Gatsby revision Chapter 9 (last chapter)

Watch ShowMe analysis of

The ending of the novel:
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/03/great-gatsby-15-end-of-novel.html

• ‘I found myself on Gatsby’ side, and alone.’ p.141. How is this so for Nick following Gatsby’s death?
• What do we learn about Gatsby’s background from seeing his father (pp 144-150).
• What are Nick’s feelings as he finally leaves Jordan Baker? (pp. 152-153)
• What are Nick’s feelings at and after his last meeting with Tom Buchanan? (pp153-4).
• Choose three phrases/quotations from the last 25 lines of the book, and accompany each with a short explanation of its importance/significance.

Gatsby revision Chapter 8

Watch ShowMe analyses of-

a)    Gatsby falls in love with Daisy (p.128) - 
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/03/great-gatsby-13-gatsby-falls-in-love.html
b)    Nick and Gatsby’s last meeting (p.133) - 
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/03/great-gatsby-14-nick-and-gatsbys-last.html

• Explain how Gatsby ‘found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail’ (p.129) in pursuing Daisy.
• What is the significance of the weather in this chapter? Give details.
• What are Nick’s feelings on leaving Gatsby (refer also to his call from Jordan Baker)?
• (p.139) What are the most significant things about the description of Gatsby’s death?
• If you had to choose one short passage (c.20 lines) as the key one in this chapter, what would it be? Why? Key quotations?
• Three other useful quotations from the chapter not used already.

Gatsby revision Chapter 7

Watch ShowMe analysis of:-
a)    Tom’s triumph over Gatsby: 
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-10-toms-triumph-over.html 

b)    Myrtle Wilson’s death: 
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-10-toms-triumph-over.html 

c)    Tom and Daisy after Myrtle’s death:
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-12-tom-and-daisy-and.html

• What is Tom’s attitude towards Gatsby?
• How is it (and when is it) that Daisy gives way to Tom and goes back to him?
• What is the purpose and effect of Michaelis’s perspective (pp 117-9)?
• Comment on Myrtle Wilson’s death in the light of our previous discussion about cars and driving.
• If you had to choose one short passage (c.20 lines) as the key one in this chapter, what would it be? Why? Key quotations?
• Three other useful quotations from the chapter not used already.

Gatsby revision Chapter 6

Watch ShowMe analyses of
a)    Tom and Daisy at Gatsby’s party: http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-8-tom-and-daisy-at-gatsbys.html (pp 90-91).
b)    Gatsby’s despair about Daisy: http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-9-gatsbys-despair-about.html (pp 95-6).

• What portrait is given in this chapter of the young James Gatz?
• What is the influence of Dan Cody on Gatz/Gatsby?
• Three short quotations about Gatz’s/Gatsby’s youth.
• Why is Gatsby ‘unutterably depressed’ near the end of the chapter (p. 85)?
• If you had to choose one short passage (c.20 lines) as the key one in this chapter, what would it be? Why? Key quotations?
• Three other useful quotations from the chapter not used already.

Gatsby revision Chapter 5

Watch ShowMe analysis of
‘Daisy and Gatsby meet again’ - 
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-7-gatsby-daisy-meet-again.html

• What is the nature of the meeting between Gatsby and Daisy in Nick’s house (before Nick leaves)? (Heinemann pp74-76).
• What is the nature of the meeting between Gatsby and Daisy when they move to Gatsby’s house?
• What is the significance of the green light at the end of the dock? (refer to the rest of the novel, too).
• In what ways are dreams important in the novel?
• If you had to choose one short passage (c.20 lines) as the key one in this chapter, what would it be? Why? Key quotations?
• Three other useful quotations from the chapter not used already.

Gatsby revision Chapter 4

(no ShowMe analyses from this Chapter: the next one will be from Chapter 5, ‘Daisy and Gatsby meet again’ - http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-7-gatsby-daisy-meet-again.html  )

• What are Nick’s reactions to the stories Gatsby tells him about his past? [pp 57-59, Heinemann]
• Three useful quotations from those pages (above).
• Significant details about Meyer Wolfsheim.
• What is the significance of the references to the World Series fixing of 1919?
• What do we (and Nick) learn from Jordan Baker about the origins of Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship?
• If you had to choose one short passage (c.20 lines) as the key one in this chapter, what would it be? Why? Key quotations?

Gatsby revision Chapter 3

Watch ShowMe analyses of

a)    Gatsby’s parties –
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-5-gatsbys-parties.html
b)    Nick’s first meeting with Gatsby –
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-6-nicks-first-meeting-with.html   

• List examples of Gatsby’s extravagance.
• Nick’s impressions of Jordan Baker, and then his feelings about her.
• Three short quotations on the nature of the people who go to Gatsby’s parties.
• The significance of cars and driving in the novel? Where in this chapter, and where else?
• If you had to choose one short passage (c.20 lines) as the key one in this chapter, what would it be? Why? Key quotations?
• Three more important short quotations from the chapter (not used earlier).

Gatsby revision Chapter 2

Watch ShowMe analyses of -
a)    Valley of Ashes –
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-3-valley-of-ashes.html
b)    Myrtle Wilson’s apartment –
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-4-myrtle-wilsons-apartment.html

• pp23-24: key words on the Valley of Ashes? Quote snippets/single words.
• What is the significance of the Dr T.J. Eckleburg billboard (refer to rest of novel too?)
• Three short quotations about Myrtle Wilson:
• Nick’s feelings when he is at the drinking session in Myrtle’s apartment?
• If you had to choose one short passage (c.20 lines) as the key one in this chapter, what would it be? Why? Key quotations?
• Three more important short quotations from the chapter (not used earlier).

