Senior Seminar
Mr. Ellrott
Name: NOTES
Period:
The Great Gatsby Final Review Questions
Gatsby test on Thursday!
Test = 15 questions, you select 10
Review these questions.
Your responses should be in complete sentences. Be sure that your responses are thorough and specific.
1. “Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope” (6 top). Discuss how this quote relates to the
themes of the novel as a whole. In order to focus your response you can stick to discussing the quote
in regards to the theme of judgment or the theme of hope. How does Nick’s perspective change over
the course of the novel?
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Nick says that he doesn’t judge others (advice from his father)
Nick has seen too much—people have revealed their true colors, he can’t reserve judgment
anymore
Human sympathy has its limits
Nick needs to make a break from these people and move back to the Midwest
Eyes on the billboard (judgment), Nick’s judgment, George Wilson’s judgment (uses his gun for
“justice”
2. Discuss the symbolic use of the color green in the novel.
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Jealousy
Envy
Money
Hope
Love/coveting Daisy
Blinking light across the dock is green
Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy
Dutch Sailors see “green breast of New World”--hope
3. What traits of the upper class are embodied by the character of Jordan Baker?
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Cheats (possibly on her golf game)
Arrogant
Selfish
Drives recklessly –she almost hit a man yet said the man should be more careful
Judgmental
Entitled
4. How is Gatsby representative of the American Dream? Use 3 references or quotes from the text to
support your point.
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Came from a poor North Dakota farm to wealthy man living on the East Coast
Has material success
Social status
Has a new identity “James Gatz” to “Jay Gatsby”
“Jay Gatsby”—put in quotes, new name, new identity
He is new money—he can never break into the status/world of those with old money (like Tom)
Gatsby keeps a list of resolves/daily training schedule to become a better person (this shows his
drive for success before the war and before Daisy)
Gatsby’s interaction with Dan Cody (rich yacht owner)—showed him how the rich lived, gives
him the line “old sport”
5. Discuss how women are portrayed in the novel using Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle as your reference
points.
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Emotionally hysterical
Dependency on men
Self-centered
Cheats—guilty of adultery
Jordan—independent (she’s not married, sees who she chooses)
6. Discuss the significance of the valley of ashes and the billboard of Doctor T. J. Eckleberg.
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Where the Wilsons live
Between West Egg and Manhattan
Poor class
Refuse of coal used to power the city
Ashes of New York’s fireplace
Eyes from the Billboard “God Sees Everything”
Where Myrtle is killed—ashes to ashes
Excess of the 1920s—the waste of the excess is dumped in the Valley of Ashes
7. “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not
through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (101). Discuss when this
occurs and the significance of this quote.
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Quote when Daisy goes to Gatsby’s house
Gatsby is in love with the idea of Daisy
Gatsby turns Daisy into an object, illusion, a “holy grail” or prize to win. He doesn’t love her as
a person—more as an object.
8. Is justice served by the novel’s end? Does each character get what he or she deserves?
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See note chart
Daisy gets away with murder
George loses his wife/takes his own life
Corruption—rich with old money escape
James Gatz - Jay Gatsby  died after he tells Nick the truth  goes back to being James
Gatz—a nobody
At death his father even refers to him as Jimmy—not one of his new associates attends his
funeral
9. Explain the importance of the following quote. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future
that year by year recedes (pulls away) before us.” (189)
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Green light = American Dream, Dream of Gatsby, so close across the water but he can’t obtain it
Daisy is always just out of reach
No matter how much he pursues the dream it is elusive (he can’t obtain it).
Despite having a mansion, power, popularity he couldn’t obtain Daisy.
10. Explain the importance of the following quote. “But I wanted to leave things in order and not just
trust that obliging and indifferent sea to sweep my refuse away.”
 Nick needed to stay in order to provide Gatsby with a proper funeral
 Daisy and Tom leave—she never even brings him a flower (they are like refuse—garbage)
 People like Nick have to clean up the messes left by people like Tom and Daisy
 Nick takes moral responsibility for the situation—makes him sick of the people he meets and
things that he sees—makes him retreat back to the wholesome Midwest.
Also consider the following:
Nick’s Relationship with Jordan:
 they are opposites (Nick has morals, Jordan realizes he is different)
 relationship based on their connection to Tom and Daisy—when Tom and Daisy leave, there is no
longer a relationship
 since they are not married, the relationship is simpler
Time:
 Things dramatically change over time—5 years passed between Daisy/Gatsby’s relationship, she
is a different person.
 Nick forgets it is his 30th birthday—time in NY goes by without him recognizing it.
 Gatsby spends 5 years trying to win Daisy back—he is trying to reclaim his inspiration for
everything that happened after he met Daisy, he can’t recreate that moment—he can’t repeat the
past, yet Gatsby thinks he can.
 Summer to Autumn—Nick shows his true friendship to Gatsby, tells him the truth, is part of his
funeral even though they have only been together a short time
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Gatsby as “better than” Daisy and Tom:
Self-made man
Kept a list of ways to improve himself, didn’t inherit like they did
Built his dream on Daisy/his love for Daisy
Becomes a criminal/bootlegger to make money, but makes his money in pursuit of his dream to
obtain Daisy—his love for her makes him strive for wealth
What does it say about Love? Relate this to other works in the Love Unit.
 Money
 Like “Federigo’s Falcon”—Federigo spends to impress Monna Giovanna then loses his
money (impresses her more when he loses his money and forsakes his prize bird for a meal
for her)