The Great Gatsby

1. The Great Gatsby Ch. 3 & 4 Important Quotes and Information

2. Characters as Individuals • You need to start thinking about what sort of individuals these characters are: • Self-aware or Self-centered • Nick • Tom • Daisy • Myrtle • Jordan • Gatsby • As you go through the story, consider them and what influences your judgments about them.

3. Truth vs. Gossip • `A momentary hush; the orchestra leader varies his rhythm obligingly for her and there is a burst of chatter as the erroneous news goes around that she is Gilda Gray’s understudy from the “Follies.” The party has begun.’ p. 45 • What is implied about the information that goes around during Gatsby’s parties?

4. Truth vs. Gossip - Gatsby • “…When I was here last I tore my gown on a chair, and he asked me my name and address – inside of a week I got a package from Croirier’s with a new evening gown in it.” • … “There’s something funny about a fellow that’ll do a thing like that,…He doesn’t want any trouble with anybody.” p. 47 - 48

5. Truth vs. Gossip - Gatsby • “Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.” • … “it’s more that he was a German spy during the war.” • …“I heard that from a man who knew all about him, grew up with him in Germany.” • … “You look at him sometime when he thinks nobody’s looking at him. I’ll bet he killed a man.” p. 48 • Do you think any of this is true? What are people basing this gossip on? • What does this exhibit about human nature and society?

6. Owl Eyes and Real Books • “What do you think?” he demanded impetuously. “About what?” …“About that. … They’re real.” “The books?” “Absolutely real – have pages and everything. I thought they’d be nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact they’re absolutely real. Pages and – Here! Lemme show you.” Taking our skepticism for granted he rushed to the bookcases and returned with Volume One of the “Stoddard Lectures.” “See! … It’s a bona fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. … What thoroughness! What realism! …” p. 49 – 50 • What was this man expecting? Why might he be expecting this? Why might people have fake books? • What does this cause you to infer about Gatsby?

7. Jordan on Gatsby • “Who is he?” I demanded. “Do you know?” “He’s just a man named Gatsby.” “Where is he from, I mean? And what does he do?” “Now you’re started on the subject,” she answered with a wan smile. “Well, - he told me once he was an Oxford man.” A dim background started to take shape behind him but at her next remark it faded away. “However, I don’t believe it.” “Why not?” “I don’t know,” she insisted. “I just don’t think he went there.” p. 53 • Do you think Jordan knows anything about Gatsby?

8. Public Gatsby • As I waited for my hat in the hall the door of the library opened and Jordan Baker and Gatsby came out together. He was saying some last word to her but the eagerness in his manner tightened abruptly into formality as several people approached him to say goodbye. P. 57 • Is Gatsby trying to maintain an appearance? Why might he be doing this?

9. Jordan and Honesty • Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever shrewd men … She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage, and given this unwillingness I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard jaunty body. p 63 • Could this cause issues later on between Nick and Jordan?

10. Carelessness & Cars • “You’re a rotten driver,” I protested. “Either you ought to be more careful or you oughtn’t to drive at all.” “I am careful.” “No, you’re not.” “Well, other people are,” she said lightly. “What’s that got to do with it?” “They’ll keep out of my way,” she insisted. “It takes two to make an accident.” “Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself.” “I hope I never will,” she answered. “I hate careless people. That’s why I like you.” p. 63 • What does this exchange reveal about Jordan? What does this exchange reveal about Nick? What does this exchange reveal about their relationship? • Is Jordan’s thinking typical of characters within this book? Why or why not? • What are the possible consequences of this sort of thinking?

11. Nick and the Girl Back Home • Her grey sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires, and I knew that first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home. I’d been writing letters once a week and signing them “Love, Nick,”… p. 63 – 64 • What does this illustrate about Nick as a person and his own honesty? Does he have a right to judge Jordan as dishonest?

12. Gatsby on Gatsby • “I’ll tell you God’s truth. … I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west – all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition.” He looked at me sideways - … “What part of the middle-west?” I inquired casually. “San Francisco.” … “My family all died and I came into a good deal of money.” p. 69 – 70 • Do you believe Gatsby? Why or why not? • What reasons might he have to lie?

13. Mr. Wolfshiem • Gatsby introduces Nick to Wolfshiem and it is revealed later that Wolfshiem helped to rig the “Black Sox” World Series. • What does this possibly imply about Gatsby’s past?

14. Jordan tells Nick About Gatsby and Daisy • Jordan reveals to Nick that Gatsby and Daisy were involved before Daisy was married. Nick then relates this to the reading audience through the book. • What is the problem with the possibility that Jordan is the source?

15. Jordan’s Memory – October 1917 • When I came opposite the house that morning her white roadster was beside the curb, and she was sitting in it with a lieutenant I had never seen before. They were so engrossed in each other that she didn’t see me until I was five feet away. p 79

16. Jordan’s Memory – October 1917 • The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime, and because it seemed romantic to me I have remembered the incident ever since. His name was Jay Gatsby and I didn’t lay eyes on him again for over four years – … p. 80

17. Rumors About Daisy - 1918 • Wild Rumors were circulating about her – how her mother had found her packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say goodbye to a soldier who was going overseas. She was effectually prevented, but she wasn’t on speaking terms with her family for several weeks. After that she didn’t play around with the soldiers any more but only with a few flat-footed, short-sighted young men in town who couldn’t get into the army at all. p 80

18. Daisy Before Her Wedding – June 1919 • In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago … and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. P 80 • … I came into her room half an hour before the bridal dinner and found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress – and as drunk as a monkey. She had a bottle of sauterne in one hand and a letter in the other. P 81

19. Daisy Before Her Wedding – June 1919 • …She groped around in a waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls. “Take ‘em downstairs and give ‘em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ‘em all Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say ‘Daisy’s change’ her mine!’” p 81 • But she didn’t say another word. … Next day at five o’clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver and started off on a three months’ trip to the South Seas. p 81

20. Tom & Daisy After the Honeymoon • I saw them in Santa Barbara when they came back and I thought I’d never seen a girl so mad about her husband. … She used to sit on the sand with his head in her lap by the hour rubbing her fingers over his eyes and looking at him with unfathomable delight. It was touching to see them together … A week after I left Santa Barbara Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl who was with him got into the papers too because her arm was broken – she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel. p 82

21. What do you think about Daisy? • Do you think Daisy loved Gatsby when she was younger? • What do you think the letter was that Daisy was holding the night before her wedding? Why might it have caused her to get drunk? • Why do you think Daisy goes through with the marriage anyway? • Do you think that Daisy loved Tom? • What does Tom’s “accident” shortly after their honeymoon reveal about him and their marriage?

22. Coincidence? • “It was a strange coincidence,” I said. • “But it wasn’t a coincidence at all.” • “Why not?” • “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.” • … “He wants to know –” continued Jordan “-if you’ll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over.” p 83

23. Manipulation • Do you think that Gatsby likes Nick as a friend or is he just manipulating him to get to Daisy? • Why do you think that Jordan is acting as a diplomat between Gatsby and Nick? • Can you trust Jordan, or even Nick, when it has already been revealed that neither are necessarily honest?