Chapter Analyses

Quinn P.
A.P. English
8/10/13
Chapter 1 Analysis
Many events opened up the book in chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby, indicating that this book would appeal to many in a sense that it could be easily connected to. A significant quote from chapter 1 is a thought from Nick explaining his family heritage. Nick says “The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother, who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on to-day.” Most would see this as him describing his family heritage, but when read more in depth you realize that he is trying to illustrate that his family achieved the American Dream through persistence and hard work. He mentions “the Dukes of Buccleuch” to create his point that they sound like they come from a family who inherits the American Dream, but notifies the reader that his family achieved the American Dream by working towards it. As you read on you learn that Jay Gatsby inherited his wealth, giving Nick a bad perception of him due to the fact that Nick’s family has worked to achieve their wealth, yet to Gatsby the American Dream is just the pursuit of self pleasure. All in all, the quote relates well to the characters, but also to the theme that no matter how wealthy you are, you cannot buy yourself the happiness you can obtain through hard work towards the true American Dream.

Chapter 2 Analysis

In chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby, Nick engages into events with his removed cousin’s husband, Tom. Tom is an old friend of Nick who he met at Yale, but had not interacted with him since them. To Nick, Tom seems like the type of guy a woman in that era would not desire, yet he wants to be involved with him. One day, Tom decides to take Nick with him to see Myrtle only later does he begin to see the type of person he has spent his recent days with. Tom acts belligerent at the party, forthcoming to have the party come to a halt after breaking Myrtle’s nose because she insisted on repeating his wife’s name. In our current day, this type of person can be compared to the many men that are unfaithful to the person they are in a relationship with. What sets Tom apart from the men in our current day is that he later on figures out that Daisy is having an affair with Gatsby, which he feels is wrong even if he is also having an affair with another woman. Tom does not realize the damage he is causing to Daisy just as the people in our day don’t realize that they are affecting their partner even if they discontinue their involvement in the affair doesn’t mean that the damage can be removed because no matter what they say or do, their actions speak louder than their words, and in this situation the actions made by Tom are outrageous in a way that only Nick has perceived because Daisy does not have the will power to make a decision that he is not the right man she needs in her life, and that if she is having an affair it only makes the situation even worse. To conclude, Tom is a perfect example of many men in our modern day that make a decision that will never lead to true love in a relationship.

Quinn P.
8/12/13
A.P. English
Chapter 3 Analysis

A symbol in chapter 3 that has an appearance to reality circumstance involves the image of Gatsby’s parties and his mansion. The appearance side of the symbol is that his parties and mansions are his way to show others his extreme wealth. He uses both the parties and the mansion to create an image in people’s minds that he is a man who is living the American Dream only to leave them curious about the person who throws these extravagant parties, and who has this expensive house. The reality side of the situation is that although he is wealthy, this does not mean that people respect him for that. He only invites certain people to his parties, yet always ends up having more people than he actually invites. This is due to the people who crash his parties because they know he is wealthy and can take advantage of him. Gatsby may be wealthy, but money cannot buy his happiness. Although he can instill the idea of his wealth upon others, he cannot instill the idea of being happy by living the American Dream he wants to live. Nick’s perception of Gatsby when he arrives at the party is that he is a prodigal man who buys things to create an appearance that will cover his real truth that Nick will later understand.

Chapter 4 Analysis

In chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby, Daisy’s happiness is tested when she realizes that money cannot buy everything, but if she is going to be depressed she might as well be depressed with a rich man. The quote “By the next autumn she was gay again, gay as ever. She had a debut after the Armistice, and in February she was presumably engaged to a man from New Orleans. In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago, with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before. He came down with a hundred people in four private cars, and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” tells the reader that on the day of the wedding she had become happy again because she notices that Tom Buchanan uses his wealth to please her, making her feel like she is the queen upon her throne. The night before the wedding, she is presented with a string of pearls worth three hundred and fifty thousand dollars making her happy, yet the affection he shows her by giving a gift is not what makes her happy, it’s the fact that she is being showered with items that hold her happiness for only a limited amount of time. Even though she is happy, Nick knows that her emotions are covered by inanimate objects that should not make a person enjoy their life the way other things can.

