gg

Question 1

when was it written

Answer 1

1924

Question 2

what are the traits of modernist literature

Answer 2

directionless
fragmentation
stream of consciousness
time distortion
metanarrative
mechanisation
non-linear form
ambiguous unresolved endings

Question 3

what type of narration is it and what does it mean?

Answer 3

free indirect discourse
third person report with first person direct speech
(means its ambiguous whether they convey the view of the narrator or the character the narrator is describing)

Question 4

What is Yeats’ quote thats reflected by Mark Gertler’s “Merry-go-round” because it has no pole in the middle?

Answer 4

the centre cannot hold

Question 5

what type of love does paul scanlon say is between daisy and gatsby?

Answer 5

medieval courtly love

Question 6

Fitzgerald was not of the same social class as Zelda, just like…

Answer 6

Gatsby was not of the same social class as Daisy

Question 7

Critic Tyson said: “Daisy is merely…

Answer 7

the key to the goal rather than the goal itself.”

Question 8

Critic Tyson said Daisy “does not see through his…

Answer 8

veneer of wealth and status.”

Question 9

Critic Sarah Churchwell says “although he can make money…

Answer 9

Gatsby can’t make destiny.”

Question 10

The lack of romantic love in chapter 2 suggests…

Answer 10

romance is a product of a materialistic environment, as when the wealth and splendor disappear, so does romanticisation.
From “velvet dusk” to “ask-grey men”

Question 11

what does the syndetic list of romantic nouns “whisperings and the champagne and the stars” connote? and what is the significance of the “and the”?

Answer 11

intimacy celebration and starry eyed lovers- like the star-crossed lovers in the prologue of R+J
“and the “ gives a pause allowing the reader to appreciate each word

Question 12

How were both D and G characterised by water, and what is the significance of this?

Answer 12

d “hand was wet with glistening drops”
g “puddle of water”
d was glamourised by it but g in an underwhelming puddle, highlighting the unchangeable class difference

Question 13

what does the excess water of the scene demonstrate? (2)

Answer 13

gatsbys excess efforts to obtain daisy

sensuousness

Question 14

How was gatsby dressed as money,
how does this link to the epithet,
and what poem does it link to
and how?

Answer 14

“white, silver, gold”
“gold-hatted” in the epithet
links to she walks in beauty
because gatsby assumes his appearance will reflect the person he has become, just as the speaker believes as she is a beautiful woman on the outside, she will be on the inside too, as he said her thoughts have a sweet “dwelling place”

Question 15

how does the description of jordan suggest nick is homosexual?

Answer 15

he “enjoys” looking at her and she has masculine features such as “small breasted” “erect carriage” and her name is also a male name

Question 16

In what instance is time distortion used to cover up homosexuality? Why did Fitzgerald have to cover it up?

Answer 16

Nick is seen with man in his underwear, then jumps forward 4 hours leaving us to speculate what happened. Common in modernist literature. Being hay was illegal at time so Fitzgerald had to be implicit.

Question 17

Why is it significant that Myrtle “carried” her flesh?

Answer 17

suggests she went to great effort to present herself well

Question 18

In which poem does “blossomed for him like a flower” also arise, and what is the significance of this

Answer 18

in Keats’ Lamia when hermes kisses the nymph she oo blossoms for him like a flower
hint that they had intercourse, as this is what hermes and the nymph did
sex is romanticised with natural imagery

Question 19

what poem does “blossoms for him like a flower” contrast and why?

Answer 19

the scrutiny
blossoms quote romanticises sex whereas the scrutiny has a sleazy presentation of sex, calling virgins “unploughed up ground”

Question 20

Why is it significant that Myrtle was said to be “smouldering”?

Answer 20

because things that smoulder burn up and result in ashes, linking to her home “the valley of ashes”, the product of materialism. This foreshadows her end, as her love of money causes her loss of life.

Question 21

What is the symbolism of gatsby’s letter “coming to pieces like snow”?

