Chapter 1
5 “younger and more vulnerable years” Meaning? Vulnerable to what?
Don’t judge others; they haven’t had your advantages. Thus, he doesn’t and he has the tendency to attract bores.
6 At birth people are fundamentally unequally decent. Hmm. Some are better than others or is it something else?
6-7 READ the paragraph on Gastby and Nick’s disdain for all that he encountered while in the East is lovely. We sense that he was turned off by decadence, but he ironically loved Gatsby and all the man stood for. G was an idealist preyed by shallow careless rich people.
7 of his WWI experience “I enjoyed the counterraid so thoroughly that I came back restless.” The Midwest seemed like “the ragged edge of the universe.” So he went east to learnt he bond business. In the 1920’s. The high, risky life
8 Nick finds himself as a “guide, a pathfinder, an original settler.”
9-10 For 80 dollars a month, Nick has a little house wedged in between mansions on the sound in West Egg
10 initial incident. Nick is invited over to the Buchanan’s. he’s related to Daisy (2nd cousin, once removed) and knew Tom in college.
Tom is really really rich. And restless!! Seeking the thrill of the football game.
11 first image of Tom, with legs wide, in riding outfit. On the porch showing the hole world that he’s the man, rooted to his possession.
Tom is arrogant and cruel. Why does FSF call his body “cruel”?
12 Tom has the ability to take the life out of things. Closing the door does this.
Daisy and Jordan Baker: a little pompous, too. Jordan doesn’t look at Nick. He’s intimidated and intrigued. Daisy seems vapid, or does she?
Daisy’s desc. She’s very alluring. Men are drawn to something in her.
17 Tom’s a racist, believes in white power, keeping others down.
18 Daisy is included at a “Nordic” after a pause by Tom. What does it mean?
19 Tom’s blatantly having an affair with some woman in NY. Jordan wants to listen in.
“I’ve had a very bad time, Nick, and I’m pretty cynical about everything.” Daisy
21 daisy wants her daughter to be a beautiful little fool…WHY?
23 what could be the critical, unpleasant story that Nick heard about Jordan? Is he being coy with the reader?
Jordan and Daisy are from Louisville, where they passed their “white girlhood.” Together.
25 “Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.”
We get our first glimpse of Gatsby, albeit a murky one. He seems fascinated by a green light across the water. Green=go, money, trees, ????
Chapter 2
The Valley of Ashes is ½ way between W. Egg and NYC.
The huge blue eyes of Dr. Eckleburg (on a billboard) loom over the Valley of Ashes.
28 And…this is the place where Nick meets Tom’s mistress. Who could she be?
Tom is drunk, and he wants Nick to meet his “girl.” Why is he so adamant about flaunting the fact that he is cheating on his wife?
George is cowed by Tom, who leads him on with the prospect of a car.
29-30 So...what makes Myrtle attractive? Let’s look at her description.
She, too, pushes George around.
Tom treats Wilson with contempt. Thinks he’s dumb.
31 She and Tom have an apartment, and she wants to put a dog in it. Does she push him around? Hmm.
33-34 Nick is sent off on an errand; Tom and Myrtle have sex, people come over and the party starts. It’s yucky, it’s a parody of a real society party.
37 more talk about Gatsby. Seems like people don’t really know him.
Nick is sarcastic. “This absorbing information…” repulsed but can’t leave
Tom mocks George, and be extension, Myrtle too. Nick is told that Tom and Myrtle hate their mates and should marry each other, by her sister, Catherine, of course.
38 Tom’s lie is that Daisy’s a Catholic and doesn’t believe in divorce.
41 Drunkenly, Myrtle Wilson fights with Tom. He breaks her nose!!!
What a sad, pathetic day.
Chapter 3
G. is a party animal.
44-45 switch to present tense indicating that this is the way things always happen?
Nick can’t find Gatsby; people don’t seem to know where the host is, or they don’t know him.
He finds Jordan, who’s as careless and beautiful as ever, and he latches onto her.
47-48 more G mythology. He killed a man once.
The party is full of crazy folks. One guy in the library is surprised that the books are real
Call Gatsby Belasco.
Alcohol turns the evening into something “significant, elemental, profound.” Puhlease!
52 Nick is conversing with G, who recognized him from the war, and Nick doesn’t even know it. There’s a little contretemps, but he recovers well. G. keeps calling him “old sport.” Ha, a little ironic, he’s not old, rich or sporty.
