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Hi There Grade Ten St. Joe’s Girl!
Hope this year was good for you. Welcome to Academic or Pre-Ap English. This summer, we would like
you to read The Great Gatsby, which is easily available at the Toronto Public Library (150 large print
copies), regular and used bookstores, Amazon.ca and in e-book format on-line.
In the following novel study, please read the historical background essay “The Quest for Normalcy” at
the end of this package (15-18) and summarize the excerpt by making point-form notes (1-2 pages). Then,
in complete sentences and paragraphs, answer all of the chapter questions using Statement, Example
(with specific page numbers), Explanation format, whenever possible.* Read the critical analytical
material as (or after) you read the chapters.
Your assignment is due on the Wednesday of the second week in September. If you take English in
Semester 1, give your work to your English teacher. If you take English in Semester 2, give your work
to Ms. Pregelj in the library on the same second Wednesday in September.
You might want to watch Baz Luhrman’s 2013 film of The Great Gatsby (starring Leonardo Di Caprio,
Tobey McGuire and Carry Mulligan; soundtrack by Jay-Z), but be sure you read the novel with care
because you will write an in-class reading comprehension test (at the beginning of the semester that
you study English) and you will write your ISU essay on The Great Gatsby and a novel of your choice.
Please keep the Junior English Guide you received in Grade 9 in your binder and use it for all your writing
assignments. Please review the contents. You need to know the rules concerning the parts of speech, verb
tenses, sentences, punctuation, capitalization, spelling (6-11) and pluralization [not in Junior English
Guide—Google these rules on-line] and the “Most Common Writing Errors” (17-19).
We want you to enjoy the good weather and your time with your family and friends. But, this assignment
will build your confidence, lessen your workload in English and strengthen your score on the Grade Ten
Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test, which is a ministry requirement for graduation.
Have a great summer. We look forward to seeing you in September. If you have any questions, please
email me at [email protected]
Sincerely,
Dr. Miriam Purtill
Head of English Department
* In order to enjoy the flow of the narrative, it is better to read a few chapters at a time first and then go
back and answer the chapter questions.
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The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Introduction to Tragedy
Consider the following situations:
A man and a woman, who have worked hard all their lives, finally retire, hoping
to live out their last years in quiet contentment. Not long after retiring, one of them
develops cancer and dies, leaving the other in lonely despair.
Two young people fall in love, marry, and go on a car trip for their honeymoon.
On their journey, a drunken driver crashes into them and both are killed.
You can probably think of many situations like these. Many of us have experienced
tragedy or shared the tragedies of others. We turn on the television or open the newspaper and
cannot avoid reading about bombs, floods, famines, accidents and wars. Tragedy is part of our
lives.
Sometimes we feel that such suffering is unbearable. Yet, despite its presence in our
lives, we read about tragic experiences in novels, view them in film and experience them in the
theatre.
Last year, we studied Romance, the literary narrative which presents youthful heroes
(male and female) who inhabit golden worlds and green gardens and go on noble and idealistic
hero-quests. This year, we will study Tragedy.1 In this story, we will meet characters who, while
still capable of nobility and heroism, must come to terms with those forces that limit their ability
to change the world or prevent them from living up to their ideals.
As summer turns into fall, so Romance turns into Tragedy. And while there is a sad
inevitability about this process, we must not conclude that it is necessarily depressing. In the
literature we will study this semester (Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby, The Kite Runner, etc.),
you will see that Tragedy includes many works that provide positive insights into human
nature and that enrich our understanding of ourselves and each other.
The greatest dramatists in Western civilization shared a common concern for the tragic
aspects of human existence. The Ancient Greeks admired the tragedies of dramatist like
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; the Elizabethans were thrilled by the tragic offerings of
Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare; and twentieth-century theatre-goers welcomed
the works of modern tragedians like Ibsen, Strindberg, O’Neill and Miller. Tragedy has endured
and evolved over a vast stretch of human history and has served a significant role in society.
While the concept of tragedy evolved over the centuries, two elements remained
consistent: the hero who has a downfall must be present, and the audience must identify
strongly with that hero to create emotional involvement and release or purging that comes at
the end of the play.
Before we begin our study of The Great Gatsby, a modern tragedy, it is necessary to
understand the concept and history of the tragic hero.
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When we refer to Tragedy as a literary mode, we will use a capital letter.
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The Tragic Hero
Classical
According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, the truly tragic hero or protagonist has to be
better than the ordinary person, both in station (social level) and insight. Such heroes are “larger
than life” and capable of gaining deeper self-knowledge than most of us. As well as being great
(a kind of superhero), such a character must suffer a destructive fall through some weakness or
error, which Aristotle termed a “tragic” or “fatal” flaw. In Greek tragedy, this flaw was always
hubris or excessive pride, which was considered a sin against the gods, and brought down their
wrath on the hero. In the Greek theatre, the tragic hero was literally above the audience. He
acted on a raised platform and wore thick-soled footwear and a head-dress which made him
well over seven feet tall! He wore a mask and spoke in majestic, poetic style. Even though he
was doomed, the tragic hero created a sense of awe.
Shakespearean
By Shakespeare’s time, the idea of the tragic hero had changed, but the theory behind his
character was still the same. The hero is “above us” (a prince or king, either through right of
birth or usurpation) and still has a “tragic flaw”—although by this time the flaw is not limited
to hubris, but may be linked to a personality flaw or the abuse of some special gift.
Modern
In modern tragedy, the focus has changed considerably. Today, the ordinary person has taken
over as hero. The tragic hero is “one of us.” S/he is not necessarily virtuous or burdened with
guilt. This person is someone who reminds us of our humanity, someone who can be accepted
as standing for us. The American playwright Arthur Miller suggests that the hero still has a
“tragic flaw,” but he defines it in quite a different way:
In the sense of having been initiated by the hero himself, the tale always reveals what has
been called his “tragic flaw”, a failing that is not peculiar to grand or elevated characters.