Answer 21

letter symbolises their relationship
snow = purity of their relationship
coming to pieces, reflecting the breakdown of their relationship

Question 22

How did Jordan’s flashback reveal Daisy easily lost her love for Gatsby?

Answer 22

she married tom “without so much as a shiver.”

Question 23

what does the following quote suggest? (2)

“the whole caravansary had fallen in like a card house.”

Answer 23

his dream was easily collapsible (like a cardhouse)
and unrealistic (cards are used for playing games)

Question 24

Whats the significance of Nick calling it a “holocaust”?

Answer 24

the death of 3 preople is tragic, but not a mass destruction, yet Nick calls it a holocaust, suggesting perhaps something metaphorical is being destroyed here; maybe the american dream?

Question 25

gatsby has the grass cut to make it more preseantable for daisys arrival, but when nick goes outside he sees it looks “irregular” and is “abound in small muddy swamps and prehistoric marshes” what is the significance of this?

Answer 25

failure to present the lawn well mirrors the failure to obtain daisy, as it started off “well shaved” but it ended “muddy swamps”

Question 26

Gatsby drops a “defunct” clock off the mantelpiece and , despite Nicks protest, catches it and puts it back on the mantelpiece. What is this symbolic of?

Answer 26

trying to hold on to, and turn back to the time when he was with Daisy

Question 27

How does the presentation of time differ between sonnet 116 and the great gatsby?

Answer 27

in sonnet 116 time is personified as a grim reaper as it has a “bending sickle”, but although time represents death, love stays alive and “bares it out”
however the great gatsby shows love cannot ‘bare out’ time

Question 28

How is presentation of time in to his coy mistress different to that in the great gatsby and in an an inn?

Answer 28

to his coy mistress is more realistic about time at it realises time ia running out
whereas gatsby is naive saying you can “repeat the past”
and in at an inn the speaker also wishes to turn back the time “let us stand once as we stood then”

Question 29

What line in the novel demonstrates the cyclical, directionless nature of the period, and how does this link to Gatsbys infatuation with Daisy?
What poem gives a similar notion through structure, and how?

Answer 29

“born back ceaselessly into the past”
links to gatsbys many attempts to return to the past to gain his lost love, demonstrating an eternal infatuation with daisy
la belle dame sans merci has a cyclical structure as it ends with the same 3 lines as the first stanza, and cyclical imagery “cave, bracelet, garland” shows cyclical nature of love sickness, that he too has an eternal infatuation

Question 30

how is daisy’s knuckle described, how does she react to it, and whats the significance of these?

Answer 30

“black and blue” typical way to describe injury reflecting typicality of domestic violence at the time
but daisy confronted tom, shows female independence starting to shine through (as women took mens jobs during the war)

Question 31

Fitzgerald gave a character we dislike an action he wants us to dislike. What was this?

Answer 31

tom broke myrtles nose

Question 32

In “who so list to hount” the coveted woman has no voice, as the narrative perspective is of a man. Where do we see this in the great gatsby?

Answer 32

“shes never loved you” “she loves me now” “she gets foolish ideas in her head” constant use of she, saying what she wants right in front of her, taking away her voice

Question 33

what is the name of the type of dialogue Fitzgerald uses in chapter 5 when daisy and gatsby meet, in order to speed up the pace the reader reads it, conveying the tense fraught mind state of the characters? what does this term mean?

Answer 33

unattributed speech

without the “he said she said”

Question 34

what is significant about nick describing caterers as a “corps of caterers”?

Answer 34

corps means a branch of an army
using a military term connotes life or death work, as if the abundance of food is a vitality
contemporary reader would disagree with this after just enduring the poverty of war, and realising the true meaning of life or death work. Thus Fitzgerald presents consumerism in a negative light.

Question 35

What does daisy give tom, and then liken her cheating to, showing she feels no jealousy or guilt for cheating?

