Gatsby Quotes Flashcards
How well do you know The Great Gatsby?
What is the last thing that Nick says to Gatsby?
“They’re a rotten crowd,” I shouted across the lawn. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” (8.44-45)
What is the advice that Nick’s father gives him in the opening of The Great Gatsby?
“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.” (1.1-3)
What is Nick’s most positive view of himself?
Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known. (3.170)
What is Gatsby doing when Nick first sees him?
He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling.
How does Gatsby see his possessions when he’s with Daisy?
He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes.
How does Nick describe the area around Gatsby’s house after he is killed?
The trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all humans dreams
What did Tom and Daisy do before they moved to Long Island?
They spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.
How does Tom Buchanan look/speak to over people?
There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked
How does Tom Buchanan express his political views?
Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white.
What is Daisy’s voice like?
Her voice is full of money
How do Tom and Daisy treat others?
They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness (9.136-145)
How is Daisy’s face described?
Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it
How are Daisy and Jordan described when they are first introduced?
They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house.
How does Nick first react to Jordan?
Almost any exhibition of complete self-sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me.
How is Jordan’s voice described?
Usually her voice came over the wire as something fresh and cool
How does Myrtle change at her party in Chapter 2?
The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur.
How does Myrtle described Wilson?
“I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.”
How is Myrtle’s body described?
They saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap, and there was no need to listen for the heart beneath.
What does Nick’s father tell him, and is related in Chapter 1?
Just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.
How does Nick come across as superior in Chapter 2?
I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that… a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth
In what 2 ways does Nick describe Gatsby’s personality in the Chapter 1 intro?
- Some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life.
- It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness.
In the chapter 1 intro, what does Nick say put him off the East Coast and the American Dream?
It is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and shortwinded elations of men.
How does Nick describe the size of Gatsby’s house?
A colossal affair
How does Nick describe the style of Gatsby’s house?
A factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy
How does Nick describe the facilites/different aspects of G’s house?
A thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden
How does N first intro East Egg?
White palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered
How does N shoe T’s wealth when introing him?
He’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest
How does N say D+T spend their time before they came to the East Egg in Chap 1?
They had spent a year in france for particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully
How does N intro D+T’s house?
Georgian Colonial mansion
How does N intro T’s attitude?
Supercilious manner
How does N intro describe T’s eyes in Chapter 1?
Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance
How does N describe T’s body in chap 1?
The enormous power of that body
How does N describe the ceiling of the room in which D+J are sitting in Chap 1?
Frosted wedding-cake of a ceiling
How do D+J look the first time N meets them in the novel?
Buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon
What do D+J look like they’ve just done when N meets them in the novel for the 1st time?
A short flight around the house
How does N describe J the first time he meets her?
Her chin raised a little, as if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall
What is D helpless at in Chap 1?
“What’ll we plan?” She turned to me helplessly: “What do people plan?”
How does N think D+J feel about their evening dinner in Chap 1?
Making only a polite pleasant effort to entertain or to be entertained. They knew that presently dinner would be over and a little later the evening too would be over and casually put away.
What 2 things does T say he has learnt from his racist book in chap 1?
If we don’t look out the white race will be- will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.
It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.
What does N think of T’s enthusiasm about his racist book?
Something pathetic in his concentration
How does D say she reacted when she found out her child was a girl?
She told me it was a girl, and so i turned my head away and wept.
What does D say she said when she found out her child was a girl?
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.
What is Gatsby described as doing at the end of Chapter 1?
He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way
What is Gatsby described as looking at at the end of Chapter 1?
A single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock
How is the Valley of Ashes introduced at the beginning of Chap 2?
This is a valley of ashes- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.
How is Wilson intro in chap 2?
He was a blond, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.
How is Wilson’s garage introduced in chap 2?
The interior [of Wilson’s garage] was unprosperous and bare; the only car visible was the dust-covered wreck of a Ford which crouched in a dim corner
How is Myrtle’s vitality described the first time N sees her?
Immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering.
How does Myrtle react to her husband when we are first introduced to them in the garage in chap2?
Walking through her husband as if he were a ghost.
How are migrants described in the Valley of Ashes in chap 2?
It was a few days before the Fourth of July, and a grey, scrawny Italian child setting torpedoes in a row along the railroad track.
What magazine has M left lying around the NY apartment?
Town Tattle
How does M change during the party in chap 2?
The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment, and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her, until she seemed to revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air.
How does N described the living room of M+T’s NY apartment?
The living-room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it
What outfit does M change into during the party in chap 2?
An elaborate afternoon dress of cream-coloured chiffon which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room
What does M say about the dress she puts on during the party in chap 2?
Mrs Wilson rejected the compliment by raising her eyebrow in disdain. “It’s just a crazy old thing,” she said. “I just slip it on sometimes when I don’t care what I look like.”
