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