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The Great Gatsby Study Guide
Chapter One:
1. Who is Tom Buchanan?
2. Who is Daisy Buchanan?
3. Who is Jordan Baker?
4. Who is Nick Carraway?
5. Who is telling the story?
6. Where is the story taking place?
7. Where is West Egg?
8. Who is Nick’s neighbor?
9. Who calls Tom Buchanan during the dinner party?
10. What does the narrator mean by “Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to his book was exempt from
my reaction—Gatsby who represented everything for which I have unaffected scorn” (p. 2)?
11. From where did the narrator come and why?
12. Describe the Buchanan’s house.
13. When asked about her daughter, what does Daisy say?
Chapter Two:
14. Who is Dr. T.J. Eckleberg?
15. What is the “valley”?
16. Who are George and Myrtle Wilson?
17. What are the “eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg”?
18. What did Mrs. Wilson buy while she was out with Tom and Nick?
19. When is this chapter taking place?
20. Explain the following sentences that Nick thinks on the top of page 35. “Yet high over the city our line of
yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening
streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without…”
21. How did Myrtle and Tom meet?
22. What happened to Myrtle at the end of the chapter and why?
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Chapter Three:
23. Compare the party in Chapter 2 to the one in this chapter.
24. Compare the descriptions of Gatsby’s place on the night of the party and on the following day.
25. What are the most prominent colors at the party?
26. In your opinion, why is Gatsby giving this party?
27. How does Gatsby participate in the party?
28. What is Nick’s reaction to Gatsby?
29. Why, in your opinion, does Fitzgerald tell us about the auto accident that occurs after the party?
30. What do you learn about Gatsby in this chapter?
31. Describe the development of Nick and Jordan’s relationship.
32. Why did Nick Carraway go to the party?
Chapter Four:
33. When did Nick start keeping a record of who went to Gatsby’s parties and what did he write it on?
34. Describe Jay Gatsby’s car.
35. What does Gatsby reveal to Nick during the car ride into the city?
36. What two things does Gatsby always carry around with him? Why?
37. Compare the hearse and the limousine on page 68. Why do you think these two are mentioned together?
What is the significance, if any?
38. Who is Meyer Wolfsheim?
39. What did Jordan explain to Nick at the Plaza Hotel?
40. What did Jordan want Nick to do and why?
41. Why does Gatsby have his parties?
42. Explain the phrase on the bottom of page 79: “There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the
tired.”
43. What does Mr. Wolfsheim tell Nick about Gatsby?
44. What does Jordan tell Nick about Daisy, Gatsby, and Tom?
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Chapter Five:
45. Why is Gatsby anxious to see Nick at the beginning of this chapter?
46. What is Nick’s reaction to Gatsby’s offer to help him earn some money?
47. Why does Daisy say “Who is Tom?” when Nick invites her to come to his house for tea?
48. How does Gatsby feel before his meeting with Daisy?
49. How did Daisy feel about seeing Gatsby?
50. How long has it been since Daisy and Gatsby have seen each other?
51. Why did Gatsby want Daisy and Nick to go to his house?
52. Who is Mr. Klipspringer?
53. At night, how could Gatsby see where Daisy lived across the bay?
54. Who is Dan Cody?
55. How long did it take Gatsby to make the money to buy the mansion?
56. What had Gatsby turned Daisy into in his own mind?
Chapter Six:
57. What were some of the rumors the reporter heard?
58. Who is James Gatz?
59. What else do we learn about James Gatz?
60. How does James Gatz meet Dan Cody?
61. What relationship develops between Jay Gatsby and Dan Cody?
62. Describe Tom’s meeting with Gatsby at Gatsby’s house.
63. What does Gatsby call Tom that he does not like?
64. How did Daisy feel about West Egg?
65. What happened five years ago?
66. Compare what we learn about Gatsby in Chapter IV and Chapter VI.
67. What does Gatsby want from Daisy?
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Chapter Seven:
