Aditya Rao Mrs.

Gaetjens IB English SL, Block 4 March 28, 2012 The Great Gatsby Chapter I, Question 10: What is the effect of the following description from Chapter One: The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea. The effect of Fitzgeralds description is to immerse the reader in the story and to set the tone of the passage. Rather than simply stating the existence of the room, Fitzgerald uses descriptive diction (frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, wine-colored rug) and evocative imagery (like pale flags, gleaming white against the fresh grass) to give the reader the experience of actually being in the room. Furthermore, he mixes the natural and artificial, conjuring up images of grass that seemed to grow a little way into the house and of a breeze that blew through the room. In addition, the passage acquires a lighthearted tone through the use of words like fresh and rippled. The flowing sentence structure also contributes to this tone. Chapter II, Question 8: What is the significance of her statement, You cant live forever; you cant live forever? Myrtle and Tom meet for the first time on the train to New York. Both are instantly attracted to one another. When Tom makes an advance towards her, Myrtle says that she ought to call a policeman but thinks You cant live forever; you cant live forever. Myrtle is telling

herself that she must seize the opportunity that has presented itself before her; she may never meet anyone like Tom ever again. She has been stuck for twelve years in a loveless marriage with an unsuccessful husband and she isnt getting any younger. Tom is obviously interested in her and he seems quite rich (he had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes). She sees in him an escape from her mundane and boring life. There is a sense of mutual exploitation in their relationship. Tom uses Myrtle for sexual pleasure while Myrtle gets money and pretty things in return. Chapter III, Question 8: What is your reaction to Nicks comment, Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply? The quote implies that dishonesty can be condoned more freely in cases where a woman is concerned. Male integrity is a major component of the decorum of the time, which we can glean from Nicks reactions to the lies of both Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Female deception, on the other hand, is considered tolerable; this is reflective of the morals and sexual biases of the 1920s, the time period during which the novel is set. The implication of these social paradigms is that dishonesty is a natural female failing, contributing to the view that women are weaker and more immoral than men. Nicks tolerance of Jordans dishonesty also foreshadows his acceptance of Daisys future deception in allowing Gatsby to assume the blame for Myrtles death, which eventually results in Gatsbys death. Nick never confronts Daisy, nor does he tell Tom or go to the police with this information. He is willing for the truth to remain concealed.

Chapter IV, Question 5: What is the effect of juxtaposing the valley of ashes with Mrs. Wilson with panting vitality at the garage pump? The valley of ashes was a narrow strip of land through which a traveler had to pass if he or she were going between New York City and the resort villages of East Egg and West Egg on the north shore of Long Island. It is described by Nick in Chapter 2 as 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 men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ashgray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight. Every word of Nicks description lets the reader know what an ugly, god-forsaken place the valley of ashes was. In reality, it served as a dumping ground for industrial waste, mainly ashes produced by coal-fired burners of the manufacturing plants in New York City. The more impoverished denizens of the city lived in ramshackle housing in the valley of ashes the Wilsons, George and Myrtle, were one such couple who called that wasteland their home. Georges features, demeanor, and behavior all blended with the ashes amidst which he lived he had lost all vitality for life. However, the valley had the opposite effect on Myrtle. In spite of being married to George for twelve years and living in poverty, she had not lost her love of the extravagant and her zest for life. By juxtaposing the valley of ashes with Mrs. Wilsons panting vitality, Fitzgerald suggests that Myrtle Wilsons spark could never be extinguished, however bleak her circumstances may have been.

Chapter V, Question 5: Why does Daisy begin to cry and say Theyre such beautiful shirtsIt makes me sad because Ive never seen such beautiful shirts before? Even though Daisy loved Gatsby, she married Tom Buchanan instead because she knew that Gatsby could not provide the extravagant life that she was accustomed to. When Daisy sees Gatsby again, five years later, she is astounded to discover that he has amassed a fortune. WHiel taking Daisy on a tour of his mansion, Gatsby makes it a point to highlight the luxury of his new circumstances. With enchanting murmurs Daisy admired this aspect or that of the feudal silhouette against the sky, admired the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils and the frothy odor of hawthorn and plum blossoms and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate. Gatsby finally takes Daisy to his apartment inside the mansion, where he proceeds to show her his personal possessions, including the custom silk shirts that are tailored specifically for him in London. Overwhelmed by all the wealth and extravagance she has seen so far, Daisy realizes that Gatsby is finally in a position to support the exorbitant lifestyle she covets. Unfortunately, she is already a married woman. The irony of her situation makes her weep. Chapter VI, Question 2: Platonic means ideal, from Platos conception of reality. What Platonic conception does Gatsby have of himself? Gatsby was born into a very poor family in rural North Dakota. Even as a child, he despised his place in society and longed for the opportunity to break bread with the wealthy and sophisticated. He always had a plan to escape his circumstances and make a name for himself. He felt that he was destined for great things in life. While serving as a young military officer stationed in Louisville, Gatsby encounters the girl of his dreams, Daisy. She was beautiful, charming, and graceful, with an aura of wealth

