Great Gatsby Questions
The Great Gatsby Study Guide
Chapter 1
1. Explain what Fitzgerald achieved by using Nick’s point of view to tell Gatsby’s story? He achieves a wider look at things.
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2. What do we learn about Nick Carraway in the introductory section of the novel? He is upper middle class and went to college.
3. In discussing East Egg and West Egg, Nick states, “To the wingless a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size. ” Indicate what the dissimilarities” Attitude, east egg is traditional; west egg is the new rich.
4. might be. Compare the homes of Nick, Gatsby and the Buchanans. How does each home reflect the personality of its owners? Nick is not flashy and small; Gatsby is a show off of his big home and throws his money around. They just want to fit in. They are classic.
5. Fitzgerald’s description of Tom, Daisy, and Jordan creates not only an impression of physical appearance, but also contains added information. What do you learn about their history and interests, and from their gestures and mannerisms? Tom tends to be a show off and shows what he has. Daisy is a manipulated and whispers so people can bend close. Jordan plays golf and athletic and tom boy and very independent and not married and command’s attention.
6. When Nick leaves the Buchanan’s house, he is “confused and a little disgusted. ” Why? What does this suggest about his values? Because he knows Tom’s a player. He values. Friendship and people.
7. Though we do not meet Gatsby until Chapter 3, we hear references to him in the conversations of others. Note each reference. What impression do you get? Snobby, stuck up, and flounder’s his money.
Chapter 2
1. I what way is the description in the opening paragraphs of Chapter 2 appropriate to the total atmosphere of this chapter? What is symbolic about the “valley of ashes” and “the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg”? Void if life, depressing. (Grey) Lack of life.
2. Evaluate Myrtle’s talk of her unhappy marriage. What does she seem to be trying to justify? How she is unhappy with her husband.
3. How does Myrtle’s speech reveal her character? She wants to play the victim.
4. What does the scene in this New York apartment reveal about Tom? About Myrtle? He does not care and slaps myrtle. She is desperate.
5. Does Nick enjoy the afternoon at the apartment in New York? Why or why not? No, because of the incident between Tom and Myrtle.
Chapter 3
1. Chapter 3 describes Gatsby’s “little party”. Enumerate details about the party itself, about the guests and about their conversation and behavior. He has caters, replaces dresses, has a buffet, serves two dinners.
2. Describe the meeting between Nick and Gatsby. Comment on Fitzgerald’s skill in preparing for Gatsby’s entrance into the story. Very, Awkward. He uses hints.
3. In what way are Nick and Gatsby similar at this point? Why are they paradoxical? He sounds just like Nick and have things in common. Had a normal conversation.
4. What is the reason for Nick’s breaking the story at this point?
Read the section beginning with “Reading over what I have written so far . . . ” Proving that his normal. They are very similar
5. At the end of Chapter 3, Nick meets Jordan again. The author includes several episodes that emphasize her carelessness and basic dishonesty. Discuss these instances. What do they reveal about Jordan? About Nick?
6. Notice the last paragraph in Chapter 3. Is Nick being overly proud here? Discuss. He is thinking too much of himself, and not of others.
Chapter 4
1. The introductory section of Chapter 4 gives a long roster of those who attended Gatsby’s parties. How do they behave toward their host? Why, then, do they accept his hospitality? They go to use Gatsby.
2. Describe Gatsby’s car? It’s a cream color, Bright with nickel.
3. Discuss the details that Gatsby shares with Nick about his past. He was in the war, and his family had passed away. He traveled to the big cities. He won a medal from war.
4. Does Nick believe Gatsby’s story? Why or why not? No, because things don’t match up. Because Gatsby carries a picture and a medal.
5. Who is Meyer Wolfsheim? What seems to be his connection with Gatsby? He is Gatsby Acquaintance. Because they’re both business associates.
6. Jordan Baker tells Nick about Daisy, Gatsby, and Tom. Summarize the story. When daisy meets a guy named Jay Gatsby who is a soldier and is engaged but he goes to war and she ends up and leaves the house and she gets caught but doesn’t speck her parents and still goes out with no soldiers. Gets engaged in February and marries. The night be for her wedding she gets smashed and gets drunk and throws away her pearls from tom then they take her a cold bath and make her hurry downstairs.
