The Great Gatsby

Group Discussion Questions

Chapter 1

1.      1.   Write a character sketch of Daisy (or Tom or Jordan), focusing on the recurring “tag” used to describe them. Daisy leans forward and talks in a low voice; Tom is restless and hulking; Jordan balances something on her chin almost in an athletic stance. What is Fitzgerald’s purpose in thus describing them?

2.      2.   Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald uses colors as symbols.  Start a color chart with the color, example from novel, and what color symbolizes. 

Chapter 2

3.    Contrast the green light at the end of Chapter 1 and the gray images in the Valley of Ashes in Chapter 2. What thematic statement do the contrasting images reveal?

4.    How can George Wilson be said to symbolize the American Dream? Consider (“rags−to−riches”) motif, as well as his undying desire to better his situation?

Chapter 3

5.  The seven deadly sins (lust, greed, gluttony, envy, pride, wrath, sloth)  and the seven cardinal virtues (chastity, abstinence, patience, diligence, kindness, humility, liberality ). Analyze some or all of the characters in regard to these sins and virtues. Which vice or virtue does each manifest?

Chapter 4

       6.  Show how the American Dream associated with America’s past has succumbed to mercenary, almost exclusively materialistic values, derived from get−rich−quick schemes.

       7.  Select one name each from the names Nick lists on his timetable, and research to discover their stories and to comprehend Fitzgerald’s choice of those names. How were they involved in American history?

Chapter 5

      8.   Consider ways in which Gatsby might be a counterpart to Don Quixote. Research the characteristics of this fictional Spanish dreamer, and you show their likenesses and, of course, differences.  (Don Quixote is the hero of Don Quixote, the early 17th century novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Quixote is a dreamer and a gentle buffoon, an aging gentleman who sets out from his village of La Mancha to perform acts of chivalry in the name of his grand love Dulcinea. He rides a decrepit horse and is accompanied by his "squire," the peasant Sancho Panza. Quixote's imagination often gets the better of him; in once famous incident he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants. Throughout his many adventures Quixote often seems ridiculous, yet he maintains his staunchly hopeful attitude and belief in chivalry. (The term quixotic now describes anyone who takes on an idealistic or foolish quest against great odds.) The book Don Quixote inspired the 1959 play Man of La Mancha, in which Quixote's quest is summed up in the song "The Impossible Dream." )

Chapter 6

      9.  Gatsby grew into adolescence after being introduced to a tawdry lifestyle on Dan Cody’s yacht. Show how the boy on the yacht was ironically more worldly and realistic than the unrealistic adult gazing longingly at the green light.

Chapter 7

     10.  Analyze the Gatsby−Trimalchio connection and its importance. Compare Trimalchio, the hero or protagonist of The Satyricon, to Gatsby. (Trimalchio is a character in The Satyricon by Petronius. He plays a part only in the section entitled Cena Trimalchionis (The Banquet of Trimalchio). Trimalchio is a freedman who through hard work and perseverance has attained power and wealth. Trimalchio is known for throwing lavish dinner parties, where his numerous servants bring course after course of exotic delicacies, such as live birds sewn up inside a pig and a dish to represent every sign of the zodiac. )

     11.  Compare the two passages below from T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland with remarkably similar ones from The Great Gatsby. Better still, find a copy of the poem and discover other passages which correspond. What do the similarities suggest?

“I think we are in rats’ alley

Where the dead men lost their bones . . . ”

“What shall I do now? What shall I do?

I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street

With my hair down, so, What shall we do tomorrow?”

and from Gatsby, Chapter 2:

“It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of the house, child in arms—but apparently there were no such intentions in her head.”

and from Chapter 7:

“What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon?” cried Daisy, “and the day after that, and the next thirty years.

     12.  Explain the significance of the comments: “They weren’t happy . . . and yet they weren’t unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.”

Chapter 8

     13.  Eyes and sight recur frequently in the novel. What is Fitzgerald’s statement about the ability to distinguish between illusion and reality?

     14.  How is this story an ironic inversion of a knightly quest for the grail?

     15.  Consider ways in which Tom Buchanan and George Wilson are alike, in that the wives of both men are capable of being lured away by another man. Therefore, both men, different as they are, are cuckolds (a Middle Ages term, defining men whose wives are unfaithful. In the legendary account, such husbands were said to grow horns, thus, becoming monsters).

Chapter 9

     16.  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.