How does M give the impression she has staff during the party in chap 2?
Swept into the kitchen, implying that a dozen chefs awaited her orders there
What does M say about Wilson and why she married him during the party in chap 2?
‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,’ she said finally. ‘I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.’
What does M say to give the impression she has disposable money during the party in chap 2?
I’m going to give you this dress as soon as I’m through with it. I’ve got to get another one tomorrow. I’m going to make a list of all the things I’ve got to get.
What does T do to M at the end of chap 2?
Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.
How are the guests of G’s parties compared to insects at the beginning of chap 3?
Men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars
How is the food at G’s parties described as magical at the beginning of chap 3?
Turkeys bewitched to a dark gold
What rumor about G does N hear at the party in chap 3?
I’ll bet he killed a man
How does N describe G’s smile the first time he meets him (in chap 3?)
He smiled understandingly- much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.
How are the outfits of the guest described in G’s party in chap 3?
Hair bobbed in strange new ways, and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile
How are the drinks described at G’s party in chap 3?
Floating rounds of cocktails
How are the interactions between guests described at G’s party in chap 3?
Introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names
How is the coming of night described through the lens of G’s parties in chap 3?
Earth lurches away from the sun.
How does Owl Eyes react to his car crash at the end of G’s party in chap 3?
“What’s the matter?” he inquired calmly. “Did we run outa gas?”
how is driving across the bridge to NY with G described in chap 4?
With fenders spread like wings we scattered light through half Astoria
What does G say to N to explain his launch into his past while they drive to NY in chap 4?
“I didn’t want you to think I was just some nobody”
How does N describe NY as they drive towards it in chap 4?
The city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of nonolfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen from the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.
What does N think about the day he is about to have in NY when he and G cross the bridge into the city in chap 4?
“Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge,” I thought; “anything at all…”
What does G admit Wolfsheim did in chap 4?
Gatsby hesitated, then added, coolly: “He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.”
What does N think about Wolfsheim fixing the World Series in 1919?
It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people- with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe.
What does g think about Wolfsheim fixing the World Series in 1919?
“He just saw the opportunity”
How are the flags outside the suburban houses described in the flashback to G’s courting of D in chap 4?
The red, white, and blue banners in front of all the houses stretched out stiff and said tut-tut-tut-tut, in a disapproving way.
What does N say G is doing by holding such elaborate parties with so many guests? (chap 4)
He dispensed starlight to casual moths
In the list of G’s party guests in chap 4, what is one of them described as doing?
Who afterward strangled his wife
How id G’s car described in chap 4?
It was a rich cream in colour, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant har-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns.
In the flashback to D’s breakdown before her wedding to T, what does J say she did while she sorted out the situation?
We locked the door
In the flashback to D’s breakdown before her wedding to T, what does J say she did to sort out the situation?
But she didn’t say another word. We gave her spirits of ammonia and put ice on her forehead and hooked her back into her dress, and half an hour later, when we walked out of the room, the pearls were around her neck and the incident was over. Next day at five o’clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver
How does N describe G’s face when he is talking to D after N has come back from his walk during their meeting in chap 5?
He literally glowed
What happens in chap 5 when D+G’s meeting starts to go well?
“It’s stopped raining”
How is the sunshine described in chap 5 when D+G start getting along well?
Twinkle-bells of sunshine in the room
What does N think he hears in G’s house in chap 5 during D’s tour of it?
I could have sworn I heard the owl-eyed man break into ghostly laughter
How does G’s view of his house change when he shows it to D in chap 5?
He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes.
How was G reacting in chap 5 now that his dream of seeing D again had come true?
He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in reaction, he was running down like an over-wound clock.
What has happened to Gatsby’s dream in chap 5 now that he has seen D again?
Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.
How is the weather described in chap 5 when D+G are sitting together in G’s house?
The rain was still falling, but the darkness had parted in the west, and there was a pink and golden billow of foamy clouds above the sea.
What is the light in G’s house like when G+D are sitting together there in chap 5?
There was no light save what the gleaming floor bounced in from the hall
Why might G’s dream have failed even though in chap 5 he is now talking to D?
There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart.
How is G dressed to see D again for the first time in 5 years in chap 5?
Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-coloured tie
What does N say to G when G is nervous about seeing D again in chap 5?
You’re acting like a little boy
What ridiculous piece of furniture does g have in his house to show his wealth and that he shows off to N+D in chap 5?
A toilet set of pure dull gold
What does G show D in his house in chap 5 that makes her cry?
He brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher- shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of indian blue.
Why does D say she is crying in G’s house in chap 5?
It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such- such beautiful shirts before.
In chap 6 what does N imagine G’s dreams were like when he was younger and poor?
These reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing
How does N say G was truly born in chap 6?
His imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God- a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that- and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.
What does N imagine G thought of every night when he was younger and poor?
