(Responses should be a minimum of three to five sentences each.) 1. What do you find is the most crucial in the plot in Chapter 1? Nick buying the house in West Egg village is crucial to the plot. He then explains the plot by talking about his rich neighbor. This helps to establish the setting for the story and describes Gatsby a bit. 2. How does Nick describe himself at the beginning of the novel? Nick describes himself as nonjudgmental. He also wanted the world to be uniform and trying to have morals. Nick describes himself as coming from a snobbish family and having snobbish values. 3. How does Nick describe Tom Buchanan? Tom appears to be leaning forward aggressively and is mean. Nick also describes him as having a powerful body. Nick is afraid of getting attacked by Tom because he is really muscly. 4. Who is Jordan Baker? What does Nick find appealing about her? Jordan Baker is Daisy's friend Nick meets in West Egg. He likes her for her slender body and gray eyes. Nick likes Jordan's voice too. 5. What is Gatsby doing when Nick first sees him? Gatsby is looking out at the water. When nick is about to call out to him, Gatsby stretches out his arms towards the water. Nick is shocked and puzzled by Gatsby's strange behavior. 6. How does the tone of Nick’s description of Tom reveal Nick’s feelings about Tom? Use a quotation from the text to justify your answer. Nick describes Tom as aggressive looking his voice as "a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of
Throughout the story, The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the narrator Nick Carraway as easily manipulated by others with greater influence or power. After meeting with Tom Buchanan and his mistress in New York, Nick drives them to Tom’s apartment. After Nick insists he simply drops them off, Fitzgerald writes, “‘No, you don’t,’ interposed Tom quickly”(32). By using the diction “interposed”, it is shown that Tom is able to use his authority to make Nick agree to what Tom wants. Additionally, when Gatsby shows Nick his metal supposedly earned during World War One, and a picture of Gatsby at Oxford, Nick exclaims, “Then it was all true. I saw the skins of tigers flaming in his palace on the Grand Canal; I saw him opening a chest
Nick’s father gives him this advice “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one”(Fitzgerald 1) and to keep in mind “People in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1). Nick then claims that he is “inclined to reserve all judgements” (Fitzgerald 1). Nick was able to stand up for Gatsby rather than just let Tom have a skewed view of Gatsby when he said that he was “Some big bootlegger”(Fitzgerald 107). Many other people believed Gatsby had some illegal, high paying job. Nobody knows Gatsby’s job, but Nick wanted to make sure that his reputation was not tainted before he met Tom. Nick defended Gatsby well staying reserved and without being rude to Tom. and on the surface it hardly did anything to gatsby’s reputation at all Daisy runs over Myrtle, Nick
In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald introduces a complex and round character, Nick Carraway, a very honest, small town man. One specific interaction that stands out, when you begin to see a change when Nick is invited to one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties. Nick was the only person ever invited personally to one of these parties. Nick hears rumors about Gatsby. When they both first meet, Gatsby is very friendly. He invites him to live the high lie with him. It was all an act to get Nick to arrange a date for Gatsby and Daisy. Nick being the honest, well rounded man he is, is in a tough spot. Arranging a meeting secretly between his married cousin, and neighbor is something out of his character. But he agrees to Gatsby’s request
130) In the earlier chapters when Nick was nervous and quiet in situations we saw syntax that unnecessarily spaced out thoughts using multiple sentences, and things like dashes, and this is used again much later in the book; showing how truly hollow the American dream is, once so obtainable in the middle of the book, to falling right back to where they had begun in the beginning of the book. This digression in the pursuit of the American dream for Gatsby shows how he really tried to make his dreams with Daisy work out, but in the end it would have never worked out, foreshadowing his son's demise. Shortly later when Gatsby is killed, Nick is telling the story from his point of view which is for the most part uncertain,” But they knew then, I firmly believed.” (Fitzgerald. 161)
There are several instances in The Great Gatsby that support the fact that when a person is observing a relationship, it is easy to see its true dynamic. In the presented scenarios, a character on the exterior of a relationship, mainly Nick, is observing how two parties relate and seeing the reality of the situation rather than the superfluous attitudes the characters display in front of one another. Though it can be argued that in a relationship one knows the other’s sincere feelings, one can also hide their feelings in order to maintain an ideal relationship, as to avoid flaws.
In The Great Gatsby, the poster boy has a questionable past. He is arguably justified depending on who you ask, and only the few who are wise know his true colors. It could be said that Gatsby's hidden nature is both personal and societal, but that is up to prlerspective.
Summary: The narrator of The Great Gatsby, Nick starts the novel by describing himself and introducing Gatsby, everything he scorns, but strives to be. Nick moves to the West Egg in New York to work in the bond business. Nick goes to Tom and Daisy’s house for dinner one night. Tom is a friends from college and Daisy is Nick’s cousin. Nick finds out about Tom’s lover, and sees Gatsby reaching off in the distance when he arrives home.
