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The Great Gatsby Chapter Two: Student’s Worksheet
1) Settings:
a) The Buchanans’ glittering white palace
Now think back to the description of the Buchanan’s house. Look at the ideas below and match them together.
The Buchanans’ white palace / Comment“a cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial mansion” / This appeals to our visual sense and creates the image of a scene of enchantment.
“The lawn started at the beach and ran towards the front door, jumping over sundials and brick walls.” / The scene is also there to enhance Daisy’s beauty and so she puts out the candles which might compete with her beauty.
OR it might show how she rejects romance.
“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 ... shut the rear windows ...” / This places them firmly as part of American history. They are members of the elite and established rich who made their fortunes in previous times.
“bright rosy-coloured space”; / Here we see male dominance as Tom takes control of the situation and brings the females under his control.
“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.” / This description suggests vitality and assertion – seems to mirror their owner, Tom.
“rosy-coloured porch, open towards the sunset, where four candles flickered ... She snapped them out with her fingers.” / The scene is one of beauty and movement. The women are transformed into mysterious, strange and magical creatures which fascinate Nick. They appear completely passive in contrast to Tom’s dominant masculinity.
b) Look at the description at the beginning of chapter 2 of the Valley of the Ashes.
Quote / CommentThe name “valley of the ashes” / Note that this is the name given to the area by Nick and it seems to be linked to the biblical phrase in Psalms: “valley of the shadow of death”.
“ a fantastic farm”
“ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”
“ash grey men” work their and this raises “an impenetrable cloud which screens their operations from your sight.”
“small foul river”
c) Comment on the significance of the wtachful eyes of Dr.T.J. Eckleburg. Find evidence to support the arguments below:
Statement A
He represents a god who is sightless and indifferent to the sufferings of this world. His “blue and gigantic” eyes “brood on over the solemn dumping ground” of the valley of ashes and yet he sees nothing. His eyes parallel the behaviour of the characters in the novel, most of whom see only what they want to see. These characters are morally blind – they design their own reality, they make up gossip, misread others, even misread themselves, and they lie or betray each other.
Statement B
The fact that George Wilson looks up at those eyes and sees God suggests that perhaps the new God in American society is indeed commerce and spending.
Statement C
Both Nick and Gatsby are forced to focus their vision – they have to build up a personal image of what life really means for them. This is made all the more difficult by the fact that they are living in the land of the blind where everything is morally mixed up and confused.
d) George Wilson’s garage
Match the following descriptions to the people and places below:
The garage / George Wilson / Myrtle WilsonUnprosperous and bare damp gleam of hope vitality
Smouldering body dark blue dress faintly stout
Blond, spiritless, anaemic light blue eyes thickish figure
Middle thirties as if he were a ghost a shadow
Faintly handsome sensuous
2) Characters
a) Myrtle Wilson
Look more closely at Myrtle Wilson in this scene. Look at the comments below and explore what they suggest about her:
- The fact that she buys a copy of Town Tattle and a moving picture magazine
- She lets four taxi cabs go by before she finally gets into a “lavender-coloured” one with “grey upholstery”.
- The purchase of a puppy.
- When she arrives at the apartment in New York she throws a “regal homecoming glance” and “went haughtily in.”
- In the apartment copies of Town Tattle and Simon Called Peter (1921 novel by Robert Keable which Fitzgerald hated and which he considered to be a “piece of trash”) can be found.
- Mrs Wilson changes her costume and Nick observes that “the intense vitality ... was converted into impressive hauteur.”
b) The party
The other guests
Myrtle’s sister Catherine
Mr Chester McKee
Mrs McKee
The apartment
Tom’s behaviour
What impression do we get of these people and the party itself? Do you agree that they seem to be dreadful parodies of the more sophisticated guests who attend the parties of East Egg?
c) Myrtle’s description of her first meeting with Tom
Comment on the following details:
- she noticed his “dress suit and patent leather shoes”
- the fact that she looks at an advert in order to pretend she’s not looking at Tom
- the quote “You can’t live forever.”
- Her “artificial laughter” when she tells the story