Nor is it necessarily a weakness. The flaw, or crack in the hero, is really nothing—and
need be nothing—but his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he
conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status. Only the
passive, only those who accept their lot without active retaliation, are “flawless”. Most of
us are in that category.
Thus, Miller suggests that while we are all “flawed” it is not “necessarily a weakness” if it
makes us stand up for our rights or “dignity” as human beings, even though by “standing up”
we are destroyed. Keep this view of the tragic hero in mind as you read The Great Gatsby.
The Great Gatsby—The Setting for the Novel and Chapters One to Five
Assignment 1
To understand what is happening in the story, you need to understand the age in which it is set.
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Read “The Quest for Normalcy” (15-18) to get a sense of the United States in this era.
Summarize the excerpt by making point form notes on a separate sheet of paper.
Read the first five chapters of The Great Gatsby.
Answer the following questions in complete sentence and paragraph form. Use specific
examples (with page numbers) to show a close reading of the text.
Chapter One
1. a. Do you think Nick will be a suitable narrator for the story? Why?
b. Summarize the feeling in the Buchanan household.
Chapter Two
2. a. How is the setting in the opening of Chapter Two different from that of Chapter One?
b. How is Myrtle different from Daisy in appearance and character?
Chapter Three
3. a. How do the guests at Gatsby’s parties behave differently from the guests at the parties in
the first two chapters?
b. What two contrasting things strike Nick about Gatsby when they first meet?
c. Why does Nick fall in love with Jordan?
Chapter Four
4. a. Briefly outline the life history that Gatsby shares with Nick.
b. How does the trip to New York emphasize Gatsby’s underworld connections with
gangsters and death?
c. In Jordan’s description of Daisy’s Louisville background, what indications are given that
show that Daisy really did love Jay Gatsby?
Chapter Five
5. a. Why does Gatsby insist on showing Daisy his mansion and his shirts?
b. What problem does Gatsby begin to have as his meeting with Daisy continues?
Now read the study guide notes to help you understand the significance of what you have read.
Persona in the Novel
Nick Carraway is a first person major narrator who participates in and observes events
of Jay Gatsby’s story. He reports what he observes; reports what others tell him and conjectures
about events with no real proof/knowledge.
The novel begins with two pages of Nick’s statement of point of view, his attitudes and
his conclusions about the story as he looks back on events. Chronologically, this section should
appear at the end of the novel, but it is presented at the beginning of the story to lay out Nick’s
qualifications as a narrator and to reveal his biases. He states he is an involved narrator and tells
how the events of the story have affected his perceptions. His comments are important because
they identify his biases in recounting the story. What do his comments demand of the reader?
Nick lays out his reaction to Gatsby as the one person from the East who was exempt
from his revulsion; this is ironic because Nick has this positive reaction while recognizing that
Gatsby “represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.” The central qualities that
make Gatsby so attractive are “an extraordinary gift for hope [much like Nick]” and a “romantic
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readiness such as I have never found in any other person.” Nick creates an image of Gatsby as
someone heroic in the face of a world that seems corrupt around him. Nick concludes that
Gatsby “turned out all right in the end (6).” Keep this conclusion in mind as you read novel. It
may differ from your first analysis of Gatsby’s fate.
The narrator’s distance from the audience, his attitude towards the material and the
degree of knowledge available to the reader are firmly laid out in the first two pages.
The Narrator’s Background
With this persona clearly established, Fitzgerald makes a break in the text and switches
from Nick’s comments about the end of the story to the beginning of the story’s events.
Fitzgerald quickly sketches Nick’s personal background, establishes the nearness of his house to
the Gatsby mansion and the Buchanan estate, and explains Nick’s reasons for being in the East.
The Parties: Chapters One, Two and Three
Fitzgerald creates three different parties in the three opening chapters as a means of
introducing his major characters and contrasting their attitudes and values. This process of
juxtaposition (placing things side by side for purposes of comparison and contrast) highlights
the worlds in which these characters operate.
The Buchanans—Chapter One
The dinner party at the Buchanans’ opens with a description of Tom Buchanan. Despite
his enormous wealth, he seems to be an unhappy man unable to live up to his early promise.
What leads the reader to this assessment?
Jordan Baker, the golfer, is also introduced. Nick is impressed by her complete selfsufficiency, arrogance, discontent and aura of impropriety—a black cloud over her reputation.
Lastly there is Daisy herself—who seems to be full of romantic possibilities. Nick leads
us to doubt the truth of Daisy’s personality and implies that she is playing some form of
sophisticated game. She is not what she appears to be.
The party has the same qualities. It is sophisticated, polite and filled with an aimlessness
and insincerity. Daisy asks, “What do people plan (16)?” At the Buchanans’ the “evening too,
would be over and casually put away” (17) as part of a larger meaningless pattern. Underlying
the evening is a half-hidden unhappiness, a world of brutality (Daisy’s bruised finger), a world
of affairs (Tom’s woman in N.Y.C.) and a world of ennui or basic weariness with life (“What do
people plan?”).
When Nick returns home from the party, he sees Gatsby with his arms outstretched and
trembling as he strains towards the distant green light at the end of the dock. As quickly as he
appears, Gatsby disappears into the night, leaving Nick and the reader to wonder about him.
Think about Gatsby (the main character) and his first appearance. The presentation of
characters is an important part of a novelist’s art. Just as the opening shot of a film suggests its
theme, so the introduction of a character often associates him/her with a memorable place,
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gesture, statement, or other identifying detail. This gives a hint about the character and her role
in the story.
The juxtaposition of Gatsby’s obviously naked emotion (whatever the emotion is) with
the insincere emotions of the people at the Buchanans’ party is intentional. It is interesting that
the light at the end of the dock is green. As you know from your study of Romance, green is
associated with the world of the garden, the world of innocence, the world of young love and
virtue. Thus, Fitzgerald seems to be using the green light at the end of the dock as a symbol. As
you read later chapters, see if this potentially symbolic usage is expanded and clarified.