The passage is structured into three sections, each differing in the use of narration, description, and dialogue. The first paragraph is Nick’s narration that prepares the reader to discover the “strange story” of Gatsby’s youth. The following five paragraphs are an intriguing mixture of narration and description. Gatsby’s descriptive revelation of his past is retold through by Nick’s narration. The filter of Nick’s own opinions inevitably affects the nuance of Gatsby’s experiences. Nick’s biased disapproval of the rich is conveyed through subtle words such as “bought luxury,” which implies his scorn for the rich who enjoy excessive luxury at the expense of others’ efforts.The last paragraph consists of Gatsby’s monologue only, in which the expression of his thoughts are independent of Nick’s opinion. Through this Fitzgerald provides the reader with Gatsby’s honest thoughts, in which his illusions are further made obvious. For example, his misguided belief that Daisy thought he “knew a lot because [he] knew different things from her” is overconfident and idealistic, giving the reader an insight into his character.
The line of attack we use in order to identify individuals around us is an intriguing thing. Our perception is forever shifting, forever building, and affected not only by the person’s actions, but by the actions of those around them. In Scott F. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby Nick Caraway’s perception of Jay Gatsby is always changing. All the way through the novel, Nick’s perception of Gatsby changes from him perceived as a rich chap, to a man that lives in the past, to a man trying to achieve his aspirations but has failed.
In The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway moves from Chicago to the West Egg of New York. He settles in as Jay Gatsby’s neighbor and starts a new chapter of his life. Nick is related to Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom, who live in the East Egg. After his summer in New York and after all the tragic events that happen, Nick realizes that maybe this isn’t for him and now he has the knowledge that he needed to realize that he is a 30 year old man and his youth is past him. He had come to the conclusion that maybe it is time for him to leave and try starting over, and maybe, it would be best to start over in the Middle West, where he came from. People can teach you some valuable lesson in life, pay attention to those and learn from their mistakes.
During the 1920's American culture was centered around status and wealth, especially in the east, in hopes of living the true "American dream". Although most people became shallow, empty, and careless in their paths to wealth, often hurting those who have less then them, and making them pay the consequences of their immoral actions. But Jay Gatsby was unlike every other hollow person in the East, because he had something to live for, fight for, and dream for; Daisy Buchanan. His love for her gave him the strength to keep believing in the American dream and the drive to accomplish it. Gatsby restores Nicks faith in the people of the 1920's by showing him that not everyone is shallow and selfish, and that in order to live the American dream, hope and determination can not be lost.
When considering Nick’s reliability as a narrator, several contradictions also exist concerning the consistency and dependability of his thoughts about Gatsby. Although Nick states that “Gatsby represented everything for which I had an unaffected scorn” (2) he also describes how Gatsby is “worth the whole damn bunch put together” (154) and that “there was something gorgeous about him [Gatsby]” (2). The above quotes contrast both Nick’s unfavorable and positive opinions of Gatsby and further add to his volatility and unpredictability. The greatest inconsistency occurs when Nick conveys how “Gatsby turned out all right in the end (2)”, despite later saying that he “disapproved of him from beginning to end” (154). It seems that by frequently changing his opinions on Gatsby, Nick is unsure and hesitant on portraying Gatsby’s character.
Through the observations and experiences of Nick, The Great Gatsby exposes the temptations that men have towards the allure of the East and the consequences of giving into them. When Nick first attended one of Gatsby’s parties, he noted that “they [the guests] conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with an amusement park” (41). Nick describing the guests of Gatsby’s party with the behavior associated with an amusement park shows that people from the East are not truly any more civilised than those from the West. Throughout the book, the East is seen as being more privileged than the West, with grander houses and prestigious families, while the West is less fashionable with wide lawns and friendly trees. With the
In the beginning of the Great Gatsby, we are introduced to a number of characters through the main narrator, Nick Carraway. We are given hints and suggestions about how Nick can be portrayed as a narrator and as a main character. Throughout the first two chapters, we get an impression that Nick is an effective narrator and a key character in the novel. However, our opinions of him may differ as we get deeper into the story.
Nick is a dynamic character. Starts to leave his values behind, temporarily and in one instance, he gets drunk for the second time in his life “… either it was terrible stuff of the whiskey distorted things, because it didn’t make any sense to me” (29). Only has gotten drunk twice in his life, and the reader can come to the conclusion that the whole scene at Myrtle's party is skewed. "Instead of being the warm center of the world, the middle west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe" (3). Gatsby's Influence The title of the story is The Great Gatsby Is Fitzgerald being ironic about how "great" Gatsby is or is it to emphasize how great Nick thinks he is? Nick thinks Gatsby is admirable and see that he is driven by love to achieve his dream. He finds that praise-worthy and thinks its an honorable dream. He believe he truly is a good person. Thinks Gatsby is an unfortunate victim to the Easts eccentric ways but is respectable. In the end he sides with Gatsby. It sets up his biases. He hears rumors that Gatsby is a "spy" and "killed a man" (48). He had expected that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person" (48). Time vs. Opinions His outlook gradually alters towards corruption as “the events of three nights several weeks apart” took effect on his writing and he found that they ” gave the impression that… they were all that absorbed” him (55). He has been focusing on one event and giving it great importance. He was partially opinionated