wealth and class

Question 1

Ch1 (about gatsby) “as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away”

Answer 1

• nick is searching for metaphors to express his seismic impact
• Since the Richter scale was a new invention this simile could be referencing the new money motif he carries but this is undermined as the earthquake itself is still fatally destructive.

Question 2

Chapter 4 page 63 “it was a rich cream colour bright with nickel…terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns…behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory”

Answer 2

cream (a dirtied white,not pure), nickel (cheap), labyrinth (prison for a minator), all undermine the delicacy of his wealth. emphasise the fragility of the new money status

Question 3

ch4 “a strained, unfamiliar look of embarrassment came over gatsbys face”

Answer 3

Love is more powerful undermining his wealth as gatsby is never embarrassed.
tom is proof of daisys relationship and feels intimidated by his ‘old money’ presence

Question 4

ch5 “page 83 gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes”

Answer 4

• gatsbys pockets are deep with nothing, daisy exposes his raw emotions and love weighs him down.
  ‘tragically’ emphasises the genre
• indicated how his wealth is so fragile, emerging from crime and nothing.

Question 5

ch5 page 89 “ive got a man in england who buys me clothes” “shirts… in coral and apple green…lavender…indian blue”
daisy “began to cry stormily”

Answer 5

the exotic european colours represent his materialism and him using his wealth to prove to daisy he should marry him not tom as he is also rich. the colours represent the old money, and how gatsby is trying to achieve this.
(throwing colours out like an expression of love, needs more than language. uses modernist in expression which uses art/literature as a metaphor)

Question 6

ch6 “i haven’t got a horse…I’ll have to follow you in my car”

Answer 6

• gatsby has been isolated even more, not directly invited to supper then feeling out of place not being apart of the old money lifestyle.
• The horse is an ancient symbol of power. The car is a flamboyant symbol of new money and can foreshadow the fall of gatsby.

Question 7

Ch7 tom and daisy “they werent happy … and yet they werent unhappy either… anybody would have said they were conspiring together”

Answer 7

They remain together despite the dysfunction, almost plotting a crime one is adulterous, the other a killer.
- displays the corruption of wealth and old money lifestyle/american dream?

Question 8

Ch8 “she had caught a cold, and it made her voice more huskier and more charming than ever”

Answer 8

(- Reference to in sickness and in health, gatsby longs for a life with daisy.)
- Also could be foreshadowing something as the tone in her voice has changed. Tom described as ‘husky’ at beginning of novel.
- could this parallel be showing daisy is resorting back to the old money, secure lifestyle

Question 9

ch8 “…and the holocaust was complete” (death of gatsby, myrtle + wilson)

Answer 9

Tom and daisy are unaffected and the poor suffer, represents the wealth disparities of the 1920’s

Question 10

ch1“a cheerful red and white georgian colonial mansion”

Answer 10

• tom and daisy’s house represents the old money lifestyle with generations of wealth beneath them.
• 1740s english architectural era. Evokes the birth of america but as “cheerful” soon becomes apparent as the wrong word choice, maybe the birth of the american dream will soon crash.

Question 11

Ch3 “a thrill passed all over us. the three mr mumbles bent forward and listened eagerly”

Answer 11

The upper class are so wealthy and bored with their life, they are obsessed with consumerism and gossip. There is a scandal problem among society.
Like a greek chorus, grotesque in their actions.
They are all shallow minded, almost fitzgerald criticising society.

Question 12

ch6 “i felt an unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn’t been there before…i was looking at it again, through daisys eyes”

Answer 12

• nick thinks tom invading the east egg creates a depressive spectacle. he feels less valued with gatsby.
• When looking at west egg through daisys eyes he’s saddened to see society’s isolation and superficiality
• Reinforces tom (old money) bringing reality to gatsbys dream land

Question 13

Ch8 “theyre a rotten crowd’, i shouted across the lawn. ‘Youre worth the whole damn bunch put together’. ive always been glad i said that. It was the only compliment i ever gave him because i disapproved of him from beginning to end”

Answer 13

• Nick thinks class means nothing compared to gatsbys character, nick usually observes the situation so to say this is significant. sees gatsbys inescapable world and feels sorry for him.
• He only feels this now, his last words to gatsby when he finally sees a new side to him.

Question 14

Ch9 “after gatsbys death the east was haunted for me … Blue smoke of brittle leaves”

Answer 14

• nick realised the old money portrayal was fake and artificial, it consumed people giving them hope but in the end it destroyed them.

Question 15

Ch2 : “a small living room, a small dining room” in his apartment in nyc
“tom brought out a bottle of whisky from a locked bureau door”

Answer 15

• Emphasises the contrast between his house in the east egg. It’s a micro version of a fantasy.
  In daisy and toms house, it is white outside and yellow + corrupt on the inside. But the apartment is micro but inside a lot goes on.

Tom has the key and controls the situation. his societal position leads him to dominate.

Question 16

Ch2 “making a short deft movement, tom buchanan broke her nose with his open hand”

Answer 16

• Simple declarative and monosyllabic.
• Casual nature as the clause is later in the sentence as its less important. Strong and possibly done before.
  all parties end in violence showing corruption.
• he has physical and financial dominance over myrtle.

