The Great Gatsby: Narrator and Point of View

The Great Gatsby: Narrator and Point of View

Name: ______Date: ______Period: ______

The Great Gatsby: Narrator and Point of View

1. I lived at West Egg, the---well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard---it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thick beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion. (5)

3 Sentence Summary:

Nick, the narrator, describes the setting of his new home on Long Island. He lives on West Egg next to a large mansion that he compares to a Hotel de Ville in Normandy. At the end of this passage we learn that Nick lives next to Gatsby.

Rewrite in 3rd Person:

Nick lived at West Egg, the---well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. Nick’s house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squezzed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on the right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thick beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion. (7)

List the effects of reading the passage in the different point of views.

First Person / Third Person
Connection to Nick = connection to setting (we feel like we are a part of the book; like we are a character in the book.)
More realistic / More of an outsider’s perspective.
Audience has no link to characters or the setting.
Gatsby’s house = Beautiful place.

2.“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.” We were in the same senior society, and while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own.

3 Sentence Summary:

Rewrite in 3rd Person:

List the effects of reading the passage in the different point of views.

First Person / Third Person

3.The instant her voice broke off ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said. It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me. I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face, as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged. (17)

3 Sentence Summary:

Rewrite in 3rd Person:

List the effects of reading the passage in the different point of views.

First Person / Third Person

4. 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 intimidation 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 more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness. (21)

3 Sentence Summary:

Rewrite in 3rd Person:

List the effects of reading the passage in the different point of views.

First Person / Third Person

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