Chapters13ofTheGreatGatsbyDiscussionQuestionsVocabQuizzesFREE-1

Dear fellow teacher,
Thank you for downloading this FREE resource on

Chapters 1-3 of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Feel free to use this resource for your own
teaching and personal purposes year after year!
This 60-page resource is excerpted from a 240-

page Complete Unit on The Great Gatsby. If you
like this resource on Chapters 1-3, you’ll LOVE the
Complete Unit on all 9 chapters of Gatsby!!
Please don’t hesitate to get in

touch if there’s
anything I can do
to support your amazing work in
the classroom with The Great
Gatsby.
Happy teaching,
Adam Jernigan (a.k.a. Rigorous Resources)

[email protected]
P.S. Click “follow” to receive email updates on

new products from Rigorous Resources. New
products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!
Table of Contents
1. Lesson Format & Pacing Guide . . . .

4
2. Discussion Question Handouts (Chapters 1-3) . .
7
3. Discussion Question Answer Keys!! (Chapters 1-3) .
18
4. Character Analysis Worksheets (Chapters 1-3) . .
56
5. Figurative Language Glossary . . . . . 62
6. Figurative Language Quizzes (Chapters 1-3 + Key) .

. 63
7. Vocabulary Lists (Chapters 1-3) . . . . .
67
8. Vocab & Reading Quizzes (Chapters 1-3 + Keys) .
. 70
Lesson Format
Suggested Lesson Procedure:
1. Vocab & Reading Quiz (5 min.): Begin each class by having students
complete a quick Vocab & Reading Quiz. The quiz holds students
accountable for completing the nightly reading homework. If students have
completed the homework, they should have very little trouble earning quiz
grades of 100%. After a few days, most students will embrace these quizzes
as an opportunity to raise their grades!
2. Discussion Questions (5 min.): Pass out the list of discussion questions

and have every student devote five minutes to reading and annotating the
questions.1 Whereas the quiz had assessed factual recall, the discussion
questions challenge students to engage in close reading and thoughtful
interpretation. Use positive narration to compliment the first few students
who begin writing down their ideas and interpretations in the margins. The
other students will be quick to follow!
3. Small Group Discussions (5 min.): Ask every student to put a circle

around the section of questions that they find most interesting. (Each list
of discussion questions is divided into 4 sections marked off by roman
numerals). Direct the students who circled each of the 4 sections to form a
small group in each of the 4 corners of the classroom. Once every student
has joined a small group, you’ll want to circulate in order to ensure that all
groups remain engaged. Every corner of the classroom should be occupied
by a small group of students sitting in a circle and holding a vibrant
discussion of the questions they find most interesting!
4. Whole Class Discussion (30–40 min.): Have students return to their

original seats in order to hold a class-wide discussion of the chapters they
read for homework. Begin by inviting the members of one or two small
groups to share the insights generated in their small-group discussions.
Then allow the exchange to unfold into a more open-ended, student-driven
discussion. Invite the class to move beyond the discussion questions by
identifying other textual details that they found significant — or by sharing
their own interpretive questions!
5. Quick Write (5 min.): Invite students to pause and reflect on the text in
writing. You can introduce a Quick Write at any point in the discussion, and
it can serve a number of different purposes. For example, a Quick Write can
be used to let students capture and refine the best ideas generated in
discussion. Or it can be used to have students reflect upon a question that
has not received due attention in discussion. A Quick Write can also be
1
Alternatively, you could take screenshots of the questions that you want your students to address
and project those questions onto the board. Every teacher has different strategies for making
literary texts come alive for students. Feel free to use the questions in this bundle to suit your own
purpose!
used to allow reticent students to collect their thoughts in hopes that they’ll
feel ready and eager to contribute.
Thanks!
Adam Jernigan
Pacing Guide
Suggested pacing of daily classwork & nightly homework:
Day 1: Slideshow on F. Scott Fitzgerald + Read & discuss the

Preamble
Night 1: Read & annotate chapter 1; study vocab for chapter 1
Day 2: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Symbolic Settings

Worksheet
Day 3: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Character Analysis

Night 3: Read & annotate chapter 3; study vocab for chapter 3; study
Figurative Language Glossary
Day 4: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Figurative

Language Quiz #1
Day 5: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + New Money vs. Old

Money Worksheet


Language Quiz #2
Night 7: Creative Writing Assignment
Day 8: Creative Writing Assignment

Night 8: Creative Writing Assignment



Language Quiz #3
Night 12: Read & annotate the Poetry Packet
Day 13: Poetry Classroom Packet + Sound Devices Exercise +

Quotation Race Worksheets
Night 13: Color Symbolism Exercise + Topic for Analytical Writing
Assignment
Days 14-20: Analytical Writing Assignment

Nights 14-20: Analytical Writing Assignment
Sample Homework Posting:
Your homework is to read and annotate

Chapter 1 of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The
Great Gatsby (1925). Remember that annotating
a literary text means more than just underlining
or highlighting significant passages. In addition,
you should use the margins of the book to engage
with the text in an inquisitive and thoughtful
manner: by summarizing major plot
developments, unpacking charged diction or
figurative language, noticing connections
between different passages, asking interpretive
questions, and so on.
You should also study the list of vocabulary
words from Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby.
While you do not need to memorize the
definitions of words verbatim, you should
understand the meaning of each word and be able to use it correctly in an
original sentence.
We will discuss Chapter 1 in class tomorrow. I look forward to learning
from your interpretive insights and thought-provoking questions!
The page numbers in this unit
correspond with the page
numbers in the Scribner
edition of The Great Gatsby
— the only authorized edition of
The Preamble: Read Aloud & Unpack
Paragraphs 1-3 (“In my younger and more vulnerable years…”)

• What do you make of the advice that the narrator’s father gives to him?
How has the father’s advice influenced the narrator’s personality?
• How might the narrator’s personality traits make him well-suited to be

the narrator of this novel?
• Do you notice any contradictions in how the narrator presents himself?
Paragraph 4 (“And, after boasting this way of my tolerance…”)

• What does the narrator mean when he asserts, “When I came back from
the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a
sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with
privileged glimpses into the human heart” (2)?
• …And what does the narrator mean when he declares, “Only Gatsby, the
man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction
— Gatsby, who represents everything for which I have an unaffected scorn”
(2)?
Paragraphs 5-6 (“My family have been prominent, well-to-do

people…”)
• In paragraphs 5 and 6, the narrator provides readers with a brief
summary of his life before explaining how he ended up traveling to New
York in 1922. When telling the story of his life, what information does the
narrator begin with? More generally, what type of information does he
prioritize?
• Nick reports that the “founder” of his lineage was a great-uncle who
came to the U.S. in 1851 and started a “wholesale hardware business” (3).
Nick also reports that his great-uncle “sent a substitute to the Civil War”
(3). What might those details reveal about the source of the Carraway
family’s wealth? How might such details be connected to the theme of
“moral attention”?
• What does the narrator mean when he asserts that he “graduated from
New Haven” (3)? Why might he avoid using the actual name of the
university? Why might the narrator mention that he graduated “just a
quarter of a century after my father” (3)?
Paragraphs 7-10 (“The practical thing was to find some rooms in the
city…”)
• In paragraphs 7-10, the narrator describes his arrival and early
experiences in New York. Why does the narrator feel so proud when he’s
able to give directions to a man who is “more recently arrived” (4)? How
might the experience confer upon him the “freedom of the neighborhood”
(4)?
• How might Nick’s status as a newcomer who has begun to find his
bearings in New York influence his capacity as a narrator?
• How might the theme of “arrival” operate metaphorically in Fitzgerald’s

novel? What is an “arriviste”? How are people who have newly arrived into
wealth sometimes treated by people who have been wealthy for a long
time?
Name: ________________________
Discussion Questions
Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby
I. Tom & Daisy Buchanan: First

Impressions
1. When Nick Carraway travels to East Egg to

visit Tom and Daisy Buchanan, he is given a
tour of the Buchanans’ house by Tom
Buchanan. How does Tom conduct this house
tour? What do Tom’s words about his house —
or his treatment of his guest — reveal about
his personality? How might Tom embody a
certain type of masculinity?
2. When readers are introduced to Daisy

Buchanan, she is described as reclining on a
couch in the middle of a room where a breeze
blows in from the windows, causing the
curtains and the women’s dresses to flutter
freely. How might Fitzgerald’s description of this room contribute to his
portrait of the main female character, Daisy Buchanan? How do literary
devices like imagery and figurative language “Inside the crimson room bloomed
contribute to the characterization of Daisy? with light. Tom and Miss Baker sat
at either end of the long couch and
Finally, does Tom’s act of shutting the she read aloud to him from The
windows reveal anything about how Tom’s Saturday Evening Post” (17).
personality differs from Daisy personality?
II. Tom Buchanan: White Supremacist?
3. After the guests sit down for dinner on the Buchanans’ porch, Tom
Buchanan announces that he’s been reading a book called “‘The Rise of the
Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard” (12). Anyone
reading The Great Gatsby in the 1920s would have
recognized the book that Tom is reading as a thinly veiled
reference to an actual book: Lothrop Stoddard’s The
Rising Tide of Color: The Threat Against White World-
Supremacy (1920). Stoddard’s book incited a wave of
racism and xenophobia that swept through the U.S. in the
1920s. Widespread anti-immigrant sentiment led to the
passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, which restricted
immigration from African countries and banned all
immigration from Asian countries. What does Tom’s
fondness for this book reveal about his personality? Why might Tom feel
threatened by the alleged “rise” of the “colored empires” (12)? How are
readers of Fitzgerald’s novel supposed to feel about Tom’s enthusiasm for
Goddard’s book?
4. How does Daisy Buchanan respond when Tom announces that he has
been reading Goddard’s The Rise of the Colored Empires? How does Daisy
respond when Tom expresses his concern that the “rise” of the “colored
empires” is going to leave white people “utterly submerged” (13)? Does
Daisy share her husband’s racist and xenophobic worldview? What
evidence supports your answer?
III. Daisy Buchanan: Liberated or Trapped?
5. At various moments in Chapter 1, Nick attempts to describe the

mysterious quality of Daisy’s “low, thrilling voice” (9). What qualities is
Nick able to identify in Daisy’s voice? Is Nick able to provide a satisfactory
account of why Daisy’s voice is so enchanting? Why or why not? What
might Daisy’s voice reveal about her personality?
6. The dinner party on the Buchanans’ back porch gets interrupted by the
ringing of a telephone inside the house. Who is the caller? How does the
call affect each character’s mood? When the phone rings for a second time
and Tom goes inside, Daisy escorts Nick to the front porch where they can
have a private conversation. Does the tone of Daisy’s voice change when
she is talking with Nick in private? Describing herself as having become
“pretty cynical about everything,” Daisy recalls that, when she woke up
from the ether after giving birth to her first child, she was surprised to find
that Tom “was God knows where” — and she was overcome by an “utterly
abandoned feeling” (17). Why wasn’t Tom present for the birth of their
child? Where might he have gone? What do these scenes reveal about Tom,
Daisy, and the Buchanans’ marriage?
7. After Daisy gives birth to a child, the first question she asks is whether
“it was a boy or a girl” (17). When the nurse informs Daisy that her child is
a girl, Daisy exclaims, “All right, […] I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be
a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little
fool” (17). Why might Daisy hope that her little girl will be a “fool”? Why
does she assert that a “beautiful little fool” is the “best thing” a girl can be
“in this world”? What might Daisy know about “this world” that leads her to
arrive at such a conclusion?
IV. Gatsby: Man of Mystery?
8. In the chapter’s last two paragraphs, Nick glimpses “a figure” whom he

describes as having “emerged from the shadow
of my neighbor’s mansion” (20). Yet if this figure
can be said to appear rather suddenly, he also
disappears suddenly. For after Nick glances at
the water and sees nothing but a green light in
the distance, he looks back to find that Gatsby
has vanished: “When I looked once more for
Gatsby he had vanished” (21). Why might
Fitzgerald choose to associate Gatsby with
words like “figure,” “shadow,” and “vanish”?
What connotations are suggested by those
words? How, for instance, does “vanish” differ
from synonyms like “depart” or “disappear”?
9. Jay Gatsby is described as having a “heightened sensitivity to the
promises of life” (2). Daisy Buchanan is described as looking at others in a
manner as if to suggest she were “promising that there was no one in the
world she so much wanted to see” (9). Daisy’s voice is described as
carrying a “promise that […] there were gay, exciting things hovering in the
next hour” (9). What do you make of the repetition of the word “promise”
across these sentences? How might Fitzgerald be using these characters to
reflect upon the “promise” associated with the Sam Wolfe Connelly’s
American Dream — and the notion that America illustration for The Great Gatsby
is a land of equality and opportunity? (London: The Folio Society,
2013).
V. Modern America: Restlessness & Romantic Promises
10. Nick Carraway observes that after he returned home from the First
World War, he experienced a feeling of “restless[ness]” that propelled him
to relocate to New York City (3). He describes Tom and Daisy as being
similarly afflicted by restlessness: “They […] drifted here and there
unrestfully” (6). Why are so many of the characters in this novel described
as being afflicted by nervous restlessness? How might the experience of
being a soldier in World War I have generated a feeling of restlessness?
How might the conditions of life in the modern age — the proliferation of
fast cars, electric lights, movie theaters, and telephones — have
exacerbated this feeling of restlessness?
Name: ________________________
Quick Write
Directions: Choose one question from the handout of discussion questions.

Answer that question by making a paragraph-length argument. Open your
argument by making a claim that contains your answer to the question.
Then substantiate your claim by presenting textual evidence in the form of
at least two quotations. Each quotation should be followed by two
sentences of analysis in which you unpack the significance of diction,
syntax, imagery, figurative language, tone, etc.
Question #______
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
I. The Periphery of Poverty
1. Although the setting for Chapter 1 was the wealthy residential

neighborhood of East Egg, the setting for Chapter 2 is an impoverished
area called the “valley of ashes” (23). How does the narrator describe the
valley of ashes? How do imagery and figurative language contribute to the
portrayal of this geographical area?
2. As Nick is riding on a train through the valley of ashes, he looks out the
window and perceives a billboard advertisement featuring the enormous
“eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg”
(23). This large advertisement is
described as having been installed
by an optician who sought “to
fatten his practice” (24). In the
pre-modern era, before the
invention of billboards, what might
a pair of enormous eyes peering
down over humanity have
symbolized? Why might Fitzgerald
choose to position such a symbol
above an ash-covered industrial
“waste land” where working-class people like the Wilsons are forced to live
and work (24)? How might Fitzgerald use the billboard advertisement to
deliver a subtle message about life in the modern age?
II. Myrtle Wilson
3. While Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson are

riding in a taxi through the streets of New York
City, Myrtle taps on the window and asserts, “I
want to get one of those dogs” (27). So the taxi
stops next to a salesman who is carrying a basket
filled with “a dozen very recent puppies of an
indeterminate breed” (27). After Myrtle asks
whether the salesman has any “police dogs,” the
salesman pulls a brown dog out of his basket and
holds it up — provoking Tom to exclaim, “That’s no
police dog” (27). What might Tom’s comment about the dog’s breed reveal
about his values? When the salesman places the puppy into Myrtle’s lap,
she asks, “Is it a boy or a girl?” (28). Does Myrtle’s question remind you of
any previous scenes from the novel? How might the parallel be significant?
4. The magazines on Myrtle Wilson’s coffee table reveal a lot about her
interests and values. They include tabloid magazines like “Town Tattle” and
several “scandal magazines of Broadway” (29). Can you name any modern-
day magazines that would be the equivalent of Town Tattle? What do these
magazines reveal about Myrtle’s aesthetic tastes? What do they reveal
about her class position?
III: Do the Clothes Make the Man?
5. Beginning in Chapter 2, the clothing worn by various characters

becomes an important theme in The Great Gatsby. What clothing does
Myrtle Wilson wear in this chapter? How do Myrtle’s clothes influence how
she behaves?
6. In addition to choosing her clothing with care, Myrtle pays close

attention to the clothes that other characters are wearing. When she first
meets Tom Buchanan, what does she notice about him? What does Myrtle
remember about her wedding to George Wilson? What might these
memories reveal about Myrtle’s values?
IV. Tom Buchanan: The Affair
7. Do Tom and Myrtle share the same

understanding of the nature of their relationship?
First, does Tom want a permanent relationship
with Myrtle? Or does he merely view her as a
temporary expedient for his sexual appetites?
Second, does Myrtle believe that her relationship
with Tom will amount to a permanent ticket into
his world of wealth? Or is she merely exploiting
him in order to satisfy her material
acquisitiveness? Finally, given your answers to
the questions above, who would you describe as
holding the power in their relationship? Who is
taking the most advantage of whom?
8. What do you make of Tom Buchanan’s assertion, as reported by Myrtle’s

sister, Catherine, that he is unable to divorce Daisy because “his wife [is]
keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic, and they “Her husband, among various
don’t believe in divorce” (33)? If Tom doesn’t physical accomplishments,
had been one of the most
intend to divorce Daisy and marry Myrtle, why powerful ends that ever
played football at New Haven
— a natinoal figure in a way,
would he decide to flaunt his affair with Myrtle by “turn[ing] up in popular
restaurants with her and […] chatting with whomever he knew” (24)? What
do Tom’s words and actions reveal about his personality?
Name: ________________________
Quick Write

Question #______
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
I. The Ambiance at Gatsby’s Party
1. How does the narrator describe the ambiance at

Gatsby’s party? How do the guests comport
themselves? How might the party be related to the
painting that Fitzgerald chose for the cover of The
Great Gatsby? Finally, how does the party that Gatsby
hosts in Chapter 3 differ from the dinner party that
the Buchanans hosted in Chapter 1?
2. Jordan Baker arrives at Gatsby’s party with a group

of “three married couples” who live in East Egg (44).
How do the people from East Egg comport themselves
at Gatsby’s party in West Egg? Do they engage in the
same behavior as everyone else? Why or why not?
Image of a 1920s party from
What might their behavior reveal about relations Lonnie Lehman’s Fashion in
between East Egg and West Egg? the Time of The Great
Gatsby (Shire Publications,
II. Encountering Gatsby
3. It is not until the third chapter that the narrator meets the title character
of The Great Gatsby. When they do finally meet, Nick is initially unaware
that the person he’s talking to is Gatsby. Why might the author wait so long
to introduce the title character? Shortly after Nick meets his neighbor,
Gatsby is ushered away to take a phone call: “Almost at the moment when
Mr. Gatsby identified himself, a butler hurried toward him with the
information that Chicago was calling him on the wire” (48). What is the
significance of Gatsby’s disappearance? Does it recall scenes from other
chapters?
4. At several moments Chapter 3, Nick portrays Gatsby as a solitary figure

frozen in a static tableau. In the middle of the party, Nick sees Gatsby
“standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another
with approving eyes” (50). And at the end of the party, Nick looks back and
observes that the “emptiness” of the house frames the host as a figure in
“complete isolation” (55). What do these two images of Gatsby have in
common? How do Nick’s memories of Gatsby serve to cast the title
character in a certain light?
Fitzgerald attended a party in 1923 at Clarence Mackay’s mansion, “Harbor Hill,” which is
located on Long Island and was built between 1899 and 1905. Harbor Hill may have provided
Fitzgerald with the source material for Gatsby’s mansion.
III. Gatsby’s Speaking & Reading Habits
5. From the moment of their first encounter, Gatsby begins to address Nick
with the chummy term, “old sport.” Gatsby repeats the term “old sport” five
times in this chapter (47, 48, 53). Yet Nick observes that Gatsby’s use of
this “familiar expression” seemed to hold “no more familiarity than the
hand which reassuringly brushed my shoulder” (53). What might Gatsby’s
attempt to invoke a “familiar expression” reveal about his character? And
what might Gatsby’s repeated use of this stock phrase reveal about his
character?
6. When Nick and Jordan enter Gatsby’s

library, a character named Owl Eyes is
amazed to find that the books in Gatsby’s
library are real: “Absolutely real — have
pages and everything” (45). What had Owl
Eyes expected to find? When he examines
the books more closely, Owl Eyes declares,
“Knew when to stop, too — didn’t cut the
pages” (46). What might the pages in
Gatsby’s books reveal about the purpose of
his library? Finally, why might Nick give the nickname “Owl Eyes” to this
character? How might this name be revealing?
Side view of a book with the pages left
IV. Mechanized Technologies: Machines & Automobiles
7. This chapter opens with an account of the extensive preparations that go

into Gatsby’s parties. For example, here is the narrator’s description of how
the juice gets prepared: “Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons
arrived from a fruiterer in New York — every Monday these same oranges
and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves. There was a
machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred
oranges in half an hour if a little button was pressed two hundred times by
a butler’s thumb” (39-40). What happens to human labor in this account of
how the juice gets made? What happens to the worker’s body? How might
the “machine” that processes hundreds of citrus fruits amount to a
metaphor for what happens at Gatsby’s parties?
8. As Nick is leaving Gatsby’s party, he

encounters an automobile — a “new
coupé” — that has veered into the ditch
and lost a wheel (53). When the driver
finally opens the door, he seems
incapable of comprehending that he
may have been responsible for driving
the car off the road. The driver
inquires, “Wha’s matter? […] Did we
run outa gas?” (54). He then admits, “At first I din’ notice we’d stopped”
(55). What might Fitzgerald be trying to suggest about how people living in
the 1920s were adapting to mechanized technology? Does he depict
humans as willing to shoulder the ethical responsibility that comes with
driving large cars? Why might Fitzgerald refer to the car’s detached tire as
an “amputated wheel” (55)?
Name: ________________________
Quick Write

