Nick Carraway Flashcards
What does Nick say at the start of the novel?
“I’m inclined to reserve all judgments.”
What is Nicks first opinion of Gatsby?
“Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.” (1.4)
what does Nick say in chapter 4 when he is with Jordan? HINT: pursuing
“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.” (4.164)
If there are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired, it would appear Nick is happy to be the pursuer at this particular moment.
What does Nick shout across to Gatsby after Myrtle’s death? what change happens to Nick at this point?
“They’re a rotten crowd,” I shouted across the lawn. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.”
Nick has firmly come down on Gatsby’s side in the conflict between the Buchanans and Gatsby. It also shows Nick’s disenchantment with the whole wealthy east coast crowd and also that, at this point, he is devoted to Gatsby and determined to protect his legacy. This hints to us that our once seemingly impartial narrator is now seeing Gatsby more generously than he sees others.
Dishonesty in women quote, who is Nick talking about and what does this say about the times?
‘Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply’
Nick is talking about Jordan in chapter 3 after he meets her at the party. reflects the 1920s attitude toward women that they can’t be trusted and are naturally dishonest
chapter 7 foreshadowing death
‘So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight’
Leaving the Plaza and foreshadowing Myrtle’s immanent death and Gatsby’s death as a side effect of that
Nick’s family heritage and where he comes from. What does this show about Nick and his family?
‘We have a tradition that we’re descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch …. and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on to-day.’
They are from a different kind of nobility a family that actually has achieved the American Dream of wealth and respectability through hard work.
talking about Gatsby and the past
‘He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.’
Nick insider and outsider quote
‘I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life’
Last line of the novel and what it means
‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past’
The future never lives up to its expectations and having expectations of it just binds us to the past.
Nick describing Tom and Daisy and what this shows to Nick
‘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.’
There is a difference between N and D&T - N works while D&T are privellidged and don’t know the realities of real life. N is disappointed in them
Valley of ashes quote
‘This is a valley of ashes- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens… and, finally, with transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.’
Nick holocaust quote (this was 20 years before WW2 so its not a reference point)
‘It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete’
Holocaust means ‘mass destruction’ but 3 dead bodies isn’t really mass destruction. so something metamorphic could be being destroyed here: a way of life? nick’s innocence? The American Dream?