The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night.
What does N imagine G thought of Dan Cody’s yacht when he first saw it.
That yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world
What does G say about the past when upset about how D reacted to his party in chap 7?
“Can’t repeat the past?” He cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”
What expression and body lang does G do when upset about how D reacted to his party in chap 7?
He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.
What does N think about G’s opinion of the past in chap 7?
He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.
How does N metaphorically describe G’s hunt for his dream in chap 7?
The blocks of the sidewalks really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees- he could climb it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder.
In chap 7, how does N imagine G+D’s first kiss?
He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.
What happens to G’s parties after D did not enjoy one?
So the whole caravansary had fallen in like a card house at the disapproval in her eyes.
What does D say in chap 7 that shows she worries for the future?
“What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon?” cried Daisy, “and the day after that, and the next thirty years?”
In chap 7, how is D’s voice described?
Her voice is full of money
How does N visualize D in chap 7?
High in a white palace the King’s daughter, the golden girl…
What does T say about intermarriage in chap 7?
Flushed with his impassioned gibberish, he saw himself standing alone on the last barrier of civilisation. (intermarriage between black and white)
How does G’s dream fade in chap 7?
Only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room.
Does G feel guilty about the car crash in chap 7?
He spoke as if Daisy’s reaction was the only thing that mattered.
How is myrtle described when she is dead in the road?
Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick dark blood with dust.
How are the appearances of J+D described in chap7?
Like silver idols
How is J+D’s make up described in chap 7?
Powdered white over their tan
How is D+T’s daughter described in chap 7?
With a reluctant background glance the well-disciplined child held to her nurse’s hand and was pulled out the door
Why does T get worried in chap 7?
His wife and mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control
What is G+T’s argument like in the Plaza in chap 7?
“Daisy loved me when when she married me and she loves me now.”
“No”
“She does, though. The trouble is that sometimes she gets foolish ideas in her head and doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
What does G say to T about who D loves in chap 7 in the Plaza?
“Your wife doesn’t love you,” said Gatsby. “She’s never loved you. She loves me.”
What does G say to D during the confrontation in the Plaza in chap 7?
“Just tell him the truth- that you never loved him- and it’s all wiped out forever.”
How is T described to get the upper hand in the confrontation in the Plaza in chap 7?
Tom’s words suddenly leaned down over Gatsby.
How does Wilson react to Myrtle’s death- in the short term?
As pale as his own hair and shaking all over
How is Wilson described in chap 7 when M has just died?
He was his wife’s man and not his own.
How are D+T described when N goes to check on then at the end of chap 7 after the confrontation in the Plaza?
He was talking intently across the table at her, and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own
What is N’s sleep like at the beginning of chap 8 after the confrontation in chap 7?
I tossed half-sick between grotesque reality and savage, frightening dreams.
What is the strength of G’s dream at the beginning of chap 8?
He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free.
How has T destroyed G?
“Jay Gatsby” had broken up like glass against Tom’s hard malice, and the long secret extravaganza was played out.
How is G still desperate for D in chap 8?
He stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him.
What does Wilson say to TJ Eckleburg in chap 8?
“‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!’”….he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night.
“God sees everything,” repeated Wilson.
How does N think G reflects on his dream in chap 8?
I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn’t believe it[Daisy’s phone call] would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If it was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.
How does N imagine G views the world in chap 8 just before he is killed?
A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about…
How is G’s body described at the end of chap 8?
with little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool.
What does N randomly remember in the middle of chap 7?
“I just remembered that today’s my birthday.”
What old book of G’s does G’s dad show N in chap 9?
A ragged old copy of a book called Hopalong Cassidy
What did G write in a book that is shown to N by G’s dad in chap 9?
On the last fly-leaf was printed the word schedule, and the date September 12, 1906.
What does G’s dad say about G as a child in chap 9?
“Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind? He was always great for that.”
What does N imagine when sitting on G’s beach at the end of chap 9?
I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes- a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees- the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory moment, man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent.
At the end of chap 9, N imagines the first explorers arriving to the US- what does he think they were looking at when they saw the land for the first time?
Face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.
At the end of chap 9 when N is on the beach, what does he imagine about when G first arrived at his mansion?
And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock.
At the end of chap 9 when N is on the beach, what does N imagine G thought when he first saw the green light?
His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night
What are the last lines of the novel?
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further… And one fine morning-
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
How does N see G’s house in chap 9 the night before he returns to the Midwest?
His house had never seemed so enormous to me as it did that night
What does D do in chap 9?
She vanished into her rich house, into her rich life, full life, leaving Gatsby- nothing.
At the end of chap 9 when N is on the beach, what does N think G was very aware of when he was courting her- and therefore why she became the object of his dream?
Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.
At the end of chap 9 when N is on the beach, what does N say D’s world is like?
Her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery
