Study Questions for The Great Gatsby



Study Questions for The Great Gatsby

Chapters 7 & 8

Please write your answers on your own paper.

“Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;

If you can bounce high, bounce for her too,

Till she cry “Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,

I must have you!”

Chapter Seven

1. What change occurs at Gatsby’s on Saturday night?

2. What adverb does Fitzgerald use to describe the way that automobile drove away? What literary device is employed when he refers to the automobiles as if they were in control of their own actions?

3. What has happened to Gatsby’s original servants?

4. What reason does Gatsby give for firing his servants?

5. Who comes to see Gatsby in the afternoons?

6. Nick says, So the whole caravansary had fallen in like a card house at the disapproval in her eyes.” Why has Gatsby made all of these changes in his home?

7. Chapter 7 takes place near the end of the summer. What might this setting symbolize?

8. What simile does Fitzgerald use to describe how Daisy and Jordan are lying on the couch? What colors mentioned? What is important about these colors?

9. Gatsby stands on the crimson carpet as he learns that Tom is in the house. What might the color of the carpet and the placement at his feet symbolize?

10. Daisy tells Gatsby: “You know I love you.” Is she telling the truth? Why or why not?

11. What had Gatsby not believed in the existence before this day?

12. What metaphor does Daisy use to describe her child?

13. Jordan says, “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” How is Jordan’s statement ironic? (Hint: Think about what happens in nature in the fall of the year.)

14. Why does Tom suddenly decide that going into town is a good idea?

15. What does Gatsby recognize Daisy’s voice as being full of?

16. What remark does Tom make about the drug store?

17. Whose eyes continue to watch in the Valley of Ashes?

18. Why do Tom, Jordan, and Nick stop at Wilson’s garage?

19. What car is Tom driving when he stops at Wilson’s?

20. What is wrong with Wilson?

21. What color is Gatsby’s car – the one that Tom is driving?

22. What does Wilson reveal to Tom about Myrtle’s wants?

23. What has Wilson discovered about his wife?

24. List two ways in which Tom and Wilson are alike?

25. Who is watching Tom, Nick, Jordan, and Wilson?

26. Who is Myrtle really watching? Whom does she believe this person to be?

27. Fill in the blank: “There is ______ ____________ like the ___________ of a _____________ ___________________________.”

28. What two people are slipping from Tom’s control?

29. What is happening beneath the parlor suite at the Plaza Hotel as Tom and Daisy’s marriage is dissolving? What literary device is being employed here?

30. What causes Nick to have a renewal of his faith in Gatsby?

31. Tom gives an intense lecture about the family institution. How is this lecture ironic?

32. What does Gatsby tell Tom about Daisy’s love?

33. Why does Daisy not marry Gatsby?

34. Tom proclaims, “And what’s more, I love Daisy, too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back , and in my heart I love her all the time.” Think deeply. Do Tom and Daisy really love each other?

35. What, specifically, does Gatsby want Daisy to tell Tom?

36. What confuses Gatsby about Daisy’s love for him?

37. What can Daisy not say about her love for Tom?

38. What does Daisy plan to do?

39. What does Gatsby really sell at his drug stores?

40. Once again we have the possible allusion to the Garden of Eden. Nick notices in Gatsby’s face “the babbled slander of his garden.” What has happened to Gatsby’s dream?

41. What adjective does Fitzgerald use to describe Gatsby’s dream? Why is this adjective so appropriate to the story?

42. Why does Tom allow Gatsby to ride home with Daisy?

43. Who is having a birthday? How old is she?

44. Nick observes that ______________________ ______________ has its limits.

45. What events or ideas does Nick associate with being 30?

46. What do Tom, Nick, and Jordan drive on toward in the “cooling twilight”? Hint: This is an example of foreshadowing.

47. What has Wilson done to Myrtle?

48. What does Michaelis witness in front of his restaurant?

49. Tom excitedly approaches the wreck. What changes his emotion?

50. A “well-dressed Negro” identifies the car which killed Myrtle. What color does he say that the car is? Using your inference skills, who are the two possible murderers?

51. How does Tom express his emotions on the way home?

52. Tom believes that Gatsby has killed Myrtle. What action does he suggest to be why he identifies Gatsby as a coward?

53. Who is waiting in the bushes outside the Buchanan house? Why is that person there?

54. Who was driving the “death car”?

55. How does Gatsby d3escribe Myrtle’s approach to the car?

56. Fitzgerald writes, “They weren’t happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale – and yet they weren’t unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.” Think about these words carefully. Do you think Tom and Daisy love each other? Explain your answer in detail.

57. What does Nick say Gatsby is watching over?

Chapter Eight

1. What happened in the previous chapter that causes Nick to lose sleep?

2. Why does Nick suggest Gatsby go away?

3. What is Gatsby clutching to?

4. What increases Daisy’s value in Gatsby’s eyes?

5. Gatsby takes Daisy under false pretenses. What are these false pretenses?

6. When does Gatsby find out that Daisy has moved on? How does she notify them?

7. Why does the servant plan to drain the pool? What season is approaching?

8. Nick says, “I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end.” Why would Nick give someone he disapproves of such a compliment as “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.”

9. What has changed Nick’s feelings for Jordan?

10. Why does George Wilson not go to his garage?

11. Michaelis tells George: “You ought to have a church, George, for times like this.” How is this a commentary on the morals of society?

12. What is in the drawer Michaelis opens?

13. Who does Wilson identify as being God?

14. Where does Wilson reappear after he disappears from his garage?

15. Where does Gatsby go that he hasn’t gone all summer?

16. What does Wilson do to Gatsby?

17. What completes the “holocaust”?

18. In literature, water can symbolize many things. It most often symbolizes baptism, a cleansing, a rebirth. Gatsby has “paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.” What could his death in a pool of water signify about the man and his life?

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