Gatsby Study Guide

Great Gatsby Study Guide
Main Plot:
Exposition: Chapters 1 and 2. Nick gets reacquainted with Daisy and Tom, Nick sees Gatsby reaching towards the Green Light, Tom and Myrtle’s Party.
Inciting Event: Nick goes to Gatsby’s Party.
Rising Action:
• Nick meets Wolfsheim
• Jordan tells Nick about Gatsby and Daisy
• Nick arranges for Gatsby and Daisy to meet
• Gatsby goes to Daisy’s House
• Gatsby’s Second Party
Climax: Tom confronts Gatsby on how he makes his money, which freaks Daisy out.
Falling Action:
• Daisy hits Myrtle with the car
• Gatsby watches Daisy from afar
• Nick sees Tom and Daisy conferring
• Gatsby is shot and killed by Wilson
• Nobody comes to Gatsby’s Funeral
Resolution: Nick is sick of it all and returns home to the West

Symbols
• The Eyes of T.J. Eckleburg: The Eyes of God and Death
• The Green Light: Gatsby’s Dream, Infiniate Possabilities, Daisy, (Return to Past)
• Gatsby’s Car: Freedom, Wealth, Wrecklessness; (Motif: Bad Drivers)
• West Egg (New Money) , East Egg (Old Money), Valley of Ashes (Death) , New York (Reality)
• Owl Eyes: Sees more than what is really there (sounds like Allies
• Dog Collar:
• Daisy’s Necklace: $350,000 Necklace Tom bought; Daisy’s security
• White Girl Hood, Rise of the Colored Races, Beautiful Little Fool


Ironies
• Rise of the Colored Races
• Beautiful Fool
• Daisy killing Myrtle (Situational Irony)
• Nick forgetting but remembering his birthday (Situational Irony)
• Nick is called a bad driver by Jordan, who herself is a bad driver
• Nobody comes to Gatsby’s Funeral
o Klipspringer calls for his shoes
o Wolfsheim cant get mixed-up in it
o Gatsby’s Father arrives
• Nick sees Tom, the richest man he knows, acting like a child

Subplot: Jordan & Nick
Exposition: Nick meets Jordan at Daisy’s house
Inciting Event: Gatsby’s Party
Rising Action:
• They begin to date each other
• Jordan tells Nick the back story of Gatsby and Daisy
• He remembers the story of Jordan cheating at Golf
• Discussion about Bad Drivers
• Nick and Jordan with Daisy and Gatsby at Daisy’s house
Climax: NYC – Tom confronts Gatsby, making Nick remember he forgot his birthday
Falling Action:
• Seeing the aftermath of Myrtle’s accident
• Refusing to come inside Tom’s house
• Hanging up on Jordan
Resolution: Jordan telling Nick she is engaged. Admits he’s still half in love with her, but still leaves anyways.




Dynamic Character
• Nick Carraway: Doesn’t judge people in the beginning. Towards the end he hates everyone and decides he wants to move away back West to where he belongs.
• George Wilson: He was an innocent man in the beginning. In chapter 7, he sees his wife killed in the middle of the street. Chapter 8, he goes and kills Gatsby, thinking it was him who killed Myrtle, then shoots himself.

Settings
• West Egg: New Money
• East Egg: Old Money
• Valley of Ashes: Death and Sorrow
• New York City: True Reality

Allusions
• The 1919 World Series (Black Sox Scandal)
• Wolfsheim – Arnold Rothstein (real person)
• Buchanan – President James Buchanan (15th President)
• J. P. Morgan – Railroad Tycoon (Richest Man in the 1900s)
• Midas – Literary Allusion – Man who turned things to Gold
• Dutch Sailors – Seeing America for the first time
• Songs – The History of Jazz (Paul Whiteman)
• The Rise of the Color Empire
• Roosevelt – Teddy Roosevelt
• Silent Movies/Worlds Fair/Coney Island


Themes
• The Failure of the American Dream
o George Wilson – Failure to Succeed
o Gatsby is Chapters 7-9
• Myrtle – Dream of being Rich
• Wolfsheim
• God is Dead
o Immoral ----→ Tom has so many affairs (Still comes up untouchable)
o The Eyes of T.J. Eckleburg – Look down on the death of Myrtle and nothing happens to Daisy, but Gatsby gets murdered.
• Jordan cheating at Golf
• People getting blindly drunk and wrecking cars
• The Inability to Repeat the Past / The Meaning of Time
o Gatsby wants to return five years in the past and marry Daisy in Lousiville – Daisy has a daughter now
o Wolfsheim talks about the past (friend gets shot)
o Jordan talking about Daisy and Gatsby’s past
o Last chapter – Boats against the Current sailing into the past
• The Jazz Age / Roaring Twenties
o Flappers / Rise of Female Athletes
o Abundance of People always Drinking
o Dances & Music
o Rise of Organized Crime
o The idea of living in the moment
o The war and the desire for some to return to somewhere else

Short Answers
+ What are some ways Gatsby invented himself?
• Changes his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby
• Buys a big house and everything to impress one girl
• Went to Oxford (Oggsford)
+ What are some images, motifs associated with Daisy?
• The Green Light
• Last Name: Daisy Fey
• Her voice is full of money (White Girl Hood)

+ What images, motifs are associated with Gatsby? What does his name suggest?