52 lovely desc. Of G. Worth pulling apart every line. It’s lovely in its descriptive elegance and in how it captures Nick’s adoration of the man. He’s like a giddy child.
“elegant young roughneck”
“formal, careful, yet able to make you feel good about yourself.”
Despite Gatsby’s elegance, Nick thinks he’s from a lower class—like Jordan—but how did he get his money?
Jordon’s comment about liking bog parties is completely contradictory. It reveals how empty she is. Big parties are more intimate. Small ones offer no privacy.” Huh? Is she calling hiding intimacy?
Jordan gets called to talk with G. When she emerges, she’s excited and asks Nick to call on her the next day. Nick will also have plans to go out with G in his hydroplane.
60 a sad tableau of G waving good by to patrons who should’ve left earlier. Many are drunk and barely able to et along. One has crashed a car right outside the house.
60 we’re back with Nick, who’s just read over what he’s written. Why is he writing?
Probity Trust is where Nick works.
62 summer is wearing on. Nick is doing his thing. Jordan comes back into his life. He develops a “tender curiosity” for her. Hmm. Not love, hum?
He remembers his tale about Jordan: she cheated in a gold tournament and then paid folks off to not tattle. Ahh, she’s a incurable liar who hangs only with men she’s superior to. Not “clever shrewd” ones. So…what did G tell her? And why is she with Nick? Is he a dolt she can use? Are they doing it? Is he careful as she says?
63 J’s character is revealed. Horrible driver, liar, careless, arrogant,
64 Nick won’t leap into something with Jordan until he extricates himself from a rel. with a woman back home. That the woman sweats when she plays tennis is a turn off. Great last line. Nick call himself honest. That is his one cardinal virtue.
Chapter 4
The guest list recorded by Nick: East Egg money mixing with Jews, Irish, Italians from West Egg and elsewhere. There are some low lifes there, for sure. What’s the effect of enumerating this cast?
68-69 G pulls up in a grand car. Nick feels G has little to say and much of G’s mystique has worn away. “the proprietor of an elaborate roadhouse.”
G says he’s going to tell N his true story. Wealthy Midwesterners, Oxford. But G calls San Fan. The middle west. What’s up? N doesn’t believe him. Maybe there is something sinister about G.
70 G alludes to something very sad that happened to him long ago.
71 G carries a medal from Montenegro and a picture of himself at Oxford. He’s holding a cricket bat.
73 N is getting comfortable with the idea that G is sincere. NYC is a place of unexpected, unreal possibility.
At lunch Nick meet Wolfshiem, a stereotypical Jew (flat nose, hairy nostrils, fast talking, shady) He’s in with the Jewish mob. Asks if Nick is looking for connections, but G jumps in and tells W he’s got the wrong man. Hmm. What does G know W?
76 Does G believe that Jordan is honest? Is he relying on her? (to get close to Daisy?)
77 W has human molars for cufflinks!!! Human trophies? Yuck. Then he makes a comment about G and woman. Calls G careful. “He’d never so much as look at a friend’s wife.”
78 N sees Tom B and brings G over. T is surprised, G bolts.
79…Jordan starts to tell the tale. “One October day in 1917…” J. was smitten with Daisy. He was an officer training at the camp near Louisville.
81 D was trying to back out of her wedding to T. She had a letter…from G? But she tried to make it work anyway, even though…
82 T started cheating right away.
So G is following D, staring at her green light, has a cream colored car (they once rode in her white one). Is he using J and N, the cousin. Was he hoping that the Buchanan would come to one of his parties
83 “He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.”
85 N and J are accomplices in a plot to help G meet D and show her his house.
A plot is emerging. What are the twists and turns? The pitfalls? The wildcards?
Chapter 5:
embarrassment, joy, wonder…doubt..
Gats offers nick a job, and Nick turns him down. What’s G up to?
Trying to seduce Nick, too?
Or just do right out of gratitude?
The day arrives and G is so nervous. It’s raining. G has Nick’s lawn cut.
G bolts when Daisy arrives; then he knocks on the door.
91 Nick’s actually excited to. Why is he so worked up…is he just the kind of guy who’s excited by the intrigue. Does he want things to work o
91 a wonderfully awkward tableau: G and D pretending to be calm. Is G tragic here?
G almost knocks over a clock. What’s with that clock?
Time: “We haven’t see each other in along time…BUT G knows exactly how long it has been. Sooo awakward.
