Gatsby Chapter One
- Created by: Emma
- Created on: 28-03-14 19:03
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- Gatsby Chapter One
- What happens?
- Nick's reflections on himself and his upbringing + setting of scene
- Dinner with Tom and Daisy - Tom's first phone call and Jordan is introduced
- Nick arrives home and sees Gatsby for first time reaching out to green light
- Analysis
- In East Egg, alluring appearances cover unattractive realities
- Daisy and Tom's marriage seemes menaced by a quiet desperation beneath pleasant surface
- Tom going off to telephone and yet Daisy doesn't seem to question it
- Jordan furthers sense of sophisticated fatigue hanging over East Egg: her cynicism, boredom and dishonesty are at sharp odds with her wealth and beauty
- Jordan's surface glamour covers an inner emptiness, just like the marriage of the Buchanans
- She speaks to Nick 'contemptuously', 'yawned' when speaking, the glance between Nick and Jordan is 'devoid of meaning' just like the lives led by the Buchanans and Gatsby's parties
- Daisy and Tom's marriage seemes menaced by a quiet desperation beneath pleasant surface
- Gatsby is in stark contrast to the citizens of East Egg
- Inner yearning visible in Gatsby's posture when reaching for green light and emotional surrender to it contrast entirely with the emptiness of Nick's experience at the Buchanan's
- 'trembling', 'content to be alone' is ironic as he yearns for Daisy
- He is mysterious to Nich who does not know his motives, the source of his wealth, his history or the object for which he yearns, Daisy.
- Inner yearning visible in Gatsby's posture when reaching for green light and emotional surrender to it contrast entirely with the emptiness of Nick's experience at the Buchanan's
- Geography and Social Values
- East Egg
- Represents breeding, taste, aristocracy and leisure
- Associated with Buchanans and monotony of their inherited social position
- Represents breeding, taste, aristocracy and leisure
- West Egg
- Represents ostentation, garishness and flashy manners of the nouveau riche
- Associated with Gatsby's gaudy mansion and inner drive behind his self-made fortune
- Represents ostentation, garishness and flashy manners of the nouveau riche
- East Egg
- In East Egg, alluring appearances cover unattractive realities
- How to attempt Exam Question
- Nick Carraway
- Unreliable
- Nick is established as a nearly invisible character seeing everything but 'inclined to reserve all judgements'
- Later in chapter after Nick's self-evaluation, Fitzgerald creates irony from Nick saying 'a sense of fundamental decencies is parcelled out at birth' This is a contradiction
- How does this help Fitzgerald to further or deepen the narrative?
- Causes the reader to thoroughly consider everything they read, primarily to decide whether it is the truth or not, but they are also unconsciously making a judgement on the morality of the actions which is what Fitzgerald intended by writing the novel
- This fits his narrative purpose as one reason for writing the novel was to expose the corruption of the American Dream
- Causes the reader to thoroughly consider everything they read, primarily to decide whether it is the truth or not, but they are also unconsciously making a judgement on the morality of the actions which is what Fitzgerald intended by writing the novel
- How does this help Fitzgerald to further or deepen the narrative?
- Later in chapter after Nick's self-evaluation, Fitzgerald creates irony from Nick saying 'a sense of fundamental decencies is parcelled out at birth' This is a contradiction
- Self-aware
- 'Only Gatsby, the man who gave his name to this book'
- Nick is self-aware that people will read the book
- This is important as Fitzgerald requires that Nick is aware that others will read the book and therefore the bias of his character will be noticeable
- Nick is self-aware that people will read the book
- 'Only Gatsby, the man who gave his name to this book'
- Nick is established as a nearly invisible character seeing everything but 'inclined to reserve all judgements'
- Self-aware
- 'Only Gatsby, the man who gave his name to this book'
- Nick is self-aware that people will read the book
- This is important as Fitzgerald requires that Nick is aware that others will read the book and therefore the bias of his character will be noticeable
- Nick is self-aware that people will read the book
- 'Only Gatsby, the man who gave his name to this book'
- Unreliable
- Settings of East Egg and West Egg
- There is an irony in the naming of these two locations as the word 'egg' suggests new life and beginnings, associated with the American Dream. Yet they are simply concrete
- The cold, harsh reality of this reflects the impossibility of the American Dream as this also turns out to be something as brutally grey as concrete
- There is an irony in the naming of these two locations as the word 'egg' suggests new life and beginnings, associated with the American Dream. Yet they are simply concrete
- Nick Carraway
- What happens?
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