Question #______
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
The Preamble: Read Aloud & Unpack — KEY

Note to Teachers: Whenever I begin a new novel in one of my
English classes, I invite the entire class to join me in reading the
first few pages aloud together. This can be done in the last 15
minutes of class before students will read the first chapter for
homework; or it can be done in the first 15 minutes of class after
students have finished reading the first chapter for homework.
I volunteer myself to read the first three paragraphs aloud, then I

ask for student volunteers to read each subsequent paragraph. After
finishing every few paragraphs, we pause to unpack significant
details: charged diction, characterization, themes, etc. The
experience of reading the first few pages aloud together enables the
entire class to achieve a shared understanding of the novel’s tone,
setting, narrator, central themes, etc.
Should you choose to use this method, I have included a few

questions that you might ask to help students dig into the details
that are most significant in the first 10 paragraphs of The Great
Gatsby. If you want this experience to include Fitzgerald’s
preliminary descriptions of West Egg and East Egg, then you might
read the first 15 paragraphs.
Scholars refer to the first 15 paragraphs of The Great Gatsby as the

novel’s “preamble” because these paragraphs introduce readers to
the narrator, provide information about the narrator’s background,
and explain why the narrator travelled to New York City in the
Spring of 1922. The preamble also introduces certain themes whose
significance will only become clear in later chapters.…
Paragraphs 1-3 (“In my younger and more vulnerable years…”)
• What do you make of the advice that the narrator’s father gives to him?
How has the father’s advice influenced the narrator’s personality?
The narrator’s father encourages him to always remember “the

advantages that [he’s] had,” and to avoid “criticizing” people who
haven’t enjoyed such advantages (1). This is admirable advice
insofar as it’s intended to foster a mindset of humility, empathy, and
inclusivity.
The narrator asserts that his father’s advice has influenced his
personality by making him “inclined to reserve all judgements” (1).
In other words, his father’s advice has enabled the narrator to treat
other people in a receptive, open-minded, non-judgmental manner.
He’s a good listener. Or as modern-day teenagers might put it: he’s
not judgy.
• How might the narrator’s personality traits make him well-suited to be

the narrator of this novel?
Because the narrator tends to “reserve all judgments,” other people

recognize that they can share their personal experiences without
fearing that they will be judged. The fact that other people feel so
comfortable with opening up to the narrator has the effect of giving
him privileged access to other people’s innermost thoughts and
feelings: their “confidences” and “secret griefs” (1). As a result, the
narrator has become a kind of repository for other people’s
experiences and stories, which puts him in an advantageous position
to be the narrator of a novel — especially a novel whose title
announces that its primary focus will be on a character who is not
the narrator himself.
Indeed, one of the central themes in this novel will be the question
of what people inherit from their parents, and how their inheritance
helps to establish their legitimacy or authority (as a narrator, as a
member of a certain social class, etc.)
• Do you notice any contradictions in how the narrator presents himself?
The narrator’s assertion that he tends to “reserve all judgments” is

followed almost immediately by a series of rather judgmental
comments about the people who have opened up to him. He
characterizes such people alternatively as “veteran bores” and as
“wild, unknown men” (1). What’s more, while the narrator describes
himself as a “normal person,” he declares that the people who have
shared their stories with him tend to possess “abnormal mind[s]”
(1). By the end of the third paragraph, the narrator even admits that
he is speaking “snobbishly” when he repeats his father’s suggestion
that “a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out
unequally at birth” (2).
Paragraph 4 (“And, after boasting this way of my tolerance…”)
• What does the narrator mean when he asserts, “When I came back from
the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a
sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with
privileged glimpses into the human heart” (2)?
Before discussing the fourth paragraph, I usually provide students
with the contextual information necessary for interpreting it
successfully. I tell students that the narrator’s name is Nick
Carraway, that he was born and raised somewhere in the Midwest,
that in the spring of 1922 he decided to move to New York City, and
that in the autumn of 1922 he would travel back to the Midwest and
then write about what he had experienced in the East. (So when
Nick refers to himself as coming “back from the East,” he is
referring to his return to the Midwest from New York City rather
than to his return from the war in Europe). With this background
information, I ask students the following question: What might Nick
Carraway’s assertion that he “wanted the world to be in uniform and
at a sort of moral attention forever” reveal about how he feels about
the people he met in New York City?
Nick uses a military metaphor when he asserts that he wants the

world to stand, like a uniformed soldier, at “attention.” And,
crucially, Nick qualifies the word “attention” by asserting that he
wants the world to stand at a “moral attention.” Nick is saying that
he wants the world to act in morally upright and principled manner:
to behave with a certain moral integrity, to stand guard against
moral lapses. This reveals that Nick’s experiences in New York City
left him feeling disillusioned about the moral integrity of human
beings.
Literary scholar Elizabeth Preston argues that Nick’s suggestion

that numerous characters in the novel will transgress the
boundaries of acceptable behavior leads the reader to expect that
the novel will contain a “strong ethical valence.” Preston further
contends that Nick’s moral criticisms serve to position him in the
role of a “moral guide.”2
• …And what does the narrator mean when he declares, “Only Gatsby, the
man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction
— Gatsby, who represents everything for which I have an unaffected scorn”
(2)?
While Nick feels disgusted by the people he meets in New York, he

does not feel disgusted by Gatsby — even though Gatsby seems to
embody everything that Nick finds disgusting. Why does Nick
declare that Gatsby is “exempt” from his feelings or “scorn” or
disgust? To answer that question, we’ll need to read further into the
novel. But it may be worth noting that, from the earliest pages of
the novel, Nick admits that there is something contradictory either
about Gatsby himself — or else about Nick’s perception of Gatsby.
2
Elizabeth Preston, “Implying Authors in The Great Gatsby.” Narrative 5:2 (May 1997): 146.
Paragraphs 5-6 (“My family have been prominent, well-to-do
people…”)
• In paragraphs 5 and 6, the narrator provides readers with a brief

summary of his life before explaining how he ended up traveling to New
York in 1922. When telling the story of his life, what information does the
narrator begin with? More generally, what type of information does he
prioritize?
The narrator begins the story of his life not by describing where he
was born and raised (as one might do today), but rather by
describing his ancestors. What’s more, he is careful to describe the
social class to which his ancestors belonged, affirming that they
have been “prominent, well-to-do people […] for three generations”
(3). He may believe that making this appeal to his ancestry helps to
establish his credentials as a narrator: his reliability,
trustworthiness, wisdom, judgment, etc.
Here’s a follow-up question that you might ask of students: What

might the narrator’s description of his ancestors reveal about how
people derived a sense of identity in the 19th and early 20th
centuries? What might it reveal about the conventions that people
were expected to use when sharing their life stories with others?
Spoiler Alert: One of the reasons why I have students to pause and
reflect on the conventions that Nick follows when he provides this
brief account of his life is because later, in Chapter IV, Jay Gatsby
will follow the same conventions when providing an account of his
own life: “I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West —
all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford,
because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years.
It is a family tradition” (65).
• Nick reports that the “founder” of his lineage was a great-uncle who
came to the U.S. in 1851 and started a “wholesale hardware business” (3).
Nick also reports that his great-uncle “sent a substitute to the Civil War”
(3). What might those details reveal about the source of the Carraway
family’s wealth? How might such details be connected to the theme of
“moral attention”?
It is telling that the Carraway lineage was founded by a man who

“sent a substitute to the Civil War.” For this was clearly an immoral
action. The word “substitute” is a euphemism for a servant or
mercenary who was paid money to risk his life in place of Nick’s
great-uncle. And it is more than a little ironic that Nick’s great-
uncle would pay a mercenary to fight in a war whose very purpose
was to abolish an institution that treated people as purchasable
property.
Spoiler Alert: Readers will eventually learn that Jay Gatsby is able to
purchase an enormous mansion because he engages in illegal or
corrupt business activities. But what this early paragraph reveals is
that the wealth enjoyed by the Carraway family similarly derives
from a corrupt action. When your classes begin to discuss the
middle chapters of the novel, you may want to return to this passage
and ask students whether the “old-money” elites are really justified
in distinguishing themselves from their “new-money” peers by
framing the latter as having earned their money through morally
dubious, get-rich-quick schemes.
• What does the narrator mean when he asserts that he “graduated from
New Haven” (3)? Why might he avoid using the actual name of the
university? Why might the narrator mention that he graduated “just a
quarter of a century after my father” (3)?
Nick Carraway uses a literary device called “metonymy” when he

asserts that he graduated from “New Haven.” Metonymy is a type of
indirect or figurative language in which one refers to a person,
place, or thing by invoking something that’s in close physical
proximity to it. (Example: News anchors make reference to the U.S.
President by saying, “The White House announced today that.…”)
When he describes where he was educated, Nick Carraway invokes
the geographical location of the school — the city of New Haven,
Connecticut — to stand in for the school itself: Yale University.
The fact that Nick invokes “New Haven” in place of “Yale University”
reveals at least two things about his socioeconomic status. First, it
reveals that Nick presumes that he’s writing for an audience of
educated elites who are well aware that Yale University is located in
New Haven. Second, it reveals that Nick feels sufficiently secure in
his social status that he does not need to brag about having
attended a prestigious university like Yale. Throughout Fitzgerald’s
novel, as in real life, understated speech and refined tastes tend to
function as markers of a person’s membership in an elite social
class; by contrast, showy or gaudy tastes are often taken as a sign
that a person has only recently become rich and may feel insecure
about their class position. Paradoxically, then, Nick establishes that
he’s a member of an elite social class by demonstrating that he
doesn’t need to show off or brag about having attending an elite
university.
Why might the narrator mention that he graduated “just a quarter

of a century after my father”? Nick’s casual assertion that his father
attended the same school serves to establish that he hails from a
lineage of wealthy and well-educated ancestors.
Spoiler Alert: Nick’s coded and relatively casual assertion that he

“graduated from New Haven in 1915, just a quarter of a century
after my father,” might be contrasted with Jay Gatsby’s more explicit
and comparatively anxious assertion that he was “educated at
Oxford, because all my ancestors have been educated there for many
years. It is a family tradition” (65). The two passages might be worth
comparing when your class discusses Chapter 4.…
Paragraphs 7-10 (“The practical thing was to find some rooms in the
city…”)
• In paragraphs 7-10, the narrator describes his arrival and early

experiences in New York. Why does the narrator feel so proud when he’s
able to give directions to a man who is “more recently arrived” (4)? How
might the experience confer upon him the “freedom of the neighborhood”
(4)?
How long does a person have to live in New York City before they
qualify as a New Yorker? As anyone who has spent time there will
know, the eligibility requirements for qualifying as a New Yorker are
rather strict — if not insurmountable. Residents of New York City
tend to look down on anyone who arrived more recently than them.
Those of us who moved to New York City as adults may not ever
qualify as “real” New Yorkers to the people who were born and
raised here. This phenomenon may exist to a greater or lesser extent
in just about every town and city across the United States.
How can the experience of being a long-term resident endow a

person with a feeling of “freedom”? When a person feels like they
belong within a community, they enjoy a deeper sense of security,
connection, and self-esteem. Recent studies on belonging and
inclusion in high-school settings reveal that students who
experience a sense of belonging tend to have higher levels of
motivation, to perform better in the classroom, and to have higher
social-emotional functioning.
• How might Nick’s status as a newcomer who has begun to find his
bearings in New York influence his capacity as a narrator?
Nick’s status as a new arrival who has begun to find his bearings will
make him especially well-suited to be the narrator of this novel. For
Nick’s dual status as both an insider and an outsider will enable him
to bring a complex perspective to everything he sees in New York.
His status as an insider will enable him to gain access to places and
social gatherings that a tourist would excluded from; and his status
as an outsider will enable him to look upon such places and social
gatherings with fresh eyes as well as to report on what he sees there
in a relatively objective manner.
After he gives directions to a person who arrived more recently than
he did, Nick refers to himself as a “guide” (4). A narrator amounts
to a sort of “guide” who conducts readers on a tour of a setting and
social milieu. A few pages later, Tom Buchanan will act as a “guide”
when he takes Nick on a guided tour of his house in East Egg.
Relative to Nick, Tom will turn out to be a domineering “guide” or
whose narrative commentary makes no space for alternative
viewpoints.
• How might the theme of “arrival” operate metaphorically in Fitzgerald’s

novel? What is an “arriviste”? How are people who have newly arrived into
wealth sometimes treated by people who have been wealthy for a long
time?
An arriviste is a person who has recently acquired wealth and high

social status. According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, the word
arriviste may “indicate a lack of certainty or confidence in one’s
newfound position.” That is, the word arriviste captures how people
who are newly wealthy often experience a kind of impostor
syndrome, feeling like they don’t quite fit in or belong as legitimate
members of their new social class. The Miriam-Webster dictionary
gives the following example of how the word might be used in a
sentence (which reads like it might have been pulled straight from
the pages of The Great Gatsby): “The town’s old money immediately
shunned these vulgar arrivistes, who may have had the cash but
certainly not the class.” 3
Spoiler Alert: In the language of Fitzgerald’s novel, an arriviste is a

member of the social class that possesses “new money.” When your
students have read further into the novel, you might return to this
passage and ask this follow-up question: How might Fitzgerald be
using this anecdote about the difference between long-time
residents and new arrivals in order to introduce and/or comment
upon the difference between “old money” and “new money”?
3
Definition of “Arriviste.” Miriam-Webster Dictionary.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arriviste
Name: ________________________
Discussion Questions — KEY

I. Tom & Daisy Buchanan: First

Impressions
1. When Nick Carraway travels to East Egg to

visit Tom and Daisy Buchanan, he is given a
tour of the Buchanans’ house by Tom
Buchanan. How does Tom conduct this house
tour? What do Tom’s words about his house —
or his treatment of his guest — reveal about
his personality? How might Tom embody a
certain type of masculinity?
Standing on his front porch, Tom greets

Nick with the assertion, “I’ve got a nice
place here” (7). These are the first words
that Tom speaks in the novel. Is there
anything odd about this assertion? Who should be making such a
statement? The assertion that someone has “a nice place” should be
made by a guest rather than by the host.
The fact that Tom presumes the right to “Inside the crimson room bloomed
with light. Tom and Miss Baker sat
speak these words on behalf of his guest at either end of the long couch and
amounts to our first clue that he she read aloud to him from The
possesses a dictatorial or domineering Saturday Evening Post” (17).
personality.
The way in which Tom escorts Nick around his house similarly
reveals that he possesses an imperious or domineering personality.
Presuming the right to move Nick’s body, Tom is a forceful tour
guide who continually repositions Nick so that he’ll see exactly what
Tom wants him to see. For example, Nick reports that Tom “turn[ed]
me around by one arm” so that Nick could take in the vast expanse
of the Buchanans’ yard (7). Nick then reports that Tom “turned me
around again,” abruptly announcing, “We’ll go inside” (7).4 Here,
Tom’s use of the first-person plural pronoun “we” reflects that he
presumes to speak and make decisions on Nick’s behalf. Parodying
Tom’s imperious tone, Nick mimics, “‘Now, don’t think my opinion
on these matters is final,’ he seemed to say, ‘just because I’m
stronger and more of a man than you are’” (7). Nick’s point is that
Tom speaks with absolute finality, in a peremptory manner,
brooking no dissent. Perhaps most importantly, Tom’s imperious
personality is reflected in the number of times that he interrupts his
4
A few pages later, Nick will dramatize the force with which Tom moves him from room to room
by invoking the metaphor of a checkers game: “Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as
though he were moving a checker to another square” (11).
wife, Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald helps readers identify these
interruptions by marking them with a double dash that has physical
presence on the page and appears almost like a slap in the face
(——).
Tom ’s body is endowed with so much muscular strength and

physical power that seems to overpower everything around it —
including even Tom’s own willpower. When Nick first approaches the
Buchanans’ house, Tom is described as standing “with his legs
apart” like a colossus — a posture that reflects a belief in his right
to take up a large amount of physical space (6). Not only was Tom a
football player at Yale, but he is described as being “one of the most
powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven” (6). As a
result, Tom’s body has become so large and forceful that it seems
endowed with its own agency, asserting itself in a manner that Tom
seems unable to control or keep in check. Nick hints at this
dimension of Tom’s body when he describes how Tom’s muscles
seem on the verge of bursting out of his feminine clothing: “Not
even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the
enormous power of that body — he seemed to fill those glistening
boots until he strained the top lacing, and you could see a great
pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin
coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage — a cruel body”
(7). But the most important example of how Tom’s body seems to be
endowed with a violent agency or “cruel” intent can be seen when he
inadvertently injures his wife. For Tom’s physical strength causes
him to bruise and perhaps dislocate Daisy’s little finger, leaving the
knuckle “black and blue” (12). Daisy asserts, “You did it, Tom. […] I
know you didn’t mean to, but you did do it. That’s what I get for
marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen
of a ——” (12).
In all of these ways, Tom Buchanan gets depicted as an embodiment

of a certain type of toxic masculinity. He presumes a right to take up
space, to dictate the movements of other people, to steer
conversations toward topics that he feels most comfortable with,
and to interrupt or even injure the female characters who hazard to
speak their minds or share dissenting opinions.
Spoiler Alert: In Chapter V, Jay Gatsby will give Daisy a tour of his
mansion on West Egg. Fitzgerald creates a number of parallels
between these two scenes in which Tom and Gatsby take their
guests on house tours. The ways in which these two characters lead
their guests through their respective houses will reveal a number of
similarities and differences between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby.
When your class is discussing Chapter V, you might want to ask this
follow-up question: What might the ways in which Tom and Gatsby
escort their guests through their houses reveal about the
similarities and/or the differences between their characters?
2. When readers are introduced to Daisy Buchanan, she is described as
reclining on a couch in the middle of a room where a breeze blows in from
the windows, causing the curtains and the women’s dresses to flutter
freely. How might Fitzgerald’s description of this room contribute to his
portrait of the main female character, Daisy Buchanan? How do literary
devices like imagery and figurative language contribute to the
characterization of Daisy? Finally, does Tom’s act of shutting the windows
reveal anything about how Tom’s personality differs from Daisy
personality?
The first two paragraphs on page 8 reveal so much about the

