The Great Gatsby Revision Key Themes Class Wealth
The Great Gatsby Revision
Key Themes • • • Class Wealth Love The Past The American Dream
Class • What aspects of CLASS are discussed in the novel? • Are there any symbols? • Find 3 key quotes for the discussion of class.
• American sees itself is as a classless society. In comparison with the nations of Europe, birth and name seem to matter less in America. • In ‘The Great Gatsby’ that there are differences between the classes. • The division between West and East Egg is the most obvious example of this. • The East Egg inhabitants look down on those in the West. • The West Egg inhabitants in turn aspire to the culture and the connections of the ‘old money’ in the East.
• Everyone in the novel is essentially in the same social group as they were born into. The only exception to this is Jay Gatsby, who makes his money through crime. Even he tries to aspire to culture, through his mannerisms and his fake accent. • Throughout the novel, the only value that is ‘classless’ is unhappiness. This is shared from East to West Egg, to the valley of the Ashes. Symbols: Setting -Throughout the novel, places and settings epitomize the various aspects of the 1920 s American society that Fitzgerald depicts. East Egg represents the old aristocracy, West Egg the newly rich, the valley of ashes the moral and social decay of America, and New York City the uninhibited, amoral quest for money and pleasure.
"I married him because I thought he was a gentleman. . . I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit "They were careless people, Tom and to lick my shoe. " Myrtle Chapter 2 Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money of their vast carelessness, or "About Gatsby! No, I haven’t. I said I’d been making awhatever it was that kept them together, small investigation of his past. " "And you found he was an and let other people clean up the mess Oxford man, " said Jordan helpfully. "An Oxford man!" He they had made. " Chapter 9 was incredulous. "Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit. " "Nevertheless he’s an Oxford man. " "Oxford, New Mexico, " snorted Tom contemptuously, "or something like that. " "Listen, Tom. If you’re such a snob, why did you "Civilization’s going to pieces, " broke out invite him to lunch? " demanded Jordan crossly. "Daisy invited him; she knew him before we were married Tom violently. "I’ve gotten to be a terrible – God pessimist about things. Have you read ‘The knows where!" (7. 130 -136) Rise of the Colored Empires’ by this man Goddard? " "Why, no, " I answered, rather It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have surprised by his tone. "Well, it’s a fine control of things. " "We’ve got to beat book, and everybody ought to read it. The them down, " whispered Daisy, winking idea is if we don’t look out the white race ferociously toward the fervent sun. (1. 74 -will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved. " 81)
Wealth What can we say about wealth in the novel? How does it impact on the characters and ideas in the novel? Find 3 key quotes for the discussion of wealth.
• Wealth is seen as a way to be moral, and to improve one’s standing within society. However, what wealth creates is an absence of consequences for one’s actions. • Tom can violently attack Myrtle, and Gatsby can rise in the world of crime with seemingly no consequences. • Rather than make them immoral, wealth makes the characters amoral (without an understanding of morals). • Nick is repulsed by this, and realises that being around these people is a damaging influence.
• By contrast, Daisy and Tom, who are wealthy, both decide to simply move to a new house, far away from East Egg, rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral. • The real social commentary within the novel is that wealth makes people insincere. • The ostentatious parties, the garish suits and the expensive cars are all artificial. • Most of the characters are driven by what they can’t afford (or can’t buy), an idea that few of them are used to.
I watched his guests diving from the tower In my younger and more vulnerable years of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand my father gave me some advice that I've of his beach while his motor-boats slid the been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On week-ends his one, " he told me, "just remember that all Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had. " (1. 1 -3) parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. (3. 1) "Self-control!" Repeated Tom incredulously. "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and "Her voice is full of money, " he said suddenly. let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out […] Nowadays people begin They were careless people, Tom and Daisy by sneering at family life and family – they smashed up things and creatures institutions, and next they'll throw and then retreated back into their money or everything overboard and have their vast carelessness, or whatever it was intermarriage between black and white. " that kept them together and let other (7. 229) people clean up the mess they had made […]. (9. 136 -145)
Love • Love is an obvious theme – but why? • Is it a positive thing or even real? • Find 3 key quotes relating to love.
• Love is shown as a destructive force within the novel, and is separated from lust. • Like everything else in the world of East and West Egg, love is artificial, and is linked with status. • Notably, Gatsby describes Daisy by saying her voice is ‘full of money’. This leads us to question whether he really loves her, or if he loves her social class, or even the idea of being in love. • Tom and Daisy seem to have little affection over one another, and Tom effectively ‘owns’ Daisy, seeing of Gatsby’s challenge towards the end of the novel.
• The fact that Tom openly has a mistress (whom he also ‘owns’) shows that their love means very little. • Jordan and Nick have little in common, and show little real affection. • Nick is too appalled by the world he is living in, and Jordan is too cynical for either to develop a bond. • Love, as a real emotion, is unsurprisingly rare in the world of ‘The Great Gatsby’.
But I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. he says he's read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy's name. " (4. 152) "It was a strange coincidence, " I said. "But it wasn't a coincidence at all. " "Why not? " "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay. " (4. 137 -140) She groped around in a waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls. "Take 'em downstairs and give 'em back to whoever they belong to. Tell 'em all Daisy's change' her mind. Say: 'Daisy's change' her mine!'" (4. 129) He hadn't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw. He was astounded. His mouth opened a little, and he looked at Gatsby, and then back at Daisy as if he had just recognized her as some one he knew a long time ago. (7. 79 -82)
The Past • The past is a key concern – especially for… who? • What does it mean to that character? • Find 3 key quotes
• One of the great paradoxes of ‘The Great Gatsby’ comes from the fact that none of the characters can escape their pasts (despite trying), and yet all of them define their futures by what has gone before. • Gatsby’s love for Daisy is based on a shared history (and perhaps by Gatsby’s desire to return to his old life). • However, Tom is able to see off Gatsby’s challenge for Daisy by claiming that their shared history is something Gatsby can never replicate.
• The past also links with the idea of social class. • All the characters are defined by their past, and it is only Jay Gatsby who is able to become more than he once was, albeit through criminal means. • As with everything else in the Eggs, the past is distorted, with both Gatsby and Daisy succumbing to remembering things in an artificial (and positive) light.
As I went over to say good-by I saw that the expression of bewilderment He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that had come back into Gatsby's face, as she should go to Tom and say: "I never though a faint doubt had occurred to loved you. " After she had obliterated four him as to the quality of his present years with that sentence they could decide happiness. Almost five years! There upon the more practical measures to be must have been moments even that taken. One of them was that, after she was afternoon when Daisy tumbled short free, they were to go back to Louisville and of his dreams – not through her own be married from her house—just as if it fault, but because of the colossal were five years ago. (6. 125) vitality of his illusion. He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited Oh, you want too much!" she cried to with his teeth set, so to speak, at an Gatsby. "I love you now – isn't that inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the enough? I can't help what's past. " She reaction, he was running down like an over began to sob helple. So we beat on, boats -wound clock. (5. 111 -114) against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (9. 149 -153)ssly. "I did love him once – but I loved you too. " No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his (7. 261) ghostly heart. (5. 152) Gatsby's vision of Daisy is way better than the real Daisy
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