Question 17

ch6: “toms arrogant eyes roamed the crowd”

Answer 17

recurring personification. Nicks perception hasn’t changed since the start and tom remains in power due to the old money status

Question 18

Ch7 refers to gatsby “i suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let mr nobody from nowheremake love to your wife”

Answer 18

• Tom is exposing gatsby. Gatsby is from new money with no inheritance.
• Utopia in greek means ‘no place’ so the idea of utopia representing gatsby but an ancient philosophy, like the AD being false shows how his fantasies arent real.
• tom, being of old money background, indicates the security he has saying this and knows the meaning behind his words

Question 19

Ch1 “im p-paralysed with happiness”

Answer 19

• monosyllabic repition, she is stuck, hurt or trapped in her marriage or she is stuck in the rich world with nothing to do

Question 20

Ch1 “there was an excitement in her voice that men who had card for her, found it difficult to forget”

Answer 20

• her voice is magical and allusive and almost expensive.
• even her physical traits flaunt wealth

Question 21

ch1 page 17 “that’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking, physical specimen of a –“

Answer 21

• “hulking”- could be referring to a hulk prison which is a ship afloat at sea. It could be a metaphor of old money and how it’s continuous or that daisy is trapped and cannot leave.
  – (this shows she’s aggressive and opinionated opposing femininity and is forceful against her husband.)

Question 22

“the best thing a girl can be in this world is a beautiful little fool”

Answer 22

– mysognistic society as women are less valued and doesn’t want to fight stereotypes, only money counts. This opposes the 1920s vote rights.

Question 23

Ch1 “ive been everywhere and see everything and done everything”

Answer 23

– daisy isn’t well as being a wealthy member of society having money for leisure and living in a utopic post industry, she is still seriously depressed.

Question 24

ch6 “she was appalled by west egg”

Answer 24

shallow and reluctant to be apart of anything lower than her status
To some extent, the west egg = gatsby, so she therefore dissapproves of gatsby’s lifestyle

Question 25

(comparison)
Ch1 “two young women ballooned to the floor”
ch7 page 110 “ daisy and jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans”

Answer 25

Circular imagery is used as they lay on the couch in white dresses, really nothing has changed since the beginning of the novel and they are still drawn into the old money lifestyle
But now they are controlled by a breeze, showing how tom’s power has been compromised

Question 26

Ch7 “What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon,” cried Daisy, “and the day after that, and the next thirty years?”

Answer 26

• Daisies life is filled with boredom and she is waiting for death.
• Her joke reveals her restlessness + depression + existential crisis is revealed and she is seizing gatsby for a change in routine
• she has a fragmented state of mind engrossed in nihilism of the leisure class.

Question 27

Ch8 “and of daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor”

Ch8 “daisy began to move again with the season”

Answer 27

• sibilance heightens her wealth and security. shows her life is peaceful and fulfilled.
• Demonstrates the ignorance of the upper class. Her world is fake with no struggles and no deeper meaning.

The upper class move on frequently through fickle relationships, like what jordan said. Leisure class become so bored

Question 28

Ch8 “for daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery”
and
“tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed”

Answer 28

• She couldn’t wait for Gatsby but so she re-entered society - the UC have a secure world to return to and gave up hope with gatsby.
• Orchids symbolise love and beauty and later its says “tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed” signifying her love for gatsby is over and has died.

Question 29

Ch3: Jordan “ I like large parties. Their so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy”

Answer 29

• doesn’t care for gatsby, just his parties
• A large party allows her to blend in and only interact with the people she chooses. At a smaller gathering, she would be too open to closer examination, which might reveal her dishonest nature.

Question 30

Ch7 to daisy “Don’t be morbid,” Jordan said. “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”

ch7 “it’s only half past nine”

Answer 30

• Jordan thinks life is a constant cycle of renewal. Pragmatic and grasping opportunities
• Jordan again doesn’t recognise the saddening events. Believes in the circle of life and renewal, still wants to have fun

Question 31

Ch2 [wilson] “he was blond, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome…his light blue eyes”

“walking through her husband as if he were a ghost”

Answer 31

• Blends in with the ashes in the valley and he is almost invisible.
• ‘light blue’ reinforces the colour theory of dreams but his are fading as myrtle becomes uninterested
• Wilson is dead to myrtle along with their relationship

Question 32

ch8 “Michealis opened the drawer nearest his hand there was nothing in it but a small, expensive dog-leash”

Answer 32

• Symbol of wealth, myrtle is the dog and she wanted to be beaten by wilson but he is a tragic character who wasnt good enough, wealthy for her, causing the affair with tom.

Question 33

ch2 myrtle “spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine”

Answer 33

• myrtle is living her DREAM in her clothes as a socio-economic escape from valley of ashes.
• in her fantasy of being a member of the old money society.

Question 34

Ch4 “the valley of ashes opened out on both sides of us, and I had a glimpse of mrs wilson straining at the garage pump with panting vitality as we went by”

Answer 34

Myrtle is trying to break free from her lower class status.
‘Vitality’ like gatsby’s ‘colossal vitality’ which Daisy can’t conform to

Question 35

“her life violently extinguished,knelt in the road and mingled her thick dark blood with the dust”

Answer 35

Shocking imagery and is brutal and realistic. Mingling with the valley of the ashes as she never escaped

Question 36

Chapter 7 page 131 “Her left great was swinging loosely like a flap…the mouth was wide open and ripped a little at the corners, as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long”

Answer 36

Myrtles body description is yet again worse than Daisy showing their class divide. She tried to escape but she is stuck in this position, even after death.
Contrasts to Nick in chapter 9 ‘a fresh green breast of the new world’ which shows a new path of greenery and hope. She never achieves this, it just flaps on the VOA road

Question 37

Ch9 tom “ he [gatsby] ran over myrtle like you’d run over a dog and never even stopped his car”

Answer 37

Analeptic irony. as this links back to when he treated myrtle like a dog.
We now know daisy hasnt told him the truth still, she is still corrupted.