character of Daisy Buchanan that they merit being read aloud and
discussed in class! Daisy Buchanan and her friend Jordan Baker are
reclining on a couch in the middle of a spacious salon where the
windows have been flung wide open — and where a breeze is causing
both the curtains and the women’s dresses to flutter in a free and
easy motion. By describing this room with elevated diction and an
abundance of literary devices, Fitzgerald alerts readers that they
should slow down and reflect upon the significance of this symbolic
setting.…
When describing the room where Daisy is located, Fitzgerald

invokes imagery and figurative language related to wind and
breezes, buoys and balloons, fluttering and flight. For example,
instead of merely stating that Daisy and Jordan are reclining on a
couch, Fitzgerald describes them as being “buoyed up as though
upon an anchored balloon” (8). He describes the women’s dresses as
“rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after
a short flight around the house” (8). What is the effect of using
metaphors and similes such as “buoyed up,” “upon a […] balloon,”
“blown back in,” and “flight around the house”? First, these figures
of speech endow the setting with an atmosphere that’s lively, free-
flowing, and lighthearted. Second, such figures of speech
characterize Daisy as embodying a certain liveliness and vitality,
freedom and mobility, lightness and levity, elegance and grace.
Later in the chapter, we’ll see these traits put into action when
Daisy endeavors to make sure that social interactions feel
lighthearted yet enlivening, that everyone is enjoying themselves,
that conversations move steadily from one interesting topic to
another. Literary scholar Daniel Schneider observes that Nick’s
perception of the women’s buoyancy makes them seem mystical and
otherworldly: “Daisy and Jordan seem about to float off into the air
because they are — to both Gatsby and Nick — a bit unreal, like
fairies (Daisy’s maiden name is Fay).”5
5
Daniel J. Schneider, “Color-Symbolism in The Great Gatsby.” Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Ed.
Henry Dan Piper. New York: Scribner, 1970. 248. If interpreted from a negative angle, the figures
of speech that Fitzgerald uses in this scene might be said to characterize Daisy as airy and flighty,
vacuous and superficial. If your students suggest this possibility, you might respond that such an
Fitzgerald also uses color symbolism to sketch a preliminary
portrait of Daisy Buchanan. For almost everything inside the room
where Daisy relaxes is described as being “white”: the windows are
“gleaming white,” the ceiling is as white as a “frosted wedding-
cake,” the curtains ripple like “pale flags,” and the two women
sitting on the couch are wearing “white […] dresses” (8). Even the
homes in the affluent neighborhood of East Egg are described as
“white palaces”; and Daisy’s name suggests that she embodies the
beauty and fragility of white daisies (5). By invoking the word
“white” so frequently in this scene, Fitzgerald endows the color with
a symbolic meaning. What might the color symbolize? Fitzgerald
would seem to invoke the color “white” as a sign of Daisy’s ethereal
affluence. Indeed, might there be a deeper reason why Fitzgerald
depicts Daisy as being “buoyed up” on a couch that seems to float
like a “balloon” among the breezes and the cloud-like curtains? Is
there a deeper metaphor hiding behind these balloon and flight
metaphors? Daisy may enjoy a level of wealth and privilege that
makes her seem like an angel floating among the clouds of heaven.
She enjoys an ethereal affluence that makes her seem angelic and
celestial: lofty and exalted, virtuous and pristine, relaxed and
carefree, transcendent and untouchable.6
There are at least two other features of the paragraph that

contribute to the characterization of Daisy Buchanan. First, the fact
that the wind flows so freely into the room where Daisy is located
has the effect of associating Daisy with the natural world. Indeed,
nature flows so freely into the interior of this room that even the
grass seems to “grow a little way into the house” (8). And later in
the chapter, the beams of the setting sun will seem reluctant to
depart from Daisy’s radiant face: “the last sunshine fell with
romantic affection upon her glowing face; […] then the glow faded,
each light deserting her with lingering regret” (14).7 Second,
interpretation could prove to be valid but would need to be tested against evidence found later in
the chapter. My own sense is that Daisy is not vacuous and superficial — and definitely not
airheaded.
6
In the paragraphs above, I have suggested that the features of the Buchanans’ breeze-filled room
serve to characterize Daisy Buchanan more than they serve to characterize Jordan Baker. For in
the ensuing paragraphs, Jordan will get constructed as an embodiment of statuesque composure
and haughty self-importance: “She was extended full length at her end of the divan, completely
motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it which was
quite likely to fall” (8). If Jordan were the only person present in this room, readers might be
tempted to conclude that the inanimate objects in the room have become alive and animated even
as the people have become inanimate. Not only is Jordan described as being “completely
motionless,” but she neither moves nor acknowledges Nick when he enters the room; and Jordan’s
“exhibition of complete self-sufficiency” makes Nick feel as if he should utter an “apology for
having disturbed her” (8, 9). By contrast, Daisy will get described as a person in constant motion:
laughing, asking questions, making witty comments, charming her guests, etc. What’s more,
whereas Daisy is consistently associated with the color “white,” Jordan Baker, who does not enjoy
the same ethereal affluence, will get associated with colors like gray and tan: she has “gray sun-
strained eyes” (11).
7
Literary scholar Bruce Michelson argues that Daisy Buchanan gets associated with the sun in
this early chapter because Jay Gatsby will eventually get constructed as a mythical Icarus or
Fitzgerald uses a series of food metaphors to amplify the
atmosphere of festive gaiety. For example, he compares the ceiling
to a “frosted wedding-cake”; and he describes the floor as being
covered with a “wine-colored rug” (8). Had Fitzgerald described the
rug as champagne-colored, he would have gone one step too far in
characterizing Daisy as effervescent and bubbly. Daisy is breezy,
lively, and carefree; but she’s not bubbly, shallow, or depthless —
right?
Finally, how does the paragraph dramatize the ways in which Tom
Buchanan differs from his wife, Daisy Buchanan? This contrast
becomes abundantly clear when Tom closes the windows of the
room: “Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear
windows and the caught wind died out about the room, and the
curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to
the floor” (8). Tom’s act of closing the windows creates an
onomatopoetic “boom” that sounds almost like a gun shot and has
the effect of killing the life that had existed in the room: “the caught
wind died,” and the “two women” fall “to the floor.” In this and
subsequent scenes, Tom’s actions have the effect sucking the literal
and metaphorical air out of the room. His presence deflates people’s
spirits; his hulking solidity quashes all the life and levity out of an
environment.
In sum, whereas Daisy is associated with liveliness and vitality,

freedom and mobility, lightness and levity, Tom is associated with
immoveable density, brute physical force, and the finality of death.
Indeed, while Daisy makes no attempt to separate the interior of the
house from the natural world, Tom polices the boundary between
those two worlds by closing the windows and killing the breeze.
Speaking of policing boundaries.…
II. Tom Buchanan: White Supremacist?
3. After the guests sit down for dinner on the Buchanans’ porch, Tom
Buchanan announces that he’s been reading a book called “‘The Rise of the
Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard” (12). Anyone
reading The Great Gatsby in the 1920s would have
recognized the book that Tom is reading as a thinly veiled
reference to an actual book: Lothrop Stoddard’s The
Rising Tide of Color: The Threat Against White World-
Supremacy (1920). Stoddard’s book incited a wave of
racism and xenophobia that swept through the U.S. in the
1920s. Widespread anti-immigrant sentiment led to the
Phaeton who dares to fly too close to the “sun-girl.” Michelson suggests that Daisy looks out for
the longest day of the year because she doesn’t want to “miss the best of all chances to be
radiant.” Bruce Michelson, “The Myth of Gatsby.” Modern Fiction Studies 26:4 (Winter 1980-
1981): 568, 569.
passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, which restricted immigration from
African countries and banned all immigration from Asian countries. What
does Tom’s fondness for this book reveal about his personality? Why might
Tom feel threatened by the alleged “rise” of the “colored empires” (12)?
How are readers of Fitzgerald’s novel supposed to feel about Tom’s
enthusiasm for Goddard’s book?
While Tom Buchanan enjoyed a certain social prestige as a football

star at Yale, Nick observes that Tom peaked in college and has been
struggling ever since to regain the same feeling of unshakeable
dominance. Nick observes that Tom was “one of those men who
reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything
afterward savors of anticlimax” (6). Nick also speculates that, as a
result of having peaked in college, Tom will likely “drift on forever
seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some
irrecoverable football game” (6). In an effort to recover a sense of
the prestige and superiority that he enjoyed in college, Tom has
begun to belittle and condescend to other people. Tom is described
as having “arrogant eyes” that make it seem as if he’s always
“leaning aggressively forward” and thereby looking down upon
others; and he is described as speaking to others with a tone of
“paternal contempt” (7).
What’s even more disturbing is that Tom’s desire to recover a sense

of his own prestige and superiority has driven him to embrace the
pseudo-scientific theory of white supremacy put forth in Goddard’s
The Rise of the Colored Empires. Tom exposes himself as a racist
bigot when he regurgitates the dubious argument of Goddard’s
book: “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be — will
be utterly submerged. […] It’s up to us, who are the dominant race,
to watch out or these other races will have control of things” (13).
Thus, from the very first chapter of Fitzgerald’s novel, it should be
clear that Tom Buchanan embodies a dangerous combination of
racial privilege, gender privilege, and class privilege — topped off by
an enormous physical stature that renders him violent and volatile.
…
Tom Buchanan may get characterized as having a “cruel” body

because he embodies the forces that entrench or sediment social
hierarchies. In the same way that Tom’s act of shutting the windows
segregates the natural world from the build environment, Tom’s
reference to Goddard’s The Rise of the Colored Empires draws a
hard line between what he calls “the white race” and what he calls
“the other races” (13). Literary scholar Brian Way observes that
what’s illuminating about Fitzgerald’s depiction of Tom is that his
propensity to commit violence is only thinly veiled by his fashionable
clothes and composed demeanor: “His brutality is constantly
breaking through the veneer of his surface gentility, just as the
movements of his ‘cruel body’ show under the ‘effeminate swank’ of
his riding clothes.” In an insightful analysis, Brian Way elaborates,
“Tom’s style of physical dominance, his capacity for exerting
leverage, are not expressions merely of his individual strength but
of the power of a class. Fitzgerald does not make the mistake of
imagining that because the rich are corrupt, they must necessarily
be weak. […] Tom Buchanan is a far truer representative: he draws
on the sense of self-assurance his money and position give him as
directly as he draws upon his bank account.”8
4. How does Daisy Buchanan respond when Tom announces that he has
been reading Goddard’s The Rise of the Colored Empires? How does Daisy
respond when Tom expresses his concern that the “rise” of the “colored
empires” is going to leave white people “utterly submerged” (13)? Does
Daisy share her husband’s racist and xenophobic worldview? What
evidence supports your answer?
When Tom announces that he has been reading Goddard’s The Rise
of the Colored Empires, then expresses his concern that the “rise” of
the “colored empires” is going to leave the “white race” utterly
“submerged,” Daisy responds with an ironic comment which pokes
fun at the fact that, until now, Tom has never seemed all that
interested in reading: “Tom’s getting very profound. […] He reads
deep books with long words in them” (13; emphasis mine). Tellingly,
Tom interrupts his wife in order to proceed with his racist and
xenophobic rant, asserting, “It’s up to us, who are the dominant
race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things”
(13). Daisy then makes a second ironic comment which pokes fun at
Tom’s racial paranoia and reactionary brutality: “‘We’ve got to beat
them down,’ whispered Daisy, winking ferociously toward the fervent
sun” (13; emphasis mine). By describing Daisy as “winking
ferociously” as she speaks, the author makes it unequivocally clear
that Daisy is speaking ironically and that she is attempting to
distance herself from her husband’s racist and xenophobic
worldview.
Because I have been surprised to find that some students, when

reading this chapter for homework, don’t catch the irony in Daisy’s
response, I usually read aloud from the paragraphs at the bottom of
page 12 and the top of page 13, adding emphasis to the words and
phrases that Daisy uses to signal that she’s being ironic: “very
profound,” “deep books,” “long words,” “got to beat them down.”
Then I explain that people use verbal irony when they want listeners
to understand that while they may be saying one thing, they actually
mean the opposite. (A classic example of verbal irony can be found
when there’s a storm raging outside and someone remarks, “Nice
weather we’re having!”). I then ask my students whether they think
Daisy is being sincere or ironic when she asserts, “We’ve got to beat
8
Brian Way, “The Great Gatsby.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Ed. Harold Bloom. New
York: Chelsea House, 1986. 44.
them down.” Verbal irony is often used either to bring levity to a
situation or to poke fun at another person; and Daisy is clearly
doing both of these things when she pretends to endorse Tom’s
racist statements — statements which she clearly finds despicable
and embarrassing.
For his part, Fitzgerald might be said to use this scene to poke fun
at and critique the pseudo-scientific discourse on race that gained
prominence in the 1920s. For Tom’s statements illuminate how this
discourse could incite racial paranoia and social panic in white
Americans. When Nick admits that the rapid banter between Daisy
and Jordan makes him feel “uncivilized,” Tom takes up Nick’s
remark in an “unexpected way” by “violently” asserting,
“Civilization’s going to pieces” (12). Tom proceeds to equate
“civilization” with the “white race,” exclaiming that white people
have “produced all the things that go to make civilization — oh,
science and art, and all that” (13). Not only is this assertion about
“civilization” historically incorrect, but the manner in which Tom
awkwardly invokes “science and art, and all that” reflects that he
has very little interest in the arts and sciences per se, but is merely
invoking them to support his specious theory of white supremacy.
Even more troublingly, Tom’s statement that the “colored empires”
threaten to leave white people “utterly submerged” has the effect of
framing people of color as a tidal wave — or an undifferentiated
mass — which threatens to overwhelm Western civilization. The very
title of Lothrop Stoddard’s The Rising Tide of Color invokes this
same racist metaphor comparing people of color to a homogeneous
and threatening tidal wave.
Here’s a follow-up question that you might ask of your students:

What does Daisy’s frequent use of verbal irony reveal about her
character? Can you imagine Tom using verbal irony? Why or why
not? More generally, what might Daisy’s facility with language
reveal about her character? About her intelligence? About her social
skills?
From the first chapter of The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan exhibits
an impressive verbal dexterity. Unlike her husband Tom, whose
speech tends to be direct and literal, blunt and brutal, Daisy uses
language in playful and quick-witted ways, making frequent use of
irony and hyperbole.
III. Daisy Buchanan: Liberated or Trapped?
5. At various moments in Chapter 1, Nick attempts to describe the

mysterious quality of Daisy’s “low, thrilling voice” (9). What qualities is
Nick able to identify in Daisy’s voice? Is Nick able to provide a satisfactory
account of why Daisy’s voice is so enchanting? Why or why not? What
might Daisy’s voice reveal about her personality?
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a novel in which each of the

main characters gets fleshed out through the use of a synecdoche. A
“synecdoche” is a literary device whereby a part of something is
used to stand in for the thing as a whole. (For example, you might
compliment someone’s new car by saying, “Nice wheels!” — with the
“wheels” standing in for the whole car.) When Fitzgerald describes
the main characters in The Great Gatsby, he often uses a single
physical trait to capture the essence of the character as a whole. (A
single body part stands in for and represents the whole person.) As
we have already seen, the entire essence of Tom Buchanan is
reflected in his hulking physique. In a later chapter, we will see that
the essence of Jay Gatsby will get reflected in his charismatic smile.
And here, we see that the essence of Daisy Buchanan gets reflected
in the quality of her voice. So: What are the qualities of Daisy’s
voice? And what might the features of her voice reveal about Daisy’s
personality?...
Nick exclaims that there’s a mysterious element hidden inside

Daisy’s voice that causes people to lean forward, that draws people
towards her, and that makes people feel excited about the future. He
explains, “[T]here was an excitement in her voice that men who had
cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a
whispered ‘Listen,’ a promise that she had done gay, exciting things
just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering
in the next hour” (9). After the group moves outside to the porch,
Nick similarly reports that “her voice compelled me forward
breathlessly as I listened” (14). Literary scholar Scott Donaldson
observes that “Daisy rarely ‘says’ things. She ‘murmurs’ or
‘whispers’ instead, compelling the listener forward for her
breathless message.”9
When Nick describes Daisy’s voice, he gives special emphasis to how

it seems to carry a whispered or implied “promise.” What does it
mean for Daisy’s voice to seem full of “promise”? A promise is a
declaration or assurance that a person will do some particular thing
at some time in the future. Thus, a promise builds a bridge between
the past and the future that arouses expectation in other people; but
a promise is only abstract until the person delivers on the concrete
action that they have promised to perform. Like a promise, Daisy’s
voice arouses expectation even as it remains somewhat abstract. It
provokes people to “lean” forward and to anticipate the future with
eager expectation even as it remains elusive in the present moment.
9
Scott Donaldson, “Possessions in The Great Gatsby.” The Southern Review (Spring 2001): 198.
Here’s a follow-up question that you might ask of students: While
only persons are capable of making promises, Daisy’s voice is an
example of how an inanimate object can seem to be endowed with a
promise. Can you think of any other objects or entities that seem to
be endowed with promise? Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries,
the United States lured immigrants to its shores by holding out the
promise of opportunity and upward mobility. Like the promise
perceived in Daisy’s voice, the promise perceived in the United
States was largely an implied promise that we now refer to as the
“American Dream.” Is it merely a coincidence that Gatsby has
already been described as having a “heightened sensitivity to the
promises of life” (2)?
When describing Daisy’s voice, Nick often picks out features that
contradict on another. For example, while Nick describes the pitch
of Daisy’s voice as being “low,” he also describes her voice as being
full of “excitement” (9). Nick also alternates between describing
Daisy’s voice as “murmur” and emphasizing its musical qualities: “It
was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each
speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again”
(9). While Daisy’s musical voice makes listeners feel special by
conveying that the “arrangement of notes” has been composed
especially for them, the fact that listeners can only “follow” the
notes as they move “up and down” suggests that there’s also
something elusive or impersonal about her voice.
Students should not feel frustrated if they cannot arrive at a

definitive explanation for why Daisy’s voice is so enchanting. Here
and in later chapters, Nick makes several attempts to pin down
precisely what it is about Daisy’s voice that makes it so alluring. But
each of his attempts would seem to come up short, suggesting that
there may be something fundamentally elusive or unknowable about
Daisy’s voice. What’s more, sound is the most intangible and
ephemeral sensory register in which people express themselves.
Thus, while Nick can say with confidence that Daisy possesses a
“lovely” face whose features include “bright eyes” and a “bright
passionate mouth,” he is not able to provide a definitive or
satisfactory description of what distinguishes Daisy’s voice; he is
only be able to “follow” her voice is as it moves “up and down” like a
song (9).
Spoiler Alert: The alluring yet elusive quality of Daisy’s voice may be
one reason why her voice will eventually get compared to “money”:
everybody is obsessed with getting near it, yet nobody quite
understands what it is.…
Finally, Fitzgerald sets up a contrast between Tom Buchanan and

