the great gatsby

Question 1

tom

Answer 1

racist ‘rise of the coloured people’ chap 2
driven by money and possessions eg. his car
uses women as possessions eg. chap 2 when he hits Daisy
alpha male

p109 ‘i read that the sun’s getting hotter every year’

sense of stupidity and self-elevation is conveyed by Nick who mocks Tom

p29 Tom in reference to Wilson ‘he’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive’
Tom is very hypocritical

p39 violence ‘Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand’

Question 2

jordan

Answer 2

grew up privileged in her white girlhood of Louisiana

male/lesbian tendencies eg. plays golf

objectified with daisy chap 2
takes little responsibility over her actions eg. ‘reckless driver analogy’ p168
ambivalent relationship with Nick, they find solace in each other as they are both marginalised
symbolic of the flapper age as she embraces prohibition/Gatsby’s parties however lacks a purpose and engages in illegal activity

is Nick attracted to him?
p44 ‘she held my hand impersonally’ use of adjective impersonally
p58 ‘tender curiousity’
p77 this clean, hard, limited woman

can compare to wild oats as their relationship is illicit/irregular to society aka not entirely accepted/respected

Question 3

daisy

Answer 3

privileged and monied, white girlhood of Louisiana

introduced as a symbolic ethereal image of a women - chap 2
‘she went with a slightly older crowd’ ‘wild rumours were circulating everywhere’ - money has that effect on a person as it distances them from the real world

her voice is her defining feature according to Nick p14 ‘Daisy’s murmur was only to make people lean towards her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming’

Question 4

chapter 1

Answer 4

introduction to Nick, Jordan, and Tom
difference between west egg / east egg
presentation of Jordan and Daisy as floating and ethereal

Question 5

chapter 2

Answer 5

valley of the ashes, introduction of Myrtle, party in NY (alcohol, consumerism, and tom slapping Myrtle)

Question 6

chapter 3

Answer 6

Gatsby’s first party, he is presented as mysterious
women and men dancing in ‘eternal graceless circles’
Klipspringer notices how Gatsby’s library is fake

p49 - gatsby’s smile

context - prohibition, flapper age, the lost generation

Question 7

chapter 4

Answer 7

Nick lists the vast range of people that came to Gatsby’s house that summer – including Klipspringer
In travelling to NY the two seem to pass through many different times/locations.
Gatsby explains his past in an over exaggerated and hyperbolic manner
entrance to NY ‘anything can happen now
meeting with Meyer Wolfsheim

Daisy tells the story of Daisy and how she met Gatsby and the fact that she always travels with an older crowd
marriage of Tom and Daisy

Nick and Jordan kiss

Question 8

meyer wolfsheim

Answer 8

based of the character of Arnold Rothstein
fixes the world series
symbolic of the prohibition and older generation
embodies Gatsby’s mysteriousness and shows how he is involved in illicit business
‘you’re very polite but i belong to another generation’
dialogue - clear that he is lying ‘he’s an oggsford man’

Question 9

the green lights

Answer 9

end of chapter 1 ‘a single green light, minute and far away’

Question 10

materialism key quotes

Answer 10

Mrs Wilson and the dress p33 ‘her laughters, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment’

Question 11

femininity key quotes

Answer 11

p13 ‘their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house’
- fragile and malleable, no control over themselves, only judged by their appearance

I’m glad it’s 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’

p23. the thickish figure of a women blocked out the light’ representative of the mistress being a darker, more elusive side to a man’s life

p131 ‘her left breast was swinging loose like a flap.’ ‘The mouth was wide open and ripped a little at the corners’

Question 12

chapter 8

Answer 12

Change in perceptions for Nick, everything that he previously thought good about Gatsby has been reversed eg. His house, his manner, his wealth. We hear the story of Dan Cody and when Gatsby first met Daisy.

Story of how Daisy and Gatsby met including an emphasis on Daisy’s higher class

Gatsby returns from war and visits louisana where Tom and Daisy got married, he is now poor and desperate, his status has been greatly reduced from wartime.

