The Great Gatsby critics

Question 1

“Tom’s position ….

Answer 1

Johnson: “Tom’s position in the world depends on his body not his voice.”
- compare to Daisy and the objectification of women at the time

Question 2

Critics on Gatsby

Answer 2

Gam
Dying young, he should be immortalised, or for dying a tragic, hopeless death. But it goes unremembered. Given his social and financial prowess, he should have died a martyr, which is Fitzgerald’s last reminder to readers that Gatsby was far from great.

Gatsby never understood that he was trapped by time and human history = Stallman

Question 3

A novel fundamentally ….

Answer 3

Martin
A novel fundamentally about America’s failure to fulfil its possibilities

Question 4

Dreams

Answer 4

• Myrtle, George and Gatsby are “the best symbols [as they] that chased the dream until the end” = Hodo
• Fitzgerald criticizes American society for misunderstanding the American dream as a culmination of wealth = Pumphrey
• The hunger for riches = Yardley
• Gatsby reveals the American Dream as a rigged lottery that no one wins but everyone plays = Churchwell

Question 5

Bewley

Answer 5

The theme of Gatsby is the withering American Dream
The material and spiratual have become inextricably confused.
Gatsby is a ‘mythic’ character … he embodies the core conflict in the American Dream between illusion and reality.

Question 6

Gatsby and Myrtle same

Answer 6

They both think a rich Buchanan will get them what they want
Churchwell

Question 7

Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy

Answer 7

Nick becomes … involved in Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy, the material symbol of his dream = Miller