Daisy Buchanan when he describes the effect that their physical
features have upon other people. Tom is described as having
“arrogant eyes” that make it seem as if he’s “always leaning
aggressively forward” (7). By contrast, Daisy is described as having
a “low, thrilling voice” that causes other people to “lean toward her”
(9). Why might Fitzgerald have established this inverted parallel
between Tom and Daisy? What does it reveal about each of their
personalities? Whereas Tom presents himself to others in a manner
that’s intimidating and threatening, Daisy presents herself to others
in a manner that’s charming and enchanting. Tom repels other
people; Daisy draws them in.
6. The dinner party on the Buchanans’ back porch gets interrupted by the
ringing of a telephone inside the house. Who is the caller? How does the
call affect each character’s mood? When the phone rings for a second time
and Tom goes inside, Daisy escorts Nick to the front porch where they can
have a private conversation. Does the tone of Daisy’s voice change when
she is talking with Nick in private? Describing herself as having become
“pretty cynical about everything,” Daisy recalls that, when she woke up
from the ether after giving birth to her first child, she was surprised to find
that Tom “was God knows where” — and she was overcome by an “utterly
abandoned feeling” (17). Why wasn’t Tom present for the birth of their
child? Where might he have gone? What do these scenes reveal about Tom,
Daisy, and the Buchanans’ marriage?
The telephone call is from a mistress with whom Tom Buchanan is

having an extramarital affair. When the telephone rings for the first
time, the butler goes inside to answer it, then comes out again and
whispers something “close to Tom’s ear” (14). Shortly after Tom
goes inside to speak with the caller, Daisy “threw her napkin on the
table and excused herself and went into the house” (14). Jordan
Baker then reveals to Nick that Tom is having an extramarital affair,
exclaiming “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (15). Apparently
the affair has been going on for a sufficiently long time that Jordan
assumes everybody already knows about it: “I thought everybody
knew” (15). Here’s a follow-up question that you might put to your
students: Is there anything odd about Jordan’s assertion, “She might
have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time. Don’t you
think?” (15)? Is it significant that Jordan blames the woman for
committing an indiscretion but says nothing about Tom? What
might this reveal about the double standards that existed around
sexual behavior in the early twentieth century?
When the phone begins to ring during the dinner scene, Fitzgerald
charts a gradual shift in Daisy’s mood and behavior. When the
phone rings for the first time, Daisy attempts to distract the
assembled guests — and perhaps also herself — from the unpleasant
reality of her husband’s affair by affecting an artificial levity and
gaiety. She turns to Nick and tells a joke about the butler’s nose
“enthusiastically”; then she flatters Nick by comparing him to “a
rose, an absolute rose” (13, 14). Yet Daisy’s act of throwing her
napkin on the table reveals that she is fully aware of her husband’s
affair and can maintain her façade of gaiety for only so long.
Fitzgerald uses the changes in the daylight as a symbol that reflects
Daisy’s changing mood. For between the phone’s initial ring and the
butler’s return, the author describes the romantic rays of the sun as
retreating reluctantly from Daisy’s radiant face: “For a moment the
last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; […]
then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret,
like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk” (14).
Daisy’s mood and voice change dramatically when she leaves the
dinner table to talk in private with Nick on the front porch. In her
capacity as a host, Daisy had presented a façade of levity and gaiety;
but when she speaks in private with her cousin, Daisy reveals that
she feels a reservoir of deep emotions. Nick reports, “I saw that
turbulent emotions possessed her” (16). If readers had any doubts
about whether Daisy’s character is endowed with emotional depth, a
close reading of this scene should serve to dispel such doubts. The
fact that Tom was not present for the birth of his child must have
been doubly disappointing to Daisy. Because childbirth can be
emotionally and physically draining, it is customary for women who
are giving birth to be accompanied by a supportive partner, friend,
or family member. Tom’s failure to accompany his wife throughout
this experience is reason enough for Daisy to have an “utterly
abandoned feeling.” At the same time, when Daisy reports that she
woke up to find that Tom “was God knows where,” she insinuates
that Tom may have missed the birth of their child because he was
having an affair with another woman.
7. After Daisy gives birth to a child, the first question she asks is whether
“it was a boy or a girl” (17). When the nurse informs Daisy that her child is
a girl, Daisy exclaims, “All right, […] I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be
a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little
fool” (17). Why might Daisy hope that her little girl will be a “fool”? Why
does she assert that a “beautiful little fool” is the “best thing” a girl can be
“in this world”? What might Daisy know about “this world” that leads her to
arrive at such a conclusion?
In the 1920s, women faced very limited employment opportunities.

As a result, it was very difficult for women to achieve economic self-
sufficiency. Women were usually forced to depend on their parents
or a gainfully employed husband to provide for their economic well-
being. It was not until the late 20th century — after the emergence of
second-wave feminist movement in the 1960s — that women began
to gain access to high-paying jobs, equal pay for equal work, and
maternity leave benefits. For a trenchant analysis of the limitations
that constrained women’s lives in the early 20th century, see
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Women and Economics (1898).10
When Daisy Buchanan asserts that she hopes her daughter will be a
“beautiful little fool,” she reveals that she’s fully aware of the limits
that constrained women’s lives. She hopes that her daughter will be
“beautiful” so that she can attract the attention of a man who will
provide for her economic well-being. At the same time, Daisy hopes
that her daughter will be a “fool” so that she’ll live in blissful
ignorance of the limits that constrained women’s lives.
Here’s a follow-up question that you might put to your students: Is

Daisy Buchanan merely a “beautiful fool”? Or is Daisy a character
who possesses intelligence and emotional depth? Throughout much
of the first chapter, Daisy presents herself as a light-hearted
conversationalist who speaks with a “bantering inconsequence” (9,
12). But does Daisy care only about superficial frivolities? Or might
the conversation that transpires between Daisy and Nick after the
sun has set suggest that behind Daisy’s frivolous facade is a
wellspring of critical intelligence and complex emotion?
IV. Gatsby: Man of Mystery?
8. In the chapter’s last two paragraphs, Nick glimpses “a figure” whom he

describes as having “emerged from the shadow of my neighbor’s mansion”
(20). Yet if this figure can be said to appear rather suddenly, he also
disappears suddenly. For after Nick glances at the water and sees nothing
but a green light in the distance, he looks back to find that Gatsby has
vanished: “When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished” (21). Why
might Fitzgerald choose to associate Gatsby with words like “figure,”
“shadow,” and “vanish”? What connotations are suggested by those words?
How, for instance, does “vanish” differ from synonyms like “depart” or
“disappear”?
In the final paragraphs of Chapter 1, Fitzgerald is clearly mobilizing

the genre conventions of the mystery novel. Mystery novels are often
referred to as “whodunnits” because they put the reader in the
position of a detective challenged with figuring out which character
committed a crime. Mystery novels utilize suspense in order to make
readers eager to learn more. That’s why literary scholars refer to
10
At the turn of the 20th century, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote extensively about the
predicament faced by women who were forced to be dependent upon men for economic well-
being. In a book called Women and Economics, Gilman wrote, “The girl who marries the rich old
man or the titled profligate is condemned by the popular voice; and the girl who marries the poor
young man, and helps him live his best, is still approved by the same great arbiter. And yet why
should we blame the woman for pursuing her vocation? Since marriage is her only way to get
money, why should she not try to get money in that way? […] The mercenary marriage is a
perfectly natural consequence of the economic dependence of women.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
Women and Economics. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1898. 93.
mystery novels as being “epistemophilic”: they provoke a desire for
knowledge. So on the most basic level, Fitzgerald is using the
conventions of the mystery novel in order to draw readers in, to
make us want to learn more, to make us eager to read the next few
chapters.
But what distinguishes The Great Gatsby from a traditional mystery

novel is that its mystery will pertain not to the question of who
committed a crime but rather to the question of who the main
character really is. Fitzgerald endows his novel with the title The
Great Gatsby only to deny readers any quick or direct access to the
title character. Not only does it take an unusually long time for the
title character to make an appearance in the novel, but when he
does finally appear, he is enshrouded in darkness and glimpsed at a
distance. What’s more, Gatsby’s actions have the effect of increasing
the mystery that surrounds his character. For not only does Gatsby
give an “intimation” that he wishes to be left “alone,” but he
appears to be “trembling” as he “stretche[s] out his arms” toward
the “dark water” and the “single green light” (20, 21). Enigmatic
words like “figure,” “shadow,” and “vanish” serve to heighten his
character’s mysteriousness. Readers are left wondering about
questions such as the following: Who is the title character? Why is
he alleged to be “great”? Why has he come outside to stand “alone”
in the moonlight? Why is he “trembling”? Why does he stretch out
his arms toward the “green light” on a distant dock?
Literary scholar Barbara Will points out that the vanishing act at
the end of the first chapter is the first of many scenes in which
Gatsby will vanish: “Gatsby ‘vanishes’ at other key moments in the
text: in his failure to appear at his own parties, in his unknowable
past and shady business dealings, and in his smile, which ‘assured
you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best,
you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished—’ (48). As
this last sentence suggests, Gatsby even vanishes — literally — from
the signifying system of the text itself: the dash, the graphic mark of
his unrepresentability, is insistently emphasized whenever he
speaks or is spoken about.”11
One of Fitzgerald’s greatest achievements in The Great Gatsby may

inhere in how he reveals the title character precisely in and through
his acts of vanishing. Barbara Will makes the point thus: “[H]is
character can only be revealed through the moments in which he
vanishes from the narrative, through oxymorons, through dashes —
all of which point to an unrepresentability at the center of this
textual reality.”12 In an early draft of the novel, Nick describes
11
Barbara Will, “The Great Gatsby and the Obscene Word.” College Literature 32:4 (Fall 2005):
129.
12
Barbara Will, “The Great Gatsby and the Obscene Word.” College Literature 32:4 (Fall 2005):
132.
Gatsby as being “provokingly elusive.”13 As we will see, Gatsby’s very
elusiveness may be precisely what — paradoxically — gives him
away.
Spoiler Alert: Fitzgerald will eventually use the mystery surrounding

Gatsby’s character to provoke a set of deeper questions: How should
Gatsby be perceived? Is he a romantic hero? Or is he a criminal, a
gangster, a corrupt villain? Is his obsession with becoming wealthy
motivated by noble virtues like idealism and love, or is it motivated
by crass materialism? Perhaps most importantly, what might the
duality inherent in Gatsby’s character reflect about the “great
experiment” called America?
9. Jay Gatsby is described as having a “heightened sensitivity to the

promises of life” (2). Daisy Buchanan is described as looking at others in a
manner as if to suggest she were “promising that there was no one in the
world she so much wanted to see” (9). Daisy’s voice is described as
carrying a “promise that […] there were gay, exciting things hovering in the
next hour” (9). What do you make of the repetition of the word “promise”
across these sentences? How might Fitzgerald be using these characters to
reflect upon the “promise” associated with the American Dream — and the
notion that America is a land of equality and opportunity?
Answers will vary.
V. Modern America: Restlessness & Romantic Promises
10. Nick Carraway observes that after he returned home from the First
World War, he experienced a feeling of “restless[ness]” that propelled him
to relocate to New York City (3). He describes Tom and Daisy as being
similarly afflicted by restlessness: “They […] drifted here and there
unrestfully” (6). Why are so many of the characters in this novel described
as being afflicted by nervous restlessness? How might the experience of
being a soldier in World War I have generated a feeling of restlessness?
How might the conditions of life in the modern age — the proliferation of
fast cars, electric lights, movie theaters, and telephones — have
exacerbated this feeling of restlessness?
Note to Teachers: The discussion questions for each chapter are

meant to fit on two pages so that they can be printed out as a
double-sided handout. However, some chapters are so packed with
interesting scenes that I couldn’t resist include one or two “bonus”
questions on a third page. If you find some of these “bonus”
questions to be interesting or important, please feel free to insert
them into the double-sided handout. This document is editable so
that you can modify and customize everything!
13
Undated note by F. Scott Fitzgerald. From the F. Scott Fitzgerald Archive, Special Collections,
Princeton University Library.
In a 1931 essay called “Echoes of the Jazz Age,” Fitzgerald would
look back upon the “restlessness” that seemed to infect the
members of the so-called Lost Generation after they returned home
from World War I. Fitzgerald recalls that between the years of 1914
and 1918, young Americans devoted themselves either to fighting in
the war or to working in support of the war effort — and they cut
back on social and leisure activities. He contends that this resulted
in a build-up of nervous energy that was seeking to be unleashed —
and it resulted in the partying and general exuberance of the Jazz
Age. Fitzgerald observes the affluence of the Roaring Twenties
enabled the release of such nervous energy through hedonistic
events such as Gatsby’s parties. He exclaims, “something had to be
done with all the nervous energy stored up and unexpended in the
War.”14
Why are the Buchanans described as having “drifted here and there
unrestfully”? Why does Nick speculate that Tom will likely “drift on
forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of
some irrecoverable football game” (6)? Whereas characters like
Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby orient themselves towards goals, Tom
and Daisy Buchanan will repeatedly get described as
“drifting.” Because they already have everything they could want,
the Buchanans’ lives take the form of a lateral search for evanescent
thrills. Fitzgerald’s use of the word “drift” alludes to Walter
Lippmann’s claim that Americans have become a mindless “nation
of uncritical drifters.”15
14
F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Echoes of the Jazz Age.” Scribner’s Magazine (November 1931): 459.
15
Walter Lippmann, Drift and Mastery: An Attempt to Diagnose the Current Unrest. New York:
Mitchell Kennerley, 1914. xvii.
Name: ________________________

I. Symbolic Setting: The Periphery of Poverty
1. Although the setting for Chapter 1 was the wealthy residential

neighborhood of East Egg, the setting for Chapter 2 is an impoverished
area called the “valley of ashes” (23). How does the narrator describe the
valley of ashes? How do imagery and figurative language contribute to the
portrayal of this geographical area?
Fitzgerald does not limit his analysis of modern life to the rich and
famous Americans who live in East Egg and West Egg. The author
made a very deliberate decision to include working-class characters
like George and Myrtle Wilson who live in the valley of ashes. Even if
these secondary characters will only make appearances in a couple
of chapters, they play a pivotal role in the novel’s plot as well as the
author’s overall message about the state of modern America.
Significantly, Fitzgerald situates the valley of ashes in a

geographical location that is right between New York City and the
wealthy suburbs of East Egg and West Egg. He invites readers to
think about how the wealth and leisure enjoyed by people who live in
the Eggs is predicated on the poverty and labor of people who live in
the valley of ashes. And his contrasting descriptions of East Egg and
the valley of ashes provide a compelling example of what economists
and geographers call “uneven development.”: the uneven
distribution of resources that results in some areas being highly
developed while other areas are left underdeveloped. Indeed,
whereas the setting in which Daisy Buchanan gets introduced is
white and immaculate, emphasizing her extreme affluence and
ethereal privilege, the setting in which Myrtle Wilson gets
introduced is covered by a suffocating layer of ash and dust. This
contrast suggests that working-class characters like George and
Myrtle Wilson are forced to reside in a neighborhood steeped in the
waste and sludge produced by the very same industrial economy
that has generated the Buchanans’ wealth.
The valley of ashes exemplifies an industrial corridor on the

outskirts of a city where one might find the likes of industrial
factories, trucking companies, filling stations, and garbage dumps.
Fitzgerald invokes the connection between the valley of ashes and
the wealthier neighborhoods of New York when he writes that the
ashes “grow into like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque
gardens,” and that the ashes “take the forms of houses and
chimneys and rising smoke” (23). Analyzing this passage, literary
scholar David Parker observes that the ashes “mock the beholder by
mimicking in ashen shapes of wheat, gardens, and human
habitations.”16
How does the narrator describe the blue-collar workers who live and
work in the valley of ashes? Nick reports that the “ash-grey men”
who labor in this “grey land” raise an “impenetrable cloud, which
screens their obscure operations from your sight” (23). The fact that
the inhabitants of the valley of ashes have become “ash-grey men”
suggests that there may be something about inescapable about the
conditions of the area. At the same time, the labor of the working
class gets obscured by an “impenetrable cloud” and goes unseen by
the members of the middle and upper classes who nonetheless rely
upon and benefit from it. Indeed, the members of the middle and
upper classes only get a brief glimpse of the way in which the other
half lives when their highways and train tracks pass quickly through
working-class neighborhoods.
The narrator’s description of the valley of ashes also invokes the

theme of mobility and immobility. George Wilson’s job as an
automotive mechanic suggests that he fixes and provides fuel for
cars that he will never be able to own. Thus, George facilitates the
physical and economic mobility of other characters even as he
remains stuck and immobile: trapped in a literal and metaphorical
valley, buried under a heap of ash.
The narrator repeatedly associates the valley of ashes with the

enormous amount of “waste” that gets produced in the modern
period. Invoking T. S. Eliot’s book-length poem The Waste Land
(1922), the narrator describes the valley of ashes as both a “waste
land” and “dumping ground” (24). He also describes the auto
mechanic George Wilson as “wiping his hand on a piece of waste”
(25). Ironically, then, the very rag which George uses to clean the
ash and dust from his hands is itself a piece of “waste.” Are the
workers and residents in the valley of ashes treated like expendable
waste? As we’ll see, the treatment of humans as disposable waste
will become an important theme in the novel’s final chapters.…
Although George is a “spiritless man,” the narrator reports that a

“gleam of hope” springs into George’s “light blue eyes” when he
sees Tom Buchanan (25). George feels a glimmer of hope in this
scene because Tom has promised to sell him a car which George
believes he’ll be able to fix up and re-sell — possibly making enough
money to move out of the valley of ashes. But when George asks him
about this car, Tom replies, “Next week; I’ve got my man working on
it now” (25). The fact that Tom has his own mechanic “working on”
the car suggests that his promise to sell it to George is likely a false
16
David Parker, “The Great Gatsby: Two Versions of the Hero.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great
Gatsby: Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Infobase, 2004. 10.
one. It’s the first of many lies that Tom tells in order to exploit the
working-class characters in this chapter.…
2. As Nick is riding on a train through the

valley of ashes, he looks out the window
and perceives a billboard advertisement
featuring the enormous “eyes of Doctor
T.J. Eckleburg” (23). This eyeglasses
advertisement is described as having been
installed by an optician who sought “to
fatten his practice” (24). In the pre-modern
era, before the invention of billboards,
what might a pair of enormous eyes
peering down over humanity have symbolized? Why might Fitzgerald
choose to position such a symbol above an ash-covered industrial “waste
land” where working-class people like the Wilsons are forced to live and
work (24)? How might Fitzgerald use the billboard advertisement to deliver
a subtle message about life in the modern age?
In the pre-modern era, the image of two eyes peering down over
humanity would have been viewed as a symbol of God. But toward
the end of the 19th century, the German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche wrote, “God is dead. […] And we have killed him.”17 What
Nietzsche meant was that the Enlightenment ushered a new era in
which religion was no longer the central institution that shaped
people’s beliefs and behaviors. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald takes
this point one step further by suggesting that the role which
religion used to play in people’s lives has been usurped by consumer
capitalism. The watchful eyes of God have been replaced by the
beckoning eyes on every billboard advertisement. Fitzgerald’s
message would seem to be that, in the modern age, people are no
longer motivated to behave ethically by the religious promise that
their souls will end up in heaven; instead, people are lured into
becoming materialistic and pursuing instant gratification at any
cost by the promise that advertisements associate with commodity
consumption.
Why might Fitzgerald invoke the watchful eyes of God even as he

insinuates that God’s presence has been replaced by a billboard
advertisement? And why might the author have chosen to position
this billboard in the valley of ashes? Fitzgerald’s message may be
that God would disapprove of how an industrial-capitalist economy
generates material abundance for people like Tom and Daisy
Buchanan even as it imposes deprivation and hardship on people
like George and Myrtle Wilson.
17
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science. Mineola: Dover, 2006 [1882]. 81.
Spoiler Alert: Toward the end of the novel, George Wilson will look
up at T.J. Eckleburg’s enormous eyes and declare, “God sees
everything”; but another character will immediately correct him by
observing, “That’s an advertisement” (160). By juxtaposing these
two comments, Fitzgerald will reinforce this notion that the central
role which religion once played in people’s lives has been replaced
by the false gods of commercial advertisements and commodity
consumption.…
II. Myrtle Wilson
3. While Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson are riding in

