The American Dream

Question 1

Colour coordination to success and money

Answer 1

‘Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.’

Question 2

Don’t give up!

Answer 2

‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’

Question 3

Vision for success - staring into the horizon of destiny

Answer 3

‘Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light’

Question 4

Nick’s history is based on the American Dream

Answer 4

‘Started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on to-day’

Question 5

This New America may not have room for pure-hearted dreamers like Gatsby, but it certainly does have room for corrupt, smarty-pants criminals like Meyer Wolfsheim.

Answer 5

“He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.”

Question 6

When Gatsby and Daisy finally get together, the dream vanishes. Does this mean that the American Dream has to stay forever a dream? That it loses its meaning if we actually achieve it—or that, once we achieve it, we find out that it wasn’t so great to begin with?

Answer 6

“If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay”

Question 7

Gatsby nearly achieved his American Dream

Answer 7

‘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’

Question 8

All money on the East Coast has to come from somewhere. You have to start small to get big.

Answer 8

‘That’s my Middle West – not the wheat or the prairies’

Question 9

• Relates to Grapes’ houses being knocked down.

- You need to leave previous security behind to pursue American Dream

Answer 9

‘As the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away’