surrounding her. Gatsby was so smitten by Daisy that he lied to her about his background. Even though he had no money, education, or social connections, he made himself out to be an aristocrat. but he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same stratum as herself that he was fully able to take care of her. As a matter of fact, he had no such facilities he had no comfortable family standing behind him, and he was liable at the whim of an impersonal government to be blown anywhere about the world. When he returned home after the war, Gatsby found that Daisy was married to Tom Buchanan. At that moment, Gatsby pledged to dedicate his whole life to amassing enough riches to make himself worthy of Daisy, even resorting to illegal activities in order to accomplish his goal. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end a debonair, charming, enormously wealthy, war hero with a mysterious past and more acquaintances than one can count. Gatsby creates an illusory persona and does everything possible to propagate that illusion. But underneath it all, he is still an innocent young man hopelessly in love with Daisy, whose tenacity and determination are unflagging till the very end. As readers, we slowly come to realize that Gatsby really doesnt care about his wealth or social status. Everything that he does is motivated by a much nobler pursuit love.

Chapter VII, Question 18: What is the tone of the scene where Daisy and Tom are at the kitchen table? The scene where Daisy and Tom are at the kitchen table sharing cold fried chicken and ale is characterized by a tone of intimacy. As Nick himself points out, They werent happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale and yet they werent unhappy either. Although it seems to be merely a simple, quiet, domestic moment, this scene has tremendous significance. Neither Tom nor Daisy is incredibly torn up over the infidelity of their spouse; they value their marriage only for the conveniences it provides to both of them. Neither one wants to deal with the trouble and repercussions that would follow if Daisy were to leave Tom. In the face of such intensely pragmatic reckoning, Gatsbys love for Daisy is no match. Chapter VIII, Question 9: What is the significance of Doctor Eckleburgs eyes which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night? We are first introduced to Dr. Eckleburgs eyes through Nicks description of them in Chapter 2: The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic their irises are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground. The gigantic eyes produce an air of authority while the lack of a face suggests an aura of mystery. These eyes have weathered the sun and rain for many years and yet are only slightly dimmed by the passage of time. Holistically, the description seems to imply an omniscient

observer looking down on mans dishonesty, greed, and corruption adjectives which accurately characterize Americas moral decline in the 1920s. George Wilson is the only character in the novel who explicitly refers to Dr. Eckleburgs eyes as the eyes of God. I spoke to her, he muttered, after a long silence. I told her she might fool me but she couldnt fool God. I took her to the window. with an effort he got up and walked to the rear window and leaned with his face pressed against it and I said God knows what youve been doing, everything youve been doing. You may fool me, but you cant fool God! By referencing the eyes of Doctor Eckleburg, Mr. Wilson is professing his knowledge of Myrtles adulterous affairs and his confidence that judgment will be passed on her actions. Chapter IX, Question 18: What is the significance of the last line of the novel: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past? Life is a struggle as we try to achieve our dreams and aspirations, we are always fighting to move our lives forward. However, nostalgia constantly forces us back into it. Gatsby wanted to draw Daisy back to the time before the war, to his idealized memories of the time they spent together. Unfortunately, this was a futile exercise, as one can never really recreate the past exactly as it was before. I wouldnt ask too much of her, I ventured. You cant repeat the past. Cant repeat the past? he cried incredulously. Why of course you can! He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. Im going to fix everything just the way it was before, he said, nodding determinedly. Shell see. Gatsbys reinvents himself by changing his name, denying his parents existence, amassing a large fortune (mainly through illegal activities), and exaggerating certain aspects of

his life, such as his war record and his college education. He feels like he has successfully changed his past, and thus changing his past with Daisy seems like an achievable venture. He believes that his material possessions money, clothes, house will impress Daisy. Everything that he does is aimed towards winning Daisy back. He is so driven by this that he ends up objectifying Daisy herself to some extent. As Nick recounts during Gatsbys and Daisys first meeting after almost five years, There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart. Sometime later, when Gatsby sees Daisys daughter, he is unable to reconcile her presence with his image of Daisy. Afterward he kept looking at the child with surprise. I dont think he had ever really believed in its existence before. As the tragic end of the novel illustrates, Gatsby was never able to return to the past. Post-Reading, Question 3: Fitzgerald wrote to his editor, The worst fault in [the novel] is a BIG FAULT: I gave no account (and had not feeling about or knowledge of) the emotional relations between Gatsby and Daisy from the time of their reunion to the catastrophe. (from The Crack-up, p. 270). Why does Fitzgerald leave this out, and do you agree or disagree with this statement. I agree that Fitzgerald did refrain from providing much description of the time that Gatsby and Daisy spent together after their reunion. Because the story is told completely from the point of view of Nick Carraway, we are never given the chance to scrutinize the way Daisy and Gatsby acted when they were alone. The only hint that we are given is Nicks observations

after the reunion between the two. However, I do not feel like this is a fault. For one thing, it maintains the style of the novel i.e. a retelling from a passive characters points of view, in which the reader is only given the information that said character is privy to. This peculiar style is part of what draws the reader in. In addition, the lack of description provided for the meetings between Daisy and Gatsby ascribes a somewhat superficial character to their relationship. This foreshadows Daisys eventual abandonment of Gatsby.