Gatsby Revision Chapter 1

Watch ShowMe analyses of: 

a) Gatsby’s mansion: 
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-1-gatsbys-mansion.html 

b) The Buchanans’ mansion 
http://www.sccenglish.ie/2012/02/great-gatsby-2-buchanan-mansion.html 

1. Notes on Nick Carraway’s background.  
2. Three short quotations encapsulating important things about Nick.  
3. Three short quotations on aspects of Daisy’s character.  
4. Nick’s feelings about the Buchanans after this first meeting?  
5. If you had to choose one short passage (c.20 lines) as the key one in this chapter, what would it be? Why? Key quotations?  
6. Three more important short quotations from the chapter (not used earlier).

Luhrmann's 'Gatsby'

Thoughts for those studying The Great Gatsby, prompted by Baz Luhrmann's new film version:-

1. On one level, Luhrmann makes perfect sense as a director of this book: the cinematic material of the Jazz Age excesses...
2. But he is also perfectly wrong. The novel is completely 'interior'. The central figure is not the semi-cipher and semi-cliche of the title, but the narrator, Nick Carraway. And the subject is not the Jazz Age itself, but Nick's thoughts and feelings about the world he encounters.
3. Luhrmann tries to accommodate this, in the extensive voice-overs (and 'write-overs') by Nick. But the contradiction between the narrative voice in fiction and its poor cousin, the movie voiceover, is exposed in the addition of the framing story of Nick being in some sort of institution and writing (The Great) Gatsby. Nothing in the interior logic of the film itself (let alone the book) justifies this. Nick hasn't been traumatised. And in the book, of course, his voice is balanced and lyrical in its retrospective reflections. Luhrmann has lost his nerve: he is attempting to inject extra 'meaning' into Nick's musings (they don't need that).
4. This loss of nerve accounts for the patchiness of the film - predictably brilliant in the party scenes and the aerial shots of the Eggs and New York City, but dully predictable in the human interactions of the central story (such as the Plaza Hotel scene). The film lacks the complete coherence and vision of the consistently superb Romeo + Juliet - no nerve was lost there. But the anachronistic music does work well, at least touching on R+J's success.
5. The central problem: the novel is a book about a way of seeing, about how a man thinks. Film inevitably provides us with one way of seeing, and Nick's voice-overs compete with what we can now see for ourselves (such as Daisy's tediousness).
6. In her new book, Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of 'The Great Gatsby' Sarah Churchwell says that 'suggestiveness' is at the heart of the novel. Nothing is 'suggested' in this film by this director.
7. Leonardo di Caprio is often a bland actor. Here, he suits the semi-emptiness of his character well.
8. Tobey Maguire sucks the life out of the film, with a dismally poor voicing of the narrative and some terrible reaction shots (but to be fair - see above - he may have had an impossible job).
9. A minor point, but why is Jordan Baker in the film at all? Elizabeth Debicki has virtually nothing to do.
10. Another minor point: in the film we can see for ourselves this white world's dependence on black workers.
11. No film ever changes or damages its source novel. Back to the text.

For an articulate (and enthusiastic) counter-view, read Darcy Moore's post here (and in the first comment below).

Here, TES contributor Helen Amass writes on 'Teaching activities that make the most of what the critics hated.'

And here are four writers' takes on the film in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Plenty of food for thought.

'The Great Gatsby' resources

The Times Educational Supplement and its English site are currently drawing attention to its Great Gatsby teaching resources. Prominent among these are our own video/audio annotations via ShowMe (more coming soon on Macbeth). Our VI form this year will be tackling Gatsby as part of their comparative module.

'Gatsby' in 3-D

Baz Luhrmann's 3-D version of The Great Gatsby comes out at Christmas. The official trailer has just been released, and here it is. Luhrmann's previous of a literary classic, Romeo and Juliet, was widely acclaimed, and his visual style suited that story well. Given the interior nature of Fitzgerald's story, told entirely through the vision of Nick Carraway, this will be a different sort of challenge.

'The Great Gatsby': final page

On this day in 1925, The Great Gatsby was published. Via Roger Ebert's blog, above is Bill Nack's reading of the great final page of the novel, and below, an analysis from our series of ShowMes on key moments in the book.

'The Great Gatsby' 15: the end of the novel

No 15 (and last) in a series of close analyses of key moments in The Great Gatsby looks at the last paragraphs of the novel.

'The Great Gatsby' 14: Nick and Gatsby's last meeting

No 14 in a series of close analyses of key moments in The Great Gatsby. This deals with the last time Nick sees Gatsby, who dies shortly afterwards.

'The Great Gatsby' 13: Gatsby falls in love with Daisy

No 13 in a series of close analyses of key moments in The Great Gatsby. This is when a devastated Gatsby tells Nick about how he first fell in love with Daisy.

'The Great Gatsby' 12: Tom and Daisy and Myrtle's death

No 12 in a series of close analyses of key moments in The Great Gatsby. Here, Nick Carraway sneaks up to the Buchanans' house and observes Tom and Daisy, immediately after Myrtle Wilson's death.

'The Great Gatsby' 11: Myrtle Wilson's death

No 11 in a series of close analyses of key moments in The Great Gatsby. This looks at Myrtle Wilson's tragic and gruesome death.

'The Great Gatsby' 10: Tom's triumph over Gatsby

No 10 in a series of close analyses of key moments in The Great Gatsby. This is the moment when it becomes clear that Daisy has chosen Tom over Gatsby.

'The Great Gatsby' 8: Tom and Daisy at Gatsby's party

No 8 in a series of close analyses of key moments in The Great Gatsby. Here, Tom and Daisy turn up at Gatsby's house for one of his parties.