a taxi through the streets of New York City, Myrtle
taps on the window and asserts, “I want to get one of
those dogs” (27). So the taxi stops next to a salesman
who is carrying a basket filled with “a dozen very
recent puppies of an indeterminate breed” (27). After
Myrtle asks whether the salesman has any “police
dogs,” the salesman pulls a brown dog out of his basket
and holds it up — provoking Tom to exclaim, “That’s no
police dog” (27). What might Tom’s comment about the
dog’s breed reveal about his values? When the
salesman places the puppy into Myrtle’s lap, she asks, “Is it a boy or a
girl?” (28). Does Myrtle’s question remind you of any previous scenes from
the novel? How might the parallel be significant?
It is telling Tom Buchanan cares more about the “breed” of the dog
than Myrtle does. When Tom asserts, “That’s no police dog,” his
objections about the “breed” of the puppy amount to a subtle
reminder of Tom’s belief in his own racial superiority as well as his
anxiety about the mixing of different races. Indeed, when the
salesman asserts that the dog is “an Airedale,” even Nick can see
that it is not a purebred puppy, for he states that “undoubtedly
there was an Airedale concerned in it somewhere, though its feet
were startlingly white” (28). For her part, Myrtle does not know
enough about dog breeds to express an opinion; instead, she is sold
on the salesman’s assertion that the puppy has a luxurious “coat”:
“she fondled the weatherproof coat with rapture” (28).
Fitzgerald establishes a parallel between Myrtle’s act of asking

whether the dog that Tom has purchased is “a boy or a girl” and
Daisy’s act of asking whether the child that she and Tom have
created is “a boy or a girl” (17, 28). What is the significance of this
parallel? Because Tom and Myrtle are not married, the moral code
of the 1920s prevents them from having a child. But Myrtle’s
request for Tom to purchase a newborn puppy amounts to a request
that they have something like a child together. Myrtle’s word choice
is telling: “I want to get one for the apartment. They’re nice to have
— a dog” (27). Myrtle’s request amounts to further evidence that
she is pushing a domestic narrative and expects that one day she’ll
be married to Tom.
Of course, the dog is just the first of many things that Myrtle
expresses a desire to purchase in this chapter. So here’s a follow-up
question that you might ask of students: Is this dog the only thing
that Myrtle expresses a desire to purchase in this chapter? What
other kinds of things does she express an interest in buying? What
might those things reveal about her personality?
Toward the end of the chapter, Myrtle makes a list of everything she
intends to purchase on the following day. Her act of making this list
reveals that Myrtle has a materialistic and acquisitive personality;
and it reflects that she aims to use commodities in order to elevate
her social status. She announces, “I’m going to make a list of all the
things I’ve got to get. A massage and a wave, and a collar for the
dog, and one of those cute little ash-trays where you touch a spring,
and a wreath with a black silk bow for mother’s grave that’ll last all
summer” (36). Here, Myrtle is engaging in the consumer behavior
that is enabled by her proximity Tom Buchanan’s wealth. Indeed,
Myrtle may even be indulging in a fantasy that she is Tom’s wife. For
her list expresses a desire to be the kind of woman who can afford to
devote an entire day to pampering herself, shopping for the latest
modern gadgets, and purchasing accessories for the mixed-breed
puppy that is their surrogate child. Because Myrtle has been stuck
living in the “valley of ashes,” it is especially telling that she wishes
to purchase an “ash-tray” with a spring-loaded button that would
make all the ashes magically disappear.
The ways in which Myrtle outfits herself in accessories intended to

convince herself and others that she belongs to higher social status
will get explored further in the discussion questions about her
clothing. But while she surrounds herself with objects that she
believes will elevate her social status, Myrtle’s reading habits give
her away as having low-brow tastes — and hence as belonging to a
lower social class. That’s why the next discussion question, about
Myrtle’s taste for tabloid magazines, is important.…
4. The magazines on Myrtle Wilson’s coffee table reveal a lot about her
interests and values. They include tabloid magazines like “Town Tattle” and
several “scandal magazines of Broadway” (29). Can you name any modern-
day magazines that would be the equivalent of Town Tattle? What do these
magazines reveal about Myrtle’s aesthetic tastes? What do they reveal
about her class position?
In the same way that Tom Buchanan’s reading tastes reveal a lot
about his personality and values, Myrtle Wilson’s reading tastes
reveal a lot about her personality and values. Myrtle’s coffee table is
littered with copies of tabloid magazines like Town Tattle, several
“scandal magazines” about Broadway actors, and popular novels like
Simon Called Peter (29). Tabloid magazines traffic in gossip and
scandalous stories about the private lives of public celebrities,
movie starts, and Broadway actors. The modern-day equivalents of
Town Tattle would include all those tabloids that can be found in
supermarket checkout lines: Star, Us Weekly, the National Enquirer,
etc.
What might Myrtle’s enthusiasm for tabloid magazines reveal about

her aesthetic tastes, her intellectual aptitude, or her aspirations for
her life? Myrtle’s taste in reading materials is definitively low-brow.
She has a soft spot for the short, easily digestible, highly
sensationalistic stories that appear in tabloid magazines. She may
have little capacity for appreciating the longer, intellectually
challenging, morally complex narratives found in high-brow
literature. Finally, Myrtle may enjoy reading about the lives of
celebrities because she aspires to become a celebrity herself: to
enjoy a similar level of fortune and fame.
Myrtle’s gaudy tastes are also revealed in her insistence upon riding
in a “lavender-colored” taxicab. Although Myrtle is married to an
auto mechanic, she doesn’t have access to an automobile and must
rely upon other characters when she wants to get out of the
seemingly inescapable valley of ashes. Literary scholar Dan Seiters
makes this point in his insightful article about the significance of
automobiles in the novel: “Myrtle, who meets Tom on a train and
rides to their trysting place in a cab, must depend on others for
transportation. With a single brushstroke — one of these taxi rides
— Fitzgerald sketches Myrtle: she ‘let four taxicabs drive away
before she selected a new one, lavender-colored with gray
upholstery.’”18 Perhaps because she has very little agency and choice
in her everyday life, Myrtle seizes upon the opportunity to be
selective or choosy when she is with her wealthy sugar daddy.
III: Do the Clothes Make the Man?
5. Beginning in Chapter 2, the clothing worn by various characters

becomes an important theme in The Great Gatsby. What clothing does
Myrtle Wilson wear in this chapter? How do Myrtle’s clothes influence how
she behaves?
Myrtle Wilson wears no fewer than three different outfits over the
course of Chapter 2. When she is walks down the stairs of her
husband’s garage, Myrtle is wearing a “spotted dress of dark blue
crèpe-de-chine” (25). Several minutes later, when she meets Tom
18
Dan Seiters, “Imagery and Symbolism in The Great Gatsby.” Bloom’s Guides: F. Scott
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. New York: Chelsea House, 2006. 82.
and Nick at the railroad station, Myrtle has changed into a “brown
figured muslin” (27). Later, after arriving at Tom’s apartment in
Washington Heights, Myrtle changes into an “elaborate afternoon
dress of cream-colored chiffon” (30). When Mrs. McKee
compliments Myrtle’s dress, saying, “I like your dress. […] I think
it’s adorable,” Myrtle dismisses the compliment by replying, “It’s
just a crazy old thing. […] I just slip it on sometimes when I don’t
care what I look like” (31). But by this point in the chapter, readers
can tell that Myrtle cares a lot about what she looks like; and we
know that such compliments are exactly what Myrtle had been
fishing for (31). By the end of the night, Myrtle announces that she’s
going to give the dress to Mrs. McKee and have Tom buy a new one
for her on the following day: “I’m going to give you this dress as
soon as I’m through with it. I’ve got to get another one tomorrow”
(36).
Why does Myrtle change her outfit multiple times over the course of
a single evening? What might each dress reveal about the identity
she hopes to project? Literary scholar Meredith Goldsmith offers the
following analysis of Myrtle’s wardrobe changes: “Anyone who
changes her clothes three times in one day has a point to make. […]
Myrtle begins in a ‘spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine,’
whose color suggests working-class respectability, while its fabric —
a bit dressy for work in a gas station — implies Myrtle’s yearning for
mobility. After changing for her trip to town, Myrtle uses color in an
attempt to approximate the Buchanans’ class position. […] Finally
clad in ‘an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon,’
Myrtle attempts to signify access to the Buchanan class through
color, costume, and gesture.”19
How do Myrtle’s clothes affect how she behaves? Myrtle’s act of

changing into the expensive cream-colored dress — which is
tellingly referred to as a “costume” — serves to inflate her ego and
makes her appear to grow larger (30). Before long, Myrtle begins to
behave like a larger-than-life actress or celebrity: “With the
influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change.
Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently
affected moment by moment, and as she expanded the room grew
smaller around her, until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy,
creaking pivot through the smoky air” (30-31). As Myrtle’s
personality expands, it begins to match the oversized furniture that
is described as being “entirely too large” for the apartment (29). By
the time that Mr. and Mrs. McKee begin to imagine that Myrtle is
“modelling” or “pos[ing]” for an imaginary photo shoot, readers
realize that Myrtle has succeeded in making herself the center of
attention at her own party (31). By the end of the night, Nick
reflects that the apartment has become so overcrowded that he feels
19
Meredith Goldsmith, “White Skin, White Mask: Passing, Posing, and Performing in The Great
Gatsby.” Modern Fiction Studies (Fall 2003): 459.
claustrophobic and wishes to leave. “I wanted to get out and walk
eastward toward the Park through the soft twilight, but each time I
tried to go I became entangled in some wild, strident argument
which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair” (35).
Meredith Goldsmith argues that while Myrtle’s decision to wear an

“elaborate afternoon dress of cream-colored chiffon” may reflect her
“attempt” to “signify access to the Buchanan class,” it ultimately
registers Myrtle’s distance from the Buchanans: “In contrast to the
elaborateness of Myrtle’s gown, Fitzgerald notes only the whiteness
of Daisy’s dresses, underscoring the simple elegance Myrtle lacks.
The distinction between ‘cream’ and ‘white’ marks a colorized class
boundary, as the two shades differentiate themselves along the lines
of excess versus simplicity, maternal sexuality versus non-
reproductive asceticism.”20 The description of Myrtle’s clothing is
not the only device that Fitzgerald uses to establish how she differs
from Daisy Buchanan. For example, where Daisy gets described as
having a “glowing face” that attracts the rays of the setting sun,
Myrtle is described as having a “thickish figure” that “blocked out
the light” (14, 35). And when Myrtle announces her intention to
make a list of all the things she plans to purchase, her use of the
idiom “I got” betrays her class origins: “I got to write down a list so
I won’t forget all the things I got to do” (36).
One source for Fitzgerald’s construction of Myrtle may have been

the character of Madame Merle in Henry James’s novel The Portrait
of a Lady (1881). When advising protagonist Isabel Archer on how to
court a man, Madame Merle asserts, “When you have lived as long
as I, you will see that every human being has his shell, and that you
must take the shell into account. By the shell I mean the whole
envelope of circumstances. […] I know that a large part of myself is
in the dresses I choose to wear. I have a great respect for things!
One’s self — for other people — is one’s expression of one’s self; and
one’s house, one’s clothes, the book one reads, the company one
keeps — these things are all expressive.”
20
Meredith Goldsmith, “White Skin, White Mask: Passing, Posing, and Performing in The Great
Gatsby.” Modern Fiction Studies (Fall 2003): 460.
6. In addition to choosing her clothing with care, Myrtle pays close
attention to the clothes that other characters are wearing. When she first
meets Tom Buchanan, what does she notice about him? What does Myrtle
remember about her wedding to George Wilson? What might these
memories reveal about Myrtle’s values?
Myrtle Wilson clearly perceives clothing as the sign of a person’s

class position. Reflecting back on the day when she first met Tom
Buchanan, Myrtle can recall exactly what Tom was wearing: “He had
on a dress suit and patent leather shoes, and I couldn’t keep my
eyes off him” (36). Is Tom’s expensive clothing the reason why
Myrtle “couldn’t keep [her] eyes off him”? Readers would be
justified in wondering whether Myrtle is attracted first and foremost
to Tom’s personality or to the social status reflected in his clothing.
What Myrtle remembers most vividly about her wedding ceremony is

that George Wilson “borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married
in” (35). Myrtle exclaims that ever since she learned that George
was wearing a “borrowed” suit, she has felt that she was tricked into
thinking he was a “gentleman”: “I married him because I thought he
was a gentleman. […] I thought he knew something about breeding,
but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe” (34). Ironically, then, what Myrtle
shares with Tom Buchanan is an investment in social hierarchy and
a sense of her inherent superiority.
Fitzgerald’s understanding of the status hierarchy in the United

States was informed by sociologist Thorstein Veblen’s book The
Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). Veblen was the scholar who
coined the term “conspicuous consumption” to describe how
wealthy people leverage their excessive disposable income to
purchase things that have very little practical utility but that reflect
their membership in the upper class. In a chapter of his book
entitled “Dress as an Expression of the Pecuniary Culture,” Veblen
argued that “expenditure for display is more universally practiced in
the matter of dress than in any other line of consumption.” 21 Here’s
a follow-up question that you might put to your students: What
might Fitzgerald be using these passages to reveal about the
connection between clothing and social status? When does a
person’s clothing serve as a reliable sign or indicator of their social
status? When does a person’s clothing obfuscate their status?
Myrtle Wilson plays an important role in Fitzgerald’s novel because

she is the only working-class character whose personality gets
fleshed out in any depth. Because this is the only chapter in which
Myrtle will make a lengthy appearance, it is important that students
devote some time to understanding her character. If your students
have yet to arrive at a deep understanding of Myrtle’s character, you
might ask this follow-up question: In a letter to his Scribners editor,
21
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Penguin Books, 1994 [1899]. 167.
Max Perkins, Fitzgerald declared that he had done a better job of
fleshing out the character of Myrtle Wilson than that of Daisy
Buchanan. Because Fitzgerald seems to have taken a good deal of
care in his construction of Myrtle, it may be important to discuss
the significance of her character. How is she portrayed? What type
of person does she represent? Is she similar to any other
characters? How?
IV. Tom Buchanan: The Affair
7. Do Tom and Myrtle share the same

understanding of the nature of their relationship?
First, does Tom want a permanent relationship
with Myrtle? Or does he merely view her as a
temporary expedient for his sexual appetites?
Second, does Myrtle believe that her relationship
with Tom will amount to a permanent ticket into
his world of wealth? Or is she merely exploiting
him in order to satisfy her material
acquisitiveness? Finally, given your answers to
the questions above, who would you describe as
holding the power in their relationship? Who is
taking the most advantage of whom?
Readers learn about what Myrtle is hoping to get out of her

relationship with Tom thanks to what her sister says about them.
Catherine tells Nick, “Neither of them can stand the person they’re
married to. […] If I was them I’d get a “Her husband, among various
divorce and get married to each other right physical accomplishments,
had been one of the most
away” (33). But Tom clearly has no intention powerful ends that ever
of divorcing Daisy or marrying Myrtle. This played football at New Haven
topic will get explored further in the next — a natinoal figure in a way,
one of those men who reach
discussion question.… such an acute limited
excellence at twenty-one that
8. What do you make of Tom Buchanan’s assertion, as reported by Myrtle’s
sister, Catherine, that he is unable to divorce Daisy because “his wife [is]
keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce”
(33)? If Tom doesn’t intend to divorce Daisy and marry Myrtle, why would
he decide to flaunt his affair with Myrtle by “turn[ing] up in popular
restaurants with her and […] chatting with whomever he knew” (24)? What
do Tom’s words and actions reveal about his personality?
Tom Buchanan has clearly been manipulating Myrtle by leading her

to believe that he intends to marry her. Myrtle’s sister announces
that the only thing keeping Tom from breaking up with Daisy and
marrying Myrtle is the fact that Daisy refuses to get a divorce
because she’s Catholic: “It’s really his wife that’s keeping them
apart. She’s a Catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce” (33). But
Nick knows that Tom has been lying to Myrtle by telling her that
Daisy is a Catholic. Nick observes, “Daisy was not a Catholic, and I
was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie” (33). What this
reveals about Tom is that he’s willing to lie to this working-class
woman so that he can continue to exploit her body for his own
pleasure. Would it be going too far to say that while Myrtle believes
she’s going to marry Tom, Tom treats Myrtle like his own personal
prostitute?
Name: ________________________

I. The Ambiance at Gatsby’s Party
1. The opening pages of Chapter 3 are

devoted to describing Gatsby’s party.
How does the narrator describe the
ambiance at Gatsby’s party? How do the
guests comport themselves? How might
the party be related to the painting that
Fitzgerald chose for the cover of The
Great Gatsby? Finally, how does the
party that Gatsby hosts in Chapter 3
differ from the dinner party that the
Buchanans hosted in Chapter 1?
What’s distinctively modern about

Gatsby’s parties create a
carnivalesque environment where the
guests are not limited to interacting
with people from their own social
circle or socioeconomic background.
Instead, the guests are free to
circulate widely amongst one another in the same way that they
might at a popular entertainment
venue such as an amusement park. Image of a 1920s party from Lonnie
Lehman’s Fashion in the Time of The Great
When describing the party, Nick Gatsby. Shire Publications, 2013. 18.
paints a scene of constant circulation and perpetual movement:
“The groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve
and form in the same breath; already there are wanderers, confident
girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable,
become for a sharp, joyous moment the center of a group, and then,
excited with triumph, glide on through the sea-change of faces and
voices and color under the constantly changing light” (40-41). Not
only does the verb “change” get repeated three times in this
sentence, but the nouns get outnumbered and displaced in their
importance by the proliferation of verbs which emphasize
movement: “change,” “swell,” “dissolve,” “weave,” “glide.” Indeed,
by constructing a sentence with a seemingly endless succession of
verb clauses, Fitzgerald may have sought to take readers on a kind
of roller-coaster ride, giving us an experience of what it must have
felt like to be a guest within the perpetual-motion machine of
Gatsby’s party. Fitzgerald also describes the partygoers by using
water metaphors — for example, “swirls and eddies of people” — in
order to emphasize the fluidity of their movements (42).
The subtext for these descriptions is that Gatsby’s house party
amounts to a form of popular entertainment analogous to an
amusement park or World’s Fair. The narrator observes that the
guests at Gatsby’s party “conducted themselves according to the
rules of behavior associated with an amusement park” (41). This
reference to an “amusement park” gains added significance when
interpreted in light of the painting of Coney Island that Fitzgerald
requested for his editor to reserve for the cover of The Great
Gatsby.22
Why might this reference to an “amusement park” be important to