Myrtle’s Party—Chapter Two
The previous world of wealth and beauty inhabited by the Buchanans and Gatsby is
juxtaposed here with the party in Myrtle’s New York City apartment and the Valley of Ashes
from which the party has emerged.
This chapter begins with a description of the Valley of Ashes. The traditional association
of ashes and death is too strong to ignore here. The characters of the Valley of Ashes, George
and Myrtle, are somehow connected with death. The author has warned the reader, through the
use of the symbol, of this association and the reader must be aware of its implications for the
plot of the story. Don’t forget Nick’s comment in the opening passage of the novel that it is foul
dust that will affect Gatsby.
The chief representative of the Valley of Ashes is George Wilson. How does Fitzgerald
describe George?
Presiding over the valley of ashes are the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg staring, without the
softening effect of a lower face, straight down into the valley. In the valley, one looks directly at
the sordid reality of life and death without the softening effects that the wealthy world of West
and East Egg provide. Dr. Eckleburg’s eyes are a vivid visual image. The use of such strong
images is another way in which a novelist establishes the tone or theme of a work.
Myrtle is introduced. She is in her middle thirties, fairly stout and has a coarse voice
(29). How is Myrtle described? How does she differ from Daisy?
The party at Myrtle’s apartment is totally different from the one at the Buchanans’. What
are the differences?
Gatsby’s Party—Chapter Three
The parties in these chapters show sharp contrasts, but they also act as connecting links
among the chapters. Where the Buchanans’ party is white, sterile, drifting, and pointless, Myrtle
Wilson’s party is crass, shallow, drunken, noisy, and phoney. Gatsby’s parties are different
again. They are rich, colourful, exciting, mysterious, and romantic.
Unlike the guests in the previous chapters, Gatsby’s guests are not invited. In his house
they “conduct themselves according to the rules of behaviour associated with an amusement
park (45).” They often have no contact with Gatsby at the party and may talk about him behind
his back. They come merely to be entertained. The amusement-park quality makes the parties
seem unreal and very different from the parties encountered in Chapters One and Two.
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How is the unreal nature of the party underlined by Nick’s conversation in the library
with the very drunk man wearing owl-eyed glasses?
Uncertainty and doubt about the reality of Gatsby and his wealth underlie all the
responses to Gatsby. The characters’ attitudes range from acceptance of Gatsby as a truly exotic,
romantic character to the perception of him as a fraud. When Nick first meets Gatsby at the
party, he is struck by these two decidedly different perceptions.
Gatsby is certainly perceived to be a romantic figure, notably through his smile:
He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare
smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five
times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and
then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you
just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe
in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best,
you hoped to convey (52-53).
Nick’s other perception of Gatsby is that of “an elegant young roughneck (53).”
Whichever perceptions the characters may have of Gatsby, Nick notes during the playing of the
“Jazz History of the World” that Gatsby is set off from his guests. He is alone and unique.
After the party Nick describes his own developing relationship with Jordan Baker and
finds that he is gradually falling in love with her. At the same time he discovers that she is
incurably dishonest. He talks to Jordan about driving and wishes that she would be more
careful. He asks, “Suppose you met someone just as careless as yourself?” She replies, “I hope I
never will” and adds, “I hate careless people. That’s why I like you” (63).
Perhaps Jordan, Tom and Daisy are all careless people and everyone else will have to be
careful around them. Being careless may be disastrous for Gatsby or Nick. Keep this
conversation in mind as you study the climax of the novel.
Impressions of Gatsby: Chapter Four
Chapter Four is divided into several distinct sections, all of which provide information
about Gatsby. The first section covers Nick’s trip into New York with Gatsby during which a
number of key elements are provided. Gatsby’s distinctive car, which plays such an important
part in later stages of the novel, is introduced and described.
Jay Gatsby also outlines his “official” history. During the recounting of this story Nick’s
responses range, as they did at Gatsby’s party, from total disbelief: “With an effort I managed to
restrain my incredulous laughter” (70) to total acceptance: “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 of rubies to ease
with their crimson-lighted depths, the gnawings of his broken heart” (71).
As they drive across the bridge into New York, Nick warns us that the city will provide
a different setting where anything can happen. As you read the rest of the novel look for other
scenes in New York and note how they offer this same potential for anything to happen.
Having moved his story forward to include the introduction of Gatsby, Fitzgerald in the
second section of this chapter cuts back in time to October 1917. This section is technically
interesting, since Nick is now relaying to the reader a report by Jordan Baker on the events of
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Daisy Buchanan’s early life. This is one of the few techniques Fitzgerald can use to get around
the problem of Nick’s limited perspective in reporting events.
In the final section of the chapter, Nick realizes Gatsby’s purpose. Nick is shocked to
discover “the modesty of the demand;” Gatsby has waited five years “so that he could ‘come
over’ some afternoon to a stranger’s garden”(83). It is extremely important to Gatsby that Daisy
see his house.
With the request comes the revelation that there is purpose in Gatsby’s life and actions.
When Nick sees that Gatsby intentionally bought his house to be near Daisy, “he came alive to
me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor”(83).
While hearing Gatsby’s story, Nick is drawn to Jordan, precisely because her qualities
are the opposite of those that make Daisy attractive to Gatsby. As you read, did you see these
differences?
Dream and Reality—Chapter Five
Chapter Five marks a profound change in Gatsby’s story. Up until this moment Gatsby’s
life has been consumed by his search for a woman he hasn’t seen in almost five years. During
that period of time he has done nothing but think of her. Inevitably, he has idealized her and
made her more perfect than she ever could be. Now Gatsby must face the reality of Daisy.
