The Great Gatsby
Chapter 1
Study Guide Questions
1. The narrator’s father gave him advice. What was the advice?
2. Nick remembers his father’s suggestion that “a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out
unequally at birth.” What are “fundamental decencies”? Explain why you agree/disagree with Nick’s father?
3. Nick has a habit of reserving judgment. Explain how Nick will probably react to people he disapproves of.
4. Explain West Egg and East Egg geographically and domestically.
West Egg (new $)
East Egg (old $)
5. Who lives next to Nick (the narrator)? List at least three characteristics of the property.
6. Who are Tom and Daisy Buchannan and where do they live?
7. Tom Buchannan’s physical description is important later in the novel. What are at least three things that
Nick describes about Tom Buchannan?
8. Describe at least three things about Daisy.
9. Describe at least three things about Jordan Baker.
10. From what you can figure, why is Jordan Baker at the Buchannan’s home?
11. Tom Buchannan gives a specific explanation for “civilization going to pieces.” Explain the explanation
and what does the explanation imply about Tom’s character?
12. Just from what you’ve read about Daisy and Jordan so far, what does their attitude seem to be?
13. According to Jordan Baker, who phoned Tom during dinner?
14. To what “secret society” do the Buchannan’s belong? Hint: It’s not a club or anything like that. It
relates to how the Buchannans feel they can treat others
15. Nick talks about Daisy in a way that suggests she is _____________________ - like and innocent.
Whereas he remembers an _______________________story about Jordan. This might not mean much
right now, but it might suggest something later.
16. Explain the significance of the green light at the end of Chapter 1? What is Gatsby doing and what
could it mean?
Chapter 2
Study guide Questions
1. List at least three characteristics for the valley of ashes.
2. What might the valley of ashes symbolize (represent)?
3. List at least three characteristics of the billboard that “looks” over the opening scene in Chapter 2.
4. Where does Tom often take Myrtle and explain why his affair with Myrtle is public knowledge?
5. Nick goes with Tom to visit Myrtle. Describe Myrtle and her husband George Wilson.
6. List at least five things that happen during the course of the evening.
7. What is all over the wrecked Ford and nearly everything else in this chapter?
8. Explain the significance of the puppy episode.
9. At most parties, there are a lot of unfounded rumors wildly flying around as well as a few punches.
Describe (or list) the rumors concerning the following:
a) Gatsby’s wealth =
b) Daisy and Tom’s relationship =
c) Why doesn’t Daisy divorce Tom? =
e) Why did Tom break Myrtle’s nose? =
10. Mrs. McKee gave one reason why she didn’t marry the man during her trip to Marseilles? What was
the reason?
11. List at least one thing that suggests how Myrtle doesn’t seem as sophisticated as the others.
12. How is Myrtle handling her new-found money?
13. Who are three people you met at this party?
Chapter 3
Study Guide Questions
1. Summarize between Tom Buchanan’s party in Chapter Two and Gatsby’s party in Chapter Three. List at
least five things for each side.
Tom Buchanan’s
Jay Gatsby’s
East Egg Party
West Egg Party
2. How do Tom and Gatsby’s parties compare?
3. Explain what Nick (Narrator) means when he says he is “one of the few who were invited”?
4. List four rumors about Gatsby that were suggested at the party.
a)
b)
c)
d)
5. Who is “owl eyes” and what surprises him? You aren’t looking for a name. Just describe him accurately.
6. Explain what “owl eyes” meant by Gatsby not cutting the pages. (Fitzgerald is commenting about the
wealthy.)
Comment: back in the day, each page of a book had to be gently ripped open at the corners or cut open.
7. What is Jordan’s most “incurable” flaw?
8. What is comical about the car accident described?
9. What does Gatsby call Nick?
Chapter 4
Study Guide Questions
1. Nick keeps a list of the party guests on a train schedule dated July 5, 1922. The list begins with the elegant
East Egg people who frequently attend the Gatsby’s parties. Choose ten last names and list them as “East
Eggers” or “West Eggers”.
