the great gatsby

Question 1

when was The Great Gatsby set?

Answer 1

1920’s America (aka roaring 20s or the jazz age)

Question 2

what does east egg represent?

Answer 2

old money

Question 3

what does west egg represent?

Answer 3

new money

Question 4

what is old money?

Answer 4

old money is money that is inherited. people with old money have always had status and money because they were born into it.

Question 5

example of old money?

Answer 5

Tom and Daisy Buchannan

Question 6

what is new money?

Answer 6

people with new money were not born into their money or status, instead they have had to earn their money and status through work.

Question 7

example of new money?

Answer 7

Jay Gatsby

Question 8

what did nick means by “imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy”?

Answer 8

that the house isn’t original but just an imitation of some fancy building in France.

Question 9

what does Gatsby’s house being an “imitation” tell us about Gatsby?

Answer 9

This tells us that Gatsby himself is nothing more than imitation, pretending to be something that he isnt/

Question 10

what does the green light symbolise?

Answer 10

Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. As well as this, Green often symbolises envy,.

Question 11

“the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water”

what is meant by this quote?

Answer 11

‘palace’ sticks out to me because of how the word conveys the image of royalty, this links to how Daisy and Tom were born into their money and social status the same way that royalty is born into their titles.

Question 12

what does New York symbolise?

Answer 12

What happens in New York City, stays in New York City. Drinking, sex scandals, criminal activities involving Gatsby, and more drinking. New York City is symbolic of immorality and carelessness. When they are in the city, the actions of the characters are done without any consideration of consequences.

Question 13

Myer Wolfsheim representation

Answer 13

New York City is also the setting where the reader is first introduced to Meyer Wolfsheim who also represents immortality; this strengthens and confirms both Wolfsheim’s and NYC’s symbolic meaning.

Question 14

Why is Gatsby unhappy although having achieved the American dream?

Answer 14

this is because although he achieved the American dream, he failed at achieving his own. This is why Gatsby was wrong, all his life he thought he was going to be happy once he was rich but, in the end, the one thing he really wanted, was Daisy.

Question 15

what is significant about the location of Gatsby’s house?

Answer 15

Gatsby bought the mansion in order to be closer to Daisy, hence why it is opposite her and Tom’s house. Gatsby always started at their house from across the lake on his porch while dreaming that one day he will have Daisy.

Question 16

apart from new money, what else does Gatsby represent?

Answer 16

In one sense, Gatsby’s rags-to-riches success story makes him an embodiment of the American dream. He started life with little, as the son of fairly unsuccessful farmers. By the time he was a young man he had even less, having voluntarily estranged himself from his family, unable to come to terms with the lot he had been dealt in life. While on his own, he had the opportunity to reinvent himself, and due solely to his own ingenuity, Jimmy Gatz evolved into Jay Gatsby.