Fitzgerald’s portrait of life in the modern era? In the late 19 th
century, during the Gilded Age, many Americans found themselves
with more disposable income as well as more leisure time with
which to spend it. The demand for leisure activities was met by the
development of hundreds of amusement parks in cities and small
towns across the U.S. And the amusement park on Coney Island,
which is located just 30 miles from Gatsby’s house in West Egg, was
the largest amusement park in the United States from the 1880s
through the 1940s. In the years following World War I, people
seemed to covet more exciting forms of entertainment, and this
desire was met by the development of Ferris wheels and roller
coasters. In 1920, Coney Island opened a 150-foot Ferris wheel
called the “Wonder Wheel” — which gets depicted as a luminous
yellow circle on the cover of The Great Gatsby. But most
importantly…
Amusement parks represented both the positive and the negative

aspects of American culture in the Roaring Twenties. Indeed, the
popularity of amusement parks provoked cultural observes to feel
the same mix of conflicting emotions that Nick feels when he looks
out at the carnivalesque ambiance of Gatsby’s party. On the one
hand, when viewed from a positive perspective, amusement parks
were taken to represent quintessentially American values like
democracy, equality, and inclusivity. Not only did amusement parks
provide a form of entertainment that was affordable and accessible
to people from all classes, but they created opportunities for people
from difference cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds to mix and
intermingle in a manner that was historically unprecedented.
Literary scholar Philip McGowan observes that Gatsby’s party
fosters a similar “environment of political equality and
democratization” because its carnival atmosphere “suspends the
22
This is the first of many passages in which Gatsby’s parties and possessions get compared to
mass entertainment venues like amusement parks and circuses. In Chapter 5, Nick will observe
that Gatsby’s luminous mansion “looks like the World’s Fair”; and Gatsby will invite Nick to join
him on a trip to the amusement park at Coney Island: “Let’s go to Coney Island, old sport” (81).
And in Chapter 7, Tom Buchanan will refer to Gatsby’s yellow Rolls Royce as a “circus wagon”
(121).
social organizations, hierarchies, and prohibitions of outside
America.”23
On the other hand, when viewed from a negative perspective,

amusement parks generated anxieties about the massification of
American culture. In the early 20th century, sociologists began to
express concern that the massification of modern life — evident in
everything from mass production and mass consumption to mass
entertainment and mass spectacle — was causing people to lose
touch with their individuality and their capacity to think critically,
resulting in increasing conformity and group-think.24 As we have
seen, Nick’s description of the guests at Gatsby’s party gives the
impression that they meld or blend together into “swirls and eddies
of people” (42). Literary scholar Philip McGowan points out that
Gatsby’s party threatens to press its diverse attendees into an
undifferentiated mass: “Gatsby’s partygoers form one homogeneous
mass of temporarily equated identity in a carnival realm constructed
purely for purposes of spectacle. […] The differentiated identities of
these people merge under the influence of alcohol and within the
highly colored carnival environment of Gatsby’s mansion.” 25 If your
students seem intrigued by this dualistic aspect of Gatsby’s party,
then you might ask this follow-up question: When he is first exposed
to the carnivalesque atmosphere of Gatsby’s party, does Nick
respond primarily with admiration or repulsion? Why?
Finally, why does Nick spill so much ink on the question of whether
the guests at Gatsby’s party were “invited”? Why, for example, does
Nick assert, “I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s
house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited.
People were not invited — they went there. They got into
automobiles which bore them out to Long Island, and somehow they
ended up at Gatsby’s door” (41)?
The question of whether the guests at Gatsby’s parties are “invited”

is significant because it sheds light on how the parties that Gatsby
hosts in West Egg differ from the parties that old-money families
like the Buchanans host in East Egg. In Chapter 1, the dinner party
hosted by Tom Buchanan was attended only by people who had been
formally invited. If anyone else were to have shown up, they would
have been promptly turned away. For Tom embodies the forces that
fortify class boundaries and regiment social hierarchies. Tom’s
anxious need to fortify borders and boundaries was reflected in his
23
Philip McGowan, “The American Carnival of The Great Gatsby.” Connotations 15:1-3
(2005/2006): 146.
24
For examples of such scholarship, see Theodore Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays
on Mass Culture. New York: Routledge, 1991. See also Guy Dubord, The Society of the Spectacle.
Brooklyn: Zone Books, 2017 [1967].
25
Philip McGowan, “The American Carnival of The Great Gatsby.” Connotations 15:1-3
(2005/2006): 146.
concern that the “rise” of “other races” would leave white people
“utterly submerged” (12-13). In Chapter 3, by contrast, the house
party hosted by Gatsby is open to all comers; the people who attend
do not need a formal invitation any more than they need to have a
specific racial, religious, or class background. Thus, Gatsby’s party
might be said to embody a spirit of democracy and inclusivity. And
whereas Tom embodies the forces that would solidify boundaries,
Gatsby embodies the forces that would dissolve class boundaries and
overturn social hierarchies.
There is one last reason why Fitzgerald keeps returning to the

question of whether the guests at Gatsby’s party have been invited.
In the early twentieth century, newly rich people were often
described dismissively as “uninvited guests.” That is, the nouveau
riche — or people who possessed “new money” — were framed as
people who had not been invited into the upper class and whose
membership there was dubious.
2. Jordan Baker arrives at Gatsby’s party with a group of “three married

couples” who live in East Egg (44). How do the people from East Egg
comport themselves at Gatsby’s party in West Egg? Do they engage in the
same behavior as everyone else? Why or why not? What might their
behavior reveal about relations between East Egg and West Egg?
The group with whom Jordan Baker has arrived at Gatsby’s party
situate themselves on the outskirts of the party, at a table located
“on the other side of the garden” (44). Instead of circulating
amongst the other partygoers, the group from East Egg maintain
their separation, close ranks, and look haughtily down upon the
chaos around them: “Instead of rambling, this party had preserved a
dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of
representing the staid nobility of the countryside — East Egg
condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its
spectroscopic gayety” (44). By describing this group as preserving
its “staid nobility,” Nick implies that they maintain a bearing of
composure — and an attitude of condescension — that is often
associated with aristocracy.
It is telling that even Jordan Baker — herself an embodiment of

composure and stylized boredom — will find this group to be too
aloof for her tastes. Exclaiming that the group from East Egg is
“much too polite for me,” Jordan whisks Nick away under the
pretense of wanting to find the host (45).
II. Encountering Gatsby
3. It is not until the third chapter that the narrator meets the title character
of The Great Gatsby. When they do finally meet, Nick is initially unaware
that the person he’s talking to is Gatsby. Why might the author wait so long
to introduce the title character? Shortly after Nick meets his neighbor,
Gatsby is ushered away to take a phone call: “Almost at the moment when
Mr. Gatsby identified himself, a butler hurried toward him with the
information that Chicago was calling him on the wire” (48). What is the
significance of Gatsby’s disappearance? Does it recall scenes from other
chapters?
This question builds upon a discussion question from Chapter 1

about how Fitzgerald uses the conventions of the detective novel to
generate an aura of mystery around the title character. Throughout
the early chapters, Fitzgerald endows Gatsby’s presence with a
rhythm of appearance and disappearance: the outline of his
character seems to come into focus in one moment, only to
evaporate or vanish in the next moment. For example, when Jordan
tells Nick that she heard Gatsby say he was “an Oxford man,” Nick
asserts that “a dim background began to take shape behind him”
(49). But when Jordan exclaims, “However, I don’t believe it,” Nick
concludes that the background which had begun to take shape
suddenly “faded away” (49). This rhythm of appearance and
disappearance has the effect of leaving the title character’s
personality and background enshrouded in mystery and
indeterminacy.
The aura of mystery that surrounds Gatsby gets amplified when the
guests at his party begin to traffic in second-hand rumors that cast
the host in a certain moral light. One guest exclaims, “Somebody
told me they thought he killed a man once”; then a second guest
declares, “it’s more that he was a German spy during the war” (44).
The first guest refutes the second guest’s rumor by sharing a
perspective that casts the host in a positive light: “[I]t couldn’t be
that, because he was in the American army during the war” (44).
When Gatsby is redeemed by the first guest’s affirming news that he
was “in the American army,” Nick reports that the audience’s
“credulity switched back to her”; but in the very next moment, the
first guest reverts to speculative slander, saying, “I’ll bet he killed a
man” (44). At the same time, the first guest’s positive assertion
seems to get substantiated later in the chapter when a man who will
turn out to be Gatsby tells Nick, “I was in the Seventh Infantry until
June nineteen-eighteen” (47). So not only is Gatsby’s background
enshrouded in mystery, but the speculations about his character are
marked by moral oscillation. The rumor-mongering that surrounds
Gatsby oscillates between positive and negative perspectives on his
character. This raises a question that will become increasingly
important as the novel progresses: Is Gatsby a hero or a villain?
Why might it be significant that Nick’s first meeting with Gatsby

gets abruptly interrupted by a phone call from Chicago? At the time
when Fitzgerald was writing The Great Gatsby, the city of Chicago
was widely renowned for its corruption. The outlawing of alcohol
during the Prohibition gave rise to criminal gangs that engaged in
the highly profitable business of “bootlegging”: making and selling
alcohol during a time when it was illegal. For example, Al Capone
was the boss of a criminal gang called the Chicago Outfit which
smuggled liquor from Canada into the United States. Capone was
not afraid to use violence in order to increase his gang’s profits; the
drinking establishments that refused to purchase alcohol from his
syndicate were often bombed, resulting in the deaths of up to 100
people during the 1920s. But Capone developed a relationship with
the Chicago mayor and the city police that enabled him to pursue
such illegal activities without facing arrest or prosecution. It was
not until the Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929, when seven
members of a rival gang were murdered in broad daylight, that
public opinion turned against Capone and he was eventually
arrested.
Gatsby’s act of disappearing into his house in order to answer a

telephone call echoes two scenes from previous chapters.….
First, Fitzgerald establishes a parallel between what happened at

the end of Chapter 1 when Gatsby seemed to be gazing at a “green
light” and then suddenly “vanished” into the darkness and what
happens in Chapter 3 when Gatsby is talking animatedly with Nick
and then disappears to answer a telephone call. “Almost at the
moment when Mr. Gatsby identified himself, a butler hurried toward
him with the information that Chicago was calling him on the wire.
He excused himself with a small bow that included each of us in
turn” (48). What literary device does the butler use when he
announces that “Chicago” is attempting to get through to Gatsby on
the telephone? When the butler announces that “Chicago” is calling,
he uses a metonym: that is, he identifies the caller by referring to a
place or object located in physical proximity to him. In this case, the
use of a metonym has the effect of obscuring the identity of the
caller even as it raises our suspicions about the caller’s purpose.
Second, Fitzgerald establishes a parallel between what had

happened in Chapter 1 at the Buchanans’ dinner party and what
happens in Chapter 3 at Gatsby’s house party. At both parties, the
host is interrupted by a telephone call that he feels obliged to
answer in private, requiring him to rather awkwardly excuse himself
and then disappear for a few minutes. In both cases, the telephone
call amounts to a sign that the host is caught up in some kind of
immoral activity. At the same time, neither the narrator nor the
readers is granted access to the verbal exchanges that transpire on
these telephone calls. So we can only speculate about why each host
agrees to answer the call, whom they talk to, and what they talk
about.
Throughout The Great Gatsby, narrator Nick Carraway will establish

a stark contrast between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. The
differences are indisputable and extremely important. But author F.
Scott Fitzgerald may also establish a number of subtle parallels
between Tom and Gatsby. These parallels may prompt readers to
reflect on whether the two characters may have more in common
than the narrator is willing to admit.
4. At several moments Chapter 3, Nick portrays Gatsby as a solitary figure

frozen in a static tableau. In the middle of the party, Nick sees Gatsby
“standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another
with approving eyes” (50). And at the end of the party, Nick looks back and
observes that the “emptiness” of the house frames the host as a figure in
“complete isolation” (55). What do these two images of Gatsby have in
common? How do Nick’s memories of Gatsby serve to cast the title
character in a certain light?
Fitzgerald establishes a stark contrast between the behavior of the

guests at Gatsby’s party and the behavior of Gatsby himself. While
the vast majority of the guests indulge in perpetual movement and
promiscuous mixing, the host is described as standing apart and
alone: sober, solitary, and stationary. But unlike the residents of
East Egg, Gatsby does not remove himself from the general revelry
in order to look down upon the revelers: after all, he looks at each
group with “approving eyes.” Instead, Gatsby removes himself in
order to play the role of a benign parent or guardian committed to
safeguarding the well-being of his guests. He gets framed as a kind
of sentinel who is standing vigil.
By emphasizing Gatsby’s solitude, Nick may also make the

paradoxical suggestion that Gatsby has been excluded from his own
party. Not only does Nick describe Gatsby as “standing alone on the
marble steps,” but he later describes him as standing alone “on the
porch” with an aura of “complete isolation.” The effect of these
descriptions is to endow Gatsby with pathos and to portray him as a
sympathetic character. In the novel’s final chapter, we’ll see an even
more dramatic example of how Nick endows the solitary figure of Jay
Gatsby with pathos.…
Fitzgerald attended a party in 1923 at Clarence Mackay’s mansion, “Harbor Hill,” which is
located on Long Island and was built between 1899 and 1905. Harbor Hill may have provided
Fitzgerald with the source material for Gatsby’s mansion.
III. Gatsby’s Speaking & Reading Habits
5. From the moment of their first encounter, Gatsby begins to address Nick
with the chummy term, “old sport.” Gatsby repeats the term “old sport” five
times in this chapter (47, 48, 53). Yet Nick observes that Gatsby’s use of
this “familiar expression” seemed to hold “no more familiarity than the
hand which reassuringly brushed my shoulder” (53). What might Gatsby’s
attempt to invoke a “familiar expression” reveal about his character? And
what might Gatsby’s repeated use of this stock phrase reveal about his
character?
Given that Nick and Gatsby have only just met one another, it should
strike readers as odd that Gatsby would use of the term “old sport”
when addressing a stranger. For the term “old sport” presumes a
certain familiarity between the speaker and the person being
addressed. The term “old sport” resembles terms like “buddy” and
“old friend” insofar as it implies that two people have known each
other for a long time. That’s why Nick refers to this address term as
a “familiar expression”: it presumes a “familiarity” between the
speaker and his addressee. So Gatsby may use the term “old sport”
in order to curry favor with the people he meets, to ingratiate
himself with strangers, and to quickly bridge the distance between
himself and other people.
Yet if the term “old sport” presumes a certain “familiarity,” the term
also suggests a certain “formality” (48). Throughout this chapter,
Nick repeatedly notices that Gatsby’s speech and demeanor are so
formal that they seem contrived. For example, upon first meeting
Gatsby, Nick reports that his “elaborate formality of speech just
missed being absurd” (48). Nick is left with the “strong impression
that he was picking his words with care” (48). And when Gatsby is
saying goodbye to his guests, Nick reports that his “manner
tightened abruptly into formality” (52). Why might Gatsby want to
project an air of formality? Why might he invest so much care and
concentration into his selection of words?
While it may be too early for readers to arrive at satisfactory

answers to those questions, Nick does acknowledge that he
oscillates between viewing Gatsby as an upper-class gentleman and
viewing him as a working-class “roughneck” (48). When he is
basking in the glow of Gatsby’s smile, Nick has the impression that
Gatsby’s charming mannerisms and general charisma reflect the
breeding of a wealthy gentleman. But in the moment when Gatsby’s
smile suddenly “vanishe[s],” Nick is left with the impression that he
is talking to a “roughneck” who is merely emulating the
mannerisms of a gentleman: “Precisely at that point it vanished —
and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over
thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being
absurd” (48). Gatsby’s reliance upon a single stock phrase reveals
that he has not achieved a complete ease and fluency with upper-
class speech patterns.
Spoiler Alert: Gatsby’s efforts to quickly bridge the distance between

himself and others is related to his class position. Because he’s a
newcomer to the world of wealth, Gatsby may use the term “old
sport” to imply that he and his interlocutors share a long history as
members of the same social class. Indeed, it is probably no
coincidence that the term “old sport” bears a resemblance to the
term “old money.”
Note to Teachers: You shouldn’t feel like you need to cover the topic
of Gatsby’s speech patterns thoroughly when addressing this early
chapter. In subsequent chapters, Gatsby’s speech and behavior will
get explored in greater depth. Throughout the 9 chapters of
Fitzgerald’s novel, Gatsby will end up repeating the term “old sport”
no fewer than 43 times!
6. When Nick and Jordan enter Gatsby’s

library, a character named Owl Eyes is
amazed to find that the books in Gatsby’s
library are real: “Absolutely real — have
pages and everything” (45). What had Owl
Eyes expected to find? When he examines
the books more closely, Owl Eyes declares,
“Knew when to stop, too — didn’t cut the
pages” (46). What might the pages in
Gatsby’s books reveal about the purpose of
his library? Finally, why might Nick give the nickname “Owl Eyes” to this
character? How might this name be revealing?
Side view of a book with pages left
Because Nick feels uncomfortable
being at a house party where he has yet to meet the host, Nick and
Jordan get up from their table and set out in search of Gatsby. After
looking for Gatsby at the bar, the veranda, and the steps leading up
to the house, Nick and Jordan walk into Gatsby’s house and
eventually find themselves inside a “high Gothic library” (45).
Literary scholars point out that Gatsby’s library amounts to a
symbolic setting insofar as it is an inner sanctum of the house that
is inaccessible to most partygoers: “In some ways, situated far into
the house, concealed from most and away from the parties, the
library symbolizes the kernel of substance at the heart of the
mythical Gatsby.”26 Later in the chapter, it is to the library that
Gatsby will take Jordan Baker when he wishes to share certain
personal details about his life and ask her to do a personal favor
(which readers will learn about in the next chapter).
When Owl Eyes entered Gatsby’s library, he expects to find that the
bookshelves are lined with fake books: that is, cardboard replicas of
the spines of books lined up in rows. He exclaims, “I thought they’d
be nice durable cardboard” (45). Owl Eyes expects the books to be
fake because he realizes that Gatsby is putting on a façade for his
guests; he may even perceive that Gatsby’s lavish parties are
intended primarily to showcase his wealth. However, what Owl Eyes
discovers when he pulls a volume of the Stoddard Lectures off the
shelf is that the books in Gatsby’s library are not fake or artificial
but real and genuine: “Absolutely real — have pages and everything”
(45). Thus, while Owl Eyes initially suspects that Gatsby’s library is
just a façade, he comes to perceive that there may be something
genuine about it. Indeed, Owl Eyes stands out from the other party
guests for being interested in — and capable of perceiving — both
surfaces and depths. But there’s more…
Owl Eyes’s discovery that Gatsby’s books “have pages” is followed

almost immediately by a second discovery that nearly negates or
cancels out the first. For upon opening the Stoddard Lectures, Owl
Eyes realizes that Gatsby “didn’t cut the pages” (46). What does Owl
Eyes mean when he observes that Gatsby “didn’t cut the pages”?
When books are printed using letterpress devices, large pieces of
folded paper are bound together to make a book. Because the pages
are folded, they have to be cut before they can be read. If the pages
of Gatsby’s books remain uncut, what does that suggest? The
answer, of course, is that, while his library may be filled with real
books, Gatsby has not devoted the time to read any of those books.
Here’s a follow-up question that you might ask of your students:
What does that suggest about Gatsby’s reasons for having the
26
“Summary and Analysis.” Bloom’s Guides: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. New York:
Chelsea House, 2006. 38.
books? To the owner of this library, is the value of a book realized
when it is read or when it is displayed?
Why might Owl Eyes compliment Gatsby’s “realism” and describe

him as “a regular Belasco” (45)? David Belasco was playwright,
director, and theater producer who was renowned for his insistence
that actors perform in a natural style and that stage sets feature
authentic props. For example, the stage set of one of Belasco’s plays
featured a functioning kitchen where the authors cooked onstage,
while another stage set included an operational laundromat. So
what is the effect of referring to Gatsby as a “regular Belasco”? By
comparing Gatsby to a director and producer, Owl Eyes implies that
Gatsby has converted his house into a stage set; but by comparing
Gatsby to a director who insisted on naturalistic stage sets, Owl Eyes
implies that Gatsby spared no expense to ensure that the
performance would seem authentic. Upon returning the book
“hastily” to its place on the shelf, Owl Eyes speculates that “if one
book was removed the whole library was liable to collapse” (46).
Finally, why might Nick refer to the man in the library as “Owl
Eyes”? The very nickname that the narrator gives to Owl Eyes
invokes the thematic distinction between eyesight and insight,
superficial seeing and deeper vision. Owls have large eyes so they
can see with precision in the dark; owls are also the bird associated
with wisdom. How might Owl Eyes embody insight or deeper vision?
Despite having poor eyesight and needing to wear thick spectacles,
Owl Eyes is one of the only guests at Gatsby’s party who endeavors
to “see” a deeper side to the host’s theatrics and personality.
Whereas other characters take what they see at face value, enjoying
the carnival atmosphere of the party and indulging in speculative
rumors about the host, Owl Eyes endeavors to look beyond such
surfaces, to peer more deeply, to understand Gatsby’s personality
traits and internal motivations. It is no accident that Owl Eyes
begins a number sentences with exclamations like “See!” and
“Look!” (45, 53, 55). Although Owl Eyes is initially constructed as a
comic character, he comes to play a role similar to that of the “fool”
or jester in William Shakespeare’s plays; for it is Shakespeare’s
jesters who inevitably become the source of insight and wisdom in
each play.
As we will see, this willingness to look beyond surface appearances

and to get to know a deeper side of Gatsby is also what will
distinguish the narrator, Nick Carraway. Other than Nick, Owl Eyes
seems to be the only character who is curious about the question of
where the guests at Gatsby’s parties have come from. He asks Nick,
“Who brought you?” (46). This question gets echoed in the
questions that Nick asks Jordan about Gatsby: “Who is he? […]
Where is he from, I mean? And what does he do?” (48-49). Thus,
Nick Carraway and Owl Eyes resemble one another in that they’re
the characters who express a genuine curiosity about who other
people are, where they come from, and how they came to be
themselves.
Spoiler Alert: Admittedly, it may be too early to conclude that Owl

