The Great Gatsby

Gatsby’s clothing

“They’re such beautiful shirts…It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such —such beautiful shirts before”59 – Daisy.

In this scene, Gatsby throws around all his luxury shirts, Daisy gets overwhelmed and starts to cry into the shirts. By the way Gatsby dressed he wanted to show people his wealth and how he could afford all these nice sophisticated outfits. He wanted to create an illusion that he had been brought up in a posh family who wore very nice clothes and spoke very proper. Gatsby was always wearing very neat and sophisticated outfits. Colours like white, pink, and yellow at the time were seen as very wealthy colours. Gatsby was trying to display his wealth by the clothes he wore which tells us that he is very influenced by others’ thoughts and actions.

Props used

“All right, old sport,” called Gatsby. We slowed down. Taking a white card from his wallet, he waved it before the man’s eyes. “Right you are,” agreed the policeman, tipping his cap.

in this scene, Gatsby was speeding and got pulled over by a cop.  Gatsby took out a white card from his wallet and the policeman saw it and let Gatsby go without a ticket or anything. In this case, it shows that the color white is being represented as a corruption of the law. The little white card in Gatsby’s wallet is seen as some sort of getting out of jail free card. This tells us that he doesn’t really comply with the law.

The Setting of the ‘Stage’

“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 thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden”.

Gatsby’s big mansion based on a french castle shows that he has a whole lot of money and wants to be seen as someone with wealth and a luxury lifestyle. When Gatsby brings Daisy to his house he has put everything in place so that Daisy can see what extraordinary goods he has and what she could’ve had if she only waited for Gatsby to return home from war. He bought this house because it was so big and would catch your eye when you went past it. He had never used his swimming pool it was only there for decoration purposes. Gatsby is making it seem like he has had all this money for a long time but really has only come up with new money.

The Speech and Dialogue

“I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd“

From the start, Nick was always unaware of Gatsby By the way he spoke. Nick found that Gatsby forced his words out and tried to sound too posh. Gatsby would often not use the right words or used words that no one used at the time. Gatsby forced himself to speak proper and make it seem like he came from a wealthy family and went to a privileged private school.

The Backstory

“He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career—when he saw Dan Cody’s yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior. “

James Gatz, the son of poor farmers was determined to be successful. He changed his name to JayGatsby and learned the manners of the rich on the yacht of Dan Cody, a rich man who took Gatsby under his wing. He created the perfect illusion that he was a wealthy man. Gatsby then had to fulfil this by creating this lifestyle with cars, houses, clothes and manners to make him appear he had always been like that. In the end, he was a lonely man with nothing. He had spent so long creating a fake life, he actually came to believe it all.

Nick Carraway: The Unreliable Narrator

The novel’s narrator, Nick is a young man from Minnesota. Being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. The Great Gatsby is told through Nick’s eyes his thoughts and perceptions shape and color the story. After moving to west egg Nick becomes good friends with his neighbor Jay Gatsby

Throughout the story, nick changes a whole lot from beginning to end.

• “I am inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.”- Chapter One. Nick doesn’t like o judge people before hearing their story and what they have to say but then sometimes he falls victim to them and finds them boring to talk to or just arrogant.

• “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. “ – Chapter One He wanted the world to be the same as it was when he left and for everyone to just behave

• “…wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.”- Chapter One Tom hinted for Nick to leave the room in a rude kind of manner. Nick doesn’t stand up for himself and just excepts what Tom wants him to do.

• “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” – Chapter Two. Nick didn’t really fit in with the west egg crew and liked how he was living but didn’t find it real sometimes.

• “Most of the time I worked…I knew the other clerks and young bond salesmen by their first names…I even had a short affair with a girl who lived in Jersey City and worked in the accounting department, but her brother began throwing mean looks in my direction…” – Chapter Three. Nick took the time to learn people’s names and getting to know them. He was also intimidated by her brother and that’s why he didn’t stay with the girl because her brother gave her dirty looks.

• “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.”– Chapter Three. Nick thinks that all his opinions are right and tells the story as he sees it and not how it might actually be.

• “They’re a rotten crowd…You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together!’ I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him because I disapproved of him from beginning to end.”- Chapter Eight. Nick really likes Gatsby but he thinks he is a bad person and doesn’t want to be his friend because of it. Nick doesn’t approve the people Gatsby hangs out with.

• “I shook hands with him. It seemed silly not to for I felt suddenly as though I was talking to a child.”- Chapter Nine. Nicks sick of everything so he doesn’t bother about confronting Tom. Nick thinks he’s more intelligent than others so he doesn’t bother talking about the problem.

• “I sat there brooding on the old unknown world…” –Chapter Nine. Nick is a big observer and a deep person.

Daisy analysis

The golden girl is someone that everyone kind of thinks has the perfect lifestyle. She is seen as pretty and well dressed but no one really knows what happened deep down we just see what happens on the outside. an example is kate Midleton

1. Explain how Daisy could be considered clever. Use at least one quote from the text to support your answer. She seems clever because the whole time she knew that Tom was cheating though she didn’t want to leave him because she knew she’d lose his money and wealth
2. The notes above talk about how Gatsby views Daisy as a possession to be collected. Explain this further. Find a quote from the text to support your answer and explain how the quote supports your ideas. Daisy is Gatsby’s goal. Gatsby does everything he possibly can to ‘collect’ Daisy. Gatsby and Tom treat Daisy like she’s an object when they were in the hotel having the massive fight about who Daisy loves. “You forget there’s a lady present,” This shows that they are talking about Daisy as an object like shes not there.
3. Describe what life was like in the 1920s for women. After you have done so, explain why you think Daisy wants her daughter to be a ‘fool’ in this world. In the 1920s there were a lot of parties. Women almost get treated like objects as they are always cheated on. Daisy wants her daughter to be a fool so she doesn’t really care about what happens.
4. Towards the end of the novel, Nick says that Daisy and Tom were “careless people…they smashed up things and creatures, and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…”. Explain what Daisy ‘smashes up’ (figuratively speaking) in this story. Daisy and Tom smash up many things. They seem to smash heaps of stuff in hotels they get for the night and other peoples marriages. Daisy seems to ruin her and Toms relationship without knowing it. In the end, when her past catches up with her she had done what Tom does and cheated.
5. Explain how Daisy could be considered ‘amoral’. Use at least two quotes from the text to support your answer. “careless people…they smashed up things and creatures, and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” When Daisy hits myrtle She doesn’t stop to go back and try help or call for help. She just keeps driving which is quite ignorant and careless. “High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl…” High in a white palace means she is superior to others and means everyone is below and she had the power to boss people around