The Great Gatsby Chapter 5-9 Study Questions



The Great Gatsby Chapter 5-9 Study Questions

1. As Nick approaches his house at the beginning of the chapter, what does he notice about Gatsby’s house? (hint: it’s at night) Why is Gatsby “glancing into some of the rooms”?

2. After Nick tells Gatsby that he has spoken about “the matter” with Jordan Baker, what does Gatsby try to offer Nick? Why does Nick refuse his offer?

3. On the day of the meeting, who arrives in the morning from Gatsby’s house? On what errand? What might that indicate about the suitability (in Gatsby’s eyes) of Nick’s house for a meeting with Daisy?

4. What is Gatsby’s demeanor just before Daisy arrives for tea? Why?

5. When she finally arrives, what does Gatsby do? How does he make his entrance? Once face to face, how do Gatsby and Daisy respond to one another? What can you tell about how they feel about each other?

6. What is symbolic of Gatsby almost breaking the clock on the mantelpiece?

7. How has Gatsby’s behavior changed when Nick comes back inside after leaving Gatsby and Daisy alone?

8. Does Gatsby really believe, as he tells Daisy, that his house is always full of interesting, celebrated people?

9. How does Daisy react to Gatsby’s house? What about the house surprises Nick? (hint: what does he keep expecting?) Why does Nick compare Gatsby to “an overwound clock”?

10. What does Nick mean when he says that Gatsby “revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from [Daisy’s] eyes”?

11. What does Gatsby do that brings Daisy to tears? What might she really be crying about?

12. After Gatsby points out the green light on Daisy’s dock to her, Nick states “Now it was a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” What does he mean?

13. Why does Nick wonder if after five years, perhaps Daisy can’t possibly meet Gatsby’s expectations?

14. Do you feel this reunion with Daisy was everything Gatsby hoped it would be?

The Great Gatsby Chapter Six

1. Nick refers to Gatsby as the Son of Whom? What do you think he means?

2. What was Jay Gatsby’s real name? What does the change in name signify in terms of Gatsby’s development as an ideal? (hint: what does Gatsby’s dream have to do with his character?)

3. Who is Dan Cody? What role did he play in Gatsby’s life? How much money did he inherit from Cody? Did the money or the experience matter more in shaping Gatsby’s destiny?

4. While at Gatsby’s house one afternoon, who arrives on horseback? How does Gatsby react, and what does he offer them? After Gatsby is invited to a dinner party, how do the others react? What about Gatsby might offend them?

5. When Tom attends one of Gatsby’s parties several weeks later, what is the effect (at least in Nick’s eyes)?

6. How does Gatsby introduce Tom to various people? How does Tom react? Ultimately, how does Daisy feel about the party, the first of Gatsby’s that she has attended?

7. What does Gatsby want Daisy to say to Tom? What do you think Nick’s opinion is of such a desire? To Nick’s consolation that “you can’t repeat the past,” how does Gatsby respond? What does he then go on to affirm?

The Great Gatsby Chapter 7 Study Questions

1. Why does Gatsby fire all his servants at the beginning of the chapter? With who has he replaced them?

2. What is the purpose of Gatsby’s phone call (why doesn’t he simply walk over?) to Nick? What does Nick suspect?

3. Describe the weather on the day of the lunch. How does it play into the events of the chapter?

4. Just after Daisy kisses Gatsby “on the mouth,” who walks in? Why is Gatsby so surprised?

5. After staring at Gatsby for a moment while at lunch, Daisy breaks the gaze and then says, “You always look so cool” (125). How does Nick translate this remark? What effect does it have on Tom? What does he immediately do?

6. Nick begins to say that Daisy’s voice is “full of” something and then interrupts himself. How does Gatsby finish his sentence?

7. Describe the driving arrangement as the group heads into New York? Who drives what? Who sits in whose car?

8. On the way to New York, Tom realizes he needs gasoline and is forced to stop at Wilson’s shop. When Wilson emerges, what does Nick notice about him? What surprising secret does he share with Tom? How does Nick put the two together? Who oversees the entire scene at the gas pumps?

9. Nick observes that there is “no confusion like the confusion of…” what? How is this related to Tom and the two women in his life?

10. Where do they all end up once they arrive in New York? At a moment of extreme tension in the room, what sound “explode[s]” from downstairs? What’s the irony?