93 Nick mildly chastises and helps G. Tells him he’s rude. The he goes outside for half an hour.
94 Daisy has been crying; G is glowing. What Happened?
95 G bables and starts to reveal self….not old money, etc…
House tour:
G showing off his house; Nick feeling that the party people must be hiding.
97…he had passes visible though 2 stages and was entering a third. The three stages: embarrassment, joy and wonder (and Gatsby’s running down like an overwound clock!) 97)
Daisy sobs at the sight of Gatsby’s shirts! (98) he admits that he looks out at the green light at the end of her dock.
“His count of enchanted objects had decreased by one.” 98
99 I’d like to puch you around din a pink cloud, said D. Huh?
Ain’t we got fun! (100)
Klipspringer commanded to play the piano (99+)
Nick. . . has served his purpose and can go now! (102)
***GATSBY’S DOUBTS*** (101)
can the reality of being with Daisy live up to the illusion?
Chapter 6
Reporter comes out to find out if G in really a bootlegger
Backstory of James Gatz begins
Dan Cody’s yacht: G gets a job and a pass into the world
The Platonic Conception of himself
A 17 year olds vision of success
College dropout with delusions of grandeur, good looks and ambition carry him.
107 Ella Kaye wrangled all of Cody’s money and stole G’s inheritance. What views does G form as a result of this?
108 Nick, after a few weeks, goes to check on G. And..Tom and two others shows up for a drink!!
109 G accepts an invitation to dinner that isn’t sincere. He’s fascinated with Tom, but why?
Tom and D go to a G party, and it’s a pathetic scene. They see through the hollow wannabes and diss everyone.
G wants D to divorce T and marry him just like that. He wants to obliterate the past.
117 How is trying to get Daisy also a search for self?
117 Gatsby’s ladder. He has to climb it alone to achieve his dreams?
Choosing daisy represented a dream and a sacrifice of his dreams. Hmm.
VII it’s all become a little sordid, Gatsby has staffed a love nest with Wolfseheim people!
CHAPTER VI: TO TELL THE TRUTH
q A reporter??!! (103)
THE TRUTH!!! (101)
q Why does Nick choose to tell the story now? (107)
q Nick’s hiatus from Gatsby (107)
q Nick’s snobbism and envy at next meeting with Gatsby??? (108)
TOM AND DAISY AT GATSBY’S PARTY! (110+)
q Celebrities, movie stars, polo players. . . and snobbery (111)
q A very tipsy table! (We are the hollow men) (113)
q ***Daisy is appalled*** (113)
WAITING AND WATCHING OUT FOR AN ACT OF GOD? (112)
AH. . . THE ROMANCE! (115)
CAN YOU RECOVER THE PAST??? (116+)
Chapter 7: LIGHTS OUT!!!
LIGHTS OUT AT GATSBY’S
· Is he sick? (the sick and the well later in the chapter) (119)
· “So the whole caravansary had fallen like a house of cards at the disapproval in her eyes” (120)
LUNCH WITH TOM AND DAISY
Hot. . . Hot. . . Hot!!! (121+)
A “harrowing” scene? (120)
The little baby girl (123)
To sail away from it all (124)
Apocalypse (124)
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU LOOK (OR SOUND) LIKE???
Daisy and Jordan as silver idols! (“we can’t move”) (122)
Gatsby’s car as circus wagon (128) (what up with cars and horses? -125)
Tom resembles a shirt advertisement (125)
Daisy’s voice is full of money (127)
NOTHING IS HAPPENING!!!!!
It’s so hot and stagnant and everything is so confused (125)
What’ll we do. . . ever?? (125)
Daisy’s voice struggled on through the heat, beating against it, moulding its senselessness into forms (125)
No one moved (125)
This apparently pointless remark (127)
AT WILSON’S GARAGE
Wilson sick; all run down (129)
Nick on the sick versus the well (131)
FORCING A “SCENE” IN A NEW YORK HOTEL ROOM!!
That’s a weird place for it!
They didn’t go to the movies (132)
Crazy idea (133)
Multi-page, meaningless talk!!! (“there wasn’t any connection” -135)
Nick’s faith in Gatsby restored????
Daisy hadn’t meant to do anything or choose one way or the other (139)
BY THE WAY. . . . IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!
Read!!! (143+)
Nick has had enough? (150)
A REALLY “GREAT” TABLOID MURDER
As told by some young Greek (143+)
A thrilling and grotesque show! (146+)
TOM AND DAISY UNAFFECTED
. . . WHILE GATSBY IS LEFT TO WATCH OVER. . . NOTHING! (152+)