The Great Gatsby Flashcards
Criticism of the American Dream and the difference between the Eggs
“I lived at West Egg, the - well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them”
Nick describing time after the war - Nick wants moral responsibility
“when i came back from the east last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever”
criminal past or Daisy which prevents him from his dream
“It is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams”
American Dream - Nick describes Gatsby as having an…
“extraodinary gift for hope”
Description of Gatsby’s house
“A Colossal affair by any standard” - “factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville”
Description of “fashionable” East Egg
“The white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water”
Even the rich are unsatisfied with their lives - Criticism of the AD
“I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game”
Description of Tom’s house
“A cheerful red and white colonial mansion […] The lawn started on the beach and ran towards the front door a quarter of a mile”
Description of Tom both literally and metaphorically + foreshadowing
“it was a body capable of enormous leverage - a cruel body”
Daisy not knowing what to do and is naive
“I always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it.” “what’ll we plan?” she turned to me helplessly: ‘what do people plan?”
women are only material and highlights the role of women at the time
“I’m glad it is a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool - that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”
yearning for the unattainable
“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” “I […} distinguished nothing except a single green light”
Description of the valley of ashes, contrasts with the city
“certain desolate area of land”
subverts the idealistic image of western American farming
“A fantastic farm, where ashes grow like wheat… into grotesque gardens where ash-grey men who move dimly and already crumbling”
Mr Wilson is a shell of a man, a shadow of what he could be - the car being his hope
“He was a blonde, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome […] a damp gleam of hope sprang into his eyes”
description of myrtle and her sensuality
“she was in the middle thirties […] she carried her flesh sensuously as some women can”
contrast between Mrs and Mr Wilson
” There was an immediately perceptible vitality about her” “walking through her husband as if he was a ghost”
Tom aligning with the views of the East Eggers not wanting to be gossiped about - society
“Mrs Wilson sat discreetly in another car. tom deferred that much to the sensibilities of those East Eggers who might be on the train”
Highlights the materialism of New York, myrtle indulges herself into high society life
“I want to get one of this dogs…” “ she bought a copy of Town Tattle and a moving picture magazine, and in the station drug-store some cold cream and a small flask of perfume”
Myrtle and Daisy compared - daisy is pure and perfect in the eyes of society
“Mrs Wilson had changed […] cream coloured chiffon […] with the influence of the dress […] the intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur”
Myrtle is not used to the same standards as the upper class
“her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment, and she expanded the room grew smaller around her, until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy creaking pivot”
Myrtle being a hypocrite and diminishing her husband - trying to be something she is not
“I thought I knew something about breeding but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe”
First sign Nick is drawn to the macabre
” I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, to my chair”
Tom Buchanan strikes Myrtle - social power
“making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand”
Nick and his homo friend
“…I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands…”
People are drawn to the parties even though they shouldn’t
“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.”
The overindulgence and the lack of care
“and on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before”
the carelessness of American society shown within Gatsby’s party
“the air is alive with the chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten and enthusiastic meetings between women who don’t know each others name”
Nick feeling special and his beginning attachment to Gatsby
“I had been actually invited. a chauffeur in a uniform of robin’s-egg blue crossed my lawn early that Saturday morning with a surprisingly formal note [..] -signed Jay Gatsby, in a majestic hand.”
Gatsby is compared to Belasco who is known for making realistic play sets almost to the point they are real
“absolutely real - have pages and everything. […] this fella’s a regular Belasco”