Nicks changing attitudes towards Gatsby; he finally compliments him. Shows a move away from internal narration to external compliments ‘they’re a rotten crowd, you’re worth the whole damn lot put together’

Phone call between Nick and Jordan which goes badly ‘bad driver’

Mr Gatz arrives and funeral of Gatsby, - outdated perceptions of him. Gatsby’s servants, his father and the ‘owl eyed man.’ Nick concludes matters with Jordan saying he is ‘half in love with her’

Redefining of Tom’s masculinity he ‘cried like a baby’ when myrtle died and he had to go back to the flat. Nick still remains haunted by Gatsby’s memory and is perhaps the only one to carry on his legacy.

Final philosophical message from Nick.

Question 13

modernity / the automobile

Answer 13

p54 ‘the sharp jut of a wall accounted for the detachtment of the wheel’ reverse syntax, Nick’s bias narration

‘harsh, discordant din’ phonology

p63 personification of Gatsbys

Question 14

Gatsby’s partys key quotes

Answer 14

p41 ‘men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars’ - asyndetic list and ethereal imagery

p48 ‘old men pushing young girl backwards in eternal graceless circles’ - imagery

Question 15

illegality key quotes

Answer 15

p 74 ‘as drunk as a monkey’ - daisy before her wedding

p44 ‘Hello, I roared’ - elevation of voice due to him being intoxicated’

Question 16

modernity / the automobile

Answer 16

p54 ‘the sharp jut of a wall accounted for the detachtment of the wheel’ reverse syntax, Nick’s bias narration

p56 ‘harsh, discordant din’ phonology

p63 personification of Gatsbys car ‘swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes’

p108 ‘the automobiles which turned expectantly into his drive stayed just for a minute and then turned sulkily away.’

p133 ‘it was a yellow car’ ‘big yellow car’

Question 17

the ‘long island’ sound

Answer 17

representative of the social and physical barrier between Daisy and Gatsby yet also of self-elevation/self-help as this was where Gatsby transformed himself

imagery - continuously moving forwards symbolic of development and change, reflective, we can look at it to help ourselves develop, the actual substance rich and full of wealth

p10 ‘only by a courtesy bay, the most domesticated body of salt water in the Westeern Hemisphere’

p112 ‘on the green sound, stagnant in the heat, one small snail crawled slowly towards the fresher sea’ (acts as a gateway to better places)

p95 lake superior ‘for over a year he had been beating his way along the south shore of lake superior as a clam digger and a salmon-fisher’

Question 18

gatsby character and transformation of himself

Answer 18

p95 
subversive and metaphorical semantic field 'a universe of ineffable gaudiness' - a too great flashiness (devoid of purpose, womaniser, poor. - lower class don't fit into the society he wants to be in)

can compare to:

• dockery and son
• the whitsun weddings
• the large cool store

mystery:
p45 ‘the three Mr Mumbles bent forward and listened eagerly’

Question 19

money / self-elevation quotes

Answer 19

p43 ‘agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity’ use of intensifier ‘agonizingly’ emphasises the illegality and quick nature in which it is available, as if it is dangerously easy to get a hold of.

Question 20

modernity

Answer 20

NY and acceptance of different races

Question 21

for sidney bechet

Answer 21

larkin had a deep love of jazz
wrote a column on jazz for the Britannic life
owned a drum kit and a saxophone
wrote articles on jazz for the Daily Telegraph
‘i can live a week without poetry but not a day without jazz’

New Orleans had a prominent prostitution industry Idea of taming something that should be free, new orleans created licensed brothels instead of having illegal prostitutes – idea of controlling pleausre and sex in one area as to not spread it

31:10 proverbs who can find a virtuous women? for her price is above rubies ‘priced far above rubies’ still idea of buying a women

Question 22

a study of reading habits

Answer 22

Larkin wrote 5 novels as a teenager but then destroyed them all
1955 - became librarian at Hull university’s library, stayed there for 30 years until he died

