The Great Gatsby Chapter one

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  • The Great Gatsby, Chapter one
    • Summary
      • introduced to narrator and character Nick
        • comments on that he learnt from his father to reserve judgement; says Gatsby represents everything he scorns but Gatsby is 'gorgeous'
        • Nick moves to west egg 1922, goes to visit tom and Daisy in east egg
        • introduced to Jordan, find out Tom has a girlfriend. see Gatsby at end of chapter standing looking out towards a green light.
    • Opening on the novel shows certain contradictions in Nicks character
      • Views himself as tolerable and nonjudgmental but also morally privileged with a better sense of 'decencies' than most.
    • Nick admires Gatsby and sees him as an exception from the start.
      • Gatsby is a challenge to Nick's natural ways of thinking about the world and his struggle to come to terms with this inflects in the novel.
    • In East egg, alluring appearances  seem to cover darker depths
      • Tom and Daisy have everything so should have a perfect marriage but are troubled by dishonesty and desperation.
    • Daisy shows her shallowness by saying she hopes her daughter is a fool as the best thing a woman can be is a beautiful fool.
    • Jordan also represents the shallow dark sophistication that hangs over east egg
      • cynicism, boredom and dishonesty underlie her beauty and wealth.
        • Her glamorous surface covers her empty internal.
    • Seeing Gatsby yearn towards the green light and his visible emotional surrender towards it makes him contrast to the sarcastic ignorance of east egg inhabitants.
    • Relationship between location and social value
      • Each area in the novel links with a certain idea of character type.
      • East Egg represents breeding aristocracy 'old money' taste and leisure
      • West egg represents garishness, flashy manners and 'new money'

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