The Great Gatsby notes-study in preparation for the IOC

Context: The Great Gatsby was first published in 1925, six years after
WWI ended in 1919 and 4 years before the stock market crash in 1929.
Although Fitzgerald could not have predicted the Wall Street Crash, there
are clear indications in the novel that he saw the rampant excesses of the
jazz age as excessive and destructive. (Meyer Wolfsheim, The Valley of
Ashes etc.) This post-war society was named The jazz age and it was a
time of political corruption, the prohibition of alcohol, organized crime,
gambling, illegal speakeasies or bars, and the cultivation of an American
Dream which was increasingly focused on gaining wealth by whatever
means necessary. Gatsbys decadent parties reflect the hedonistic pursuit
of pleasure that was popular in the Eastern United states at that time. The
old- fashioned American values were being replaced by the pursuit of
success and money.

The Post modernist style:

The Great Gatsby is a postmodern novel.

Essentially, this means that:
There is a blend of fiction and non-fiction. The characters are fictitious
but are very much grounded in the reality of the time. There may be
references to real events.
A fragmented view of society is presented. The narrator is not
omniscient and his view of the events is subjective. The narration may
be unreliable or patchy.
Time-shifting. The novel is written in a non-linear way. There are
flashbacks and there is foreshadowing. The past and present mingle.
This is also true of The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood.
A rejection or challenging of traditional values or assumptions. The
author will aim to challenge the status quo and this will provoke
public opinion and will prompt readers to think about the world.
Many novels like this were written between WWI and after WWII also
as people were questioning what it meant to be human.

Biographical influences-The voice of the author:

Examining an authors life can assist the reader in identifying the authors
voice and opinions as expressed through the text. Here are some relevant
details:
Fitzgerald was raised in Minnesota (Mid-Western U.S) in an Irish Catholic
family. Minnesota would be considered to be a conservative state based
on family values and reliant mostly on agriculture.
As a child, Fitzgerald liked to imagine he was from British royalty and had
been abandoned on his parents doorstep.
Fitzgerald joined the army in 1917. In June 1918 Fitzgerald was assigned
to Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery, Alabama. There he fell in love with a
celebrated belle, eighteen-year-old Zelda Sayre, and the youngest
daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge. Zelda did not consent to
marry him until he could prove that he was a worthy prospect. The

publication of This Side of Paradise on March 26, 1920, made the twentyfour-year-old Fitzgerald famous almost overnight, and a week later he
married Zelda Sayre in New York. They embarked on an extravagant life
as young celebrities. Fitzgerald became an alcoholic and Zelda spent many
years in mental institutions. The effects of their party lifestyle caught up
with them as their health suffered and they also had debts.
*(http://www.fscottfitzgeraldsociety.org/biography/biography_p4.html)
(The effects of this excess can also be seen in the novel-Owl Eyes crash in
chapter 3 (page 55), the drunken remnant of the party, Klipspringer in
chapter 5 (page 91) and many more examples.

Narrative and point of view:

The narrator tells the story with a specific perspective informed by his beliefs
and experiences. As a reader, we view the events through the eyes of Nick
Carraway (Care away?) The narration is from a first person perspective. Nick
is not a completely reliable narrator as he does not see everything and there
are moments that are missing when he was tipsy or fell asleep.
Things to consider:
He comes from a middle class, Mid-Western conservative background.
He is educated and has strong manners and morals. On the one hand, he is
intrigued by his new surroundings yet on the other hand, he passes moral
judgments. Finally, the loose morality of the East disgusts him and he
leaves.
As a middle class man he is between the other classes represented in the
novel so is an inbetweener or observer and commentator on what he
observes from both classes.
He is also an outsider in the east so he can observe the society as it
unfolds before him more objectively and critically.
His narration is non-linear as there are many time shifts. This means that
it is also fragmented and unreliable. The influences of alcohol also make
him an unreliable narrator at other points. (Typical post-modern
fragmented perspective-the TRUTH is seen as something that is not set
but is fragmented and objective)

Settings and possible meaning:

The settings in the novel are hugely symbolic.

