Exam Prep Worksheet The setting of the work (Time and Place)
English AI and one sentence as to why it is important:
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Title: The Great Gatsby
Main Character(s) name and one sentence
description:
Jay Gatsby, the title character of The
Great Gatsby, was born Jimmy Gatz, a poor boy
from an undistinguished family. Dazzled by Daisy
Fay at a party when he was a young soldier on his
way overseas, he is determined to win her love
by accumulating enormous wealth and by
developing a personal style of such glowing force
that she will be unable to resist his courtship. He
is a natural leader of men; he is extremely
poised, physically gifted, understated about his
accomplishments but riveting in terms of his
presence. At the age of thirty-two, having
accumulated his wealth through shady
enterprises connected with major-league
criminality, he is a bizarre combination of an
elegant, gallant man and a love-struck youth. At
the heart of his character is the conviction that
his love can rescue Daisy from a bad marriage
and redeem his own life, which has been sliding
further into corruption. His willingness to commit
himself totally to his vision of a bright future
makes his death tragic.
Two Important Minor Characters and their
relationship with the main character:
Daisy is extremely attractive, her allure
projected by her voice, which Fitzgerald describes
as 'the kind of voice that the ear follows up and
down, as if each speech is an arrangement of
notes that will never be played again.' She has a
radiance that Nick sees as 'a wild tonic in the
rain,' and she communicates her sense of love
with extraordinary intensity. But she sees
everything from the perspective of her own
happiness and well-being, and without being
cruel or evil, she is a little bit too careless. In fact,
her carelessness leads to the death of Myrtle
Wilson, the woman her husband has been seeing.
Daisy's faults are minor, though, in comparison
with those of her husband.
Tom Buchanan is very rich and privileged,
but he is also physically imposing, a star athlete
used to having his way. He is a thug and a bully,
full of self-importance and unjustified self-regard.
But inside the 'cruel body' he remains a coward
with no moral courage, a quitter with no sense of
perseverance, a man of average intelligence that
he has never developed, and a man concerned
with appearances who, as Nick observes, has no
real reason for doing anything. He competes with
Gatsby through deception and treachery. It is a
mark of Fitzgerald's achievement that one
actually feels sorry for him at times.
Set in the summer of 1922, most of the
story takes place in the fictitious New York towns
of East and West Egg, Long Island, and in New
York City. Nick Carraway, who has rented a
cottage in West Egg next door to the rented
estate where the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby
lives, renews his acquaintance with his cousin
Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom, who live
in East Egg. When Gatsby wishes to meet the
charming Daisy, whose voice rings like the sound
of money, he selects Nick as his confidant. The
glitter and intrigue of the 1920s permeate the
story, and the details of the setting are important
to the development of the theme.
In chronological order, list the five most
important events in the work:
1. Nick goes to one of Gatsby’s parties and
meets Gatsby
2. Gatsby and Tom go into town with Myrtle, see
other life
3. Gatsby and Daisy meet
4. Myrtle Wilson is killed by Daisy but Gatsby
covers it up.
5. Gatsby is killed
What is the dominant symbol in the work
and give one specific example of where it is
used:
- Gatsby's car is not just an ostentatious display
of wealth, it is a mobile realm, his drawer of
unusual shirts is more than a display of
buying power, it suggests the generosity of
abundance
- The Buchanans' mansion is not just an
example of conspicuous consumption, it is a
symbol of a limitless power, almost a natural
force
- Gatsby's gestures are not just calculated
effects, they are manifestations of genuine
aristocracy
- Daisy's voice is not just 'full of money,' it is an
expression of the magic that stirs the senses.
- Green light at end of the dock
Describe the narrative style in the book and
briefly explain how it is used effectively:
As critic Matthew Bruccoli points out, his
'narrative control solved the problem of making
the mysterious—almost preposterous—Jay Gatsby
convincing by letting the truth about him emerge
gradually during the course of the novel.'
