The Great Gatsby Chapters 8 and 9 In
The Great Gatsby Chapters 8 and 9
In your opinion, is Gatsby really “worth the whole damn bunch put together” (154)? Why not?
1 Religion and God seem to be an afterthought throughout the text. Why do you think Fitzgerald chooses now to have Michaelis suggest that George “ought to have a church[. . . ] for times like this” (165) for George to tell Myrtle that she “may fool [him] but she couldn’t fool God” (167)? And further, why does Fitzgerald choose to have George “looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg which had just emerged pale and enormous from the dissolving night” (167) when he says it?
2 How does the fact that Wilson “was reduced to a man ‘deranged by grief’” consistent with the picture painted of him throughout Fitzgerald’s narrative? What thematic implications does it have?
Do you agree with Wolfshiem’s sentiments that we should “learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead” (Fitzgerald 180)? Why or why not? How does it reflect on Nick’s attempts to “get somebody” for Gatsby? How about the attendance at Gatsby’s funeral? Who does show up? What is the significance of their presence? 3
Does Gatsby’s schedule and “General Resolves” look like anything else we have read this year? (It does). Why do you think Fitzgerald chooses to make this allusion?
4 Do you agree with Jordan’s assessment of Nick as “another bad driver” (186)? Why or Why not? What does Nick mean when he says that he is “five years too old to lie to [himself] and call it honor” (186)? Is he accurate in his assessment of himself?
Does your view of Tom or Daisy change at all when it is revealed that Tom believes that Gatsby “ran over Myrtle like you’d run over a dog” (187)? What about Nick’s decision not to set him straight on the matter? How does this idea connect to Jordan’s comments about bad drivers?
What message does Fitzgerald send in the closing lines of the novel? How does it connect to the plot itself? “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (189). Does the revision, “orgastic” used over “orgiastic” change the meaning of those lines? How?
Well this is awkward. . . but significant • Orgastic: adj. of orgasm; the climax of sexual excitement, characterized by intensely pleasurable feelings; ecstatic • Orgiastic: adj. of orgy; a wild party characterized by excessive drinking and indiscriminate sexual activity; an instance of excessive indulgence • When Edmund Wilson edited The Great Gatsby in 1941 he emended the celebrated line “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future, that year by year recedes before us. ” He subsequently explained: “The word orgastic, on the last page, I took to be Scott’s mistake for orgiastic—he was very unreliable about words. ” But Fitzgerald’s intention is certain. Perkins had queried orgastic, and Fitzgerald replied that “it expresses exactly the intended ecstasy” (Lanahan et. al).
Look familiar? How are the two themes similar? How do they differ? Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly. So the beginning of this was a woman and she had come back from burying the dead. Not the dead of sick and ailing with friends at the pillow and the feet. She had come back from the sodden and the bloated; the sudden dead, their eyes flung wide open in judgment.
The following quote come from a letter Fitzgerald wrote to a friend: 5 “The worst fault in it [Chapter 6], I think is a BIG FAULT: I gave no account (and had no feeling about or knowledge of) the emotional relationship between Gatsby and Daisy. ” Is this a fault? Why not? What purpose might this omission have served? Consider Nick’s comment that Gatsby had “committed himself to the following of a grail” (Fitgerald 156). What important ideas about Gatsby, Daisy and their relationship are exposed? Why does the Fitzgerald choose to expose them this way?
Who is most responsible for the novel’s outcome? Support your answer with specifics from the text. Tom Daisy Gatsby Nick Jordan Myrtle George Dr. Eckleburg Klipspringer Wolfsheim
6 What effect does Gatsby’s mob connection have on you as the reader? Does it make him more or less admirable? Why does Fitzgerald choose to have Gatsby make his money this way?
• Symbols – Reinforce Themes ▫ Dan Cody ▫ Windows ▫ Weather ▫ Clothing ▫ Cars and Driving ▫ Green Light ▫ Alcohol ▫ Glasses/Eyes ▫ Gas Station ▫ Wolfsheim ▫ Water
In the opening pages of the novel, Fitzgerald foreshadows almost the all of the plot’s intricacies. Reread the opening pages of the novel up to “I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all” (Fitzgerald 11) and identify at least three specific quotes from later chapters in the text that demonstrate that Fitzgerald knew exactly what message he wanted to send and exactly how he was going to send it.
The novel was published in 1925. Revisit his statement: “An author ought to write for the youth of his generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters ever afterward” (Gatsby xi). Does his message resonate today or is it simply a period piece?
- Slides: 17