The Great Gatsby

 Today we are going to discuss the ending of chapter 4 and give you a few minutes to put your notes on the chapter onto a google doc. We will then move onto chapter 5.

The Great Gatsby

 I will give you 5-10 minutes to finish the study questions either from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" or The Great Gatsby 

Today we will read chapter 4. Starting with this chapter I want you to keep a list of notes for each chapter. Notes can include character insights, imagery, quotations, allusions, plot development and discussion about what was important about the chapter. 

 

Friday

 I'll give you about 10 minutes to work on story questions from yesterday.

 Today, we are going to read "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" on page 969. Answer questions 1-3, 6 and 7. We are also going to look at The Waste Land (section 1) by T.S. Eliot. 

If we have time we will also begin to cover the overview of the time period on page 865).

The Waste Land 

Part I: The Burial of the Dead
https://wasteland.windingway.org/

You should think about breaking this section up into four speakers. Eliot was working with dramatic monologues. You should also think about his allusions in this section:

1) The title to THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER (as for burial services)
2) Allusions to Ezekiel, Ecclesiastes, Isiah
3) Allusions to WWI
4) Allusions to Dante's Inferno
5) Allusions to Tristan and Isolte
6) Walt Whitman
7) Chaucer
8) Drowning
9) Greek Mythology
10) Tarot Cards - and fate
11) Other religions

The Great Gatsby

 Today we are going to finish reading chapter 3 and work on study questions.

 

Chapter I

1. How does Nick describe himself at the beginning of the book?
2. Why has Nick come to the East?
3. How does Nick describe Tom Buchanan?
4. Who is Jordan Baker? What does Nick find appealing about her?
5. How does Daisy react to the phone calls from Tom’s woman in New York?? 6. What is Gatsby doing when Nick first sees him?
7. Notice how many times Fitzgerald uses the words hope, or dream. Why does he do this?
8. Nick starts the novel by relaying his father's advice "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." Does he reserve judgment in the novel?
9. Pay attention to time. What is the day and year during the first scene at Daisy's house?
10. Describe Nick. What facts do you know about him, and what do you infer about him? What kind of a narrator do you think he will be?
11. What image does the author use to describe Jordan Baker? What does it mean? 12. How does Nick react to Jordan?
13. What does Tom's behavior reveal about his character?
 
Chapter II
1. How does Nick meet Tom’s mistress?
2. How does Myrtle react to Tom’s arrival?
3. Describe George Wilson. How does he react to Tom’s arrival?
4. How does Myrtle behave as the party progresses?
5. Why, according to Catherine, has Tom not left Daisy to marry Myrtle?

6. Why did Tom break Myrtle’s nose? How is this consistent with the author’s description of him in Chapter I? Judging by his treatment of Myrtle and his wife Daisy, what seems to be Tom’s attitude toward women?
7. Describe the "valley of ashes." What does it look like and what does it represent? 8. Describe Mr. Wilson and Myrtle. Do they seem to fit into the setting?
9. What more have you learned about Nick in this chapter? Is he similar or different than the people he spends his time with?

Chapter III
1. Why does Gatsby throw huge, expensive parties for people he does not even know? 2. Describe the two ways in which Nick differs from the other guests at the party?
3. What does the owl-eyed man find extraordinary about the books in Gatsby’s library? 4. Why does the owl-eyed man describe Gatsby as a real Belasco?
5. What is the significance of the owl eyed man?
6. What does the reaction of the drivers of the wrecked automobile suggest about the values of Gatsby’s guests?
7. What does Nick learn about Jordan after he’s spent some time with her? 8. What is the significance of Jordan’s lies?
9. Pay attention to Nick's judgments. Whtado they reveal about his character that he does this (especially in relation to his opening comments)?
10. Describe Gatsby the first time Nick sees him.
11. What rumors have been told about Gatsby? Why does Fitzgerald reveal rumors rather than fact? 12. What does Nick think of Gatsby after meeting him?
13. How is Gatsby different from his guests?
14. Why does Nick choose to share his thoughts and feelings with Jordan?
15. Nick thinks he's one of the few honest people he knows, why? Do you thikn he is honest?

 

Gatsby's Party

Nick Carraway is invited to his party, but he claims to be one of the few.  People at Gatsby's party's at "according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks."  A chauffeur in a "uniform of robin's egg blue" (is this important?) brings Nick the invitation.

Gilda Gray - Follies (allusion -Ziegfield Follies).  Lots of mentions of automobiles in this chapter.

Nick quickly runs into Jordan Baker at the party.  Jordan is with a younger man who is still in college (there is a reason for this - he is "a persistent undergraduate given to violent innuendo").  Nick and Jordan sit with a few girls who share some gossip:

1) One rip her dress at a former party and Gatsby sent her a new one worth $265 - because "He doesn't want any trouble with anybody"

2) Rumor #2 - Gatsby had "killed a man once."  Gatsby's name = BY GATs

3) "He was a German spy during the war".  Rumor #3

The three girls are all with girls named "Mr. Mumbles" (this is a joke).

