The Great Gatsby Notes
Dynamic characters: changes
 Jay Gatsby
 Nick
o Nick changes by becoming judgmental
o Nick learns that money (wealth) corrupts people. (dishonesty, careless)
o Due to becoming judgemental and money corrupts people, Nick becomes
disillusioned.
 George Wilson
Static characters: doesn't change
 Tom Buchanan
 Daisy Buchanan
 Jordan
 Myrtle

Jay Gatsby can be considered both dynamic (if you go back to how he changes and not
from when we met him) and static (in the present of the book he is the same).
Gatsby becomes rich after the war by killing people for the mob and drug dealer.
Foils

Gatsby's foil is Wilson
o Daisy is the Holy Grail for Gatsby
Theme

The American Dream has been lost/ The American Dream is false.
o The American dream is:
 You work hard you can build up your wealth through that work. America
provides the opportunity and your work builds your wealth.
o Why has the dream been lost according Fitzgerald?
 The American Dream is false.
 The only one with a dream can chase it down only through illegal
means (killing people, drugs (in this case it is alcohol)).
 Wealth is built by inheritance not hard work.
 You can't change class (West Egg- new money vs East Egg- old
money)
 The ideal of wealth/ the goal makes you become a bad person. The
goal is bad for you.
Motif: a pattern of recurring images, words, or ideas that functions on a symbolic level to
support the theme.
 Corruption by wealth: they are dishonest/careless
o affairs
 Tom with Myrtle
 Daisy with Gatsby
o alcohol
o bad drivers
 it takes two bad drivers to make an accident
The Great Gatsby Notes
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
guy at Gatsby's party who crashes his car
Gatsby gets pulled over
Daisy hits and kills Myrtle
Carelessness of the wealthy is what is represents

light vs dark
o book takes place in summer- length of daylight
 photograph
o Oxford picture
o scrapbook of Daisy
o picture of Gatsby's house
o picture of Dan Cody
o McKee is a photographer
o Symbolic Value: Why are all these here?
 Reality vs Illusion
 photographs allow for a lie because they have the appearance of
truth/reality.
 photographs are no more "real" than any other art.
 Editing
o The photographer has all the control- they pick the subject
and the background
 Who is Gatsby?
o drug dealing murderer
o romantic millionaire.
 Who is taking the picture?
o Nick is Gatsby's photographer
o Nick makes us like Gatsby
 Is Nick reliable/trustworthy?
o He is the one who tells us he doesn't lie
o Jordan contradicts him- she calls him a liar
East vs West
When Nick sits at the end of Gatsby's land (sand) he is seeing it like the new world
(When the settlers came)
 Settlers came with hope like what Gatsby had
 The way the original settlers looked at America with hope and opportunity is the same
way Gatsby looked at the green light at the end of Daisy's dock
o he didn't know that the green light was already gone (Daisy)
 The ending of the book is saying that you should never give up hope but you will never
reach that hope
o what you want only exist in the past
o you can only move East to West (similar to the Motif) but hope will be over soon
 the move is to represents the corruption
Symbol: same object- one thing
 green light
o Daisy, fresh
 billboard: optometrist's sign Dr. T.J. Eckelburg's Eyes
The Great Gatsby Notes
o
Valley of Ashes- represents the wasteland
 broken people live here, gray
 George Wilson become the lord (the embodiment) of the Valley of
Ashes
 Eckelburg Eyes are God
These meaning are based on an allusion: reference to a well-known work
The book alludes to the Arthurian legend of the Holy Grail (Holy Grail is a relic that is
important to Christians because it was Jesus's cup at 1st communion)
The speare and cup are handed off to: Joseph of Arimathea
He dies and passes is off to his son and so on- they are the caretakers of the Grails
Pelles of England- Fisher King (nickname: because fishing is associated with Christians)
(Modernists loved this story)
 display for pilgrims- free from sin
 Dolorous Stroke- Pelles looks down a pilgrim's dress and the spear
falls off and goes through where he is lustful, the wound will not
heal and after this the spear and cup disappear
 Pelles becomes known as the Wounded King
 The land then dies and his people get sick
 His land becomes known as The Wasteland
o Gatsby house at the end starts to become a wasteland
 Modernists love this story
o Thought post WWI world was a wasteland that had been
abandoned by God and was inhabited by the incurable sick
How East vs West is connected to the green light
 When Nick sits at the end of Gatsby's land (sand) he is seeing it like the new world
(When the settlers came)
 Settlers came with hope like what Gatsby had
 The way the original settlers looked at America with hope and opportunity is the same
way Gatsby looked at the green light at the end of Daisy's dock
o he didn't know that the green light was already gone (Daisy)
 The ending of the book is saying that you should never give up hope but you will never
reach that hope
o what you want only exist in the past
o you can only move East to West (similar to the Motif) but hope will be over soon
 the move is to represents the corruption
The modernist are presenting no hope with the book
 the idea of the American Dream was beautiful but it is all gone
Morality doesn't matter money matters.
 Money has replaced God. we as Americans, worship commercialism
o This is only getting worse.
o George Wilson's looking to the billboard
The Great Gatsby Notes
Ending
 Gatsby is connected to the 1st settlers of the New World- both have a dream that is based
on hope and opportunity
 Nick says this dream is past and gone to ruin.- Valley of Ashes is growing dream is
corrupted
 They moved West chasing this dream/ experience of hope- Manifest Destiny
 East is corrupt and west is the only place left