Eyes perceives that there’s something genuine about Gatsby hidden
beneath his elaborate façade. But this interpretation is suggested by
the fact that Owl Eyes will return to Gatsby’s house even after the
parties have ended. Indeed, this character’s ability to perceive
Gatsby’s inner depth may be why he’s the only partygoer who, in the
novel’s last chapter, will pay tribute to the host by attending his
funeral.
IV. Mechanized Technologies: Machines & Automobiles
7. This chapter opens with an account of the extensive preparations that go

into Gatsby’s parties. For example, here is the narrator’s description of how
the juice gets prepared: “Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons
arrived from a fruiterer in New York — every Monday these same oranges
and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves. There was a
machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred
oranges in half an hour if a little button was pressed two hundred times by
a butler’s thumb” (39-40). What happens to human labor in this account of
how the juice gets made? What happens to the worker’s body? How might
the “machine” that processes hundreds of citrus fruits amount to a
metaphor for what happens at Gatsby’s parties?
In the paragraph quoted in this discussion question, Fitzgerald

frames inanimate objects — that is, fruit and machines — as being
the agents of the action. The oranges and lemons “arrived” as if on
their own; the machine in the kitchen magically “extract[ed]” the
juice; then the oranges “left” after forming themselves into a
pyramid shape. To be sure, a “butler’s thumb” made a small
contribution by pressing a button two hundred times every half
hour. But it is telling that this “thumb” is described as if it were an
agent unto itself, as if it had become detached from the body and
mind of the butler. What Fitzgerald has effectively done here is offer
a narrative representation of Karl Marx’s theory of “commodity
fetishism”: under a capitalist economy, commodities seem to be
endowed with inherent value and agency even as humans seem to be
deprived of it.
The preparations for Gatsby’s house party clearly require an

enormous amount of human labor. So what’s most significant about
the paragraph quoted above is that all of the human labor gets
effaced. Literary critic Dan Coleman was the first scholar to draw
attention to that aspect of the paragraph: “The butler doesn’t press
the button; the button is pressed by a butler’s thumb. […] This
seemingly explicit account of the origins of the juice consumed at
Gatsby’s party obscures entirely the agency of those responsible for
making the fruit arrive as oranges and lemons and leave as empty
peels.”27
The labor performed by Gatsby’s servants will continue to get

effaced long after the preparations for the party are complete. Later
in the chapter, the food at the party will get described as having
been “produced […] out of a caterer’s basket” (43). Do baskets
produce food? The drinks available to Gatsby’s guests are similarly
described as appearing out of thin air: “A tray of cocktails floated at
us through the twilight and we sat down at a table with the two girls
in yellow and three men, each one introduced to us as Mr. Mumble”
(43). In this sentence, the tray of cocktails is framed as having the
magic ability to “float” through the air even as the waiter who is
presumably carrying the tray of cocktails gets rendered invisible.
How might the narrator’s description of the “machine” that

processes fruit resemble the assembly line manufacturing process
that was becoming the dominant form of industrial production in
the 1920s? In the first two decades of the 20th century, the invention
of the assembly line transformed the conditions of human labor in a
radical and irrevocable way. Prior to the 20th century, skilled
tradespersons such as cobblers and carpenters made use of their
whole bodies — not to mention their minds — when creating new
commodities such as shoes and tables. But after the labor process
was mechanized, workers on an assembly line used a single part of
the body to perform the same action over and over again for the
entire workday. As a result, workers began to report that they felt as
if their bodies were becoming fragmented, separated into discrete
parts, and detached from their minds. So Fitzgerald’s analysis of the
labor performed by the butler’s “thumb” may amount to a subtle
critique of how the mechanization of labor in the modern era could
result in such bodily fragmentation.
Here’s a follow-up question that invites students to reflect on the

similarities and differences between the party that Jay Gatsby
throws in Chapter 3 and the party that Myrtle Wilson throws in
Chapter 2: How does the role that service labor plays at Gatsby’s
party compare with the role that service labor played at Myrtle’s
party?
Whereas the servants at Gatsby’s party seem to magically disappear,

Myrtle Wilson had attempted to make service workers magically
appear or materialize. Although Myrtle is not wealthy enough to
employ any service workers, she treats the elevator operator as if he
27
Dan Coleman, “‘A World Complete In Itself’: Gatsby's Elegiac Narration.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
The Great Gatsby: Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea
House, 2004. 175.
were a servant by sending him on errands. First, Myrtle sends the
“reluctant elevator-boy” to acquire a “box full of straw and some
milk” for her new puppy (29). After sending this elevator operator
on a second errand, this time for ice, Myrtle has the audacity to
disparage his work ethic, saying, “I told that boy about the ice. […]
These people! You have to keep after them all the time” (32).
According to the narrator, Myrtle enters the kitchen as if “a dozen
chefs awaited her orders” (32). In these ways, Myrtle attempts to
shore up her social status by making it seem as if she were waited
on by servants.
Here’s a follow-up question intended to connect this discussion

question with the next one: How might Fitzgerald’s description of
the machines that make the juice for Gatsby’s parties be connected
to what happens at the end of the chapter when an automobile
crashes into a ditch? How might the obscuring of human agency
evidenced in the first scene be connected to the evacuation of
ethical responsibility evidenced in the second scene? Does the
automobile steer itself into a ditch, or does a driver steer the
automobile into a ditch?
8. As Nick is leaving Gatsby’s party, he encounters an automobile — a “new

coupé” — that has veered into the ditch and lost a wheel (53). When the
driver finally opens the door, he seems
incapable of comprehending that he
may have been responsible for driving
the car off the road. The driver
inquires, “Wha’s matter? […] Did we
run outa gas?” (54). He then admits,
“At first I din’ notice we’d stopped”
(55). What might Fitzgerald be trying to
suggest about how people living in the
1920s were adapting to mechanized
technology? Does he depict humans as
willing to shoulder the ethical responsibility that comes with driving large
cars? Why might Fitzgerald refer to the car’s detached tire as an
“amputated wheel” (55)?
Automobiles play a central role in both the plot and the symbolic
meanings that get developed in The Great Gatsby. When analyzing
the significance of the automobile, it is important to remember that
automobiles were still a relatively new invention in the early 1920s.
Because they were bulky machines that travelled at fast speeds,
automobiles were capable of causing unprecedented damage to the
human body. Fitzgerald’s novel provides readers with regular
reminders of the damage that automobiles can cause. The narrator
describes the automobile that crashes into the ditch outside
Gatsby’s mansion as being “violently shorn of one wheel” (53).
Later, the narrator describes this wheel as having been “amputated”
(55). By using a word that is typically applied to human appendages
such as arms and legs, the narrator may be suggesting that the
driver is lucky that the car did not cause bodily harm to persons
inside or outside the car. This message is amplified by an onlooker
who exclaims, “You’re lucky it was just a wheel!” (54).
Because automobiles are so dangerous, the people who drive

automobiles bear a certain moral responsibility for driving carefully.
But the driver of the car that crashes into a ditch seems to have no
awareness that he is responsible for the accident. When he gets out
of the car, he inquires, “Wha’s matter? […] Did we run out gas?”
(54). The driver’s confusion and slurred speech reflect that he is
drunk; but the man also seems to have a very limited understanding
of how automobiles operate. Not only does he take a long time to
exit the vehicle, but upon doing so he exclaims, “At first I din’ notice
we’d stopped” (55). This statement reflects that the driver has no
awareness of his own agency or responsibility for controlling the
trajectory of the automobile. He may harbor an outdated and
dangerous assumption that driving a car is no different from being a
passenger on a commuter train. When onlookers attempt to point
out explain that “wheel and car were no longer joined by any
physical bond,” the man continues to act as if the vehicle has merely
run out of gas, asking, “Wonder’ff tell me where there’s a gas’line
station?” (55).
The notion that the drivers of automobiles bear a moral

responsibility for driving carefully gets invoked for a second time at
the very end of the chapter. After accusing Jordan of being a “rotten
driver,” Nick elaborates, “Either you ought to be more careful, or
you oughtn’t to drive at all” (58). Jordan responds to this accusation
by asserting that she doesn’t need to be careful because “other
people are,” explaining, “It takes two to make an accident” (58). Of
course, anyone who has taken a driver education course knows that
the opposite is true: it only takes one careless driver to cause an
accident. That’s why new drivers are instructed to remain vigilant
about what other drivers on the road are doing. Nick responds to
Jordan’s statement by cautioning, “Suppose you met somebody just
as careless as yourself” (58). What’s ironic about Nick’s statement is
that everyone Jordan knows is careless — not least Tom and Daisy
Buchanan. Nick Carraway may be the single exception to the
carelessness that seems to infect the people in his social circle.
Interestingly, Nick uses a driving metaphor when he asserts that
he’s acting ethically by refraining from getting involved in a
romantic relationship with Jordan: “I am slow-thinking and full of
interior rules that act as brakes on my desires” (58).
Finally, automobiles are also connected to the theme of

mechanization that emerges in these early chapters. How do
automobiles resemble the spring-loaded “ash-tray” that Myrtle
dreams of buying (36)? How do automobiles resemble the juice-
extracting machine in Gatsby’s kitchen that need only get pressed
by a “butler’s thumb” (40)? Like those other machines, the
automobiles in Fitzgerald’s novel seem to be literally auto-mobile:
self-moving, self-driving, auto-telic. But, in the 1920s, machines and
automobiles were not endowed with a capacity for rational
judgement or ethical decision-making. So this novel’s concern about
careless driving may be related to a more general concern about
who was controlling the literal and metaphorical machines within an
increasingly modern, technological, and machine-driven society.
Was the metaphorical machine of industrial capitalism being driven
by any logical design or set of ethical principles? Were there any
breaks on that machine?
Spoiler Alert: This is the first of three automobile accidents that will
transpire in The Great Gatsby. Over the course of the novel, the
repercussions of these automobile accidents increases gradually,
culminating with a crash that kills one of the characters.…
Name: ________________________
Character Analysis: Daisy Buchanan

Chapter 1 (page 8)
A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in
at one end and out the other like pale flags,
twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-
cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the
wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind
does on the sea.
The only completely stationary object in the
room was an enormous couch on which two
young women were buoyed up as though upon an
anchored balloon. They were both in white, and
their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if
they had just been blown back in after a short
flight around the house. I must have stood for a
few moments listening to the whip and snap of
the curtains and the groan of a picture on the
wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and
the caught wind died out about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and
the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor. […]
The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise — she leaned slightly
forward with a conscientious expression — then she laughed, an absurd,
charming little laugh, and I laughed too and came forward into the room.
“I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.”
She laughed again, as if she said something very witty, and held my
hand for a moment, looking up into my face, promising that there was no one
in the world she so much wanted to see. (8)
The passage above captures the moment when readers are

introduced to Daisy Buchanan. Based on this passage, what
adjectives would you use to describe Daisy? How might Fitzgerald’s
description of the elegant and airy room contribute to the
characterization of Daisy? What might Daisy’s charming laugh or
her assertion that she’s “p-paralyzed with happiness” — which
connects her inability to stand up with her happiness at seeing Nick
— reveal about her personality? How might Fitzgerald’s description
of Tom Buchanan’s entrance — which sucks all of the air out of the
room — contribute to his characterization?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
Character Analysis: Jay Gatsby

Chapter 1 (pages 20-21)
The silhouette of a moving cat wavered
across the moonlight, and turning my head
to watch it, I saw that I was not alone —
fifty feet away a figure had emerged from
the shadow of my neighbor’s mansion and
was standing with his hands in his pockets
regarding the silver pepper of the starts.
Something in his leisurely movements and
the secure position of his feet upon the
lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby
himself, come out to determine what share
was his of our local heavens.
I decided to call to him. Miss Baker
had mentioned him at dinner, and that
would do for an introduction. But I didn’t
call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation
that he was content to be alone — he
stretched out his arms toward the dark
water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he
was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward — and distinguished
nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have
been the end of a dock. When I looked once Sam Wolfe Connelly's illustration for
more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was The Great Gatsby (London: The Folio
Society, 2013).
alone again in the unquiet darkness. (20-21)
When a book contains the name of a character in its title, readers

are led to expect that they will be introduced to that character
within the book’s opening pages. However, the title character of
The Great Gatsby does not make an appearance until the very end of
the first chapter. And when this character does finally appear, he
shows up under the cover of darkness and is not described in
concrete detail. What’s more, he disappears just as quickly as he
had appeared. For after Nick glances at the water and sees nothing
but a green light in the distance, he looks back to find that Gatsby
has gone: “When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished”
(21). What might Gatsby’s ephemeral appearance suggest about his
character? And how do the words used to describe Gatsby — words
like “figure,” “shadow,” and “vanish” — contribute to this character?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
Character Analysis: Myrtle

Wilson
Chapter 2 (page 37)
She had changed her dress to a brown figured
muslin, which stretched tight over her rather
wide hips as Tom helped her to the platform
in New York. At the news-stand she bought a
copy of Town Tattle and a moving-picture
magazine, and in the station drug-store some
cold cream and a small flask of perfume. Up-
stairs, in the solemn echoing drive she let
four taxicabs drive away before she selected a
new one, lavender-colored with gray
upholstery, and in this we slid out from the
mass of the station into the glowing sunshine. But immediately she turned
sharply from the window and, leaning forward, tapped no the front glass.
“I want to get one of those dogs,” she said earnestly. “I want to get
one for the apartment. They’re nice to have — Isla Fisher plays Myrtle Wilson in
a dog.” (27) Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby
(2013)
What adjectives would you use to describe Myrtle Wilson’s
personality? What do Myrtle’s actions upon arriving in New York
reveal about her personality? What, for example, do her impulsive
purchases reveal about her socioeconomic aspirations? What do her
reading tastes reveal about her values? What do the words she uses
reveal about her priorities? Finally, how does Myrtle’s behavior in
the passage above resonate with her actions elsewhere in the
chapter? For example, how does it resonate with her decision “to
make a list of all the things I’ve got to get” (36)?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
Character Analysis: Tom Buchanan

Chapter 2 (page 37)
Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and
Mrs. Wilson stood face to face, discussing in
impassioned voices whether Mrs. Wilson had any
right to mention Daisy’s name.
“Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” shouted Mrs. Wilson.
“I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy Dai——“
Making a short deft movement, Tom
Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.
Then there were bloody towels upon the
bathroom floor, and women’s voices scolding, and
high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain.
(37)
Joel Edgerton cast as Tom

Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann’s
The Great Gatsby (2013)
Why might a classist bigot like Tom Buchanan be interested in a
working-class woman like Myrtle Wilson? Why would Tom dispute
Myrtle’s right to mention Daisy’s name? What does this reveal
about his character? How does Tom’s interruption of Myrtle’s
speech compare with how he had responded, in the first chapter, to
the speech of other characters? How does Tom’s act of breaking
Myrtle’s nose compare with how, in the first chapter, he had treated
the bodies of other characters?
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
Character Analysis: Jordan Baker

Chapter 3 (page 58)
It was on that same house-party that we had a
curious conversation about driving a car. It started
because she passed so close to some workmen that
our fender flicked a button on one man’s coat.
“You’re a rotten driver,” I protested. “Either
you ought to be more careful, or you oughtn’t to
drive at all.”
“I am careful.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Well, other people are,” she said lightly.
“What’s that got to do with it?”
“They’ll keep out of my way,” she insisted. “It
takes two to make an accident.”
“Suppose you met somebody just as careless
as yourself.”
“I hope I never will,” she answered. “I hate careless people.” (58)
Tamara de Lempicka, Girl with

Gloves (1929)
In the passage above, Nick recounts that Jordan Baker was driving a
car when she “passed so close to some workmen that our fender
flicked a button on one man’s coat” (58). How does this incident
resemble the other automobile accidents described earlier in the
chapter? When Nick cautions that she “ought to be more careful,”
Jordan responds by insisting, “It takes two to make an accident”
(58). What does Jordan’s assertion reveal about her personality?
For example, is Jordan thinking logically when she asserts that it
takes two to make an accident? Is she thinking morally? Why or
why not?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
Character Analysis: Jay Gatsby

Chapter 3 (page 49)
He smiled understandingly — much more than
understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles
with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that
you may come across four or five times in life. It
faced — or seemed to face — the whole external
world for an instant, and then concentrated on
you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It
understood you just as far as you wanted to be
understood, believed in you as you would like to
believe in yourself, and assured you that it had
precisely the imprssion of you that, at your best,
you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it
vanished — and I was looking at an elegant
Illustration by Brianna Ashby
young roughneck, a year or two over thirty,
whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time
before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was
picking his words with care. (49)
Psychologist Daniel N. Stern has observed that different kinds of

smiles can be used to convey a wide range of different emotions.
Stern argues that when interpreting the meaning of a smile, what’s
most important is the “temporal contour” of that particular smile.
He explains, “Imagine that someone you know greets you on the
street with a smile. The crescendo time of the smile (is it explosive
or does it sneak up?) may indicate spontaneous pleasure or guilty
surprise at seeing you. The duration of holding the high point may
reflect the level of pleasure. The speed of decomposition may speak
to the authenticity of the display.”28 What does the description of
Gatsby’s smile reveal about what he feels? What might its speed of
decomposition reveal about the authenticity of Gatsby’s smile?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
28
Daniel N. Stern, The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life. New York: W. W.
Norton & Co., 2004. 63.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
The Great Gatsby
Types of Figurative Language
English
The term “figurative language” refers to any use of language that makes
a point in an indirect or non-literal way. The glossary below features the
most common types of figurative language. Each type gets used multiple
times in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.…
____________________________________________________________________________
metaphor: An implied analogy in which one thing is compared to a second

thing. In The Great Gatsby, narrator Nick Carraway uses a series of
metaphors to convey his achievement of a feeling of belonging in New York
City: And as I walked on I was lonely no longer. I was a guide, a pathfinder,
an original settler (4).
simile: A metaphor in which the comparison is made explicit through the

use of words such as like, as, similar to, or resembles. Nick Carraway uses
a simile to convey that the books on his shelf remain unread: I bought a
dozen volumes […] and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new
money from the mint (4). Here’s a second example: Tom and Miss Baker
[…] strolled back into the library, as if to a vigil beside a perfectly tangible
body (16).
metonymy: The act of referring to a person, place, or thing by using the

word for something located in closely proximity to it. For example,
newscasters use metonymy when they report on what the U.S. president
decides by saying, The White House announced today that. Metonymy is
also used when diplomacy and militancy are invoked in the saying, The pen
is mightier than the sword. Nick uses metonymy when he refers to Yale
University by invoking the city where it is located: I graduated from New
Haven in 1915 (3).
synecdoche: The act of referring to a person, place, object, or idea by

using the word for a part of the whole. For example, synecdoche is being
used when an automobile gets referred to with the term wheels, or when
manual workers are called hired hands. Nick uses synecdoche when he
uses the term counterraid to stand in for the entire First World War: I
enjoyed the counterraid so thoroughly that I came back restless (3).
paradox: A contradiction that is somehow true. Nick uses a paradox when

he describes how he and his father have always communicated deeply
despite using few words: [W]e’ve always been unusually communicative in
a reserved way (1).
oxymoron: A compact paradox that consists of two words in close
proximity that contradict one another, such as wise fool or deafening
silence. Example: I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity
(1).
hyperbole: Rhetorical exaggeration or overstatement, as when Daisy

exclaims, “I’m p-paralyzed with happiness” (8). Daisy is not literally
paralyzed; rather, she uses exaggeration for rhetorical effect.
understatement: A figure of speech in which one says less than one really
means, as when Tom gives Nick a tour of his enormous estate and declares,
“I’ve got a nice place here” (7).
personification: The attribution of human qualities to an object, animal, or

concept, as when Nick describes a picture as groaning: I must have stood
for a few moments listening to […] the groan of a picture on the wall (8).
Name: ________________________________
Figurative Language Quiz #1