Think of the implications of such a situation. Gatsby will have to pass through three
distinct phases as he tries to sort out the reality of Daisy. As you read were you able to discern
these three phases: first joy, then confusion, and finally disappointment?
As Gatsby realizes the gap between the dream and the reality, he mentions the green
light at the end of Daisy’s dock, which has so long acted as an important symbol of his
romantic, unattainable love. Think back to the use of the green light at the end of Chapter Two.
But with the reality of Daisy, this light no longer acts as a symbol for Gatsby.
Did you also note how Daisy responds to this situation? Gatsby’s appearance must have
been a profound shock. She seems to recover well and to be genuinely moved by Gatsby. But
her most emotional point in the reunion chapter comes at a very odd moment—while she is
looking at Gatsby’s shirts. Why do you think the shirts reduce Daisy to tears? Her tears may be
real, but do they improve your assessment of her character?
In the end, it is Daisy’s voice that holds Gatsby in his dream. Hers is the voice of the
Siren, the destructive temptress. Her voice “couldn’t be overdreamed—that voice was a
deathless song.”
Looking Forward, Looking Backwards
From the beginning of the novel, Gatsby is a character who can be seen from radically different
perspectives. He is either “the elegant young roughneck,” the man who “represented
everything for which I have an unaffected scorn;” or he is the romantic potential, the smile with
“eternal reassurance,” the powerful dream with a “colossal vitality.” As you read the rest of the
novel, decide which perspective you find more acceptable as a final judgement for Gatsby.
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What can happen to Gatsby in the final chapters? Will the disappointment at the gap
between his ideal vision and the imperfect reality of Daisy’s life cause him to let his dream
gradually die, leaving him broken and disappointed? Or will Gatsby struggle even harder to
bring the ideal and the reality into harmony? Will he try to shape reality to match his dream? If
he does, he is inviting disaster; reality may appear to be shaped by dreams, but inevitably the
dream must give way to reality. When the dream dam bursts and reality roars in, Gatsby may
be swamped. As you read the rest of the novel, watch how Gatsby decides to handle the clash
between his dream and reality.
The Great Gatsby—Chapters Six to Nine
Chapters One to Five show the period in which Gatsby’s dream grew and developed;
while Chapters Six to Nine look at the effect of the real Daisy on Gatsby’s dream. Chapters One
to Five also raise the question of the nature of tragedy in the twentieth century generally and in
The Great Gatsby specifically.
As you read Chapters Six to Nine, keep in mind the nature of tragedy, since it will be
discussed in depth throughout the course.
Assignment 2
 Read the last four chapters of The Great Gatsby.
 Answer the following questions in complete sentences and paragraph form. Use specific
examples (with page numbers) to show a close reading of the text.
Chapter Six
6. a. Where did Jay Gatsby come from?
b. How does Gatsby’s party change with the appearance of Tom?
c. What public statement does Gatsby want Daisy to make?
d. What surprising statement does Gatsby make about the past?
Chapter Seven
7. a. What is the quality that Gatsby recognizes in Daisy’s voice?
b. Why do you think Fitzgerald includes the scene at Wilson’s garage at this point in the
novel?
c. (i) What does Gatsby insist that Daisy must say to Tom when she is leaving him?
(ii) Why does this statement present problems for Daisy?
d. Why does Daisy choose Tom over Gatsby?
e. What does Fitzgerald try to emphasize at the end of this chapter?
Chapter Eight
8. a. Why didn’t Daisy wait for Gatsby at the end of the war?
b. (i) As he leaves Gatsby’s mansion, what does Nick call across the lawn to Gatsby?
(ii) How is this statement out of character for Nick?
Chapter Nine
9. a. With Gatsby’s death, in what position does Nick find himself?
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b. According to Nick, how is the Middle West different from the East?
c. At the end of the novel, what does Nick realize about the characters Tom and Daisy?
Now read the study guide notes to help you understand the significance of what you have read.
Chapter Six
This chapter marks a dramatic break, not only in Gatsby’s own story but also in the way
Nick is telling the story. Nick is no longer describing events he has just observed, but now is
reporting things Gatsby has, in part, told him. Nick goes far beyond reportage into editorial
comment with this chapter. He even admits that he is reordering the sequence of events
through which he first heard about Gatsby’s past. Nick acknowledges that his purpose is to
shape the way in which the reader perceives Gatsby’s past. “He told me all this much later but
I’ve put it down here with the idea of exploding those first wild rumours about his antecedents,
which weren’t even faintly true” (107). As you continue reading the story, watch for an increase
in Nick’s editorial comment and reordering of events. It seems to be associated with the clash
between the ideal and the real in Gatsby’s life.
With the appearance of the real Daisy in Gatsby’s dream world, the reality of Gatsby is
revealed and a reassessment of his dream must occur.
Nick describes both the factual events surrounding Gatsby’s youth and the emotional
development that shaped Gatsby’s values. Jay Gatsby, or James Gatz, never really accepted the
poverty and lack of success of his farm background. Instead, according to Nick, Gatsby created
himself and “invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely
to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (104).
Do you agree with Nick? Did Gatsby create his own identity and, if so, what kind of
person did he invent? As you read, you can determine for yourself whether Jay Gatsby
remained faithful to this image of himself to the end.
Gatsby’s parties, as you read in Chapter Three, are filled with the romantic possibilities
of his dream. The appearance of Tom at one of Gatsby’s parties suddenly introduces a cynical
reality into this fantastic world and starts to destroy Gatsby’s romantic dream. Nick comments,
“Perhaps his [Tom’s] presence gave the evening its peculiar quality of oppressiveness” (110).
The other elements of the party—the people, champagne and the noise—are present, but
now Nick finds “an unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn’t been there
before” (110). What Nick is now forced to do is to see Gatsby’s world by other people’s
standards.