Jordan and Nick go to Gatsby's library where they meet OWL EYES (think of the name).  Owl Eyes tells them that Gatsby's library is full of real books, but the pages are uncut.

Owl Eyes is in the library because he's "been drunk for about a week" and  he "thought it might sober" him up "to sit in the library."  Mrs. Claud Roosevelt brought him.  Allusion.

Nick later accidentally meets Gatsby.  Gatsby recognizes him from the war and uses the phrase "Old Sport" a lot.

Gatsby's smile "was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance".  The butler comes and tells Gatsby that Chicago is on the line.

Jordan than tells Nick - Rumor #4 - that Gatsby claims to be an Oxford man.  She doesn't believe him.

Mr. Tostoff's "Jazz History of the World" plays out in the Gardens (allusion - think Jazz Age and famous musicians).

There are a bunch of "drunken" fights as husbands tried to get there wives to leave.  Nick then witnesses a car crash with someone so drunk that they don't even know that they crashed and the wheel of the car is no longer connected.  (1st mention of car crashes)

Nick and Jordan after a while begin dating.  He says, "I felt a sort of tender curiosity."  At a house-party in Warwick, Nick reports, Jordan borrowed a car and left it in the rain with its top down and then lied about it (not a car wreck - but close and due to someone being careless.  This is also Jordan's 1st "lie" that the reader becomes aware of).  Nick quickly remembers what "eluded me that night at Daisy's.  At her first big golf tournament there was a row that nearly reached the newspapers --a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round."  The caddy withdrew his statements and it was dropped, but there it was.  According to Nick, "Jordan instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men" (ah - so back to the undergrad).  "She was incurable dishonest...and wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage."

Then - Jordan drove so close to a workman that the fender flicked a button on the man's coat.  Nick tells her that she is a rotten driver and should be more careful.  Jordan responds that it takes two to make an accident (love is a car wreck metaphor).

Nick: "Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself."
Jordan: I hope I never will.  I hate careless people.  That's why I like you."

Nick claims at the end of the chapter that he is one of few honest people that he has known.  (interesting statement.  He says it after admitting he needs to break it off with some girl back West who he has been writing letters and signing them "Love Nick".

Wednesday

Today we are going to discuss chapter 2.  We will also look at chapter 3.

Chapter 2

Settings: Valley of Ashes and New York City

Valley of Ashes is both an allusion (to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land – a poem that refers back to World War I, and turns London into a city of the dead, spiritually dead) and a symbol.  The Valley of Ashes is were “dreams” die and the spiritually dead live. 

In the Valley of Ashes another symbol resides: The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.  A symbol to eyes of God (though God is dead). 

In the Valley of Ashes live George and Myrtle Wilson.

George Wilson is a sick, anemic man.  He is of the working class and he has failed in life.  He owns a poor little gas station.  He hopes – or dreams – of buying Tom’s car so that he can sell it for a profit and move west.  As one point in this chapter, Myrtle “smiled slowly and, walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom…”

Myrtle Wilson is Tom’s “girl”.  Tom is using her for a fling.  Tom has rented Myrtle an apartment in Manhattan (New York) and in this apartment Myrtle dreams.  Her dream is to escape her working class life and become wealthy and live like the wealthy. 

On the way to the apartment, Tom buys Myrtle a dog.  This “dog” will be an allusion (keep this in mind for the end of the novel).  Myrtle in reality is Tom’s dog.   There’s a reference about a dog collar later in the chapter.  Who is this collar for?

At Myrtles (or Tom’s) apartment a party happens.  Myrtle invited up the Mckees and her sister Catherine.

Mr. McKee is a photographer – a poor photographer. 

Catherine is around thirty, slender, and “worldly” (not).  She’s a gossip. 

Catherine gives the first rumor about Gatsby – “he’s a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s.” 

Catherine also presents a lie about Tom and Daisy’s marriage: “Neither of them can stand the person they’re married to” (this in reference to Tom and Myrtle).  “It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart.  She’s a Catholic and they don’t believe in divorce.”

Myrtle, of course, challenges (after an afternoon of drinks) Tom’s marriage by yelling “Daisy Daisy Daisy” over and over.  Tom, showing her that Myrtle is beneath Daisy and that his marriage isn’t to be question, breaks her nose. 

New York City is the place in this book where dreams run into reality. 

Versailles (what happens there) is mentioned a few times in this chapter as is Town Tattle and Simon Called Peter

 

Homework to write sentences will all the vocabulary words:

1)    Wan

2)    Prodigality

3)    Feigned

4)    Languidly

5)    Colossal

6)    Complacency

7)    Levity

8)    Extemporizing

9)    Supercilious

10) Infinitesimal

11) Fractiousness

12) Incredulously

13) Contemptuously

14) Incurably

15) Cardinal

16) Pasquinade 

 

  https://flip.com/s/xyTrJxTekQE54Aav

https://flip.com/s/4YENQ_W4gtST2PNH

Tuesday - The Great Gatsby

 Read chapter 2 of THE GREAT GATSBY. We will discuss it tomorrow.

