Guided Close Reading: Chapters 4 and 5

Name: ______

Guided Close Reading: Chapters 4 and 5

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

1. After Jordan tells Nick about Daisy and Gatsby’s past, Nick “put [his] arm around Jordan’s golden shoulder and drew her toward [him] and asked her to dinner” (79).

He then says that “Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices [ledges] and blinding signs, and so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms” (80).

1. What does it mean for Tom to have a “girl whose disembodied face floated along”?

1. What does it mean for Gatsby to have this same thing?

1. What does the fact that Nick doesn’t have this say about Nick, according to himself?

1. When Nick comes home after hearing Jordan’s story about Daisy and Gatsby (Ch 4), he thinks his “house was on fire” (81).
2. Why does he think this? How is the house described?

1. On page 81, what visual imagery is emphasized? In other words, what about the way the place looks is emphasized? Use specific quotes.

1. What does Gatsby invite Nick to do with his business? (83) What is the motivation for Gatsby making this offer?

1. When Gatsby arrives at Nick’s house to wait for Daisy, it gets pretty awkward (84-86).
2. Find examples in this scene in which characters’ actions are described as being fake or empty. Write them here. Just use snippets of quotations.
3. Later, the dynamic changes (89). How is Gatsby described after he feels more comfortable and happy? How does this contrast with the earlier descriptions of himself and his home? Why do you think I’m asking you this?

1. Gatsby’s house is described in even more detail in this chapter. We know that his house is “a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy” (5), and that the builder wanted his neighbors to “have their roofs thatched with straw” (88) so they could look more realistically like the village homes of the time period the mansion was imitating.
2. This house that Gatsby bought was originally created for what purpose for its builder?

1. How does this connect with Gatsby’s purpose for buying it?

1. Whoops. Gatsby says something shady that doesn’t quite add up about his money. What is that?

1. While getting a tour of the house, Nick thinks Gatsby “revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real” (91).
2. What do you make of this?

1. “His bedroom was the simplest room of all - except where the dresser was garnished with a toilet set of pure dull gold” (91). What you notice about this?

1. Umm… what’s with Daisy’s reaction to a bunch of shirts? Just make your best guess here - what’s really going on?

1. The reader can conclude that the green light has become bigger to Gatsby than Daisy herself. Which detail from the text best supports this idea?
2. “‘If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,’ said Gatsby. “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.’
3. “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams--not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion.
4. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon.

1. The reader can conclude that the green light can no longer mean as much to Gatsby as it did before. Highlight the sentence that best supports this idea. Then, explain your choice.

11. Reread sentences 3-6 in the second paragraph in the text box. What do you think this means for Gatsby? Break down each sentence in paraphrase.

12. What is this chapter saying about real versus artificial? What is this chapter saying about dream versus reality?

Setting Images: Chapters 4 and 5

Next time your setting group gets together to continue our setting study, find a way to incorporate the quotation that corresponds to your setting. Consider its importance, both for your visual and for its symbolic meaning in the text.

New York City:

“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired” (79).

West Egg;

“When I came home to West Egg that night I was afraid for a moment that my house was on fire. Two o’clock and the whole corner of the peninsula was blazing with light, which fell unreal on the shrubbery and made thin elongating glints upon the roadside wires” (81).

East Egg

“‘If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,’ said Gatsby. ‘You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock’” (92).

Valley of Ashes

“We passed Port Roosevelt, where there was a glimpse of red-belted ocean-going ships, and sped along a cobbled slum lined with dark, undeserted saloons of the faded-gilt nineteen-hundreds. Then the valley of ashes opened out on both sides of us, and I had a glimpse of Mrs. Wilson straining at the garage pump with panting vitality as we went by” (68).