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The Great Gatsby

Review of F. Scott FitzgeraldChapter 6 Analysis April 2011 – May 2011

+Review, Author – The Way Up

F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896 – 1940 (Laurel Avenue, Minnesota)

Father went bankrupt but he stilled played with the wealthy kids in town Paradox - self-contradictory

Enrolled in WWI, met Zelda Sayre (very animated) – the couple became celebrities of the Jazz Age Had an appetite for excess Expatriate – withdraw from his/her native country

1925 – Charles Scribner’s Sons publishes The Great Gatsby

+Review, Author – The Way Down

F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896 – 1940 (Laurel Avenue, California)

1932 – Zelda suffered a mental breakdown, never recovered

Wrote stories acknowledging his wife’s illness and his own alcoholism

1937 – Fitzgerald relocated to California

1940 – Fitzgerald passed away of a heart attack while writing the novel, The Last Tycoon

+Chapter Six – Analysis

Gatsby “sprang from his Platonic conception of himself,” which refers to that his ideal form

Gatsby modeled himself of an ideal version of Jay Gatsby

Striving to be the man he envisions in his fondest dreams Think about Daisy being unable to fulfill his ideal vision

of her

Gatsby = novels representative of The American Dream Myth of the “self-made man”

+Chapter Six – Analysis

Gatsby leaves St. Olaf college because he feels degraded being a janitor – gross humiliation of what he imagines for himself

This damages his actual circumstances since graduating from a university would enhance social standing

Sensitivity to class – yearns for wealth, sophistication and elegance, which he imagines wealth provides

+Chapter Six – Analysis

Dan Cody/Gatsby Similarities

Early hardships turned to self-made millionaire

Generous to friend and subordinates

Additional analysis

America may no longer be a place where the self-made man can thrive

Cody drinks – cannot make a place for himself Passes away... Treachery of the woman he loves

Foreshadowing

+Chapter Six – Analysis

Awkward luncheon – Old Money vs. New Money

Underlines the hostility of the American 1920s toward the figure of the self-made man

Tom Buchanan and Mr. and Mrs. Sloane treat Gatsby with contempt because he is not of the long-standing American upper class – like East Eggers are

Gatsby may be wealthier than Tom, but is regarded as socially inferior – West Egger

+Chapter Six – Analysis

Daisy

Narrow-minded – East Egger

Symbol of everything that Gatsby wishes to posses Wealth and sophistication

Although she posses these traits, these traits are the reason she cannot fulfill his dreams

She would never sacrifice her own status to be with him Cares more for privilege than Gatsby’s love

+Chapter Six – Key Questions

1. How truthful was Gatsby when he relayed the story his life to Nick? Why does Fitzgerald tell the story of Jay Gatz now?

2. Describe the meeting of Tom and Gatsby. What does this meeting reveal about them?

3. Why did Daisy and Tom find Gatsby’s party loathsome?

4. How did Gatsby measure the success of his party?

5. When Nick told Gatsby that “you can’t repeat the past,” Gatsby replied, “Why of course you can!” Do you agree with Nick or Gatsby?