Fitzgerald greatly admired novelist Joseph
Conrad's employment of a partially involved
narrator, and everything that occurs in the novel
is presented through Nick's perceptions, thus
combining, as Bruccoli puts it, 'the effect of a
first-person immediacy with authorial
perspective.'
 Nick's tempered approach to life and his
undeniable honesty lend an authenticity to his
observations. In Nick's narration, Fitzgerald
skillfully merges the language of the lyric poet
with subjects not traditionally associated with a
lyrical sensibility.
One of Fitzgerald's greatest strengths is
his ability to animate the vision of the American
dream even as he reveals the forces that have
tainted, if not destroyed, that idyll.
How does the ending resolve the issues
presented in the work:
Fitzgerald was also a thoroughly romantic
artist in the most traditional sense, and for him,
women like Daisy represented the deepest
seductive power of the American dream as well
as its greatest dangers. Even if pursuing the
dream—or the woman—doomed a man, the
undertaking was worth the risk; indeed, the
pursuit was essential for the exceptional man
who wished to fully realize his character. Thus,
Gatsby's (and possibly America's) greatness lay
in the ability to put aside the lessons of bitter
experience. As Gatsby says when Nick tells him
he cannot recapture the past, 'Of course you can,
old sport.' Gatsby's full participation and heedless
pursuit make him the quintessential American
hero. His death, in a sense, serves as a warning,
but it also ennobles him. Fitzgerald hoped that
there would always be men such as Gatsby
whose nature it was to 'beat on, boats against the
current,' to make the gorgeous gesture that
animates existence.
Nick, the observer and artistic conscience,
serves as a necessary counterweight to Gatsby's
wild extravagance. His support of Gatsby, his
participation to some extent in Gatsby's heart-
driven surge toward romantic beauty, and his
ability to judge other people's actions with
compassion exemplify fundamental decency
carried beyond complacency. As Gatsby
reanimates the dream, Nick conserves it. His
appreciation of beauty is as vital to its existence
as is Gatsby's immediate celebration. 'Reserving
judgment,' he says, 'is a matter of infinite hope.'
That is what The Great Gatsby is ultimately
about.
Briefly describe the major theme of the
work:
The theme of The Great Gatsby is
decadence and the decline of society. Although
the story is told with grace and beauty, its events
are intended to be shocking. True to the spirit of
the times, the story involves marital infidelity,
murder, and wealth earned through racketeering.
Many of the characters thrive on emotional
dishonesty, and live for appearance rather than
substance of character. But the novel is also a
moral tale in which the characters get their 'just
deserts.' Ultimately Nick understands the
meaning of their lives and the sadness of their
worlds.
Why is this work important to read?:
In 1922 Fitzgerald coined the term 'the
jazz age,' and his stories brought him both fame
and wealth. Scott was the darlings of the rich;
and socialized with the Astors and the Vanderbilts
in New York; he lived on the French Riviera; and
was the envy of the expatriate writers in Paris
during the 1920s. But following the stock market
crash in 1929, the lifestyle of the rich fell apart.
The world that had given Fitzgerald his literary
material, as well as social acceptance, no longer
existed. He faced personal and professional
decline. In 1930 she was institutionalized for
insanity, and his alcoholism became acute.
Fitzgerald's marketability also suffered; although
some Depression literature was escapist, in
general Americans were not eager to read
magazine fiction about idealistic youths or
carefree flappers. Although he adapted the tenor
of his work to the spirit of the times, often
focusing on the attendant evils of great wealth.
However, the Great Gatsby chronicles the fall
from the grace of the glamorous.
Find 3 quotations from the work that speak
to you about one of the following: theme,
characterization, symbol/metaphor,
narrative styles, or…:
• “One of those men who reach such an acute
limited excellence at twenty-one that
everything afterward savours of anti-climax”
• “I was one of the few guests who had actually
been invited. People were not invited—they
went there”
• “So we beat on, boats against the current,
borne back ceaselessly into the past.”