Hedonism & The American Dream Flashcards
Gatsby’s self invention
He must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty.
Gatsby and the green light
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. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.
Gatsby’s smile
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.
Nick’s reaction to Gatsby’s life story
Then I saw it, it was all there. I saw the skins of tigers flaming in his palace on the grand court, I saw him opening a chest of rubies, with the crimson red light, the depths, the gnawing of his broken heart.
The final line
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Daisy’s description of her daughter
“And I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
Myrtle’s apartment
The living room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestry furniture entirely too large for it.
Final description of Daisy and Tom
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
The garden at Gatsby’s party
In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.
Jordan about privacy
I like large parties, they’s so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.
Daisy’s tears
Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormingly.
The shape of Daisy’s life
She wanted her life shaped now of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality.
Gatsby’s party
The bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the gardens outside.
Metaphor for Gatsby’s fantasy
Unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on fairy’s wing.
Superficial features of hedonism
Gaudy with primary colours and hair bobbed in strange new ways.
