Ian Tsang and Lidor Foguel

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald,1925

Section I:

Plot Overview- Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, educated at Yale, soldier of World War I, moves to New York in summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. The house he rents resides in the West Egg district of Long Island. Next door, in a gigantic gothic mansion, lives a man named Jay Gatsby who ends up becoming a close personal friend of Nick’s. After a long, party full and dramatic summer, full of lost love, letting go of the past, and living a dream, Nick finds himself, tired of having to do with not only the upper class but with the social status and style of life that comes along as well.

Relevant Information- the time is the 1920’s; therefore it is known that it was a time of comfort and wealth for the economy. These parties, which occur for this minute group of people in a class way up high, are only a symbol for what much of the society was like more or less. The 20’s were a time for dramatic change, whether it had to do with the rights of woman, or the society regarding leisurely sports, it seemed everyone had a little too much time on their hands.

Section II:

Key characters-

Nick Carraway- The novel’s narrator and main character.
Jay Gatsby- The famously wealthy, next door neighbor of Nick, as well as the host of many parties throughout the summer.
Daisy Buchanan- Gatsby’s long lost love, which then marries Tom Buchanan since moving on when Gatsby left for the First World War.
Tom Buchanan- Daisy’s wealthy husband who seems to have a strong willed place in the novel as the ultimate opposite of Gatsby.
Myrtle- Tom’s lover who endlessly tries to steal Tom from Daisy.
Jordan Baker- Daisy’s friend whom Nick continuously tries to have romantic relations with.

Section II:

Key Terms and Symbols in the Great Gatsby:

The Green Light- The green light is the light that Gatsby can see from his house that comes from the end of Daisy’s dock. This light represents the impossible dream of Daisy. Gatsby can see it, but he can’t actually grab it. He’s so close, but in reality he’ll never get there.
T.J. Eckleburg’s Blue Eyes- The blue eyes of T.J. Eckleburg are the only thing that stands out in the gray Valley of Ashes. The eyes always look over everything and judge all the characters. They are witnesses of every sin and bad thing that happens: Myrtle’s murder, and Tom’s affair.
The Valley of Ashes- is a piece of deserted land between New York City and West Egg. It was created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It shows the reader how the rich indulge themselves, and don’t care about anything but their own well being.
East and West Egg- the East and West Eggs represent class and wealth in the book. Tom and Daisy live in the East Egg, which is the more sophisticated and modern of the two. Nick lives in the West Egg which is more humble and less important. The only important things that take place in the West Egg are Gatsby’s parties.

Section III:

“His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people - his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God- a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that- and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.” (98)

American Dream- Jay Gatsby came from a poor farmer family, and became a successful man. He was in control of his life.
Vision vs. reality- conception vs. truth. What he wants to be and what he really is.
Transformation from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby. The average American the aristocratic, wealthy man.

“His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete.” (110-111).

Gatsby’s and Daisy’s everlasting relationship- tuning fork doesn’t stop vibrating until somebody interferes. Interference can be related to WWI that separated them. Also can be related to Tom, who is the obstacle that stands between them.
When they kissed, Daisy blossomed like a flower- her most beautiful moment, from here it only goes downhill. When a flower blossoms, it means that the end is near. Unlike the everlasting vibration of the tuning fork, a flower is temporary.
Gatsby’s mind wouldn’t romp like the mind of God. God thinks about everything- Jay Gatsby only thinks about Daisy.

“If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about...like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees." (161).

Jay Gatsby is unfamiliar with nature and basic things in life. He only discovers them after he loses Daisy. He couldn’t enjoy life because he dedicated his whole existence to Daisy and winning her back.
Reality broke in- he lives in the real world now, and not in his “dream”.

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning-- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (180)

Jay Gatsby believed that it was possible to go back to the past, and relive it.
He was convinced that he could get Daisy, if not today than tomorrow. He was very optimistic and he never lost hope. He believed that if he doesn’t succeed today than tomorrow he’ll “run faster” and “stretch out” his arms farther and eventually achieve his goal.
The current is the normal way that time goes by, and the normal way of life. Gatsby wants to go backwards in time and live in the past, “against the current”.

Section IV:

What is the perception of what constitutes as the American Dream? How does the American Dream fall short for those who achieve it? What are they missing? What do the texts teach us of what is truly important?
What are the narrators’ relationships with the texts we have read? Why is it important for them to tell their stories? Do they feel obligated to do so?