chapter 4 Flashcards
“On Sunday morning while church bells rang in the villages alongshore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby’s house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn.”
- setting
- juxtaposition of religion and sin
o acknowledges the state of society – wild parties and infidelity - “twinkled hilariously”
o verbal phrase suggests an unsober crowd who are chasing temporary thrills of happiness and wildness - increases mystery as no one knows how Gatsby acquired his money
“he was never quite still”
- Gatsby
- younger gen who is lost doesn’t know what to do after the war
- similarly to daisy
“We hadn’t reached West Egg Village before Gatsby began leaving his elegant sentences unfinished”
- Gatsby
- Gatsby’s created a persona for himself
o Deceptive and manipulative
“With fenders spread like wings we scattered light through half Astoria—only half, for as we twisted among the pillars of the elevated I heard the familiar “jug-jug-spat!” of a motorcycle, and a frantic policeman rode alongside.”
- setting
- Presence of a car as a consumer good which represent economic prosperity
o His car in chapter 7 becomes a “death car” which symbolises Gatsby’s rise to power but also his fall
o His identity is instilled to his car
“Daisy’s change’ her mine!’ ”
“she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver,”
- Daisy
- Shows her ability to change her mind yet she still married him and didn’t look back at Gatsby
- Married him out of obligation to old money and expectations
“ she saw that it was coming to pieces like snow.”
- Daisy
- Simile suggests that she saw her life coming to pieces
“Santa Barbara Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night, and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl who was with him got into the papers, too, because her arm was broken—she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel.”
- Tom & setting
- Accidents become more serious in the book
- Fitzgerald may be commenting how the wealthy never seem to stop or know when they have gone too far
“Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.”
- Gatsby and Daisy
- Gatsby thought of little else than Daisy while Daisy made a life for herself
- He hopes to cross the social boundary
o May represent the physical barriers between classes - Represents the anti-thesis of what the Buchanan’s and East Egg is
- Shows materialistic value of both classes
“Suddenly I wasn’t thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more, but of this clean, hard, limited person, who dealt in universal skepticism, and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm.”
“and so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms”
- Nick and Jordan
- Simplistic language conveys Nick’s honest opinion of her
- Less romanticised than Daisy
- Reference to proximity suggests he initiated a relationship as she was the closest in proximity
o Easy to pursue
