Chapter 1 quotes Flashcards
nick described gatsbys…
‘extraordinary gift for hope’- embodiment of the American Dream
nick is inclined to
‘Im inclined to reserve all judgements’ ‘reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hop’ - introduces as the reliable narrator
what prayed on Gatsby…
’ it was what payed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams’ -criminality of false ideal
what did nick feel when he came back from the east…
‘when I came back from the east last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever’ - east was more fast paced, feelings of stability yet restlessness post war
Nick says…
‘I lived a 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’ -east=old money, west=new money, class system within a seemingly ‘classless’ America ‘all men are created equal=not true.
describing Gatsbys house…
’ a colossal affair by any standard’ ‘factual imitation of some hotel de ville’- trying to copy something unauthentic
the houses of east egg…
‘the palaces of fashionable east egg glittered along the water’
Nick describing Tom…
‘I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game’- suggest even the rich are not satisfied
Tom and Daisy’s house…
‘A cheerful red and white colonial mansion{…} the lawn started on the beach and ran to the front door for a quarter of a mile , jumping’
Nick describing tom..
‘It was a body capable of enormous leverage - a cruel body’ -also symbolic of his powerful figure/status in society
Daisys naivity…
‘I always watch for the longest day of the yearend then miss it.’ ‘What’ll we do?” she turned to me helplessly : “what do people do?”’- unfulfilled
Daisy talking about her daughter…
‘Im glad it’s a gild. And I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”- position of a woman in society . diminishes women
Gatsby’s yearning…
‘He stretched his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and as car as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling[…] I distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away , that might have been the end of a dock’. reaching for something unachievable. Daisy the emblem of Gatsby’s American dream
