5. The Great Gatsby is told from the point of view of
Nick Carraway, one of the main characters. Nick
Carraway opens the novel with details that indicate
a memoir or autobiographical work of literature—
the tale begins as his story, but contained within his
story is the story of Jay Gatsby’
The technique is called a frame narrative and is
similar to that used by British novelist Joseph
Conrad in Heart of Darkness. Conrad was one of
Fitzgerald's literary influences
Frame narratives often draw attention to the
narrator, forcing readers to reflect on his or her
objectivity and reliability.
6. As in all of Fitzgerald's stories, the setting is a crucial part of
The Great Gatsby. West and East are two opposing poles of
values: one is pure and idealistic, and the other is corrupt
and materialistic.
The Western states, including the Midwest, suggest decency
and the basic ethical principles of honesty, while the East is
full of deceit. The difference between East and West Egg is a
similar contrast in cultures. The way the characters line up
morally correlates with their geographical choice of lifestyle.
The Buchanans began life in the West but gravitated to the East and stayed
there.
Gatsby did as well, though only to follow Daisy and to watch her house
across the bay. His utter simplicity and naiveté indicates an idealism that
has not been lost.
Nick plays the moral center of the book and returns home to the Midwest.
He finds that he cannot adapt to life in the East.
9. Another setting of importance is the wasteland
of ash heaps, between New York City and
Long Island, where the mechanization of
modern life destroys all the past values. Nick's
view of the modern world is that God is dead,
and man makes a valley of ashes; he corrupts
ecology, corrupts the American Dream and
desecrates it. The only Godlike image in this
deathlike existence are the eyes of Dr. J. L.
Eckleburg on a billboard advertising glasses.
13. Nick’s Girlfriend back home
“I forgot to ask you something, and it’s important. We heard you were engaged to a
girl out West.” *said Daisy+.
“That’s right,” corroborated Tom kindly. “We heard that you were engaged.”
“It’s libel. I’m too poor.”
“But we heard it,” insisted Daisy, surprising me by opening up again in a flower-like
way. “We heard it from three people, so it must be true” (Chapter 1)
*Jordan’s+ gray, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately
shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking
and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires, and I knew that first I had
to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home. I’d been writing letters once a
week and signing them: “Love, Nick,” and all I could think of was how, when that
certain girl played tennis, a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip.
Nevertheless there was a vague understanding that had to be tactfully broken off
before I was free.
Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I
am one of the few honest people that I have ever known (Chapter 3).
14. Mia Farrow and Robert Redford
1974
Carey Mulligan and Leonardo DiCaprio
2013
• How does the reunion of Daisy and Gatsby signal
both the beginning and the end of Gatsby’s dream
and of his success?
15. • Trace the recurring image of eyes, and ascertain the
purposes of those images. Consider blindness on any
level as well as sight.
16. The Eyes
• “above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust
which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a
moment, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes
of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic – their
retinas are one yard high. They look out of no
face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow
spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose *…+
But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless
days under sun and rain, brood on over the
solemn dumping ground.” (Chapter 2)
17. 1. How is the relationship between men and women portrayed?
2. What are the power relationships between men and women (or
characters assuming male/female roles)?
3. How are male and female roles defined?
4. What constitutes masculinity and femininity?
5. How do characters embody these traits?
6. Do characters take on traits from opposite genders? How so? How does
this change others’ reactions to them?
7. What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically,
socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy?
8. What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a mode
of resisting patriarchy?
9. What does the work say about women's creativity?
10. What does the history of the work's reception by the public and by the
critics tell us about the operation of patriarchy?
Questions used by the Feminist Critic
18. HOMEWORK
• Read The Great Gatsby Chapters 8-9
• Post #16: Choose One
1. Some of the characters in the novel symbolize a
production ethic; others symbolize a consumption
ethic. Classify a character or two accordingly, and draw
a conclusion about the American Dream, as you
understand it, from Fitzgerald.
2. How is the story an ironic twist of the American
Dream? Consider Daisy and Gatsby, Daisy and Tom,
Myrtle and George Wilson, Myrtle and Tom, Nick and
Jordan.
3. Your own QHQ