East Egg: Old money-home to the Buchanans. East Egg is symbolic of the
wealthy power structures of American society. These people have had money for
generations and in the novel, they are portrayed as being careless and reckless
with the power that they have. The description of the Buchanans home creates
an image of a well established and impressive home with a history rooted in
British colonial wealth. This reminds us that these people have had wealth for
generations:

Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red and
white Georgian colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the
beach and ran towards the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over
sundials and brick walks and burning gardens-finally when it reached the house
drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run.
The front was broken up by a line of French windows, glowing now with
reflected gold and wide open to the warm windy afternoon, and Tom Buchanan
in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch. (Fitzgerald,
F.S, page 12.) (Notice the lexis-what is suggested...history, elegance, established
affluence etc.)
***Lexis/semantics/diction/language choices all mean the same thing

West Egg: New money-home to Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. West Egg is a
more modern and more ostentatious (flashy or showing off) version of East Egg.
Gatsbys mansion is described as follows: a colossal affair by any standard-it
was a factual imitation of some Hotel De Ville in Normandy, with a tower on
one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming
pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. (Fitzgerald, F.S, page 10)
(Notice the lexis here-the huge size of the house is emphasized with the use of
the adjective colossal and the newness of the mansion is also emphasized
through the image of the thin ivy. The house is also and imitation of the real thing
and it has no history, unlike the Buchanans house.)
Nick mentions that there is a significant difference between the two eggs:
I lived at West Egg, the-well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a
most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast
between them. (Fitzgerald, F.S, page 10)
(Why sinister? Is this foreshadowing the vast class divide that becomes clear
later in the novel?)

Wilsons garage and The Valley of The Ashes:

The Valley of The Ashes has a mythic quality. It is there to remind the readers of
the consequences of the excesses of the Jazz age. The dust is symbolic of the
waste that is created by the human pursuit of money and success. It could be
seen as a religious reference to the Catholic concept purgatory. (Fitzgerald grew
up in a Catholic home) Purgatory was almost like a waiting lounge, where souls
would wait to either go to heaven or hell depending on the seriousness of their
sins. Can this relate to the novel?
Here are some descriptions from the text: desolate area, a fantastic (hard to
imagine) farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque
gardens, ash grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the
powdery air. (The lexis suggests decay and waste)
The garage is introduced with the eyes of T.G Eckleburg looming in the
background. Is this foreshadowing that Toms affair is seen by some higher
power?
I followed him over a low whitewashed railroad fence, and we walked back a
hundred yards along the road under Doctor Eckleburgs persistent stare. The
only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of
the wasteland, a sort of compact Main Street ministering to it, and contiguous
to absolutely nothing. One of the shops it contained was for rent and another
was an all night restaurant, approached by a trail of ashes; the third was a
garage-Repairs. George B. Wilson. Cars bought and sold. -And I followed Tom
inside. (Fitzgerald. P.27)
The lead up to the arrival at the garage is very gradual and suggests a gradual
departure from civilization and a journey to the edge of the world. The garage is
led up to by a trail of ashes (metaphor) and is in a waste land (adjective and
noun choice). Even the color yellow (color symbolism) suggests decay. This
impression is further developed as they enter the garage:
The interior was unprosperous and bare; the only car visible was the dust
covered wreck of a Ford which crouched in a dim corner. (Fitzgerald, p.27)

The use of adjectives to describe the almost empty garage and the
personification of the dust covered Ford car brings to mind the theme of the
corruption of the American Dream. Ford could be seen as a sign of the strength of
American consumerism yet this Ford car is crouched and covered in dust
therefore indicating that there is a consequence of this greed and the benefits are
certainly not available to the poor like Wilson, who is only left with the scraps.

New York City etc.

The apartment: The apartment that Tom rents for Myrtle is described in way
that emphasizes how cramped and lacking in elegance it is. This contrasts with
the wide-open, breezy elegant spaces of the Buchanans home:
The apartment was on the top floor-a small living room, a small dining room, a
small bedroom, and a bath. (Fitzgerald, p. 31)
The repetition of the adjective small and the syntax which uses listing,
emphasizes how cramped it is.
The living room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture
entirely too big for it, so that to move about was to constantly stumble over
scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles. The only picture was an
over-enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock. Looked
at from a distance, however, the hen resolved itself into a bonnet, and the
countenance of a stout lady beamed down into the room. Several old copies
of Town Tattle lay on the table together with a copy of Simon Called Peter, and
some of the small magazines of Broadway. (Fitzgerald, p.31)

