The Great Gatsby – Chapter 8 - SFR



The Great Gatsby – Chapter 8

1. Ominous signs

a) Read the opening paragraph of this chapter and pick out the ominous signs.

b) How does the house appear now?

2. Read pages 140-143.

In Chapter 1 Nick presents himself as someone that people talk to or confess things to, and here we see that this is the case. Gatsby tells Nick about his life focusing on Daisy.

Pick out reasons why Gatsby fell in love with Daisy.

3. Pages 143-144.

How did their love affair break up?

4. Long Island dawn:

Pick out three elements on page 144 which suggest a sense of death.

5. Louisville

When Gatsby came back from the war, he went to Louisville as if he was going on a pilgrimage. Louisville is Daisy’s hometown. Pick out elements to show that this visit left him with a feeling of failure – see pages 145-146.

6. Nick’s feelings for Gatsby. Pages 146-7. Comment on the following:

a. The fact that Nick misses two trains.

b. Gatsby’s belief that Daisy will telephone.

c. Nick’s parting comment to Gatsby.

d. The symbolism of his pink suit which made “a bright spot of colour on the white steps”.

e. Nick says that “disapproved of him from beginning to end” and yet he refers to his “incorruptible dream.” Explain this contradiction.

7. Nick and Jordan

Why does Nick seem to be disgusted by Jordan: “I couldn’t have talked to her across a tea-table that day …”?

8. After the accident:

The rest of the chapter focuses on George Wilson’s building anger and how it leads to the murder of Gatsby.

a. Michaelis suggests that George seek comfort from different places but we see that George has no such connections. What places does Michaelis suggest?

b. What painful memories does George have?

c. Wilson’s God is the Eckleburg advertisement. Comment on this.

9. Gatsby’s death- pages 153-154

“He had lost the old warm world.” Nick imagines that Gatsby might have had a moment of revelation. What is that revelation and how does it change his way of seeing the world? Pick out appropriate quotes.

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