With this new perspective, even the people Nick had enjoyed at the supper portion of
the party two weeks before have become drunken, rude and boring. Only the film star with her
director seems to escape this censure. Her scarcely human beauty beneath a white palm tree,
with the director bending all evening towards the moment of the kiss, suggests the idealized
beauty and loving devotion of Gatsby’s response to Daisy.
After the party, Gatsby talks to Nick privately. Gatsby realizes that Daisy had not
enjoyed the party and feels frustrated that Daisy no longer understands his vision. What Gatsby
tells Nick is that his central desire is to blot out the years since Daisy’s wedding to Tom.
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What does Gatsby want Daisy to do?
Nick tries to warn Gatsby that “You can’t repeat the past,” but Gatsby insists “Why of
course you can” (116). For Gatsby, the past lurks like a shadow “just out of reach of his hand”
and he thinks he can “fix everything just the way it was” (117). The moment that Gatsby wishes
to return to is “one autumn night, five years before” (117) when Gatsby and Daisy had been
walking down the sidewalk together and they kissed. Gatsby, at the moment of the kiss,
realized the nature of his quest for Daisy as he saw the sidewalk transformed into a ladder
ascending into the heavens. The vision of Daisy takes Gatsby to a secret place which is
accessible only if he goes alone.
Daisy has become for Gatsby the romantic ideal, the perfection in whose presence only
awe and wonder are possible. Nick goes on to suggest that this wonder is the greatest source of
human satisfaction.
As Nick listens to Gatsby, a phrase floats up in Nick’s mind just beyond the level of
consciousness. Nick realizes that what he had in his mind “was uncommunicable forever” (118).
The memories Gatsby produces are those of child-like wonder that can never be
satisfactorily recalled.
Chapter Seven
The stifling heat of this chapter reflects the growing tension and crisis in the action of the
novel. This use of pathetic fallacy (the use of nature to reflect the state of human emotions)
punctuates the climactic nature of this chapter.
The confrontation between Tom and Gatsby begins at the Buchanans’ house. What
initiates this confrontation?
As earlier chapters have indicated, New York is the location where anything can
happen. But to get to New York, one must travel through the Valley of Ashes, the valley of
broken dreams. Here George Wilson has also just discovered his wife’s infidelity. Though his
experience parallels that of Tom Buchanan, his response does not. George is physically ill from
his discovery and assumes some guilt or responsibility for Myrtle’s infidelity. Notice by contrast
that Tom does not assume any guilt or personal responsibility for Daisy’s situation.
As they leave for New York, the nature of Daisy’s seductive voice is finally revealed.
What does Gatsby say about Daisy’s voice? Does this foretell anything about her future actions?
Ironically, the confrontation scene between Tom and Gatsby occurs in the stifling heat of
the hotel room with the sounds of a wedding march in the background. What does Tom say
about Gatsby? What effect does this have on Daisy? What has happened to Gatsby’s dream?
At the end of the hotel scene, Nick remembers that it is his thirtieth birthday. He sees the
end of his twenties as a loss of youth and a beginning of decline. The identification of Nick with
Gatsby and Gatsby’s loss of his youthful romantic vision is strengthened by the reference to the
birthday at this point.
After the accident on the way back from New York, Nick finds Gatsby standing in
lonely vigil outside the Buchanan mansion to protect Daisy from Tom’s brutality. What Gatsby
doesn’t realize is that Daisy needs no protection.
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The chapter ends with Gatsby standing guard outside the house “watching over
nothing” (153). It is only Gatsby’s infinite hope from Chapter One that keeps him following his
dead dream.
Chapter Eight
Nick cannot sleep after the events of the evening and finds himself tossing “half-sick
between grotesque reality and savage, frightening dreams” (154). He is becoming horrified by
both worlds—the real world of lies and death and the powerful, savage dream world created by
Gatsby.
When Nick visits Gatsby the next morning, the mansion seems changed. It is filled with
dust and musty air. Like Gatsby’s dream, the house seems old and decaying.
It is during this visit that Gatsby tells Nick the story of his love for Daisy. Gatsby
describes the chance occurrences of the war that led to his contact with Daisy in Louisville. In
falling in love with Daisy there, he found that he “had committed himself to the following of a
grail” (156). He identifies himself with the quest motif of Romance and makes Daisy his holy
grail. His commitment to the ideal of Daisy is so complete that “he felt married to her” (157).
Gatsby explains to Nick how he perceives Daisy’s love. Of Tom Buchanan, Gatsby says,
“I don’t think she ever loved him” (159). In view of what we know about Daisy’s actions at this
point, this is a pathetic but magnificent dream for Gatsby to try to maintain. At best, Gatsby
says, Daisy’s feeling for Tom “was just personal” (160). Gatsby’s love for Daisy is far more than
personal; it transcends personal love and becomes part of a perfect Romantic ideal. Thus Daisy’s
love for Tom can be only personal and does not interfere with the larger form of devotion that
underlies Gatsby’s love.
Nick has warned us from the beginning that he is inclined to reserve all judgements. Yet
as he leaves Gatsby’s mansion that afternoon, he calls back to Gatsby and passes one of the most
complete judgements it would be possible to make on all the characters in the novel. He says,
“They’re a rotten crowd... You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (162).
The irony of the statement comes from Nick’s recognition that “I disapproved of him
from beginning to end” (162). Nick sees the duality of Gatsby’s simultaneous corruption and
incorruptible dream. From this duality come Nick’s disapproval and admiration.
The action of the story then jumps back in time to trace George Wilson’s movements
from just after the accident until his appearance at Gatsby’s mansion.
When the narrative jumps back to Gatsby’s actions just before his death, Nick suddenly
changes his role as narrator. Since there is no way of reporting Gatsby’s thoughts, Nick offers
his own speculations on what Gatsby was thinking. At this point, Nick is uniquely suited for
such speculation since he alone appreciates Gatsby’s dream.