Adjective choice emphasizes the fact that the apartment is crowded and stuffy
and being in there is claustrophobic. Fitzgerald uses pathetic fallacy to add to the
oppressive atmosphere, leading to the climax at the end of the chapter when
Tom breaks Myrtles nose. The furniture has images of Versailles; this creates a
symbolic link to Gatsbys house, which is an imitation of a French mansion. The
lower classes are seen to imitate sophistication in a clumsy obvious way, rather
than actually embodying it.
Could the hen image be a symbolic representation of Myrtle? She is, like the
photograph, over-enlarged, in other words, she is trying to fit into a world that
is too advanced for her class and she behaves in an artificial and exaggerated
way to try to fit in. Nick also observes that the hen looks like a stout lady2 and
Myrtle has already been described in the same way by him. In this chapter she
pecks at Tom like a hen to the point where he physically attacks her like an
aggressive cock (male hen).
The reading material in the apartment is also symbolic of class as well as
indicative of the shallow preoccupations of the Jazz age and the corruption of the
American Dream. The Town Tattle (gossip magazine) and the novel Simon Called
Peter (Fitzgerald thought of this novel as immoral) are symbolic of an obsession
with celebrity, wealth and self-seeking.
New York City:
I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night, and the
satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines give to
the restless eye
At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness
sometimes, and felt it in others-poor young clerks who loitered in front of
windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner-young clerks
in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.
(Fitzgerald, P. 57)
The adjectives racy and adventurous imply that New York was a city that was
vibrant and exciting while the adjective and noun constant flicker implying that

this energy never stopped, something that appealed to the restless eye.
However this appeal seem to be a lonely existence and many people live parallel
lives that do not intersect and they seem to live these solitary lives, mostly early
in the morning and late at night as they cross paths to and from work. The verb
loitered and waiting suggest that these solitary people spend a lot of their
time alone and in limbo with no real purpose in life, in fact, they are wasting
their lives.
Structure:
Structure is a general term applied to the authors way of ordering and putting
together the novel. This can be from a large scale (The progression of the plot
throughout the entire novel) down to a very small scale (the order of words in a
particular sentence). Authors spend a great deal of time focusing on aspects of
structure and language in order to obtain just the right reaction in the reader.
When analyzing an extract, it is important to demonstrate that you understand
the importance of structure. Look out for the following:
Syntax-word order and use of punctuation in a sentence. Comment on the
use of commas, semi-colons (;), colons (:) and dashes (-). Comment on the
use of long rambling sentences, stream of consciousness, short abrupt
sentences etc.
The structure of the extract. How is information revealed? Are there
flashbacks? Is there foreshadowing? Are there switches between different
time frames or perspectives? Is there listing which can build up a sense of
excitement? (See description of preparation for the party in chapter 3)
The placement of the extract within the whole novel? Where is the extract
positioned and how is it important within the structure of the whole
novel?

Characters: (also refer to character presentations on Dropbox)

The central character in a work of literature is called the protagonist. The
protagonist usually initiates the action in the story and often overcomes a flaw,
such as weakness or ignorance, to achieve a new understanding at the novels
end. An antagonist opposes the protagonist, barring or complicating their
success.
A Postmodern novel will often break away from this recognizable mold.
In the Great Gatsby, Nick caraway narrates the story but it is Jay Gatsby that is
the protagonist. Gatsbys love affair with Daisy, her marriage to Tom, and
Gatsbys quest to regain Daisys affection provide the storys narrative arc.
Gatsbys attempts to regain the past are also central to the plot development.
As the novels protagonist, does Gatsby overcome a flaw and achieve new
understanding in the end? Or is it Nick who achieves this understanding? In a
sense, Gatsbys premature death subverts the classic role of the protagonist as
Gatsby is never allowed to, or is perhaps unwilling to reach this realization.
Who is the antagonist? Tom? Daisy? Wilson? The class divide?