Question 23

dockery and son

Answer 23

went to st john’s college oxford
graduated in 1934
hull - very industrial city
1950’s - society was very family orientated, especially the nuclear family (homosexuality was illegal)

links to Gatsby - what we measure success by, Dockery got a son but didn’t really feel content, Gatsby didn’t get Daisy and didn’t feel content

Question 24

wild oats

Answer 24

ruth bowman ‘the friend in specs’ we was in a relationship with for several years
about not settling down and marrying which was the norm

Larkin had several relationships and was involved in affairs but he never married

relate to - jordan / tom both outsiders who never settle down, also gatsby and jordan’s relationship during the war

Question 25

the whitsun weddings

Answer 25

larkin never married

whitsun is the seventh sunday after easter when couples traditionally married because their is no wedding tax, lower classes would take advantage of this

Question 26

an arundel tomb

Answer 26

based on a statue in chichester cathedral,

Chichester Cathedral, Sussex, Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, and Eleanor of Lancaster

Question 27

the large cool store

Answer 27

based on an older version of M & S which was a low end and cheap shop at the time

compares the lower class and their aspirations, with the world of sex

shows how lower class try to elevate their status through clothes-can compare to Gatsby who tries to elevate his status through money/parties

Question 28

here

Answer 28

travelling through hell to reach heaven or ‘transcendence’ at the end
william wilberforce - from Hull, abolished slavery in the British empire, MP (mentions slave museum, larkin talking about the more illicit parts of Hull)

Question 29

mr bleaney

Answer 29

the bodies, a car manufacturing company where Mr Bleaney worked
the four aways - football betting

Mr Bleaney lives in poverty despite the economic advances happening around him. Nick/Mr Bleaney are both isolated and distanced from society and their surroundings reflect who they are

of smoke in slow supended skeins’ ethereal image of their spirits going up to heaven, orthodox catholic churches / lighting candle

Question 30

MCMXIV

Answer 30

inspired by looking through photos
outbreak of ww1 in august 1914
‘and the pubs wide open all day’ - no licensing laws for pub opening hours until after ww2

‘fields shadowing Domesday lines’ - references the Norman conquest, England’s history is steeped in war and they were just about to enter into another war, negative effects as the countryside is now ignored

explores the impact of war on civilians as well as disproving the idea that everything was better in the past

Larkin - called up to fight in the next world war, WWII, while studying at Oxford, but was excused owing to poor eyesight

Question 31

sunny Prestatyn

Answer 31

based on Prestatyn a holiday destination in wales
shows how women are used materialistically and objectified by the advertising industry.

Daisy/Jordan are both objectified, Myrtle is violated by Tom when she is hit and then run over (she is of a lower class status)

Question 32

essential beauty

Answer 32

advertising became extremely popular after WW2 due to the rise in consumerism
that small cube- OXO
‘aligned to cups’ ovaltine

the gap between advertising and the real world
the eyes of dr t j eckleburg
Myrtle’s products that she buys when in New York

Question 33

afternoons

Answer 33

challenges the fixed role of women in society

1950 - 50 women of every 1000 married

Question 34

daisy and tom / fitzgerald context

Answer 34

fitzgerald’s family moved a lot around europe
eg. french riviera, italy, spain,
‘god damn the continent of europe’ july 1921

Question 35

fitzgerald other works

Answer 35

tales of the jazz age - short stories about NY and partying 1922

Question 36

fitzgerald quote in relation to his parents

Answer 36

my father is a moron and my mother is a neurotic, half insane with pathological nervous worry. Between them they haven’t and never have had the brains of Calvin Coolidge. If I knew anything id be the best writer in America.

Question 37

fitzgerald and gatsby parallels

Answer 37

• both distant from their parents and felt like they were destined for greater things
• went to NY often and experiences the fast life of partying and the American jazz age
• fought in ww1
• didn’t do well at university (gatsby oxford) Fitzgerald and princeton university poor exam results
• middle class, fitzgerald’s father was a grocery seller and basket maker
• zelda (daughter of a supreme court justice) rejected gatsby’s proposal as she wasn’t rich enough until after his publication of the other side of paradise, they met during ww1

Question 38

was the gg succesful

Answer 38

no

20,000 copies in first year