2. What kind of people are Gatsby’s guests in your opinion?
3. Gatsby takes Nick to lunch in his huge “American” car and tells his life story to Nick. Why doesn’t Nick
believe Gatsby?
4. Why is Gatsby telling Nick his life story?
5. Nick and Gatsby cross the Queensboro Bridge and see a funeral procession and three Negroes being driven
by a white chauffeur. What is the significance of these two sights (what do they symbolize or suggest)?
Funeral procession =hint: regardless of your dream, the result is…
Three Negroes being driven by a white chauffeur =Remember, the civil rights hadn’t occurred yet.
Make a comment about money.
6. Take a guess at Mr. Wolfsheim’s occupation: _____________________
List three reasons for this impression.
1=
2=
3=
7. Note Wolfsheim’s comment about Gatsby, “He would never so much as look at a friend’s wife.” Why is
this comment ironic?
8. What is Wolfsheim famous for doing?
9. What startling news does Jordan tell Nick about Daisy and Gatsby?
10. What did Daisy do the day before her wedding to Tom Buchanan?
11. What was Tom Buchanan doing shortly after the wedding?
12. What favor is asked of Nick on Gatsby’s behalf?
Chapter 5
Study Guide Questions
1. What does Nick do for Jay Gatsby as a favor?
2. Gatsby offers to return the favor of making arrangements with Daisy by offering Nick a rather lucrative
business deal. Explain why Nick is offended and refuses Gatsby’s offer.
3. It is raining when “the day” arrives. Rain in novels in not usually accidental (symbolism). The rain
conveniently stops as Nick couldn’t …(end the sentence). What might be happening?
4. How does Nick catch Gatsby in a lie?
5. Explain the three emotional states Gatsby moves through upon meeting Daisy again.
1.
2.
3.
6. Gatsby knocking over the clock is like Gatsby trying to stop time—Fitzgerald put this scene in there for
a reason. How was Gatsby trying to stop time?
7. Why do you think Daisy cries when she sees all of Gatsby’s beautiful shirts?
8. Why is the song “Ain’t We Got Fun?” both appropriate and ironic?
9. This chapter is often seen as the beginning of Gatsby’s downfall. What has the green light come to
represent? HINT: Make a connection with question 6 and question 9.
Chapter 6
Study Guide Questions
1. This chapter completes the narrative of Gatsby’s life. Why is Fitzgerald’s use of flashback more
interesting to a reader than chronological order?
2. Who unexpectedly drops in at Gatsby’s one Sunday? What do you imagine is the reason for the visit?
3. What does Gatsby flaunt at Tom when he talks to Tom?
4. What hypocritical remark does Tom make in reply to Gatsby’s flaunting comment?
5. Compare the behaviors of Tom and Gatsby.
Tom Buchanan =
Gatsby =
6. Nick notes that the illusion of one’s world breaks down when outsiders enter it. How does this apply
to Gatsby?
7. Gatsby’s illusion (dream) is falling apart. Gatsby knows Daisy did not having a good time. What advice
does Nick offer Gatsby? How does Gatsby react?
Chapter 7
Study Guide Questions
1. Trimalchio was a comic character in Petronius’s Satyricon, also a “nouveau riche,” known for his
hilarious parties and farcical antics. Trimalchio was a vulgar, self-made millionaire whose brief and
fast rise to the top parallels Gatsby’s brief career. Fitzgerald thought of calling the novel, Trimalchio In
West Egg. Why was Gatsby’s career as Trimalchio over? (First paragraph of chapter 7)
2. Describe the weather. How does the weather contribute to the mood of the scenes in Chapter Seven?
3. Explain how Pammy’s (Daisy’s daughter) appearance affects Gatsby.
4. The Buchanans’ unlimited wealth has left their lives empty and boring. Because of this, what does
Gatsby represent for Daisy?
5. There are two cars in this chapter. It is important to keep them straight in your mind to figure out
how everything happened.