Chapter 1-3 (Pages 1–59)
Directions: Identify the type of figurative language used in each quotation
and write it on the corresponding blank line. Every type of figurative
language listed in the word bank will appear in at least one quotation.
Some types of figurative language are used more than once.
hyperbole metaphor metonymy

oxymoron paradox
personification simile synecdoche
understatement
9. ____________________
1.
____________________
10. ___________________
2.
____________________ 11. ___________________
3.
____________________ 12. ___________________
4.
____________________
5.
____________________
6.
____________________
7.
____________________
8.
____________________
and was […] regarding the silver pepper of the
The lawn started at stars (20).
the beach and ran
toward the front door This is a valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where
for a quarter of a ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and
mile, jumping over grotesque gardens (23).
sun-dials and brick
walks (6). She smiled slowly and, walking through her
husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with
[T]here were men at Tom (25-26).
New Haven who
hated his guts (7). The little dog was sitting on the table looking with
blind eyes through the smoke (36-37).
A breeze blew
through the room, In his blue gardens men and girls came and went
blew curtains in at like moths (39).
one end and out the
other like pale flags
(8).
(over)
[T]he last sunshine
fell with romantic
affection upon her
glowing face; […]
then the glow faded,
each light deserting
her with lingering
regret (14).
I was conscious of
wanting to look
squarely at every
one, and yet to avoid
all eyes (15).
“I’ve been
everywhere and seen
everything and done
everything” (17).
Inside, the crimson

room bloomed with
light (17).
[A] figure had

emerged from the
shadow of my
neighbor’s mansion
13. [H]is station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow
___________________ bug to meet all trains (39).
Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with

14. prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word (40).
___________________
A chauffer […] crossed my lawn […] with a
surprisingly formal note from his employer: the
15. honor would be entirely Gatsby’s, it said, if I would
___________________ attend his “little party” that night (41).
I was looking at an elegant young roughneck (48).
16. A butler hurried toward him with the information

___________________ that Chicago was calling him on the wire (48).
17. “I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small

___________________ parties there isn’t any privacy” (49).
[A]t intervals she appeared suddenly at his side

18. like an angry diamond (51).
___________________
In the early morning the sun threw my shadow

19. westward (56).
___________________
20.
Name: ________________________________
Figurative Language Quiz #1 — KEY

Chapter 1-3 (Pages 1–59)
Directions: Identify the type of figurative language used in each quotation
and write it on the corresponding blank line. Every type of figurative
language listed in the word bank will appear in at least one quotation.
Some types of figurative language are used more than once.
hyperbole metaphor metonymy

oxymoron paradox
personification simile synecdoche
understatement
8. ____oxymoron_______
1.
____personification_
__ 9. ____simile___________
2. 10. ___simile___________
____synecdoche_____
_
11. ___paradox_________
3.
____simile___________
12. ___simile___________
4.
____personification_
__
5.
____paradox_________
6.
____hyperbole_______
7.
____metaphor_______
_
and was […] regarding the silver pepper of the
The lawn started at stars (20).
the beach and ran
toward the front door This is a valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where
for a quarter of a ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and
mile, jumping over grotesque gardens (23).
sun-dials and brick
walks (6). She smiled slowly and, walking through her
husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with
[T]here were men at Tom (25-26).
New Haven who
hated his guts (7). The little dog was sitting on the table looking with
blind eyes through the smoke (36-37).
A breeze blew
through the room, In his blue gardens men and girls came and went
blew curtains in at like moths (39).
one end and out the
other like pale flags
(8).
(over)
[T]he last sunshine
fell with romantic
affection upon her
glowing face; […]
then the glow faded,
each light deserting
her with lingering
regret (14).
I was conscious of
wanting to look
squarely at every
one, and yet to avoid
all eyes (15).
“I’ve been
everywhere and seen
everything and done
everything” (17).
Inside, the crimson

room bloomed with
light (17).
[A] figure had

emerged from the
shadow of my
neighbor’s mansion
13. [H]is station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow
___simile___________ bug to meet all trains (39).
Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with

14. prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word (40).
___metaphor________
A chauffer […] crossed my lawn […] with a
surprisingly formal note from his employer: the
15. honor would be entirely Gatsby’s, it said, if I would
___understatement_ attend his “little party” that night (41).
__
I was looking at an elegant young roughneck (48).
A butler hurried toward him with the information

16. that Chicago was calling him on the wire (48).
___oxymoron_______
“I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small
17. parties there isn’t any privacy” (49).
___metonymy_______
[A]t intervals she appeared suddenly at his side
like an angry diamond (51).
18.
___paradox_________ In the early morning the sun threw my shadow
westward (56).
19.
___simile___________
20.
___personificati
on___
Name: ____________________________________
Vocabulary for Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

Chapter 1 (Pages 1–21)
privy (adj.): Aware of or informed about, esp. something not generally

known. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this
quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in
college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to
the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. (1). Note: The word privy is usually
followed by the preposition to.
feign (v.): To pretend to be something; to act or give a false impression of

being some way. Most of the confidences were unsought — frequently I
have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by
some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the
horizon (1).
restless (adj.): Possessed by a feeling of nervous agitation or

dissatisfaction; unable to relax. I participated in that delayed Teutonic
migration known as the Great War. I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly
that I came back restless (3).
colossal (adj.): Enormous; astonishingly large; resembling a colossus. My

house was at the very tip of the egg. […] The one on my right was a
colossal affair by any standard — it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel
de Ville in Normandy (5).
fractious (adj.): Full of anger and hard to control. His speaking voice, a
gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed
(7).
intimate (v.): To communicate indirectly; to hint at or suggest something.

But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content
to be alone — he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious
way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling (7).
buoy (v.): To keep afloat; to support or uplift; to raise the spirits of. The
only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on
which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored
balloon (8).
extemporize (v.): To improvise verbally; to speak without having planned

one’s remarks. She was only extemporizing but a stirring warmth flowed
from her as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of
those breathless, thrilling words (14).
devoid (adj.): Empty of something; lacking or void of something; completely
without something. Miss Baker and I exchanged a short glance consciously
devoid of meaning (14). Note: The word devoid is usually followed by the
preposition of.
sedative (adj.): Tending to calm or soothe; tending to reduce a person’s

nervous excitement. I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I
asked what I thought would be some sedative questions about her little girl
(16).
corroborate (v.): To support with evidence; to help prove something by

offering evidence. “That’s right,” corroborated Tom kindly. “We heard you
were engaged” (19).
Name: ____________________________________

saunter (v.): To walk about in an idle or leisurely manner; to stroll. His

acquaintances resented the fact that he turned up in popular restaurants
with her and, leaving her at a table, sauntered about, chatting with
whomsoever he knew (24).
supercilious (adj.): Patronizingly haughty; exhibiting an attitude of

arrogant superiority. The supercilious assumption was that on Sunday
afternoon I had nothing better to do (24).
contiguous (adj.): Next to something in geographical space; adjacent. The

only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of
the waste land, a sort of compact Main Street ministering to it, and
contiguous to absolutely nothing (24).
vicinity (n.): The area around or near a particular place. A white ashen
dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the
vicinity — except his wife (26)
indeterminate (adj.): Not able to be determined or stated in a precise way;

vague. In a basket swung from his neck cowered a dozen very recent
puppies of an indeterminate breed (27).
countenance (n.): The face as an expression of mood, emotion, or

character; a facial expression that offers approval or moral support. Looked
at from a distance, however, the hen resolved itself into a bonnet, and the
countenance of a stout old lady beamed down into the room (29).
discreetly (adv.): Unobtrusively; done without drawing undue attention to

oneself. When I came back they had disappeared so I sat down discreetly
in the living room and read a chapter of Simon Called Peter — either it was
terrible stuff or the whiskey distorted things because it didn't make any
sense to me (29).
shiftlessness (n.): Laziness or passivity; an unwillingness to work; a lack of

ambition or drive. Myrtle raised her eyebrow in despair at the shiftlessness
of the lower orders (32).
strident (adj.): Unpleasantly loud or harsh. I wanted to get out and walk
eastward toward the park through the soft twilight but each time I tried to
go I became entangled in some wild strident argument which pulled me
back, as if with ropes, into my chair (35).
incredulously (adj.): Done in a manner that conveys a reluctance to
believe; skeptically. “Crazy about him!” cried Myrtle incredulously. “Who
said I was crazy about him?” (35).
repel (v.): To drive away, repulse; to cause aversion or disgust. I was within
and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible
variety of life (35).
console (v.): To give comfort to someone, esp. after that person has
suffered a disappointment. When he had gone half way he turned around
and stared at the scene--his wife and Catherine scolding and consoling as
they stumbled here and there among the crowded furniture with articles of
aid, and the despairing figure on the couch bleeding fluently and trying to
spread a copy of "Town Tattle" over the tapestry scenes of Versailles (37).
Name: ____________________________________

toil (v.): To engage in long and tiresome work; to labor with great effort and
at long length. And on Monday eight servants, including an extra gardener,
toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-
shears, repairing the ravages of the night before (39).
gaudy (adj.): Tastelessly showy or extravagant; marked by a garish

ornamentation that reflects bad taste. [T]he cars from New York are parked
five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are
gaudy with primary colors and hair shorn in strange new ways and shawls
beyond the dreams of Castile (40).
permeate (v.): To spread throughout an area; to diffuse through something.

The bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the
garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual
innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings
between women who never knew each other's names (40).
vehemently (adv.): Done with passionate emotion; fervidly. As soon as I

arrived I made an attempt to find my host, but the two or three people of
whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way, and
denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements, that I slunk off in
the direction of the cocktail table (42).
homogeneity (n.): The quality of being made up of the same kind of people
or things; the opposite of heterogeneity or diversity. Instead of rambling
this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself
the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside — East Egg
condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its
spectroscopic gayety (44).
vacuous (adj.): Empty of ideas or content; lacking meaning or substance;

hollow, superficial. A celebrated tenor had sung in Italian, and a notorious
contralto had sung in jazz, and between the numbers people were doing
“stunts” all over the garden, while happy, vacuous bursts of laughter rose
toward the summer sky (46).
provincial (adj.): Of or related to the provinces or country life; having a

narrow mind or limited outlook; lacking a broad-minded or worldly outlook.
But young men didn’t — at least in my provincial inexperience I believed
they didn’t — drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island
(49).
convivial (adj.): Fond of the pleasure of good company. When the "Jazz
History of the World" was over girls were putting their heads on men's
shoulders in a puppyish, convivial way, girls were swooning backward
playfully into men's arms, even into groups knowing that some one would
arrest their falls (50).
dissension (n.): Disagreement that causes people to argue. Even Jordan's

party, the quartet from East Egg, were rent asunder by dissension (51).
elude (v.): To escape one’s perception or understanding; to avoid being

grasped. [S]he left a borrowed car out in the rain with the top down, and
then lied about it — and suddenly I remembered the story about her that
had eluded me that night at Daisy’s (57).
Name: ________________________
Vocab & Reading Quiz

Part I. Matching: Directions: Draw a line to match each word with the
appropriate definition.
1. sedative Tending to calm or soothe
2. feign To communicate indirectly; to

hint
3. intimate To pretend to be something
Part II. Usage: Directions: Use each of the following words in a sentence.
Each sentence should reveal that you understand the meaning of the word.
4. extemporize:
_________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. fractious:
____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
6. privy:
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
7. corroborate:
__________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Part III. Reading Comprehension: Directions: Answer each question in as

much detail as you can. Provide enough information to establish that you
read the homework carefully.
8. Dinner at the Buchanans’ house is interrupted by a telephone call for

Tom. Who is calling Tom?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
9. Upon learning that her child is a girl, what did Daisy Buchanan say she
hoped her daughter would be? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
10. At the end of Chapter One, Nick finally glimpses Jay Gatsby. What is
Gatsby doing? How is he described?
_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
Reading & Vocab Quiz

1. supercilious Next to something in geographical

space
2. contiguous
Patronizingly haughty
3. strident
Unpleasantly loud or harsh
Part II. Usage: Directions: Use each of the following words in your own
original sentence. Each sentence should reveal beyond any doubt that you
understand the meaning of the word.
4. console:
_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. repel:
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
6. incredulously:
_________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
7. discreetly:
____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

8. How does the narrator describe the area where George and Myrtle
Wilson reside? What are its features?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
9. How does Myrtle Wilson feel about her husband? How do you know?
_____________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
10. What does Tom Buchanan do when Myrtle Wilson insists upon saying
the name “Daisy” out loud?
_________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
Reading & Vocab Quiz

1. gaudy Of or related to country life
2. vacuous Empty of ideas or content
3. provincial Tastelessly showy or extravagant
4. permeate:
____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. homogeneity:
_________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
6. elude:
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
7. vehemently:
__________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

8. What are two of the rumors that surround Gatsby?

____________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
9. Why is a character named Owl Eyes surprised by what he finds in

Gatsby’s library? ___________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
10. At the end of Chapter Three, what happens to one of the cars that is
leaving Gatsby’s party? ___
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
Vocab & Reading Quiz — KEY

1. sedative Tending to calm or soothe
2. feign To communicate indirectly; to

hint
3. intimate To pretend to be something
4. extemporize: __Give credit for acceptable

sentences.____________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. fractious:
____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
6. privy:
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
7. corroborate:
__________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

8. Dinner at the Buchanans’ house is interrupted by a telephone call for

Tom. Who is calling Tom?
__Tom receives a telephone call from a woman alleged to be his

mistress. We’ll eventually__
__learn that her name is Myrtle
Wilson.____________________________________________
9. Upon learning that her child is a girl, what did Daisy Buchanan say she
hoped her daughter would be? Why? __Daisy hopes her daughter will be
a “beautiful little fool.” Women had limited__
__employment opportunities in the 1920s and were economically

dependent on husbands.__
10. At the end of Chapter One, Nick finally glimpses Jay Gatsby. What is
Gatsby doing? How is he described? __Jay Gatsby is standing in his
backyard under the shadow of some trees._______
__He appears to be gazing across the sound at a green light. He

appears to want to be_____
__left alone. Then when Nick looks away for a moment, Gatsby
vanishes.________________
Name: ________________________
Reading & Vocab Quiz — KEY

1. supercilious Next to something in geographical

space
2. contiguous
Patronizingly haughty
3. strident
Unpleasantly loud or harsh
Part II. Usage: Directions: Use each of the following words in your own
original sentence. Each sentence should reveal beyond any doubt that you
understand the meaning of the word.
4. console: __Give credit for acceptable

sentences._______________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. repel:
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
6. incredulously:
_________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
7. discreetly:
____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

8. How does the narrator describe the area where George and Myrtle
Wilson reside? What are its features? __This area is referred to as the
“Valley of Ashes.” It is an industrial wasteland____
__where everything appears to be covered in ash and

dust.____________________________
9. How does Myrtle Wilson feel about her husband? How do you know?
__Myrtle Wilson feels__
__that her husband is not worthy of her. She assumed he was a

“gentleman” and was______
__ appalled to learn that he borrowed the jacket that he wore to their

wedding.____________
10. What does Tom Buchanan do when Myrtle Wilson insists upon saying
the name “Daisy” out loud? __When Myrtle won’t stop saying Daisy’s
name, Tom punches Myrtle in the nose.___
__This burst of violence parallels Daisy’s complaint that Tom injured

her finger.__________
______________________________________________________________________________
Name: ________________________
Reading & Vocab Quiz — KEY

1. gaudy Of or related to country life
2. vacuous Empty of ideas or content
3. provincial Tastelessly showy or extravagant
4. permeate: __Give credit for acceptable

sentences.______________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
5. homogeneity:
_________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
6. elude:
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
7. vehemently:
__________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

8. What are two of the rumors that surround Gatsby? __One rumor is that
Gatsby was a spy in__
__World War I. Another rumor is that Gatsby killed a

man.____________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
9. Why is a character named Owl Eyes surprised by what he finds in
Gatsby’s library? __Owl Eyes_
__is surprised to find that the books in Gatsby’s library have actual
pages. He expected____
__that the books would be

fake.___________________________________________________
10. At the end of Chapter Three, what happens to one of the cars that is
leaving Gatsby’s party? ___
__The car is driven into a ditch and a wheel becomes detached. The
people who get out____
__of the car do not understand how it ended up in a

ditch._____________________________

Chapters13ofTheGreatGatsbyDiscussionQuestionsVocabQuizzesFREE-1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapters13ofTheGreatGatsbyDiscussionQuestionsVocabQuizzesFREE-1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapters13ofTheGreatGatsbyDiscussionQuestionsVocabQuizzesFREE-1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Dear fellow teacher,

Thank you for downloading this FREE resource on

This 60-page resource is excerpted from a 240-

Please don’t hesitate to get in

Adam Jernigan (a.k.a. Rigorous Resources)

P.S. Click “follow” to receive email updates on

1. Lesson Format & Pacing Guide . . . .

6. Figurative Language Quizzes (Chapters 1-3 + Key) .

2. Discussion Questions (5 min.): Pass out the list of discussion questions

3. Small Group Discussions (5 min.): Ask every student to put a circle

4. Whole Class Discussion (30–40 min.): Have students return to their

Suggested pacing of daily classwork & nightly homework:

Day 1: Slideshow on F. Scott Fitzgerald + Read & discuss the

Day 2: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Symbolic Settings

Day 3: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Character Analysis

Day 4: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Figurative

Day 5: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + New Money vs. Old

Day 6: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Character Analysis

Day 7: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Figurative

Day 8: Creative Writing Assignment

Day 9: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Character Analysis

Day 10: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Character Analysis

Day 11: Vocab/Reading Quiz + Discussion Questions + Character Analysis

Day 13: Poetry Classroom Packet + Sound Devices Exercise +

Days 14-20: Analytical Writing Assignment

Your homework is to read and annotate

Paragraphs 1-3 (“In my younger and more vulnerable years…”)

• How might the narrator’s personality traits make him well-suited to be

• Do you notice any contradictions in how the narrator presents himself?

Paragraph 4 (“And, after boasting this way of my tolerance…”)

Paragraphs 5-6 (“My family have been prominent, well-to-do

• How might the theme of “arrival” operate metaphorically in Fitzgerald’s

I. Tom & Daisy Buchanan: First

1. When Nick Carraway travels to East Egg to

2. When readers are introduced to Daisy

II. Tom Buchanan: White Supremacist?

5. At various moments in Chapter 1, Nick attempts to describe the

IV. Gatsby: Man of Mystery?

8. In the chapter’s last two paragraphs, Nick glimpses “a figure” whom he

Directions: Choose one question from the handout of discussion questions.

I. The Periphery of Poverty

1. Although the setting for Chapter 1 was the wealthy residential

II. Myrtle Wilson

3. While Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson are

III: Do the Clothes Make the Man?

5. Beginning in Chapter 2, the clothing worn by various characters

6. In addition to choosing her clothing with care, Myrtle pays close

IV. Tom Buchanan: The Affair

7. Do Tom and Myrtle share the same

8. What do you make of Tom Buchanan’s assertion, as reported by Myrtle’s

Directions: Choose one question from the handout of discussion questions.

I. The Ambiance at Gatsby’s Party

1. How does the narrator describe the ambiance at

2. Jordan Baker arrives at Gatsby’s party with a group

II. Encountering Gatsby

4. At several moments Chapter 3, Nick portrays Gatsby as a solitary figure

6. When Nick and Jordan enter Gatsby’s

IV. Mechanized Technologies: Machines & Automobiles

7. This chapter opens with an account of the extensive preparations that go

8. As Nick is leaving Gatsby’s party, he