Character description: In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores characters in

relation to their landscape, their wealth and their prior relationships. There is a
strong association between characters and the settings that they inhabit. Color
symbolism and descriptions of physical appearance, stature, movement and
clothing is also used to highlight features of characters.
Example:
The only completely stationary object I the room was an enormous couch on
which two women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They
were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they
had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house.
(Fitzgerald, p.13)
This description is the first introduction that we have to Daisy Buchanan and
Jordan Baker. They are very much a part of this wealthy, airy colonial setting.
The visual imagery of the two women, as yet unnamed, and therefore more
mysterious, creates an impression of lightness and implies that the women lack
purpose or substance. The life of leisure that they lead has no real purpose and
the color imagery of white further emphasizes this purity or simplicity, as they
will not get their dresses dirty as they really have nothing at all to do. The
lightness of their dresses and their bodies is emphasized through adjective usage
and this creates an impression of ethereal, otherworldly, mysterious characters.

Themes: Fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a text.

The American Dream and the corruption of the American Dream.
The frontier
Class-new money and old money
Carelessness (especially the wealthy)
Honesty/Dishonesty
Responsibility
Tolerance
Hypocrisy

Motifs: Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that
further enhance texts themes.

Color-linked to characters and moods

Geography-East/West, City/outskirts etc.
Weather-The wind in chapter 1, the oppressive heat in chapter 7, autumn
leaves in Gatsbys pool in chapter 8.
Cars and driving-links to theme of carelessness and character
development. Owl Eyes crashing at Gatsbys house, Jordan Bakers
reckless driving, Gatsbys ostentatious car, Daisys reckless driving and
manslaughter of Myrtle.

Symbols: Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to

represent abstract ideas or concepts.

The eyes of Dr. T.J Eckleberg

The green light
The Valley of Ashes

Language: The basic list!

LEXIS:
Lexis/lexical clusters (groups of words all creating a similar effect),
semantic field (patterns of similar words building a particular effect, for
ex. Words associated with decay in the Valley of ashes description.
Word choice-the lexis or diction-This includes:
Nouns-proper (person, place or thing) or abstract nouns (happiness,
wealth, loss)
Verbs and dynamic verbs. Verbs are actions, dynamic verbs suggest
movement, for example: diving, swinging, threw, smashed etc.
Adjectives-describing words. These help to create visual images in the
readers mind.
Adverbs-these help to describe HOW an action is done, for example she
threw the knife aggressively
Pronouns-first person (I), 2nd person (you), 3rd person (He, she, Mr.
Wilson) etc. this establishes from what perspective a story is told.
The grammatical tense-past, present, futurethis also helps to establish
the perspective and the time frame.
Sentence types-declarative (statements), interrogative (questioning) and
imperative (commands) These establish the tone and purpose of a section
of narration or establish a characters voice-Are they more commanding
and dominant (imperatives and declaratives), confident (declarative) or
doubtful and insecure (imperatives) for example.

Figurative Language:
Always consider framing devices, mood setting, sound and image.
Framing devices: Foreshadowing and flashbacks
Mood setting: Pathetic fallacy (how the surroundings, weather and
atmosphere creates the mood)
Imagery: Personification, metaphors and similes
Anything that creates a more visual response in the reader, for example:
On weekends his Rolls Royce became an omnibus, bearing 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.

(Fitzgerald, page 41)

The noun omnibus creates an image of a long vehicle for passengers and
emphasizes how long the car was and how Gatsbys Rolls Royce became a
busy taxi service for his party goers which further emphasizes the popularity
and decadence of his parties, as guests were taken to the parties and
returned home in style. The simile comparing his station wagon to a brisk
yellow bug again suggests a mood of urgency.
Sound techniques: These work with syntax to develop and trigger an auditory
response in the reader. It contributes to developing character, setting,
propelling the plot forward, often creating tension or anticipation and
creating mood.
Onomatopoeia-sounds that imitate the meaning of a word-crash, bang,
wallop.
Alliteration-repeated consonant sounds. Different consonant sounds
have different qualities and create different moods. Consonant sounds
can be harsh, explosive, cutting, vibrant etc.
Assonance-repeated vowel sounds. This can create a long drawn out
sound and often helps to develop mood. It can create a leisurely,
melancholy or thoughtful mood for ex.
Sibilance-repeated S sounds. This can create a sinister or suggestive
mood.
Remind yourself of the story
The story of Jay Gatsby:
http://www.sparknotes.com/sparknotes/video/lifeofgatsby

Bibliography:
Fitzgerald, F.S. The Great Gatsby. Penguin Classics, 1990
Tanner, T. Introduction, The Great Gatsby. Penguin classics, 1990.
(http://www.fscottfitzgeraldsociety.org/biography/biography_p4.html
www.sparknotes.com