Gatsby Chapters

Question 1

What happens in Chapter 1?

Answer 1

• Nick telling us about his past
• Nick visiting the Buchannan’s house
• Seeing Gatsby reaching for the green light “stretched out” “swore he was trembling” “indistinguishable green light”
• Tom’s racist attitude “The Rise of the Coloured Empires” “Utterly submerged” “All scientific stuff its been proved” Pseudo-science

Question 2

What happens in Chapter 2?

Answer 2

• Tom takes Nick to the Valley of Ashes
• The eyes of T.J Eckleburg
• Description of Myrtle “perceptible vitality” “Walked through her husband as if he were a ghost” “Changed her costume”
• Tom’s dominant nature “literally forced me off the car” “Go buy ten dogs with it”
• Description of George Wilson and his garage
• They go to Myrtle’s apartment and Tom hits her. “Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchannan broke her nose with an open hand”
• Nick’s possible homosexuality and use of Fitzgerald elliptical style infer it.

Question 3

What happens in Chapter 3?

Answer 3

• Gatsby Party
• Owl eyes “This fellers a regular belasco”
• Description of Gatsby “Hurried the words “Educated at Oxford or hurried or choked on it” “picking his words with care”
• Purposelessness of Upper Class
• Nick and Jordan driver metaphor

Question 4

What happens in Chapter 4?

Answer 4

• Gatsby and Nick meeting properly
• Gatsby’s obvious lies “I tried to hide my incredulous laughter”
• Gatsby showing proof
• Mayor Wolfsheim “Oggsford” “Fixed the World Series in 1919”
• Daisy not wanting to marry Tom “ Take em downstairs and gave them to whoever they belong to” Daisy desires stopped and reliance on alcoholism
• Nick and Jordan relationship

Question 5

What happens in Chapter 5?

Answer 5

• Gatsby and Nick preparing for Daisy
• Gatsby nervousness around Daisy
• His need to make everything perfect
• Daisy crying over the shirts
• Dan Cody
• Gatsby perception of Daisy “Colossal vitality of his illusion”

Question 6

What happens in Chapter 6?

Answer 6

• Gatsby’s past
• “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people, his imagination never really accepted them at all”
• “He created the sort of Jay Gatsby a seventeen year old boy is likely to create”
• “He was a son of God”
• “Satisfactory hint of reality and unreality”
• Gatsby hosting Tom and Daisy “I know your wife he said almost aggressively”
• Gatsby class divide “I haven’t bought a horse, I’ll have to follow you in my car”
• Tom’s views “But women run around too much these days to suit me”
• Gatsby and the past “Can’t repeat the past! he cried incredulously “Why of course you can!”
• “He wanted nothing less than Daisy to go to Tom “I never loved you”
• “So climbed the ladder “A place above the trees”

Question 7

What happens in Chapter 7?

Answer 7

• Gatsby fires all his servants
• Use of pathetic fallacy of the heat
• Gatsby and Tom argument
• Tom and class “An Oxford man! he was incredulous He wears a pink suit!”
• Tom visits George. He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick”
• “Let Mr Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife”
• “Your wife never loved you” “She never loved you, do you hear!” “Sprang to his feet with excitement”
• Daisy passivity “I never loved him she said with perceptible reluctance” “Oh you want too much”
• Wreck of cars and death of Myrtle
• The irony of the yellow car
• “He spoke of Daisy’s reaction as if it was the only thing that mattered”
• Tom and Daisy relationship “They weren’t happy but they weren’t unhappy either” “Retreated back into their wealth”

Question 8

What happens in Chapter 8?

Answer 8

• Gatsby’s dream “He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to set him free”
• All of Gatsby’s past such as Dan Cody, Daisy.
• “Idea of Jay Gatsby had broken up like glass on Tom’s hard malice”
• “She was the first nice girl he ever knew”
• “It increased her value in his eyes”
• “Invisible cloak of his uniform may slip from his shoulders”
• “Retreated back into their money” “They were careless people”
• “He threw dust into your eyes”
• Nick last words to Gatsby “There a rotten crowd” “Your worth the whole damn bunch put together”
• George Wilson “HE was looking at the eyes of Doctor TJ Eckleburg which had just emerged pale and enormous in the dissolving night” “You can fool me but you can’t fool God”
• Gatsby’s death born on water and died on water

Question 9

What happens in Chapter 9?

Answer 9

• Aftermath of Gatsby’s death
• “I found myself on Gatsby’s side, and alone”
• Gatsby’s parents “Glass of milk split from his trembling hand”
• Mayer Wolfsheim “Start him! I made him!”
• “After Gatsby’s death the East haunted me like that”
• Jordan and Nick ended “Well I met another bad driver didn’t I?” “I thought you were a rather honest, straightforward person”
• “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future.
• “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past”