingless a more arresting phenomenon arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size” (9).

 Tom and Daisy (couple): “two old friends who I scarcely knew at all” (11). Lived in Chicago at one point Spent one year in France Returned East to New York (permanent move?): “Oh I’ll stay in

the East, don’t you worry […] I’d be a God Damn fool to live anywhere else” (14-15).

House (not contrast/juxtaposition to that of Gatsby’s) Red and white Georgian Colonial mansion ¼ mile of beachfront property French windows with “reflected gold”

East Egg v. West Egg – The Buchanans (cont.)

West Egg “less fashionable of the two” Typically compared with the idea of new(found) wealth or

“New Money” Neighbor to Gatsby House described as “garish” and likened to some “Hotel de Ville in

Normandy” (9). “Hotel de Ville’ = town hall or city hall Indicates extravagance and overwhelming size

40 acres Swimming pool Tower (new) under ivy Described as a “mansion”

East Egg Characterized by the color white (begins color motifs) Home to “old money” or money that has been inherited

Daisy and Tom Buchannan

East Egg v. West Egg – The Buchanans (cont.)

Tom and Daisy (couple): “two old friends who I scarcely knew at all” (11). Lived in Chicago at one point Spent one year in France Returned East to New York (permanent move?):

“Oh I’ll stay in the East, don’t you worry […] I’d be a God Damn fool to live anywhere else” (14-15).

House (not contrast/juxtaposition to that of Gatsby’s) Red and white Georgian Colonial mansion ¼ mile of beachfront property French windows with “reflected gold”

Tom Buchanan

Tom Nick knew Tom in college: “…I

always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own” (12).

Powerful football player/national recognition

Enormously wealthy family = conceited: “I’ve got a nice place here” (12).

Tom (cont.)

Nick also implies that Tom is not satisfied with his life regardless of his possessions and high social standing: “I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking a little

wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game” (10).

“an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of anti-climax” (10).

“There was something pathetic in his concentration as if his complacency , more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more” (18).

“Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart” (25).

Nick’s view of Tom

Negative diction in Nick’s observation and description of first seeing Tom: Supercilious: “Never heard of them” (14). Arrogant Dominance Aggressively A body capable of enormous leverage A cruel body A gruff husky tenor Fractiousness Paternal contempt

Tom’s Personality

Implied superiority: “’Now, don’t think my opinion on these matters is final,’ he seemed to say, ‘just because I’m stronger and more of a man than you are’” (11).

Lacks respect for wife- women in general(?) Example #1 – interrupts her conversation

with Nick: “What you doing, Nick?” (14). Example #2 – physically abusive – Daisy’s

finger: “That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man” (16).

Example #3 – Tom’s affair with Myrtle Wilson (revealed in detail in chapter 2): “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (19).

Tom (cont.)

Example #4 – speaking of Jordan Baker: “They oughtn’t to let her run around the country this way” (23) – hypocrisy in terms of his own affair with Myrtle.

Well-educated but often obstinate and arrogant when concerned with his own opinion in comparison to others “As for Tom, the fact that he “had some woman in New

York” was really less surprising than that he had been depressed by a book” (25).

Racist: “if we don’t look out the white race will be – will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved […] it’s up to us who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will have control of things” (17).

Rise of the Colored Empires by Goddard Allusion to The Rising Tide of Color by Lothrop

Stoddard Again, implication of money as power

Daisy and Jordan

Daisy and Jordan –introduction Room – “frosted wedding cake of a ceiling […] the wine

colored rug” (12) Color motif = association of white with Daisy (implication?)

Jordan Baker “her chin raised a little as if she were balancing something on it

which was likely to fall” – implication of snobbish self-importance? Nick finds her attractive: “She was a slender, small-breasted girl

with an erect carriage which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet” (15).

Professional golfer – based on Edith Cummings, the 1923 Women’s Gold Champion

Nick recalls her reputation: “ I had heard some story of her too, a critical, unpleasant story, but what it was I had forgotten long ago” (foreshadowing – Jordan’s true personality)

Acquainted with or knows Gatsby: “You must know Gatsby” (15); Notoriety?

Acquainted with Daisy through childhood: “Our white girlhood…” (24).

“Daisy, Daisy, Daisy…”

Daisy Nick’s cousin “yellow” hair (value?) Fitzgerald focuses his description of her around the idea of her

infectious laugh This again becomes apparent during chapter 7 (conversation

between Nick and Gatsby) “It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down as if each

speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again” (13)

“there was an excitement in her voice that men who had care for her found difficult to forget…” (14).

“her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened” (18). Sense of sarcasm (Chicago) Shows a faint interest in Gatsby when he is mentioned: “Gatsby,

what Gatsby?” Tends to move through life with little regard for others or

complete attention to herself/surroundings Longest day of the year “And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything” (22).

Daisy role as a wife

Portrayed throughout the chapter as a somewhat mindless and obedient woman who is trapped, but not completely voluntarily in her unhappy position (marriage).

Acceptance of affair: “It couldn’t be helped” Sarcasm/Guilt: “It’s romantic, isn’t it Tom?”

Nick implies her possible deception early in the novel before coming to the recognition of her selfishness later on:

“I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said. It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me” (22).

Discloses her “troubles” to Nick “Well, I’ve had a very bad time, Nick, and I’m pretty

cynical about everything” (21). Opinion of daughter: “that’s the best thing a girl can

be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (21) – implication of her disdain regarding her husband’s affair. Ignorance = bliss

Daisy, the romantic?

Romantic impulses suggest her own struggle for marital bliss which she does not experience with Tom?

“…I’ll arrange a marriage. Come over often, Nick, and I’ll sort of – oh – fling you together” (23).

Attempts to pass her life off as blissful, despite disclosing her troubles (awkwardly) to Nick minutes earlier

Appearances seem paramount to her in terms of social standing: “We heard it from three people so it must be true!”

“She’s going to spend lots of week-ends out here this summer. I think the home influence will be very good for her” (23) – irony?

Nick and the Buchanans…no likey? Nick’s Reflection of Events

Nick, even at his first encounter with the Buchanans sees them as very different and somewhat conceded individuals:“...I was confused and a little disgusted as I drove away” (25).

Question: If so, why does he continue to associate with them throughout the course of the novel?

Question: How, if at all does this relate to the advice his father gave him and how/if he follows it?

Nick and Gatsby: Love at first sight? Or just green with envy?

Returning home, Nick seems to admire the natural beauty outside his house Symbolic of natural inclinations of the mid-west vs.

those of the East? Loud bright night Wings beating in the trees Full bellows of the earth blew the frogs to life

Gatsby – appears “fifty feet away a figure emerged from the shadow of my

neighbor’s mansion” (25). “Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was

his of our local heavens” (25). “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious

way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling” (26).

Vanishes – sense of mystery Green light (foreshadowing)

life, goal, desire (Light at the end of Daisy’s dock)