68. Why did the “lights go our” at Gatsby’s house? Why were there no more parties?
69. Why did Gatsby fire all his servants and hire a few new ones to replace them?
70. Why, in your opinion, does Fitzgerald stress the heat so often in this chapter?
71. At the luncheon party at the Buchanan’s, what did Daisy do when Tom left the room to make drinks?
72. What was Gatsby’s reaction to Daisy’s child?
73. At what point did Tom realize that Daisy loved Gatsby?
74. How did Gatsby describe Daisy’s voice?
75. Whose cars did Gatsby, Nick, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan take to New York?
76. Who drove each car and who rode in each?
77. Why does George Wilson need money?
78. What do Tom Buchanan and George Wilson have in common at this point?
79. Who was watching from the upstairs window when Tom stopped for gasoline on the way to New York City
after the luncheon?
80. Where in New York did the group go?
81. What does Tom mean when he says to Gatsby “What kind of row are you trying to cause in my house
anyhow (129)?”
82. What is the irony of Tom’s defending family life and family institutions (130)?
83. Nick thinks “The transition [of Tom] from libertine to prig was so complete (130). What does he mean?
84. According to Gatsby, why did Daisy marry Tom?
85. What did Daisy mean when she said to Gatsby “Oh, you want too much!”
86. According to Tom, how did Gatsby make his money?
87. Which people rode in which cars on the return trip from New York to Long Island?
88. This was Nick’s birthday. How old was he?
89. Who is Michaelis?
90. What happened to Myrtle?
91. How do the following people react to what happened to Myrtle: Wilson, Tom, Nick, and Gatsby?
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Chapter Eight:
92. Why did Nick suggest that Gatsby go away? What was Gatsby’s response?
93. What were Gatsby’s intentions at first when he met Daisy?
94. How long did Daisy and Gatsby go out before he left for the war?
95. What happened to Gatsby after the war?
96. While Gatsby was in war, what did Daisy do?
97. What did Gatsby mean when he said, “In any case, it was just personal” on page 152?
98. Why did Gatsby go to Louisville when he came back to the U.S.?
99. When is this chapter taking place?
100. Why didn’t Gatsby want the gardener to drain the pool?
101. What did Nick mean when he said “They’re a rotten crowd-you’re worth the whole damn bunch put
together” on page 154?
102. Make a time table of the events in this chapter.
103. What does Wilson discover? What does he do?
104. Who said, “You may fool me, but you can’t fool God” and what does it mean?
105. The words “…and the holocaust was complete” refers to what two immediate events, and suggest what
larger meaning?
106. Why does Michaelis believe caused Myrtle to run?
Chapter Nine:
107. At the inquest, what testimony does Catherine give regarding her sister Myrtle?
108. After Gatsby’s death, why did Nick feel ‘responsible’ for getting someone for Gatsby?
109. What did Nick learn when he called up Daisy to tell her about Gatsby’s death?
110. Who said “Look here, old sport, you’ve got to get someone for me. I can’t go through this alone”? Who was
it said to? What does it mean?
111. Why didn’t Wolfshiem come to see Gatsby when Nick sent for him?
112. Who is Slagle? Why did he hang up the phone when Nick said, “Look here—this isn’t Mr. Gatsby? Mr.
Gatsby’s dead?
113. What did Slagle mean when he said “Young Parke is in trouble.”
114. Who is Henry C. Gatz?
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115. Who says, “Where have they got Jimmy? Who is ‘Jimmy’?
116. Why did Nick hang up the phone on Klipspringer?
117. Why, in your opinion, does Wolfshiem not want to come to Gatsby’s funeral?
118. When was the last time Henry Gatz saw his son?
119. What does Henry Gatz mean when he says “Of course we was broke up when he ran off from home but I
see now there was a reason for it”?
120. In addition to Nick and Henry Gatsby, who came to Gatsby’s funeral?
121. What does Nick mean when he says, “I see now that this has been a story of the West…”?
122. Why does Nick leave the East?
123. What does Nick find out when he visits Jordan?
124. How does Nick feel about Jordan now?
125. How does Nick feel about Tom and Daisy now? What kind of people does he say they are? Why?
126. What does Nick mean by the last sentence in the book?