F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
The Great Gatsby
Language Techniques
Year 11 Tertiary English – North American Texts
• Narrator, Nick, is a minor character merely an
observer; he is linked to events but doesn’t affect
or trigger them.
• Gatsby, the protagonist often seems distant, is
vaguely described.
• The reader must construct an impression of
Gatsby based on a few impressions, rumours and
indirect or unreliable descriptions.
• Boundaries between inanimate and animate
objects seem vague/blury.
“He smiled understandingly – much more understandingly. It
was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal
reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times
in life. It faced – or seemed to face – the whole eternal world
for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible
prejudice in your favour. ”
(Fitzgerald, 1926, p.54)
“The lawn started at the beach and ran towards the front
door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sundials and brick
walks and burning gardens - finally when it reached the
house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the
momentum of its run.” (Fitzgerald, 1926, p.12-13)
“This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like
wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take
the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally,
with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men who move dimly and
already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of
grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak,
and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up
with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which
screens their obscure operations from your sight.”
(Fitzgerald, 1926, p.29)
Foreshadowing
“He snatched the book from me and placed it hastily on
its shelf muttering that if one brick was removed the
whole library was liable to collapse” (p. 52)
Simile
“Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like
silver idols, weighing down their own white dresses
against the singing breeze of the fans.” (Chapter 7)
“In his blue garden men and girls came and went
like moths among the whisperings and the
champagne and the stars.” (Chapter 3)
Metaphor
Daisy, “You remind me of a rose, an absolute rose.
Doesn’t he?” (p. 21)
"...he had committed himself to the following of a
grail." (p.142)
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne
back ceaselessly to the past." (p.172)
Symbolism, imagery and allegories
1. What do the following allegories represent in Gatsby?
(a) The owl-eyed man and Gatsby’s books
(b) The Green Light
(c) T. J. Eckleburg
2. How does Fitzgerald symbolically use colours in the
novel? (E.g. yellow and gold).
Find three quotes from the novel that demonstrate this.
Is Gatsby overrated?
'‘It was the first book where I recognised the beauty of prose.''
Interviewee of the Sun-Herald
''I didn't think it was possible to write with such grace and beauty
and economy.''
Andrew Denton
1.
2.
3.
4.
How would you describe the tone of the language?
What do you like/dislike about Fitzgerald’s use of language?
Do you have trouble believing the character of Gatsby?
Can you find a shabby sentence in Gatsby? If so you need to
explain why you think this is a poorly structured sentence.
Chapter 4
1. List the details that Gatsby
tells Nick about his life.
2. Gatsby is not telling the truth
about his life. What parts of
his story that make you
suspicious?
3. What is your impression of
Mr Wolfsheim?
Chapter 5
1. Think of something that you dream to acquire.
How can the attainment of the goal be less
satisfying than the pursuit of the goal? Is it really
worth it?
2. Why was Gatsby afraid to talk to Daisy at first?
3. How does Fitzgerald describe Gatsby now that
he has met with Daisy?
4. Why does Daisy cry into a pile of Gatsby’s shirts
during the tour of his house?
Themes:
The American Dream
1. What is the American dream?
2. List and describe people you know of or have read
about that have dreamed an American dream.
3. What do these people have in common?
4. Do you think that the American dream is specific to
the United States in some way? If so, how and why?
5. Is the ideal of the American dream central to
America’s national identity?
6. How possible do you believe it is for Americans to
realise the American Dream?
The American Dream
in a Recession
1. According to this article, what is the classic definition of
the American dream?
2. Why do you think more people believe in the American
dream today than they did four years ago, when the
economic outlook for the US was much brighter?
3. Describe the shift in the definition of the American
dream over the past four years? What do you think
accounts for this change?
4. Which definitions of the American dream resonate most
with you? Why?
The American Dream
There is no single definition of what this term means, but James Truslow Adams in
'The American Epic' described the USA as:
"that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for
everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a
difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too
many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of
motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each
man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they
are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless
of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
But the root of the idea could said to be found in the American Declaration of
Independence of 1776 which stated:
"all men… are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights... [including]
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
Chapter 9: The Death of the
American Dream
1. What does the final chapter reveal about the
American Dream? Make a note of any quotes
relating to the American Dream.
2. In particular, what does the final paragraph of the
novel tell us about the American Dream?
3. What does the green light that shines from Daisy’s
dock represent?
Gatsby – A Man of Our Times
1. How does Gatsby embody the American Dream?
2. According to the New York Times, what ‘saves’ Gatsby and
makes him a masterful literary achievement?
3. Why does the article claim that Americans today ‘are
Gatsby’?
4. If James Gatz existed today how would he reinvent himself?
Write a paragraph describing what sort of a man Gatsby
would be in 2013. For example, how would he make his
money? Where would he live, etc?
The Great American Novel
1. How is the Great Gatsby uniquely American?
2. What does it reveal about American society
and culture?
‘American Dream’ can be defined as:
The prospect of a new country where everybody is emancipatedfrom their
former economic, religious, social, ethnic and any other identities and status;
a new frontier for Easterns and a new home for those who lack the existence
of or the sense of.
Contributing factors to the American Dream:
–
–
–
–
–
Mass immigration
The overly-exaggrated and misinterpreted ‘almighty America’ image
Ever-increasing urbanisation
Prospect of easy money
A hopeless/desperate economic and political atmosphere in post-war Europe
Gatsby’s American Dream can be analysed in
two part:
• Before he met Daisy
• After his return from World War I
He wants her to see his house,' she explained. 'And your house is right
next door.'
'oh!'
'I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some
night,' went on Jordan, 'but she never did. Then he began asking people
casually if they knew her, and I was the first one he found. (p.51)
He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and
say: 'I never loved you.‘ …
'And she doesn't understand,' he said. 'She used to be able to
understand. We'd sit for hours - ‘ …
'I wouldn't ask too much of her,' I ventured. 'You can't repeat the past.'
'Can't repeat the past?' he cried incredulously. 'Why of course you can!
(p.70)
Gatsby turned to me rigidly: 'I can't say anything in his house, old spoft.'
'She's got an indiscreet voice,' I remarked. 'It's full of ' I hesitated.
‘Her voice is full of money,' he said suddenly.
That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money – that was
the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the
cymbal's song of it ... Fligh in a white palace the king's daughter, the
golden girl… (p.70)
Fitzgerald portrates a failure rather than a success, so we
actually read an American Failed-Dream.