The Great Gatsby
Chapter One
Learning Objectives
 Demonstrate understanding and knowledge of the main characters
from chapter one
 Be able to identify quotations which give the reader a clear insight
into the characters
 Consider the importance of setting in the novel and how this further
establishes the characters
The Great Gatsby
 Set in a 3 month period
 Main location is Long island, New York State but does occasionally
move to Manhattan
 Set during the Jazz Age in the 1920’s
Chapter One - Summary
 Nick establishes his reason for recording events.
 He establishes setting – East Coast/Summer/1922.
 He asserts the qualities he has for recording the story yet contradicts himself.
 His style of prose is both lyrical, dense but also efficient.
 Establishes his own family background.
 We meet some of the main protagonists.
 He alludes to Gatsby but we do not meet him directly, thereby maintaining a
sense of an enigma.
 Importantly, he reveals that he has returned to the West in order to process the
events of this summer.
Fitzgerald invents this character to
write the novel - written as an
autobiographical account of events
taking place over a 3 month period
in the summer of 1922.
“I am inclined to reserve all
judgements”
“Reserving judgement is a
matter of infinite hope”
“I wanted the
word to be in
uniform”
Contradicts
himself
throughout. Is a
stockbroker yet
admires romantic
sensibilities.
Nick’s Function
Both observed and participant. Be aware of not
only what he discloses about others, but also
about himself.
What are his values and ideals?
We must keep this in mind as he is not an
impartial narrator!
Group Discussion Questions
1)
Having read the first few paragraphs of the novel, what do you
know about Nick’s personality?
2)
According to Nick, what was a particularly unusual aspect of
Gatsby’s character, given the pessimism of the time? Include the
quotation.
3)
At the start of the novel Nick’s father reminds him that not
everyone has had his advantages. Describe Nick, list his
advantages, and detail the facts you know about him.
4)
Do you consider Nick to be a “good” narrator? Justify your
response.
Character Work
Each group has been given a character and your task
is to record quotations ideas, impressions and
opinions of this character throughout the novel.
Draw a body on your page.
Write the character’s name at the top of the paper
and begin finding details to add to your character.
Character Information
Head = what you think about that character, first
impressions, justifications from the text, words used to
describe their personality.
Mouth = speech bubbles, important quotations from that
character.
Heart = important relationships the character has,
quotations which highlight this.
Around the body = additional information, quotations you
wish to add.
Characters
Be prepared to present your
information to the rest of the class.
Daisy and Tom Buchanan
As a group discuss the above relationship. Think about
the following:
 What are your first impressions of Daisy?
 Think about how Nick describes her and choose 3
main quotations and expand on them.
 What type of man is Tom? Justify your response.
 How do they support/contradict the “American
Dream”?
Daisy
 “turbulent emotions possessed her”
 “breathless thrilling words”
 “face was sad, and lonely”
 “absurd, charming little laugh”
 “low thrilling voice”
Dressed in white! Connotations…
Daisy – First Impressions
Insubstantial, unable to be held onto. She comes across
simultaneously as somewhat false but also truthful (“I
hope she’ll be a fool”). Daisy’s main flaw is that she is
intelligent enough to see how aimless and shallow her
entire existence is yet won’t do anything to change. Her
growth as a human has literally been halted and she is
indeed p-paralysed.
Almost immediately we are made aware that Tom is
having an affair, reinforcing a central theme that
everything from the outside looks perfect but the real
truth is far from perfection.
Daisy First Impressions
 “Our beautiful white girlhood”
Daisy’s only redeemable feature is her willingness to scoff and
undermine her husband’s racism. Her sarcastic remarks about
her ‘beautiful white girlhood’ deliberately mocks his
fecklessness and stupidity.
 “I hope she’ll be a fool…a beautiful.”
Her relationship with her daughter seems empty of natural
affection and empathy but she has enough intelligence to
accept that her life is meaningless and she doesn’t want her
daughter to realise that her life will be the same.
 “I’m p-paralysed with happiness”
Seems to be a contradiction. Shows how lifeless she is and has so
little energy to show any real feelings.
Easily influenced and is
driven by fear about losing
his wealth and title.
“Standing with his legs
apart” – alpha male,
masculine stance.
“rather hard
mouth”
Intellectually challenged.
Doesn’t have the mental
capacity to digest
information properly.
“cruel body”
“The Rise of the
Coloured Empire” –
Tom’s favourite book.
Racist propaganda.
“I’ve been lying on that sofa
for as long as I can remember”
Reinforces the lack of
motivation and paralysis
present in the East Eggers.
