The Great Gatsby Analysis of Chapters 1-4

(note that I have annoyingly worded these as questions, leaving them for you to reword as topics. I have also liberally used “you,” (and “your”), which words you are absolutely not allowed to use in this assignment). You must use the fill-in-the-blank structure below, with my exact wording:

Chapter 4  allows Fitzgerald to explore[1] the larger issue of the importance of eating fibre regularly.  He is clearly suggesting that although eating fibre is terribly important, sometimes people have to eat some meat as well.  This idea is then developed throughout The Great Gatsby.

Go on to add an explanation to the end of this claim, mentioning specifics from the chapter, that make it clear that Fitzgerald really does seem to be exploring this idea in chapter 4, and that you aren’t simply making stuff up:

... meat as well.  Fitzgerald three times mentions John eating a bran muffin, first at the baseball game, and then later at the horse races. He also, however, eats a hotdog while he is there. All of this makes  Fitzgerald’s views as to a healthy diet for the wealthy upper class very clear.

 The Writer Being Artful (Use section 4 to learn how to back up these points)

Do several of the following for each chapter, using the fill-in-the-blank structure and a new paragraph for each one, to talk about authorial choices (more than two per section below would be excessive. Use at least one quotation from the book per chapter for a – c and also one for d.):

a)    Characterization (personality):

The characters in Gatsby are often amoral and superficial, lacking any kind of virtue or moral compass.  They are also bored and vainly in search of having a point to their “successful” lives.  Talk about that.

• (For a new character):  Chapter 3 sees Fitzgerald introducing the readers to Jessica, who immediately strikes them as rude and aggressive.
• Fitzgerald (begins to establish/further establishes) that Nick is an angry person.
• Fitzgerald here presents Nick as taking important steps toward fulfilling his goal of finding things to do to fill in all of his ample free time.  He purchases a BMX bike, which he rides in the town square, among the pigeons.  Nick has nothing else to do.

b)    Setting:

• Fitzgerald is known for using place, especially landscape and weather, to convey the inner landscape of the characters in his writing. (include these exact words ^ in your analysis.) 
• Fitzgerald frequently uses his descriptions of the landscape, and of the places people live and work, to instill a lingering mood in the reader. (include these exact words ^ in your analysis.)

(Back it up like this: When Fitzgerald writes that winter has come, with a biting wind, this reveals Gatsby’s thoughts and feelings at this point.  Gatsby is facing financial ruin, and his future looks as bleak as the view out the window of the house he will soon no longer be able to afford. 

c)   “One-off” Symbolism

(stick to physical objects (not people) for this exercise. The physical representing the abstract.):

Fitzgerald seems to be using the neighbor’s fatally ill parakeet to represent how Nick’s hope is slowly dying.

d)    Recurring Symbols/Imagery:

You must use a direct quotation from the book every single time you cite something in the Recurring Symbols/Imagery section.   And quotes from this section are going to be used in The Recycled Essay assignment, so quote away.  In Gatsby, Fitzgerald makes endless, unsubtle use of the following:

• Floral imagery, especially to discuss Daisy “Flower Name” Buchannan, who is like a hothouse orchid; drooping, pretty, all white and gold, but ultimately she can only function as an expensive decoration.  Other women also offer floral imagery in the book.  Clothes, too.
• “Money colours,” mainly silver, gold and green.  Also copper and nickel.  The book is about wealth.
• Automobiles.  These are status symbols for the wealthy, and also show their misuse of mobility, money and power, in how they are misused.  If you cite this one, tell whether the automobile is mainly showing power, money, mobility or misuse of same.
• The fading, painted eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, which seem to watch, but don’t see anything.  Eckleburg makes one think Fitzgerald is presenting a painted God who is now a thing of the past, certainly not actually watching, or if so, not intervening or playing any part in the lives of the godless, superficial characters.

Back it up like this: When Fitzgerald writes that Daisy wears “ a green dress, green as a dollar bill and as crisp,” he is once again employing the money imagery with which The Great Gatsby is so rife. (I’m actually looking for a correct use of the word “rife,” here.)

 Backing Up Your Points

For sections 2 and 3, you are going to claim a number of things both about how Fitzgerald put the novel together, and about what specifically he is saying with it. 

Things rather like:

Fitzgerald is suggesting the American Dream is not achievable for just anybody, unless they cheat or are unusually lucky. 

Things almost, but not exactly, like:

Fitzgerald is choosing to make Gatsby’s car the same colours as the Canadian five dollar bill to further associate Gatsby with money and exotic things.

Things precisely like:

Fitzgerald has the weather and seasons in Gatsby reflect the mood of his characters.

Well, you’re going to need to back statements like these up.  You need to support your claims. You can’t just claim claims and leave them sitting there all lonely.  Vital to demonstrate that you’re not just imagining or making all of this up, but that there is some support in the actual book for what you’re saying it does and says.  Otherwise you’re wasting your time.  So use one or both of two methods:

a)   Quotation

This is the strongest, simplest way to make yourself look right.  You start a sentence, and have Fitzgerald himself, from beyond the grave, finish your sentence for you.  How right does that make you look?  You do the first half, he does the second:

Fitzgerald is choosing to make Gatsby’s car the same colours as the Canadian five dollar bill.  When Fitzgerald introduces the car, he writes that the car is “cream coloured, decorated with nickel and with a bright, Tardis-blue interior that [strikes Nick][2] as both expensive and quintessentially Canadian.” (p 89)

Note that you start with Fitzgerald’s name (never simply saying “the author”) and the book’s title (never simply saying “the novel”).  If in a paragraph you have named both, subsequent sentences in that one paragraph may resort to pronouns like “he” and “it.”  Also note that when quoting bits of dialogue, entire conversations are very awkward to try to quote, due to changing speakers. So don’t.

b)   Explanation

To do this, once you’ve made a very specific claim, you will then make very specific reference to very specific things in the novel itself.  You may, if absolutely necessary, make very brief, very specific reference to an event that happened in the book.  You may not go on for more than perhaps two sentences, simply retelling an entire scene. Don’t retell a scene from the book in detail. Be as concise as you can.

Fitzgerald uses chapter 16 to explore the idea that material, financial and social success are insufficient to give a person’s life meaning.  This is evident when Fitzgerald describes Nick going uptown and buying opium, to try to give his life whatever it is currently missing.  A recovering addict, Nick is now about to fall off the wagon, causing more trouble for the whole affluent, old money social circle of which he has become a part.

 Exemplar

Do each chapter analysis just like this (only don’t make up stuff that’s not in the book).  Recording page numbers for the quotations will enable you to find them later for The Recycled Essay.