To the very end Gatsby was waiting for a telephone call from Daisy. Nick comments, “I
have an idea that Gatsby himself didn’t believe it would come true and perhaps he no longer
cared” (169). What Gatsby must be struggling with at the end is the destruction of his dream
and the re-emergence in his mind of a frightening reality. If he lives, he must see “how raw the
sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass” of a new world, which is “material without being
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real” (169). Even his romantic vision, as symbolized by the rose, has become a grotesque thing.
In the end George Wilson—a ghost from this pale reality, the Valley of Ashes made universal—
will murder a Gatsby who sees the real world as amorphous and drifting. Gatsby’s death
effectively prevents him from ever having to face fully the horror of reality.
Chapter Nine
With Gatsby’s death, Nick finds himself alone and in charge. All the others have fled.
Tom and Daisy have moved on, Meyer Wolfsheim refuses to get involved, Nick has rejected
Jordan, and even the boarder Klipspringer has disappeared. Except for the man in the owl-eyed
glasses, none of the party guests reappears. Increasingly, Nick feels on Gatsby’s side and alone.
Nick alone carries the knowledge of the beautiful vision that was Gatsby’s life and is the
defender of, and apologist for, that vision.
The appearance of Henry Gatz, a pathetic broken figure, underlines the reality of
Gatsby. The phone calls Nick intercepts from Gatsby’s underworld connections also reinforce
the reality. Again, the reader and Nick are reminded that Gatsby was an elegant young
roughneck.
After the description of the funeral, Nick jumps out of the linear development of the plot
to discuss the Middle West he remembers. For Nick, the Middle West provides a sense of
morality and roots. He recognizes that Tom, Daisy, Jordan, Nick, and Gatsby were all Middle
Westerners and he speculates, “perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made
us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life” (184).
The deficiency is an inability to deal with the distortion that the East gives to experience.
Moved outside the Middle West structures of morality and roots, none of these characters has
effectively dealt with experience. Life in the East has taken on the quality of a grotesque dream.
For Nick, Gatsby’s death clarifies the extent of the distortion: “After Gatsby’s death the East was
haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes’ power of correction” (185). With this new
clarity Nick decides to return to the Middle West.
Before he leaves, Nick must say goodbye to Jordan. Why has he rejected her? Nick also
sees Tom Buchanan on the street. What has led Nick to conclude that Tom will never have a
sense of morality or a “provincial squeamishness” (188) that might make him a complete man?
On the last night before his departure from the East, Nick wanders over to Gatsby’s
mansion, which he now sees as a “huge incoherent failure” (188). When Nick finds an obscene
word scrawled on the steps, he erases it. As always, he must erase samples of the obscene
reality that people try to superimpose on the purity of Gatsby’s dream.
The book concludes with Nick’s commentary in the last four paragraphs on the larger
implications of Gatsby’s experience. Nick looks at the island and realizes that the Dutch sailors
who explored this area for the first time were faced with the greatest of Romantic dreams. They
were able to contemplate “the fresh green breast of the new world” (189), a world that had the
potential to be ideal. The land could become the new Eden. This was the last time in history that
man was faced “with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder” (189). But the very
arrival of the sailors helped to destroy the romantic potential and wonder.
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This lost romantic potential has made way for the world in which Gatsby lived. “The
last and greatest of all human dreams” (189) may no longer be completely possible, but
Gatsby’s mansion and his dream are part of the potential for wonder; however debased it may
have become. It is this quality of wonder that gives Gatsby’s dream larger significance.
Gatsby believed in the romantic ideal potential—the green light at the end of the dock.
Remember that his yearning towards this light was our first glimpse of him. It always eluded
him, but he believed that by trying harder and running faster he would one day get to his ideal.
What Gatsby has not seen is the fact that this is a lost dream. The Dutch sailors had the
potential for a “transitory, enchanted moment” (189), but they lost it through experience. Thus
Gatsby “did not know that it [the dream] was already behind him, somewhere back in the vast
obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (189).
Nick concludes: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into
the past” (189).
Tragedy in the Twenty-First Century
As you know from the introduction to this lesson, one of the topics to be considered is
the extent to which The Great Gatsby can be considered a tragedy and the extent to which this
novel represents the nature and problems of tragedy in the twentieth century.
By now you probably can see some of the problems associated with classifying The Great
Gatsby as a tragedy by Shakespearean and Classical standards. Gatsby himself is not a man of
high degree. He is a gangster, swindler and liar whose wealth and identity are based on lies and
deceit. As well, Gatsby’s quest is a search for something that is less than tangible. Gatsby is even
mistaken about the nature of his goal, and thus his quest seems more pathetic than heroic. The
pathetic nature of the quest is reinforced by the total failure and public denigration of Gatsby’s
activities. The definitions of tragedy examined so far seem to exclude this novel from the
category of tragedy.
But Gatsby, however corrupt he may be, has an incorruptible vision. The man of high
degree in this novel is the man whose internal perspective, whose vision is of high degree.
Gatsby may fail, but he never compromises his romantic vision. It does not matter to him that
he seems corrupt as long as he maintains the integrity of his dream. If Gatsby is tragic, his tragic
status must be judged by a new standard -- one that considers the purity and degree of his
vision.
Many contemporary novels contain this same kind of problem for traditional definitions
of tragedy. This seems to be in part the result of a modern sensibility about the limitations on
heroic action for twenty-first-century people. Humanity may not be capable of a quest in a
world controlled and limited in action. As well, the twentieth century has been called “the
century of the common man”. In this age of equality for all people, a hero of high degree may
not be possible or appropriate. An ordinary citizen must play the major role. Finally, an
emphasis on the psychological has moved the focus in modern novels inward. The trend seems
to be for a greater degree of introspection. External events are less important than how the
character deals with those events internally and how the character forms a response.
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It is on this introspective level that Gatsby achieves his measure of tragic nobility. He
may be externally corrupt, but his internal vision remains one of tragic purity and intensity.
