Great Gatsby Study Questions
INTRODUCTION TO THE GREAT GATSBY (Advanced English 11) (S11)
Considered the finest of Fitzgerald's works, The Great Gatsby (1925) is a story of a man with a dream that symbolizes the corruption of the American Dream. The novel recounts a summer in New York City when Nick
Carraway meets Jay Gatsby and finds himself involved with the man's wealth and his obsessive desire to make contact with Carraway's cousin, Daisy Buchanan. Through a series of flashbacks, the novel reveals the life of James
Gatz, who discarded his past and created for himself a new name, a new image, and a dream. The Great Gatsby is very much a novel of the early 1920s, the flapper era or the Jazz Age. Much of what is described in the novel is based on fact. Gatsby's parties are based on equally lavish parties that the Fitzgeralds attended while they lived in
Great Neck in 1922, the year in which the novel takes place. Bootleggers and stock swindlers, like Gatsby, were making millions of dollars, and when they were arrested, their cases got a great deal of publicity. The story is told by Nick Carraway in the first person point of view. Nick is a reliable narrator and lives between Gatsby and the
Buchanans. Like Gatsby, he is from the Midwest, but he is related to Daisy and attended school with Tom, so he is really a part of both worlds; however, he represents the middle class.
STUDY QUESTIONS – Write the answers on your own paper in COMPLETE SENTENCES. Answer the entire question.
CHAPTER 1
1.How does the narrator describe Gatsby? What is Gatsby doing at the end of the chapter when Nick first sees him?
2. From where did the narrator come and why? Describe him.
3. Describe the narrator's house. Describe the Buchanans' house.
4. How does Nick know Daisy and Tom?
5. Describe Tom. What is your impression of him in Chapter 1?
6. Describe Daisy. What kind of mother do you think she is?
7. Who is Jordan Baker?
8. What does Miss Baker tell Nick about Tom?
9. The green light, an important symbol in the
Considered the finest of Fitzgerald's works, The Great Gatsby (1925) is a story of a man with a dream that symbolizes the corruption of the American Dream. The novel recounts a summer in New York City when Nick
Carraway meets Jay Gatsby and finds himself involved with the man's wealth and his obsessive desire to make contact with Carraway's cousin, Daisy Buchanan. Through a series of flashbacks, the novel reveals the life of James
Gatz, who discarded his past and created for himself a new name, a new image, and a dream. The Great Gatsby is very much a novel of the early 1920s, the flapper era or the Jazz Age. Much of what is described in the novel is based on fact. Gatsby's parties are based on equally lavish parties that the Fitzgeralds attended while they lived in
Great Neck in 1922, the year in which the novel takes place. Bootleggers and stock swindlers, like Gatsby, were making millions of dollars, and when they were arrested, their cases got a great deal of publicity. The story is told by Nick Carraway in the first person point of view. Nick is a reliable narrator and lives between Gatsby and the
Buchanans. Like Gatsby, he is from the Midwest, but he is related to Daisy and attended school with Tom, so he is really a part of both worlds; however, he represents the middle class.
STUDY QUESTIONS – Write the answers on your own paper in COMPLETE SENTENCES. Answer the entire question.
CHAPTER 1
1.How does the narrator describe Gatsby? What is Gatsby doing at the end of the chapter when Nick first sees him?
2. From where did the narrator come and why? Describe him.
3. Describe the narrator's house. Describe the Buchanans' house.
4. How does Nick know Daisy and Tom?
5. Describe Tom. What is your impression of him in Chapter 1?
6. Describe Daisy. What kind of mother do you think she is?
7. Who is Jordan Baker?
8. What does Miss Baker tell Nick about Tom?
9. The green light, an important symbol in the