Gatsby Quotes By Theme Flashcards
NICK (his father) - ‘remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’
demonstrates nick as a character who is both inside and outside the privalaged social sphere - he can be enamored by the culture and criticise its flaws.
Nick as a character who is both inside and outside the privalaged social sphere
NICK (his father) - ‘remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’
DAISY - “And I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
Significant as Daisy herself wishes she could be ignorant to Tom’s unfaithful behaviour + the hollowness behind extravagance
ALSO how women are best off in 1920’s America as being fools, easier to deal with your position if you do not fully understand it
Daisy about her daughter Pammy
DAISY - “And I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
NICK about GATSBY - ‘I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away’
Green light represents ambition and aspiration to Gatsby - the ‘single’ stresses the singularity of the goal, ‘seaward’ water symbolically seperates Gatsby from this goal
NICK about GATSBY - first seeing the green light
NICK about GATSBY - ‘I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away’
NICK about TOM - ‘one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax’
Tom’s forever stuck trying to reach what he felt at the age of 21 - mirrors Gatsby’s own obsession with the past and his ambition to resume a relationship with Daisy
Nick about Tom’s peak at college
NICK about TOM - ‘one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax’
‘This is a Valley of Ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens’
Sarcasm to highlight how the valley of ashes has all the rural assets but instead is made out of dust rather than actual nature - ‘ashes grow like wheat’ implies debris had replaced actual agricultural production
First mention of Valley of Ashes
‘This is a Valley of Ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens’
‘inpenetrable cloud’ and ‘obscure operations’ (about valley of ashes)
outsourcing has allowed those with money to entirely ignore the effects of their exploits - condemns the social and economic practices in the novel
outsourcing has allowed those with money to entirely ignore the effects of their exploits - valley of ashes
‘inpenetrable cloud’ and ‘obscure operations’
NICK about GATSBY ‘He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly.’
Indicates that Gatsby has perfected a way to respond to others that makes them feel entirely known and meaningful.
Thus both Gatsby and those he smiles at become fundamentally empty: Gatsby for putting on a performance, but others for so desperately wanting to be understood, believed in, and assured
Nick about Gatsby’s smile
‘He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly.’
Nick’s racist comment
‘two bucks in a limosine’
