Chapter 1 Flashcards
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’ Gatsby
Gatsby speaks about what his father “says” however this is just his own tale as his father was a poor man who had had no advantages in life, someone who was at the bottom of society
Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.Nick
The reader’s first sight of Gatsby is seen through the perspective of Nick and we are given a conflicting idea of Gatsby as he is both great yet scornful and this idea can bring forward Nick’s unreliable narrative.
‘You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy,’ I confessed on my second glass of corky but rather impressive claret. ‘Can’t you talk about crops or something?’ Nick
highlights the nature of Nick as the narrator, he isnt used to the city life of the west instead being used to the life in St Paul, Minnesota which is a primarily agricultural state. New York is seen as the hub of crime and progression something Nick doesnt see in the East.
I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”’ Daisy
Links to the social situation of the time and links to flappers and women’s suffrage. The new generation of women feel they need to be beautiful to progress and survive. Can also link to Myrtle as she isn’t described as beautiful so ultimately fails to achieve her American dream which is a relationship with Tom