• Gatsby → Gats (Guns)
• Car
• House
• Suits
• The Grand Parties
• The Honorable Thief

+ What motifs are associated with Jordan Baker?

• Bad Drivers
• Balancing something on her chin
• Golf

+ What image is connected with Myrtle at the end of the book?

• The dog collar
• Tom has her on a leash but doesn’t plan on making her equal











+ Discuss the following:

• Time
o We are all caught in time & are slaves to it
• Rumors
o Mysteries about Gatsby
• Discuss who Gatsby is – Negative Ways – “It’s exciting”
o Intelligence (Higher Class: Ideas) (Lower Class: People)
• Green Light
o Dreams
• Parties
o Wrecklessness – Wildness of the time
• Cars
o Freedom – Also shows wrecklessness with that freedom


+ Discuss the meaning of the last page of the novel

Represents the time of the era and the dreams people have been having throughout the book. The dreams hold infinite possibilities until they come in contact with time and events in the time.



• Gatsby attended Oxford: TRUE
• Tom was in WWI: FALSE
• George knew who Myrtle’s lover was: FALSE
• Gatsby first met Daisy in Louisville: TRUE
• Gatsby bought his father a house: TRUE

Chapter 9 Journal

Alot of reporters and such go to Gatsby's house and try to find out all the informaton about Gatsby's death. Nick decides he wants to set up a funeral for Gatsby and wants all his friends and family to come. Everyone Nick wnats to come to the funeral either turns it down or he can't find them. The only ones to be at Gatsby's funeral are Nick, Gatsby's father, some servants, and Owl Eyes. We learn a little about his father, and how Gatsby's bought him a house. Nick realizes how sick he is of where he is now, and decides he wants to move back to the west where he feels as though he belongs. He breaks up with Jordan when he hangs up on her cause she wanted to go out on a date with him, then she reveals to him that she's actually engaged now. Before Nick is about to leave, he finds Tom walking down the street. They chat for awhile, and Tom admits he told Wilson that it was Gatsby's car that hit Myrtle. This makes Nick really see the true side of Tom and Daisy and realizes they're self centered arrogant people. Nick goes over to Gatsby's mansion before he leaves back to Minnesota. He lays down staring at the moon light. He realizes that the people he's been hanging out with, are the ones who aren't his style.

Chapter 8 Journal

Nick is awakened by the sound of a taxi that has just dropped Gatsby off at his house. He gets up, and heads over there to see if anything is wrong. When he gets there the door is wide open, with Gatsby standing there, leaning against a table. He had been waiting for Daisy to come to the window is signal she was okay, but that didn't happen until about 4am. She went to the window and just turned out the light after standing there for about a minute. This marked the end to Daisy and Gatsby's secret relationship.
Nick noticed how big Gatsby's house truly was without all the party guests there day in and day out. They were searching for cigarettes in every room, and after awhile they found a dusty pack of them. Nick tells Gatsby that he should get out of town now that the police know it was him, or soon would be him. (Only because Tom couldn't blame it on Daisy) Gatsby wouldn't go until he knew what would happen between himself and Daisy in the future. He begins to tell Nick the story on how him and Daisy first met, and the relationship they built before he just left for war without telling her. She knew he was going to war, but he asked her to promise him that she'd wait for him until he returned, but she didn't. She married Tom because of their parents, and seeing how rich Tom was, she married him.
Gatsby's gardener comes up to him and tells him he needs to drain the pool so that the leaves don't clog up. Gatsby realizes he wasn't taken a swim in it at all, so he decides he finally wants too. As Nick is walking back towards his house, he turns around and lets Gatsby know that he is worth more than the Buchanan's and all his friends. Gatsby is Nick's best friend. The next day, Nick is so worried about everything, mostly the car accident. Jordan Baker calls him up, and Nick refuses the date she asks him out on. Seeing as how much Nick has fallen for Jordan through the entire book makes it seem weird that he would turn down a date she asked him on. Nick tries calling Gatsby, but it seems his line is busy the whole time. He finds out that Gatsby has been trying to keep the line open for a call from Detroit.
George Wilson has been sitting up all night, thinking about the tradgic event that has happened to his wife, Myrtle. Michealis has been sitting up with him all night. When dawn comes, Wilson is focused on the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg on the billboard. He feels as though they are the eyes of God, and that God is telling him to track down Myrtle's killer. He finds Tom one day, and Tom tells him who Myrtle's 'secret' lover is, he tells him Gatsby.
Wilson heads over to Gatsby' house, and finds him floating on a mattress in the pool, shoots him, and then shoots himself, each dying instantly. Nick returns back to his house, and finds Gatsby floating in the pool dead. He feels the emptiness in his heart for Gatsby.

Symbols: Green light, T.J. Eckleburg, Gun, Death