THEME: The Dream

Question 1

“Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.”

Answer 1

• CH1
• “Green” - The colour of money - perhaps symbolic of Gatsby’s desire for wealth to not only win Daisy back but in turn achieve the American dream. However, green is also arguably the colour of nature, which is a contrast from man-made money and conspicuous consumption, perhaps an allusion to the conflict of desire for wealth as well as the unnatural nature of these concepts.
• Symbol of Daisy - the green light is at the end of Daisy’s home’s dock. Gatsby is reaching for Daisy. However, is he reaching for Daisy or the wealth he associates with her?
• “Seaward” - the water blocks Gatsby from this American dream, and water is where he dies. Water is a symbol almost of his downfall. Icarus!

Question 2

“‘Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge,’ I thought; ‘anything at all….’ Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder.”

Answer 2

• CH4
• “Bridge” - a symbol of transition and entering a new land. Also a symbol of connection, perhaps an allusion to how Gatsby will always still be connected to his past, even if he crosses the bridge.
• “Even” - used to refer to something surprising and unexpected. Perhaps a suggestion that the dream is a surprising and almost implausible thing. A criticism? However, it also has this idea of “in spite of”, perhaps reminiscent of how Gatsby has attained the wealth he has today in spite of his past.
• “Gatsby could happen” - not only can Gatsby happen, but the idea of the American dream that is tied to him can happen.
• “Wonder” - connotations of magic and fantasy. Perhaps a suggestion that the dream is such a farfetched idea that it isn’t even human.

Question 3

“The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.”

Answer 3

• CH6
• “Sprang” - has connotations of life as it is the past tense version of “spring”, perhaps a metaphor by Fitzgerald, which links back into this idea of new life and becoming something from nothing, which is Fitzgerald clearly representing this idea of the American dream. One could even link this to “Daisy” and the fact that the flower is a spring flower, and this aligns with why Gatsby changed - because of societal pressure to be of old money, which is what Daisy represents for him, and that societal pressures creates Gatsby’s insecurities and desire to change from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby.
• “Platonic conception” - Plato believed there is an ideal world that isn’t ours. Our physical world is merely a shadow of a higher, realer realm of eternal unchanging forms (Plato’s Theory of Forms). Gatsby is stuck in this “Platonic realm”, and the Platonic realm can’t be comprehended by humans, just as his dream can’t be comprehended. The “Platonic conception” is the best version of oneself.

Question 4

“I think that voice held him most with its fluctuating, feverish warmth because it couldn’t be over-dreamed—that voice was a deathless song.”

Answer 4

• CH5
• “Fluctuating” - this idea that the dream is fickle. There is no strength in it (reinforced by “feverish”), and it is a lie, as society has you fixed in your place.
• “Feverish” - connotations of illness. A criticism of the dream.
• Fricative alliteration emphasises.
• “Feverish warmth” - perhaps goes back to the Icarus metaphor? “Warmth” can be a good thing, but in this context, it is presented as an illness. Perhaps this is the idea of how it seems and how it truly is?
• Fever causes hallucinations. The American dream is a hallucination.
• “Deathless song” - symbolic of the American dream. A song is a formulation, fiction if you will. The idea that it is “deathless” may suggest the dream will thrive and fool many for years to come.

Question 5

“ No—Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”

Answer 5

CH1

Question 6

“But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away.”

Answer 6

• CH7
• Personifies the dream.
• “dead dream” - dental.

Question 7

“paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.”

Answer 7

CH8 (end)

Question 8

“the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world.”

Answer 8

• CH9
• “Breast” - life giving and fertility.
• Semantic field of fertility and birth - “flowered”, “fresh”, “breast”, “new”

Question 9

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning-
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Answer 9

• CH9

Question 10

“He put his hands in his coat pockets and turned back eagerly to his scrutiny of the house, as though my presence marred the sacredness of the vigil. So I walked away and left him standing there in the moonlight—watching over nothing.”

Answer 10

CH7