| Why is Nick Carraway made the narrator? | He does not judge other, especially Gatsby. |
| What is the relationship between Nick and the Buchanans? | Daisy is Nick’s second cousin once removed, and Tom is her husband who Nick met at Yale due to the fact they were in the same senior society. |
| Why does Daisy speak in exaggerated phrases? | By overdoing her remarks she manages to minimize everything she says. If she describes something as utterly wonderful instead of merely nice, she makes it seem quite ordinary. She makes everything sound important which reveals nothing is important to her. |
| What is the significance of Tom’s reference to the book he is reading? | The book presents a white supremacist view over blacks. |
| Why does Daisy hope her child will be a beautiful fool? | She was trying to imply that the life of a woman is a happier one in ignorance. If her daughter is a “fool” then she will never have to suffer the harsh realities of the real world. Think of the old saying ” Ignorance is bliss”. The less her daughter knows, the better. She also probably said this because she was still full of resentment over the fact that she wasn’t allowed to marry Gatsby when she wanted to. |
| Why does Nick feel that Daisy is trying to show off her cynicism? | This is a current upper-class pose and by adopting it Daisy not only identifies herself as part of a fashionable group, but disposes of the need to live a meaningful life, since life has no meaning anyway. |
| Why does Daisy describe her youth as a “white girlhood”? | On a literal level, she always dressed in white and even drove a white car. More important, she remembers her youth as a time of innocence and charming simplicity, in contrast to the tawdry existence she has in the present. |
| Why does Gatsby reach out to the water? | Because he sees a green light across the sound and knows that it is the light at the end of the dock at Daisy’s home. (he is reaching out to Daisy who lives across the bay). |
| Why is Wilson covered with dust from the ashes? | He is a dead character, in contrast to the tough vitality of his wife. (The ashes do not cover her). Tom says that Wilson is too stupid to know that he is alive; the others pay no more attention to him than if he actually were dead. |
| Why does Myrtle Wilson behave with such hauteur, both towards her husband and in the city apartment? | Myrtle is a woman who doesn’t seem to be satisfied with either type of lifestyle either her husband or Tom can offer her. She wants all things to be grandeur and is often disappointed with her quality of life. She compensates for her sadness by acting with “such hauteur.” |
| Why does Nick see himself as both on the outside and inside of the apartment? | He may be in it, but he does not consider himself of it. He wants no part of these people or their cheap involvement. He is as isolated from them as he later is from Gatsby’s party |
| What two facets of Tom’s personality are revealed when he breaks Myrtle’s nose? | First, it shows his brutality, a foreshadowing of the vicious indifference toward others with which he will send the crazed Wilson off to murder Gatsby. Secondly, the hypocrisy of class consciousness is stressed. It is all right for him to humiliate and wound his wife with his infidelity, but it is unforgivable for Myrtle to even mention Daisy’s name. Myrtle must be taught to know her place |
The Great Gatsby Chapter 1-2
April 6, 2020