Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Introduction to Geography & Houses
1. The Egg's
  1. Word: Represents new life
  2. West (Great Neck)
    1. Gatsby & Nick
    2. "the consoling proximity of millionaires"
  3. East (Manhasset Neck)
    1. The Buchanans
    2. "white palaces"
Introdution to Characters
1. Gatsby
  1. Nick describes Gatsby as having an "extraordinary gift for hope"
    1. "he stretched out his arms toward the dark water..."
  2. Optimisitic
2. Daisy
  1. Delicate White Flower?
  2. Women in white
    1. Innocence & Purity?
    2. Sinister resonance: Perceived superiority of white Race (Tom)
3. Tom
  1. During dinner, Tom bursts out "violently", "civilisation's going to pieces"
    1. Forceful
    2. Violent Nature
    3. Manipulative
    4. Highlights Cultural Context
    5. Pessimistic
4. Jordan Baker
  1. Represents the new independent women of 1920's
    1. Demanded vote
Nick Carraway's Narration
1. Daisy & Jordan
  1. Nick notes 'the absence of all desire' in the conversation between Jordan and Daisy
    1. Have all they need, yet their lives lack purpose
    2. Do not express / communicate anything
  2. Their eyes are said to appear "impersonal", no more expressive then their conversation.
    1. Instead of looking to the future, Daisy focuses upon her injured finger.
      1. Passive Figure?
        Things happen to her and she is content to be shaped by events and other people
      2. She looks at the bruised finger "with an awed expression"
        adjective "awed" = inappropriate for trivial injury
      3. Small injury foreshadows a far more disturbing incident in the next chapter, where Tom deliberately breaks the nose of his mistress, Myrtle Wilson
Racial Issues
1. Sets the scene: Cultural context of race relations in 1920's America
2. Tom on Race
  1. "Its up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things."
  2. "The Rise of the Coloured Empires by this man Goddard"
    1. The Rising Tide of Color against White World Supremacy by Lothrop Stoddard (Pub. 1920)

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	Created by Matt Knowles over 11 years ago