ON THE WAY TO NEW YORK LIST THE PASSENGERS AND WHO WAS DRIVING:
Tom Buchanan’s car =
Gatsby’s car =
6. Where did Gatsby’s car stop on the way? Who saw them?
7. What had George learned about his wife and what has he decided to do?
8. Why has George Wilson, throughout the novel, been trying to buy a car from Tom?
9. Compare Tom and George in their knowledge that their wives are having affairs. Explain how each
reacted.
George =
Tom =
10. What does Gatsby want Daisy to say to Tom?
11. Tom admits that he has been less than an ideal husband, but points out “Why—they’re things between
Daisy and me that you’ll never know, things that neither of us can ever forget.” Daisy has tried up to this point
to support Jay Gatsby but what does she start to do now? What does Daisy tell Gatsby?
12. By the end of the argument, Tom has won. Tom is even confident enough to allow Daisy to drive home
with Jay. ON THE WAY HOME LIST THE PASSENGERS AND WHO WAS DRIVING:
Tom Buchanan’s car =
Gatsby’s car =
13. Who is Michaelis?
14. What did George Wilson tell Michaelis?
15. Map out in at least 3 steps what happened to Myrtle.
16. Besides George Wilson, who was extremely shocked and upset at Myrtle’s death?
17. Who was hiding in the bushes at Tom Buchanan’s house and startled Nick as he was waiting for a taxi?
Why was he hiding there?
18. Gatsby reveals to Nick the identity of the person who was driving the car that hit Myrtle. Who was
driving?
NICK’S THIRTIETH BIRTHDAY—Nick’s birthday, like the green light and the eyes of Dr. Eckleburg, is
one of those symbols that gives the novel’s action a deeper meaning. While we identify emotionally with
Gatsby, this is Nick’s novel too, and his birthday reminds us that it is also a novel about Nick’s growing
up. Nick came to New York, naïve and inexperienced, having learned about life through the book. The
summer’s events have taught him about life in a way that no book ever could—just as the years on Dan
Cody’s yacht educated Gatsby. The final phase of his education is learning about death, and death is just
around the corner when he remembers his birthday.
Chapter 8
Study Guide Questions
1. Nick urges Gatsby to leave. Explain why Gatsby refuses.
2. Explain why Fitzgerald includes Gatsby’s flashback about Daisy?
3. Grail = Holy Grail, in legend, the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. (The New American Webster
Handy College Dictionary) To what “grail” does Gatsby refer?
4. What is the symbolic significance of autumn at the novel’s end? Why is there a “sharp difference” in
the weather?
5. Explain what Nick means when he says to Gatsby, “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together”?
6. What does Nick finally realize about Jordan Baker?
7. George Wilson symbolizes (typifies) the ordinary man. What else does Fitzgerald’s portrayal of George
Wilson suggest?
Chapter 9
Study Guide Questions
1. In the first paragraph of Chapter 8, write the phrase that foreshadows Gatsby’s death?
2. Explain why the details of Gatsby’s funeral are left to Nick?
3. What is Klipspringer most concerned with when he talks to Nick?
4. Fitzgerald points out that Gatsby fills two roles: a.) the sly associate of_____ and the All-American
____________ of Henry Gatz.
5. What does the call from Slagle suggest about Gatsby’s business dealings?
6. Explain why Nick tells Mr. Gatz he was a close friend of Gatsby’s, even though he really wasn’t?
7. What do you think of his father, Henry Gatz?
8. Explain why do you think Fitzgerald included the man with the owl-eyed glasses at the funeral?
9. If the West Egg represented idealism, what would the East Egg represent?
10. Where was Fitzgerald from?
11. Fitzgerald is also making a comment here about the nation. What is he saying about places like back
home versus places like New York?
12. At the end of Chapter Nine Nick states, “I couldn’t forgive [Tom] or like him but I saw that what he had
done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people,
Tom and Daisy—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. What did the Buchannan’s do or how do they behave after the entire incident?