THE GREAT GATSBY STUDY QUESTIONS 

 

Chapter I

1. How does Nick describe himself at the beginning of the book?
2. Why has Nick come to the East?
3. How does Nick describe Tom Buchanan?
4. Who is Jordan Baker? What does Nick find appealing about her?
5. How does Daisy react to the phone calls from Tom’s woman in New York?? 6. What is Gatsby doing when Nick first sees him?
7. Notice how many times Fitzgerald uses the words hope, or dream. Why does he do this?
8. Nick starts the novel by relaying his father's advice "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." Does he reserve judgment in the novel?
9. Pay attention to time. What is the day and year during the first scene at Daisy's house?
10. Describe Nick. What facts do you know about him, and what do you infer about him? What kind of a narrator do you think he will be?
11. What image does the author use to describe Jordan Baker? What does it mean? 12. How does Nick react to Jordan?
13. What does Tom's behavior reveal about his character?
 
Chapter II
1. How does Nick meet Tom’s mistress?
2. How does Myrtle react to Tom’s arrival?
3. Describe George Wilson. How does he react to Tom’s arrival?
4. How does Myrtle behave as the party progresses?
5. Why, according to Catherine, has Tom not left Daisy to marry Myrtle?

6. Why did Tom break Myrtle’s nose? How is this consistent with the author’s description of him in Chapter I? Judging by his treatment of Myrtle and his wife Daisy, what seems to be Tom’s attitude toward women?
7. Describe the "valley of ashes." What does it look like and what does it represent? 8. Describe Mr. Wilson and Myrtle. Do they seem to fit into the setting?
9. What more have you learned about Nick in this chapter? Is he similar or different than the people he spends his time with? 

 

Monday

We need to look at the overview of the Modern Age in your textbooks, return to The Great Gatsby and discuss chapter 1 and give your some time to work on the chapter questions below.

 

 

THE GREAT GATSBY STUDY QUESTIONS 

 

Chapter I

1. How does Nick describe himself at the beginning of the book?
2. Why has Nick come to the East?
3. How does Nick describe Tom Buchanan?
4. Who is Jordan Baker? What does Nick find appealing about her?
5. How does Daisy react to the phone calls from Tom’s woman in New York?? 6. What is Gatsby doing when Nick first sees him?
7. Notice how many times Fitzgerald uses the words hope, or dream. Why does he do this?
8. Nick starts the novel by relaying his father's advice "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." Does he reserve judgment in the novel?
9. Pay attention to time. What is the day and year during the first scene at Daisy's house?
10. Describe Nick. What facts do you know about him, and what do you infer about him? What kind of a narrator do you think he will be?
11. What image does the author use to describe Jordan Baker? What does it mean? 12. How does Nick react to Jordan?
13. What does Tom's behavior reveal about his character?

NOTES:

Nick Carraway – (narrator), claims to be non-judgmental and this has made him “privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men.”

Is from the West and moved to the East.  His family is in the hardware business.  He claims that he is descended from the “Dukes of Buccleuch” (look this up).

He is descended or claims to be descended from aristocracy.  His family is probably upper-middle class.  He works for a living. 

Was in World War I (The Great War).  Graduate from YALE (New Haven).  He works selling bonds.

Nick seems to be a reliable narrator but he does have moments.

“Midas, Morgan, and Maecenas” (page 4) – allusion (look up).

Eggs – West Egg and East Egg (these are in the Long Island Sound).  There is the egg in the Columbus Story (Columbus story).

Birth – the idea of infinite possibilities, dreams.  Before the egg is hatched anything can happen.

Setting: East and West Egg; June 7^th 1922. 

Tom: Yale – extremely rich (he inherited).  Played football – “one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven – a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anticlimax.” 

“They had spent a year in France for no particular reason and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.”

  “I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game.”

Tom Buchanan – has a girl in New York (she’ll be important) and is a racist. 

Daisy “Fay” Buchanan – “there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour.” 

From Louisville, the South.  She is from a rich aristocracy (a south family that probably owed a plantation). 

Jordan Baker – golf player.  From Louisville.  Single – symbol of the “new” woman of the 1920s.  Has a male name.  Foreshadow: Nick remembers a “critical, unpleasant story” about Jordan that he heard somewhere.

Jay Gatsby – at the end reaching out his had for the green light.

“No—Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interested in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.” 

Myrtle Wilson (Tom’s girl). 

The theme of repeating the past is prevalent - for the men - in this chapter.

1) Nick talks about being restless after returning from WWI. "I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless. Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe -- so I decided to go East and learn the bond business." Note, it's probably not that Nick misses the war, but that he misses the adrenaline rush of the war and is looking for something like it again. This idea of repeating something that can't be repeated.

2) Tom Buchanan - "... had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven -- a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anticlimax." Tom is looking for the excitement of that lost football game, that lost national figure.

3) Jay Gatsby - reaches out for the green light. 

The women in this chapter both have things in their past that they seem to want to forget. 

Lecture on chapter 1

 

Lecture on the overview of the book