11. As Tom begins his relentless interrogation of Gatsby about his claim to be an “Oxford man,” what does Gatsby do to renew Nick’s faith in him? After Tom’s outburst about causing a “row” in his house, how does Tom end his tirade? What does it echo from Chapter One?

12. What does Gatsby tell Tom that he has evidently wanted to say for a very long time? Why does he keep insisting that Daisy repeat it? Why doesn’t she? When she finally does say it, what happens?

13. When Tom reveals the results of his “investigation,” what do we learn about Gatsby?

14. At the end of the horrible scene, what does Nick suddenly realize? With what does the prospect fill him?

15. Who is Michaelis, the young Greek? What is the story he tells at the “inquest”? In particular, how does the story end?

16. As the policeman is taking statements from witnesses, what does Tom hastily confer with Wilson about?

17. After returning to Tom’s house, Nick asks to be left alone outside and then takes a short stroll along the gravel. Whom does he meet? What is his reaction to Nick’s recount of the scene at Wilson’s garage? Who was driving Gatsby’s car?

18. When Nick returns to the house to check on things, what does he see? What does it portend in the relationship between Tom and Daisy? What might they be discussing?

The Great Gatsby Chapter 8

1. When waiting all night for the signal from Daisy, what does Gatsby explain happened? How does it make him feel? What is the effect on “Jay Gatsby” the persona? (hint: what does Tom’s “hard malice” effectively do?)

2. What does Gatsby recall about his first impressions of Daisy and her house five years ago in Louisville? Under what pretenses did he allow Daisy to fall in love with him? What surprised him?

3. When Gatsby left for war, how did Daisy initially cope? What led her to Tom Buchanan? (hint: what was something inside her “crying for”?)

4. When did Gatsby return to Louisville? What happened while he was there that permanently attached his Dream to Daisy herself?

5. At their parting, what does Nick tell Gatsby that he’s “always been glad [he] said”? Why is it ironic?

6. How does Nick’s relationship with Jordan end? Does he seem upset about it?

7. In the episode in the garage, what question does Michaelis continually ask Wilson? When Wilson explains how he told Myrtle, “you may fool me but you can’t fool God,” whose eyes is he staring out at? What might be the significance?

8. Some time during Wilson’s hunt for the owner of that cream car, Nick explains that Wilson had “an easier, surer way of finding out what he wanted to know” – speculate on who this source might be.

9. How does Nick imagine Gatsby’s end? Why, after the death of Gatsby’s Dream, does Nick describe it as a kind of mercy killing, a blessing in disguise?

The Great Gatsby Chapter 9

1. As the chapter opens, what hasty conclusions are drawn about the circumstances surrounding Gatsby’s death?

2. When Nick phones Daisy to inform her, what is the response? How does Meyer Wolfshiem respond? How do the rest of Gatsby’s acquaintances – Klipspringer in particular – respond? What does this indicate about their loyalty?

3. Why does Nick take on the responsibility for Gatsby’s funeral arrangements?

4. When Nick pays a visit to Meyer Wolfshiem at the Swastika Holding Company, what does Wolfshiem tell him about Gatsby’s past? How might this relate to the information gleaned about Gatsby’s post-war life from Chapter VIII? What is Wolfshiem’s parting philosophy about friendship?

(note: in 1925, when The Great Gatsby was published, the swastika was not widely known as a symbol of the Nazi Party, and in fact was simply a popular decorative symbol. And of course, Wolfshiem would not have allied himself with the Nazis, being himself a Jew.)

5. What two poignant mementos from Gatsby’s childhood does his father show Nick? What do they indicate about his character early on?

6. Who surprisingly attends the funeral?

7. Nick concludes, toward the end of the chapter, that upon looking back at the story, he realizes that it was really a story of the… what? How does this declaration implicate all the story’s major characters?

8. What transpires in the final conversation between Jordan and Nick? What does Nick conclude about “honor”?

9. When Nick sees Tom Buchanan “[o]ne afternoon late in October,” what does Tom claim about his role in Gatsby’s death? Does Nick feel more anger or pity? What does he ultimately conclude about people like Tom and Daisy?

10. In the last episode of the book, where is Nick sitting? What does he imagine about the island itself on which he is resting? How is this connected to Gatsby’s Dream and the green light?

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