7. Explain the epigraph on the title page of the novel. What does it reveal about Gatsby and his love for Daisy? He is willing to do anything for daisy.
8. Do we know why Gatsby has so many parties? Why did he buy the house? Explain. For daisy because he likes her. He wants for daisy to show up.
9. What new meaning do you see in the last two paragraphs of Chapter 1? What does Nick mean when he says, “Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night”? He is trying to reach out for her. He is talking about daisy.
10. When Gatsby spoke to Jordan in his library in Chapter 3, he had devised a plan involving Nick. What was it?
Why did he not ask Nick directly? Because wanted nick to invite daisy to nicks and Gatsby would show up to nicks house.
Chapter 5
1. Gatsby’s actions in preparing for Daisy’s arrival seem both flamboyant and absurd. What does he do? Why? He’s trembling and his hands are just weighed into his pockets.
2. Discuss Gatsby’s actions once Daisy arrives. How do we know he is nervous? How does he try to impress her? He shows his house.
3. Toward the end of the chapter, Nick attempts to explain “the expression of bewilderment that had come back into Gatsby’s face. ” What explanation does Nick give? Why, in his opinion, is daisy not at fault? He has been building this up and now he has achieved his goal. Because he built her up too much.
4. Describe Daisy’s reactions during the course of her meeting with Gatsby. She’s so emotional.
5. Has Nick been affected by the meeting between Gatsby and Daisy? In what way? Yes, because he was disappointed for Gatsby.
Chapter 6
1. What was Gatsby’s real name? Why and when had he changed it? James Gatz. He changed it at the age of 17 he changed it because of Dan cody.
2. In what way was Dan Cody involved in Gatsby’s destiny?
3. Why does Tom attend Gatsby’s party?
How does this scene reveal that contrast between Gatsby and Tom? Because he was asked to and to keep an eye on his wife and he wants to know more about Gatsby. Gatsby is generous and Tom is not.
4. What is deeply ironic in Tom’s statement, “. . . I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me”? He is a hypocrite.
5. Note the reactions of Tom and Daisy at different times during Gatsby’s party. Did they enjoy themselves? Explain. No, Tom did not enjoy himself and Daisy only liked the actress under the tree.
6. What suspicions does Tom have about Gatsby? What does he vow to do? His past where he got his money because thinks he’s a bootlegger. He will find out the truth about Gatsby and everything about Gatsby.
7. What do Nick and Gatsby talk about after the party? How daisy didn’t like it.
8. What is Gatsby expecting of Daisy that prompts Nick to warn him, “I wouldn’t ask too much of her . . . You can’t repeat the past”? For Daisy to tell Tom that she does not love him.
Chapter 7
1. Note the use Fitzgerald makes of the weather as a background for significant events. Point out examples in this chapter and in previous chapters. It’s hot boiling. Points out its hot “It’s Hot” said by Daisy.
2. Gatsby has made some changes in his lifestyle that so concerned Nick that he went to check on him. What changes do you note? Why did he make them? The staff was fired and he rehired new people except the gardener because daisy did not see him. To make it all about Daisy.
3. Analyze daisy’s attitude toward her child as evidenced in this chapter and in Chapter 1. Is she a good mother? Explain why Gatsby looked “at the child with surprise. ” She agreed to stay with her husband for her child. He didn’t think she was the women she was 5 years ago and the baby can‘t go away
4. With whom does Tom talk on the telephone early in the chapter? About what? George about the car deal.
5. What startling discovery does Tom make shortly after lunch? Daisy’s affair
6. What does Gatsby mean when he says that Daisy’s voice is “full of money”? Why does Fitzgerald put those words in Gatsby’s mouth and not Nick’s? She has changed. It’s a way of Gatsby way of growing up.
7. What arrangements are made regarding the passengers of each car on the trip to the city? Why? Tom, Jordan, Nick take the yellow car.
Daisy and Gatsby ride in the white coupe. Tom had a plan going on.
8. Eyes play a significant role in this chapter. Explain. Gods watching you and watches everything.
9. Explain Nick’s statement paralleling Tom and Wilson. “. . . it occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well. ” Refer to the text and explain what prompted Nick to say this. The both discovered that there wife’s are having affairs.