Answer 35

“here’s my little gold pen”

likened her cheating to an “act of god”

Question 36

what is the significance of the books being described in the following way?
“volumes…stood…in red and gold…promising to unfold the shining secrets…”

Answer 36

it focuses on the appearance of something rather than its contents.

Question 37

What do the “pulpless halves” of oranges suggest?

Answer 37

the periods consumerism has sucked everything out and leaves something ugly and empty, like the pulpless halves

Question 38

how is Daisy’s voice described?

Answer 38

“an arrangement of notes” like a Siren in Greek Mythology, a dangerous creature which decieved with appearance

Question 39

what does the “remark” being “addressed to the premature moon” suggest?

Answer 39

rushing something natureal, reflecting the fast-paced nature of the period, for the war had ended and people had a ‘die-young-live-fast’

Question 40

what is the significance of the moon being “produced, no doubt, out of a caterers basket”?

Answer 40

humans are trying to produce something impossible

perhaps the american dream like gatsby

Question 41

how does gatsby’s car suggest he is an illusionist?

Answer 41

it “mirrored a dozen suns” mirrors create illusions. as he sits in this while telling stories of his past, it suggests they are lies

Question 42

what does “the world and its mistress” suggest?

Answer 42

implies everyone has a mistress

putting the word mistress and church in the same sentence reflects the immorality of the period

Question 43

Gatsby is described as “pale as death” and “grey” as if he is about to die. What short story also shows physical pain?
what 2 poems in the anthology also show physical pain and how?

Answer 43

chaucer’s knights tale “I was herte right through myne eye into myne hearte.” Medieval idea of body being
connected with soul- if not sick in body, sick in mind.

also in who so list to hount “faynting I followe”fricatives show breathlessness

and la belle dame “ a lily on thy brow” =paleness and link to death as lilies are often used at funerals.

Question 44

Plato believed we are an imperfect shadow of a perfect world. how does this link to young James Gatz?

Answer 44

“he sprung from his platonic conception of himself”

Question 45

what does this imply:

“[he placed] the rock of the world…on a fairy’s wing.”

Answer 45

he placed his dream, the rock, on something weak, unreal, and breakable- a fairy’s wing.

Question 46

Finish the quote and explain the reference:

“His career in…

Answer 46

Trimalchio was over.”
In Petronius’ Strachan Trimalchio was a rich freedman who gave an enourmous excessive dinner
Likening him to a fictional character suggests his dreams were all artificial

Question 47

What is the Shakespeare quote that links to Gatsby reaching over “dark water” towards Daisy?
Which poem does this link to as well?

Answer 47

Suggests element of danger, and possibly blindness, as Shakespeare said: “Love is blind”
Links to Who so list to hount as he too desires to obtain an unobtainable lady “in a nett I seke to hold the wynde”

Question 48

The valley of ashes and the eggs are written about in close proximity in the book (adjacent chapters), and are in close proximity in the story. What is the name of this structural device?

Answer 48

metanarrative

Question 49

Gatsby’s boat is described as “slitting” the water. What does this illustrate?

Answer 49

his painful attempts to break the divide between them, and slitting is a harsh sounding word perhaps connoting pain/injury

Question 50

Tom drives off with another girl in the same paragraph as his honeymoon with Daisy. Why is this an example of metanarrative, and which poem in the anthology also uses this device and where?

Answer 50

This is metanarrative because just like the words contaminate the paragraph, the affair contaminates the honeymoon.
In who so list to hount, the chase stops, marked by a caesura. This is metanarrative because the text stops flowing as the man stops running

Question 51

What does Daisy’s pearl necklace symbolise? What other poem uses this same symbolism?

Answer 51

symbolic of a collar, as if she is a pet
women also degraded to animal in Who so list, an allegory in which the speaker describes a chase after a woman symbolised by a deer, also wearing a collar.

Question 52

The only marriages in the book are marked by…

Answer 52

adultery, deception and dissatisfaction. Showing Fitzgerald has a dim view of marriage- understandable since his marriage with Zelda.