Chapter 5 Analysis

In chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby, there are many symbols that represent the story well, but the main one of chapter 5 is Gatsby’s shirts. Gatsby’s shirts represent a large symbol because of the reaction that Daisy gives when she first sees his shirts while Gatsby is giving her a tour of his mansion. The shirts represent a hole in Daisy’s life that she can only fulfill through a life indulged with money and wealth. She had never seen shirts as extravagant as Gatsby’s shirts, only making her realize what she had left out on. She left out on the man with actual wealth she desired unlike Tom who was rich, but did not shower her with the gifts she expected. This is one possibility, or it could be that she is realizing that she left on the guy that has the wealth and can give her the love that she needs. All her time spent in East Egg made her love money more than she loved another person. She would talk about her house and how she got gifts from Tom when they were getting married, but she not once talked about how she was madly in love with Tom. The date that Nick set up between Gatsby and Daisy was to rekindle the love that they once shared back in Louisville, and that is exactly what he did not knowing that he was only making the relationship between Daisy and her current husband. To sum everything, Daisy’s lust for money is dwindled when her love for Gatsby is resurrected. She realizes that she had given up on the man that she had always dreamt for but could never have making her settle with Tom after the war.

Chapter 6 Analysis

In chapter 6 of The Great Gatsby, Daisy rekindles her love for Gatsby more and more while Nick is busy and has not interacted with them at all. Gatsby reveals that he was born on a farm with a completely different identity. Gatsby says, “I suppose he'd had the name ready for a long time, even then. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people—his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God – a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that – and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.” revealing that he was once a different person with a different identity. To me this would show that he believes his identity with all his heart and would do nothing to go back to James Gatz. This also engraves an idea in our heads that Gatsby didn’t want to live his life how he was living it proven by the fact that he changed his name so that he could have a fresh start but continue in his father’s business so that he could inherit the money that he had not worked a day in his life for. All in all, Gatsby created a whole new identity for himself because he was not satisfied with what he was given, and felt that creating a new identity would give him a way to restart his life, but to also inherit the wealth from his family’s business.

Quinn P.
8/15/13
A.P. English

Chapter 7 Analysis In chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby, the tension is rising as events start to unfold. Myrtle’s husband has come to understand his wife’s infidelity, while Tom, Daisy, and Nick ride to New York together. These events lead up to the central image of chapter 7 that is important to the story. Nick has forgotten his thirtieth birthday due to the fact that he is so involved in his friends problems. First, he is involved with the problems between Daisy and Tom, which include their relationship problems, social problems, and family problems. Then Nick is also involved with Tom and Myrtle’s problems such as their relationship problems and their need to keep their affair a secret from people so that it does not damage his current relationship with his wife anymore than it is. Finally, Nick is involved with Gatsby and Daisy’s interactions such as setting up their dates to meet, keeping their relationship a secret so that Tom does not figure out what his wife is hiding from him. All these problems add up so that Nick barely has a second to think about himself, and the time he does realize that the day upon him is his thirtieth birthday that he has to celebrate doing what Gatsby, Tom, Daisy and Myrtle want to do. This image is a big part of chapter 7 because helping his friends is starting to take away from his American Dream of heading to the East to learn the bond business.

Chapter 8 Analysis

In chapter 8 of The Great Gatsby, Nick is still swamped in his friend’s problems so much that he is getting up at four in the morning so he can make sure that Tom didn’t hurt Daisy in any way. However, there is a quote that says a lot about what Gatsby does in his life and it is a very good example of the American Dream as well. Nick says “No telephone message arrived, but the butler went without his sleep and waited for it until four o'clock – until long after there was any one to give it to if it came. I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn't believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream” to the reader signaling somewhat of a foreshadowing but mainly that Gatsby too had some type of dream even after he achieved extreme wealth. The foreshadowing is relevant because towards the end of the book, he pays a high price for living with a single dream such as he did with only desiring Daisy for all his life. He connects with our modern day society who is striving to achieve the American Dream with a future that is engulfed with a workplace that some may think impossible; therefore, leaving them the idea that they could not stay with one single dream of what they want in life because sometimes it’s better to give up on the single dream when you know you cannot accomplish it and create a new dream that you know you can do.

Chapter 9 Analysis

In chapter 9 of The Great Gatsby, the book begins to close as the events all tie together. The ending felt like it was always coming even if Gatsby thought he could cheat another man. Although the events in chapter 9 may be more detailed, there is a symbol that describes the American Dream for many people, and that is “the green light” at the end of Daisy’s docks. This can describe the American Dream for many because the green light on the docks signals peoples dreams and hopes for what he desires in life. In the book it represented Gatsby’s dreams of marrying Daisy and being able to have her after they had been separated for so long. Nick compares the green light to how America must have looked to the early settlers of the new nation, but when thinking about the modern civilization you must see that the green light is like the prize at the end of our goals. People in our modern day society would say that their dream is to become very successful and live a life full of happiness, yet don’t put the work in for what they believe. The green light is the end result for many because it signals that we have reached our hopes and dreams, and that we can finally say we have achieved the American Dream. In the end, the American Dream is whatever you make it out to be, and for your green light, you have the power to decide whether or not you reach your green light.