The Great Gatsby Flashcards
Edward Limb, Pastoral
“Nick abandons the Midwest to join the ‘bond business’ as does Gatsby, whose ‘parents were unsuccessful farm people’”
“[Nick] emphasises its [Valley of Ashes] infertility and perversity, a symbol of the inverse relationship between America’s economic growth and its moral decline”
Edward Limb, Gatsby
“Gatsby invests in a vision of youthful innocence during his courtship of Daisy, symbolised in the novel by the green light”
“Jay Gatsby is constantly discontented. His need to be better drives him as a child”
“we are swept away by his romantic idealism, whilst noting his childish naivety”
“Nick knows that Daisy is undeserving of Gatsby’s affections”
“Gatsby stands apart: a dreamer in a city that doesn’t sleep”
“[Gatsby] involves the rejection of the modern age in pursuit of youthful innocence”
“He alone is able to escape the present pursuit of profit and pleasure to contemplate the past”
Paul Stavely, Tom
“[Tom] peaks too soon, leaving him angry, bored and dissatisfied with a privileged existence that offers him nothing to work for”
“Tom Buchanan is emotionally and physically abusive to both his wife and mistress”
“Stuck ina world that has moved on without him”
“His wife has feelings for another man ,the new money savages are taking over, the inferior races are rising and he is casually dismissed at garish parties as the ‘Polo Player’
Paul Stavely, Gatsby
“Gatsby’s fear is not that things are changing and he can’t keep up, but that it’s too late and things have already changed”
“The most tragic aspect of the novel is perhaps the poignant symbolism of the green light” “Green is the colour of the dollar bill”
Paul Stavely, Daisy
“If Daisy is to continue her vacuous socialite’s existence, the money that funds it cannot come from murky sources”
“the revelation of Gatsby’s shady dealings that begins to turn Daisy away from him”
Paul Stavely, Symbolism, Wilsons
“America is suffering because it has abandoned God”
“[Gatsby to Daisy creates] an image of perfection so flawless that her humanity is overlooked”
“George and Myrtle Wilson dream of a better life but cannot escape their circumstances
Ian and Michelle McMechan, Women
“the narrative might be considered misogynistic”
“Daisy’s maiden name is Fay…used as a common noun it means fairy. Daisy’s lack of substance, her flightiness and her beauty are key elements in her depiction”
“[Jordan’s name] seemingly non-gender specific”
“a myrtle is a common, evergreen, bushy shrub”
“[Pammy] innumerable possessions, something for her to show off”
“Jordan seems untouchable and tantalizing but despite her many advantages, she is ‘discontented’”
“Where Daisy is all light and air and Jordan only slightly more grounded, the working class Myrtle Wilson is dust and dirt”
“Fitzgerald’s portrayal of wome nis by no means straightforward”
Fetterley, Women
“he who possesses Daisy Fay is the most powerful boy”
“she is no more than the prize over which Tom and Gatsby fight”
“sees hero’s fate as very much his own doing”
“the drama of the Great Gatsby involves an attack on Daisy”
Claire Stocks, American Dream
“[Gatsby] is a liar and a criminal”
“[Gatsby] embidies all that Nick would like to be” “they are both forced to work for their living”
“[Gatsby demonstrates] money alone does not bring with it the same status as inherited wealth”
“Nick’s version seems increasingly unreliable as he glosses over lies, erases criticisms of Gatsby and avoids uncomfortable truths”
“Tom has to protect his privilegednposition from the threat of ‘new money’”
“there is certainly something of the showman about Gatsby”
“What makes Gatsby ‘great’ for Nick?- it is that he believes the myth of the American Dream”
Claire Stocks, Owl Eyes
“The owl-eyed man is so impressed by Gatsby’s ‘realism’ that he likens him to David Belasco, the famous Broadway producer of the time, suggesting that even though the books are real, they are merely part of an intricate Broadway set”
