THE GREAT GATSBY
The Great Gatsby
Themes Culture Clash Midwest vs. East East Egg vs. West Egg Gatsby vs. Tom
Themes Culture Clash Midwest (Nick) moral, slow paced, unsophisticated East (Tom & Daisy) corrupt, and materialistic
Themes The American Dream Gatsby represents the American dream Self-made wealth and happiness Came from a poor family in N. Dakota The spirit of youth and resourcefulness Ability to make something of one's self despite where you came from Primary flaw was naïve idealism
Themes Appearance and Reality Daisy and Tom s marriage appeared real The love between Gatsby and Daisy appeared real Gatsby appeared to have many people who liked him
Themes Moral Corruption The wealthy Buchanan s Sloane s East Egg
Point of View Nick Carraway How he feels about the characters Romantic and moralist retrospective flashbacks that fill us in on the life of Gatsby then flash forward to foreshadow his tragedy
Point of View 1 st -person ("I") narrative Nick's final estimation Gatsby is worth the whole "rotten bunch of them put together
Setting New York 1920 s East Egg Old $ corrupt, materialistic West Egg New $ idealistic
Satire Attempts to make fun of something that is wrong with some aspect of human behavior or society A satirist will often exaggerate faults in order to show how absurd they are
Satire The sense of vulgarity of the people (amusement park) Owl Eyes in the library The books are real The car accident outside of Gatsby s The parties intended to get Daisy s attention The famous shirt scene Klipspringer calling for his tennis shoes Quality of the name "Great" Gatsby in the title
Imagery Points out idealism and illusion Color Imagery The green light
Symbols The Green Light Hope Go Prosperity/money Jealousy New beginning
Symbols The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg God All knowing Tom s affair with Myrtle Daisy running over Myrtle Moral judge Watches over the Valley of Ashes
Symbols The Valley of Ashes Industrial area Poor/low class society Dumping ground Moral decay of the 1920 s
Symbols Weather Rain (gray) The unknown Mystery Extreme heat Tension between characters Cool weather (autumn) Cooling off of relationships
Foreshadowing Gatsby never used his pool all summer Tells Nick Tells his gardener not to drain it The day he decides to use it, which is just about the last day of summer it s also the last day of his life.
Quotes If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, [Gatsby had] an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.
Quotes 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 forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-gray men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. [And the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg] brood on over the solemn dumping ground.
Quotes When the Jazz History of the World was over, girls where putting their heads on men s shoulders, swooning backward playfully into men s arms, but no one swooned backward on Gatsby, and no French bob touched Gatsby s shoulder, and no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby s head for one link.
Quotes he began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, [Daisy] began to cry stormily. They re such beautiful shirts, she sobbed It makes me sad because I ve never seen such such beautiful shirts before.
Quotes Her voice is full of money, [Gatsby] said suddenly. That was it. that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbal s song of it
Quotes Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealthy imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.
Quotes You can t repeat the past. Can t repeat the past? he cried incredulously. Why of course you can!
Quotes Wilson: 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 the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night. God sees everything, repeated Wilson. That s an advertisement, Michaelis assured him.
Quotes Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther And one fine morning
Quotes gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors eyes a fresh, green breast of the new world. for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.
Quotes And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.