As you read more contemporary literature, watch for these common threads: limited
possibility of action for the hero; ordinary or common protagonists; and an introspective cast to
the action. As a result, the definition of tragedy has broadened to include the works of the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Thus tragedy may be redefined as:
a drama in prose or verse, which recounts an important and causally related
series of events in the life of a person of significance, such events culminating in
an unhappy catastrophe, the whole treated with dignity and seriousness.... The
purpose of tragedy is to arouse the emotions of pity and fear and thus to produce
in the audience a catharsis of these emotion (Thrall, A Handbook to Literature, 488).
As you can see, almost any serious work ending in a catastrophe may be classified as a tragedy.
In this definition it would be much easier to include The Great Gatsby as a tragedy.
Looking Forwards and Looking Backwards
The central dichotomy between Gatsby’s corruption and his incorruptible dream is at
the heart of this novel. As you have already seen, the characters of the novel all react to and
judge his corruption and dream. Yet none of them, with the exception of Nick, is capable of
demonstrating a depth and power as strong as Gatsby’s incorruptible dream. The others are all
careless people who lack Gatsby’s total vision and commitment.
As well, you have considered the problem of tragedy in the twenty-first century. You
should have clear in your own thinking the nature of modern tragedy and the extent to which
you would claim that The Great Gatsby is a tragedy. You may wish to compare the novel with
other modern novels to see if the tragedy of Gatsby is consistent with these other works.
*
“The Quest for Normalcy,” from This Fabulous Century, Sixty Years of American Life, Volume
III, 1920-1930 (New York: Time Life Books, 1969), 23-26.
America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration; not
surgery but serenity. Warren G. Harding, 1920
On the crisp, clear morning of March 4, 1921, in Washington, D.C., a parade of stately touring cars drove
along Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to the Capitol building. At the procession’s head, in
the rear seat of a Pierce-Arrow, sat two men in top hats and velvet-collared chesterfields: Woodrow
Wilson, the outgoing President of the United States, and his successor, Warren Gamaliel Harding. In the
inaugural ceremony that was about to take place, the country was changing not only its chief executive,
but its mood, its outlook and its aspirations.
No two leaders could have been less alike. Wilson, prim and scholarly-looking, was a man whose
era had passed. In the name of idealism, he had led America through a devastating war in Europe. In
peacetime he had crusaded for reform at home and had admonished the nation to take up new
responsibilities of world leadership. But Americans had grown tired of responsibilities and crusades. In
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the election of 1920 the country rejected Wilson’s policies, leaving him embittered and broken, his health
and his dreams shattered. The abandonment of Wilson reflected a change in the nation’s basic attitudes.
The promised millennium of world peace and democracy still had not arrived. After the slaughter and
the privations of the war, people felt that their efforts had not really been worth it. Other moral certainties
of earlier years also were coming under attack. Disturbing notions, such as the sexual theories of
Sigmund Freud and the barely comprehensible discoveries of Albert Einstein, were eroding the sanctity
of family life and challenging man’s pre-eminence in the scheme of things. With its old values going sour,
the nation was self-conscious and unsure of itself. America seemed suspended between the innocence
and security of childhood and the wisdom and poise of maturity.
Many Americans reacted to the unsettling new elements of the era by affecting a kind of romantic
cynicism. Like the youthful F. Scott Fitzgerald, they professed “to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all
faiths in man shaken.” Others simply refused to worry themselves about anything but their own
business; almost everybody agreed that the problems of the world were too confusing, and had best be
ignored.
The man America turned to at the start of the decade seemed to offer a happy escape from the
rigors of problem solving. Like the nation that elected him, he was something of an adolescent. Warren
Harding never allowed the problems of high office to mar his congenital good humor. “The most notable
quality of Harding was the sweetness of his nature,” wrote a contemporary. “He gave out love.” That
Harding was not a particularly able man apparently bothered no one. The only fault anyone seemed to
find with him was a fondness for what he called “bloviating,” or windy speechmaking—a practice
described by William Gibbs McAdoo, a former Secretary of the Treasury, as giving “the impression of an
army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea.”
In the Presidential car on that March morning in 1921, Harding strained to make conversation
with the sick man next to him. He told Wilson about his fondness for pet animals. He said that some day
he would like to own a pet elephant. Wilson, in a thin attempt at humor, said he hoped the elephant
would not be a white one.
For Harding the Presidency was just that. The new President suffered from a vital flaw: he
refused to face responsibility. One of the problems that eluded his attention was the fact that his cronies
were systematically robbing the public till. During his Presidency one close friend in a government post
was revealed to be involved in graft, and two others committed suicide to escape prosecution. His
Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, was implicated in an oil scandal, and rumors were circulating about
his Attorney General, Harry Daugherty, who had mysteriously banked $75,000 while he was earning a
salary of only $12,000. Shaken by these betrayals, Harding died in office on August 2, 1923, of a heart
attack.
Despite all this, Harding’s policy of governmental inactivity had been popular, and his successor,
Calvin Coolidge, tried to carry it a step further. To make sure he did nothing to rock the boat, Coolidge
spent from two to four hours of every working day taking a nap.
In the freewheeling mood of the decade, strong government seemed not only boring, but
unnecessary. The nation’s troubles, people felt, were somehow solving themselves, without official
interference. Though business had slumped a bit at the beginning of the decade, the economy soon began
to boom. Overblown rumors of a Communist conspiracy had aroused fears just after the war; but the last
incident of any importance had been in September 1920, when an anarchist bomb had exploded on Wall
Street opposite the plutocratic Morgan bank.