10. What does Gatsby do that makes Nick want “to get up and slap him on the back”? Why does Nick feel this way? Because he said that he wife does not love him.
11. Does Daisy know what love is? Whom does she really love? No. She loves Gatsby but Really loves Tom.
12. In what way is each of the main characters involved in the tragedy that occurs at the end of this chapter?
13. Is there any significance in the fact that the day is Nick’s birthday? Nick sees his 30th birthday as a significant entrance into a world of “loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning briefcase of enthusiasm, thinning hair. ”
14. Why is it necessary for the author to introduce a new character, Michaelis, at this point in the novel?
15. Explain what Nick means when he says, “. . . suddenly I guessed at the truth”?
16. At the end of Chapter 7 Nick observes Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy after the accident. What conclusions does he reach? After observing Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy after the accident at the end of chapter 7 of the Great Gatsby, Nick comes to the conclusion that Myrtle must have been hit by Gatsby and Daisy, driving back from the city in Gatsby’s big yellow automobile.
17. Explain the last paragraph of Chapter 7.
Before the trip into the city and the accident, Gatsby was convinced that Daisy was in love with him and would without a doubt leave Tom for him. When he watches Daisy and Tom in the kitchen, the reality of the situation is starting to hit him. Ever since he and Daisy fell apart when she married Tom, he has entirely devoted his life to acquiring wealth to impress Daisy and when her back. He has devoted his whole life and heart to this woman, and so as he watches her slipping away from him again, he knows nothing more than to return to his vigil over the woman that has controlled his life.
Chapter 8
1. At the beginning of the chapter, the story is interrupted at its most dramatic point. What is the author’s purpose in breaking the story here? He had known what he was doing all along and justified his attentions.
2. What had prompted Gatsby to talk freely to Nick now, when he was unwilling to do so in the past?
3. What further information do we learn about Gatsby? He loved Daisy and wrote her.
4. As Nick leaves Gatsby the morning after the accident, he remarks, “They’re a rotten crowd. ” Enumerate the people “they” refers to. Why are they “rotten”?
He refers to Tom, Daisy. Because they are hypocrites, Liars.
5. What is the compliment that Nick pays to Gatsby? Why does Nick feel compelled to commend Gatsby? He only complimented them only once. He really wanted to give him a push.
6. Explain Nick’s meaning when he balances Gatsby’s supposed “corruption” against his “incorruptible dream”. Nick means that Gatsby used an illegal and corrupt way of obtaining money all in the name of a pure uncorrupted dream of starting a life with the love of his life, Daisy.
7. How does Wilson view the “eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg”? Does Wilson’s statement have a symbolic level for the novel as a whole? Explain. They are the eyes of god. God is watching you.
8. Trace the movements of Gatsby and Wilson at the end of Chapter 8. What Nick’s meaning when he says, “. . . the holocaust was complete”? When George dies it’s the end of the Holocaust.
Chapter 9
1. What makes Nick assume responsibility for the funeral arrangements? Specify the things he did. Because nobody comes thru. Calling people for the funeral. Trying to find Gatsby father to be there and getting Daisy to be there as well.
2. What version of the tragedy appeared in the newspapers? How would your account for the fact that this version went unchallenged and uncorrected? Portraying George was crazy.3. Hos had Gatsby’s father learned of the tragedy? To what extent does the father know his son? The papers. That he was proud of his son he knows him as a figure not as a son.
4. Discuss the significance of Gatsby’s boyhood program for self-improvement? It got him to change himself.
5. What is the irony of Gatsby’s funeral? How nobody shows up to a funeral but to a party people showed up.
6. What is the significance of including the scene with Jordan Baker? Jordan’s scene drives apart her relationship with Nick
7. What moral judgment does Nick make about Tom and Daisy? Discuss. The moral judgment that Nick makes regarding Tom and Daisy is that they are self-centered people who do not care whose lives they hurt as long they continue to have their luxurious lives.
8. Explain the significance of the last page of the novel in relation to Gatsby’s dream and the American Dream. Nick's reflections at the end of Chapter Nine of The Great Gatsby bring the motif of geography to a conclusion as Nick philosophizes that the story of Gatsby is conclusively a story...
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