gatsby critical quotations

Question 1

bradbury - Dreams, corruption, moral decay, women, violence

Answer 1

“gatsby is a corrupt dreamer. daisy is a corrupt object of love, married to a violent, damaging husband.”

Question 2

a.e. dyson - Moral decay

Answer 2

“in one sense, gatsby is the apotheosis of his rootless society.”

Question 3

kris mcneela - Women, violence, inequality

Answer 3

“if the great gatsby is a love story, it is one centred in hostility to women.”

Question 4

claire stocks - Appearance versus reality

Answer 4

“Nick wants to portray Gatsby as ‘great’ and to ignore anything that undermines that image.”

Question 5

machcinski - Class divide, inequality

Answer 5

“The 1920s contained growing tensions among the generations, classes and races.”

Question 7

r.w.b. lewis - Moral decay, materialism, capitalism, upper class

Answer 7

” a gross, materialistic, careless society of coarse wealth, spread atop of a sterile world.”

Question 8

marius bewley & alfred kazin - daisy, moral decay, upper class

Answer 8

“Monstrous moral indifference”
“vulgar and inhumane”

Question 11

l. pelzer - american dream, hope/despair

Answer 11

“No writer set out more determinedly to capture in fiction … the hope, the possibility, and the touch of despair of the Twenties than Francis Scott Fitzgerald.”

Question 12

william fahey - american dream

Answer 12

“american dream based on the idea that material possessions are synonymous with happiness”