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Learning Target(s)

I can further explore the idea of class within the context of characters themselves.

I can unpack the loaded language of race stereotypes, examining how this language affects our present-day reading of the text, and how we might consider historical context when interpreting the text.

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Assignment

Read chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby.
Answer the corresponding study questions.
As you read, note passages within the text that reveal the class/socioeconomic status, and the socio-economic aspirations, of characters within the narrative.

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Study Questions

What does Gatsby tell Nick about himself? Aside from the improbability of his story, what other evidence is there that Gatsby is lying about something when he tells Nick about his background?
What is the significance of Nick’s statements: “Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge?” and “Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder.”
Who is Meyer Wolfsheim? What seems to be his connection with Gatsby? What does this tell us about Gatsby?
Why does Gatsby want to have tea with Daisy at Nick’s house? Why doesn’t Gatsby ask Nick for this favor himself?
With Jordan in his arms, Nick thinks of a phrase: “There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.” How do you think this phrase reflects on the events of the novel so far? Do you think that Gatsby would agree with the phrase?

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Summary

Nick lists all of the people who attended Gatsby’s parties that summer, a roll call of the nation’s most wealthy and powerful people. He then describes a trip that he took to New York with Gatsby to eat lunch. As they drive to the city, Gatsby tells Nick about his past, but his story seems highly improbable. He claims, for instance, to be the son of wealthy, deceased parents from the Midwest. When Nick asks which Midwestern city he is from, Gatsby replies, “San Francisco.” Gatsby then lists a long and preposterously detailed set of accomplishments: he claims to have been educated at Oxford, to have collected jewels in the capitals of Europe, to have hunted big game, and to have been awarded medals in World War I by multiple European countries. Seeing Nick’s skepticism, Gatsby produces a medal from Montenegro and a picture of himself playing cricket at Oxford.

Gatsby’s car speeds through the valley of ashes and enters the city. When a policeman pulls Gatsby over for speeding, Gatsby shows him a white card and the policeman apologizes for bothering him. In the city, Gatsby takes Nick to lunch and introduces him to Meyer Wolfshiem, who, he claims, was responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series. Wolfshiem is a shady character with underground business connections. He gives Nick the impression that the source of Gatsby’s wealth might be unsavory, and that Gatsby may even have ties to the sort of organized crime with which Wolfshiem is associated.

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Summary (cont.)

After the lunch in New York, Nick sees Jordan Baker, who finally tells him the details of her mysterious conversation with Gatsby at the party. She relates that Gatsby told her that he is in love with Daisy Buchanan. According to Jordan, during the war, before Daisy married Tom, she was a beautiful young girl in Louisville, Kentucky, and all the military officers in town were in love with her. Daisy fell in love with Lieutenant Jay Gatsby, who was stationed at the base near her home.

Though she chose to marry Tom after Gatsby left for the war, Daisy drank herself into numbness the night before her wedding, after she received a letter from Gatsby. Daisy has apparently remained faithful to her husband throughout their marriage, but Tom has not. Jordan adds that Gatsby bought his mansion in West Egg solely to be near Daisy. Nick remembers the night he saw Gatsby stretching his arms out to the water and realizes that the green light he saw was the light at the end of Daisy’s dock. According to Jordan, Gatsby has asked her to convince Nick to arrange a reunion between Gatsby and Daisy. Because he is terrified that Daisy will refuse to see him, Gatsby wants Nick to invite Daisy to tea. Without Daisy’s knowledge, Gatsby intends to come to the tea at Nick’s house as well, surprising her and forcing her to see him.

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Activity

Look again at the names on Gatsby’s guest list; put some of the names

into Google.

What connections are there between each name and the results from your Internet search? Why do you think Fitzgerald has done this? Using both the novel and the results from your research above, to compile a guest list identifying:

- who attended;

- their social, economic and professional backgrounds.

What does the guest list tell you about the social hierarchy that