Almost overwhelmed by their
apathy.
Group Discussion Questions
1) What imagery is used to introduce the characters
of Daisy and Jordan?
2) What colour is used in conjunction with these
women and what might this suggest about their
characters?
3) Explain the contrast between Tom and Daisy.
Setting – Learning Intentions
Understand the importance of setting in
‘The Great Gatsby’
Show how these settings relate to the
theme of “The American Dream”
Identify other themes which arise from
chapter one and the different settings
Entrance Ticket
In your own words, explain what you think
a class system is.
Provide examples of different classes.
Give your opinion about class and
whether you think it still exists today.
Setting
Chapter one introduces the reader to the two
main settings: West Egg and East Egg.
These settings are very important as they help
to establish the characters and also link in with
the main themes of the novel.
They are also symbolic of different class systems
in America (the supposedly classless society).
TASK ONE
Find two quotes which describe each
Egg and explain what they tell you
about the setting.
Explain what these two settings
symbolise in terms of class and The
American Dream.
West Egg and East Egg
 Chapter one introduces the reader to both West Egg and
East Egg and establishes the symbolic significance of both.
 West Egg represents ‘new money’, ostentatious and mock,
whereas East Egg represents ‘old money’, established and
genuine.
 One represents the aspiring class, the other the
established, upper middle-class.
The Eggs and the American Dream
 The eggs are fundamentally different – Nick refers to the ‘sinister
contrast’ between them.
 East Egg (where Tom and Daisy live) is the fashionable suburb which
houses families with long-established generations of wealth – the
‘royalty’ of New York.
 West Egg, by comparison is no less splendid: white palatial mansions
are dotted along tree-lined avenues and Wealth is everywhere.
 The reason that West Egg is ‘less fashionable’ than its neighbour is
because the inhabitants have not been born into well-established
‘money’ families.
 Gatsby – among others on West Egg – is part of the ‘nouveau riche’ that
is, he has made his fortune from scratch, emerging from a natural state
of poverty to become a ‘self-made man’.
Aligns itself with
American ideals.
Embodies the
notion of the
dream
Embodies old
world ideals of
patronage, class
and heredity values.
New money lines
in WE
They are the
antithesis of ‘The
Dream’
Contains original
spirit of The Land
of Opportunity
Full of emotionally
stunted, aimless,
shallow ideals.
Task Two
In groups, discuss why such snobbery
towards the nouveau riche exists in East
Egg.
Explain how this snobbery shows that the
very idea of The American Dream is
flawed.
Setting and The American Dream
 Snobbery exists because it is a class system within a class system – a
reminder that, no matter how well you do in life, there will always be
someone ‘above’ sneering at your efforts.
 This type of class division is particularly interesting in light of The
American Dream.
 This dream relates to the idea of America as the Land of
Opportunity, and states that any man (note man), if he is willing to
work hard and improve himself, will find the means to do so there.
 One of the founding principles of the country is a firm belief in
reward for hard work, and the idea of the Self Made Man is one
which American values is fundamentally based.
 So the ideas that such ‘winners’ would be seen as second class
citizens in East Egg is a reminder – if any were needed - that the
American Dream is fundamentally flawed.
Gatsby and the Green Light
 At the edge of his dock, Gatsby is seen to be holding
out his arms and trembling. He is gesturing towards
a:
Single green light, minute and far away
coming from the edge of Daisy’s dock on East Egg.
 This light and Gatsby’s gesture has great symbolic
resonance throughout the rest of the novel.
Symbolism Task
In groups discuss what the light could symbolise. Think
about:
 The connotations of the colour green
 The location of the light
 What you now know about the Eggs
 The enigma that is Gatsby
Symbolism
 It could represent money – green is the colour of money in America
and this could be a symbol of “the dream” and achieving wealth.
 Alternatively, green can represent jealously and envy and this
could indeed by applied to Gatsby’s desire to be part of East Egg
society and to be just like them, while knowing that he will never
be good enough.
 The light could also represent Daisy, like a beacon calling him
forward and putting him under her spell.
 By placing this episode at the end of the chapter, Fitzgerald
effectively foreshadows and delays Gatsby's introduction to the
novel, and his obsession with Daisy Buchanan – indeed, by painting
a comprehensively damning portrait of her character in this
chapter, he questions the very wisdom of this love.
Main Themes
East vs. West
Old world vs. New world ideals
The fallacy of the American Dream vs. the
inherent hopefulness of it
Illusion vs. reality