Instead of problems, Americans in the ‘20s craved excitement. Almost anything, no matter how
trivial or preposterous, seemed to give it to them—a gory murder in the tabloids, a world championship
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boxing match, a royal visit. In 1924, when Britain’s young Prince of Wales made a pleasure jaunt to the
United States, the nation went wild with excitement. Similar enthusiasm was lavished on Queen Marie of
Romania when she toured the country in 1926, accompanied by a retinue of press agents. When a lanky,
soft-spoken youth named Charles Lindbergh made the first solo airplane flight nonstop from New York
to Paris in 1927, America pulled out the stops. As he was escorted up Broadway, jubilant crowds
showered the returning hero with 1,800 tons of shredded paper.
A spirit of frivolity seized the country. Women began cutting their hair at ear level and hemming
their dresses to knee level. Otherwise respectable citizens began dancing the Charleston, carrying hip
flasks and visiting speakeasies. H.L. Mencken, caustic critic of contemporary whims and vagaries, was
once asked why, if he found so much to complain about in America, he bothered to live there. “Why do
men go to zoos?” he replied.
The unrestrained hedonism of the decade fed on its own momentum. The Prohibition
amendment that became law in 1920 had turned the simple pleasure of sipping a tot of whisky into a
federal offense—and many Americans began regularly and unremorsefully to violate the law. While
many were seeking escape from responsibility through bathtub gin, others went to the movies. Here was
a world where fantasy and flamboyance galloped unchecked. Settings became ever more extravagant,
costumes more exotic, sex more emphatic. By the time Hollywood had supplemented sex with the
inducement of sound, movies had become a way of life for most of America. The first talkie arrived in
1927 in the form of a film called The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson in blackface. By 1930 the silent had
flickered out, and the talkies were pulling in 90 million viewers a week.
The decade also sought escape in the theater. While some playwrights, such as Eugene O’Neill,
were writing intense dramas of deep psychological import, most of the nation’s theatre-goers preferred
lighter fare. Comedy, or a kind of smiling-through-the-tears sentimentality, remained the order of the
day. One Broadway show, a hearts-and-flower romance between a Jewish boy and an Irish colleen, was
so unabashedly mawkish that critics hated it and audiences professed to be embarrassed by it. Yet Abie’s
Iris Rose ran for 2,327 performances over a period of five years and five months, setting a record for
theatrical longevity.
Buoying up the pleasures and frivolities of the ‘20s was the most spectacular economic boom the
country has ever seen. If some Americans felt disillusionment over politics or religion, they could find
solace in a new faith based on the omnipotence of the dollar. Materialism flourished like an evangelical
cult, as the country placed its faith in the supreme importance of automobiles and washing machines. If
not everyone was growing rich, people felt that the chances for becoming rich were getting better every
day. During the period from 1921 to 1929, the gross national product soared from $74 billion to $104.4
billion. The buying power of wages for a skilled laborer swelled 50 per cent from 1913 to 1927.
Bricklayers’ wives began to spruce up their wardrobes with silk stockings and white gloves. Their
husbands began riding around in Niagara Blue roadsters or Arabian Sand phaetons.
Beneath all the self-conscious gaiety of the ‘20s, serious problems lurked; life and its concerns did
not go away just because people were not paying attention. The prosperity and excitement that millions
of Americans enjoyed left millions of others untouched. Many of the country’s people—especially in rural
areas—had never tasted a drop of bathtub gin, never played mah-jongg, never heard of Freud, knew of
jazz babies and flappers only through the movies, read their Bible faithfully and believed every word the
Gospel said. In thousands of small communities, from the cotton fields of the South to the wheat-covered
plains of the Middle West, life went on as usual.
In some places it was worse than usual. Large sections of the economy had failed to recover from
the “temporary” economic downturn of 1920-1921. The index of farm prices, which had stood at 205 at
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the beginning of 1920, had plummeted to 116 a year later and by 1927 had only returned to 131. Western
lumbermen, New England textile workers and coal miners in Pennsylvania and West Virginia suffered
nearly as badly. Worst of all was the plight of the Negro sharecropper in the South, who lived in virtual
economic slavery. He gave up to 75 per cent of all the cotton or tobacco he raised to his white landlord.
His income from the remainder amounted to less than $350 a year. On top of everything else, the Negro
suffered from a resurgence of race hatred. During the first half of the decade there was a rebirth of the Ku
Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization dating from Reconstruction days; Klan membership swelled
to four million by 1924.
Amid the general indifference of the decade, only a few instances of social injustice managed to
ruffle the conscience of the nation—or, more accurately, of a small but vocal part of the nation. The chief
cause célèbre was the Sacco-Vanzetti case. On May 5, 1920, two professed anarchists named Nicola Sacco
and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested on charges that they had killed two men in a payroll robbery at
South Braintree, Massachusetts. Both men were immigrants, neither could speak English very well and
both had avoided the World War I draft on ideological grounds. To some aroused Americans the
evidence against Sacco and Vanzetti seemed inconclusive and many were convinced that the two men
were the victims of raw prejudice because they were foreigners, radicals and draft dodgers. Nevertheless,
after several years of litigation and uproar the men were executed.
In short, serious matters persisted in intruding on the fun and frolic of the ‘20s. Even among the
most frivolous there was an air of desperation. “What most distinguishes the generation who have
approached maturity since the debacle of idealism at the end of the War,” said Walter Lippmann, “is not
their rebellion against the religion and the moral code of their parents, but their disillusionment with
their own rebellion. It is common for young men and women to rebel, but that they should rebel sadly
and without faith in their rebellion, that they should distrust the new freedom no less than the old
certainties—that is something of a novelty.” Behind the bright surfaces of the ‘20s, its carnival of public
events, the glitter of its prosperity, its love of enjoyment, lay an abiding sense of futility. The axiom of the
debacle was “Eat, drink and be merry,” but it had its corollary: “For tomorrow we may die.”
On October 24, 1929, came the event that (though few realized it then) brought the decade to a
close. On that day, the stock market, which had been wavering for weeks, suddenly plunged. It was only
the beginning. The Great Depression had begun; in the rigors of this disaster, the strength of America
would be sorely tried.