The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby

• Chapter Four

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Learning Objectives

• Develop the symbolic aspects of Gatsbys car and
  why it is important
• Increase your understanding of Gatsbys
  mysterious character and why we cant trust him
• Focus on Meyer Wolfsheim and understand how he
  adds another dimension to Gatsbys character

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THINK/PAIR/SHARE

• THINK about the three most important
  things/events/issues that occurred in chapter 4.
• PAIR discuss your ideas with the person beside
  you.
• SHARE as a group, share your ideas and decide
  on the top three things you should know about
  this chapter.

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Chapter Summary

• Gatsby visits Nicks house for the first time,
  and talks of his wartime experience.
• They travel into the city, where Gatsby
  introduces Nick to Meyer Wolfsheim.
• Later, Jordan tells Nick about Daisys past, her
  brief love affair with Gatsby, and her subsequent
  marriage to Tom.

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The Animal Kingdom

• Nick refers to an old timetable containing a
  list he made in the summer of 1922 of the
  visitors to Gatsbys back yard, those who paid
  him subtle tribute of knowing nothing whatever
  about him. He lists characters whose names bear
  allusions to animals of various descriptions.
  Each of these animals carry negative
  associations, and are shown to belong to the
  power-hungry, parasitical jungle Nick had already
  outlined in chapter 3.

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The Animal Kingdom

• Some of the animals are horned and masculine in
  nature the Hornbeams, Blackbucks (note
  reference to dirty money), Hammerheads and
  Cecil Roebuck. Some are animals characterised by
  their wily, industrious natures the Leeches,
  Rot-gut Ferret and Edgar Beaver. Another
  distinct group are characterised by their
  association to fish and pungent smells the
  Fishguards, Ripley Snells, Mrs Ulysses Swett,
  S.B. Whitebait. Faustina OBrien also reminds us
  of the legend of Faust, the character who sold
  himself to the devil. All of these characters,
  with their weirdly negative world associations
  are shown, by their lack of interest in Gatsby,
  who sold out to the world of glamour and
  wealth.

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Gatsbys Car

• We have already discussed the symbolism related
  to cars in previous chapters but today we will
  focus on Gatsbys.
• A potent symbol throughout the entire novel, the
  care is shown to be both an indicator of status
  and a harbinger of doom.
• As a group, find three quotes which describe his
  car from the opening pages of chapter 4 and
  explain what you think it symbolises.

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Gatsbys Car

• Gatsbys car is described as being swollen here
  and there in its monstrous length and like a
  green leather conservatory. Gatsbys car, then,
  is more like a home in its proportions, being
  terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that
  mirrored a dozen suns. The green of the
  leather symbolises wealth in its connection to
  the green dollar, but it also subtly associated
  with the green light at the end of Daisy's dock.
  We are reminded throughout the entire novel that
  the entire show the car, the house, the parties
  and the possessions all exist in order to
  recapture her.

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Gatsby and Nick

• Look over the conversation Nick and Gatsby have
  in the car on the way to New York.
• As a group, discuss what we learn about Gatsbys
  character and how Nick feels about him. Think
  about
• Gatsby's restlessness
• His attitude towards all his objects
• The information (lies?) he tells Nick about his
  life
• Quotes which describe the way he says those
  facts
• Whether Nick believes him or not
• You must refer closely to the text and provide
  quotations and analysis.

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Gatsby and Nick

• Gatsbys possessions do not make him happy. He
  seems to get no intrinsic pleasure from the
  collected artefacts around him and seems
  self-consciously aware of the pretence upon which
  he has built his public persona. As such he
  chokes on his lie to Nick that he was educated
  at Oxford and seems burdened by an intense
  energy he was never quite still there was
  always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient
  opening and closing of a hand. He seems to be
  aware that he could be exposed at any time
  unlike the complacent Tom, who revels
  luxuriously in the splendour of his castle,
  Gatsby seems never to be at rest with himself.

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Gatsby and Nick

• He props up his history with handy objects of
  authenticity such as war medal and photographs of
  his time at Oxford, almost like a man on the run
  from the law. His stores are overblown,
  unrealistic and tinged with equal measure of
  fantasy and self-pity (note the way he keeps
  referring cryptically to the sad thing that
  happened to me and, how, when the war came, he
  tried very hard to die in order to forget it!)
  These unwittingly comical reflections stretch his
  credibility to the limit and Nick is left feeling
  more annoyed than interested in the favour that
  Gatsby has asked him.

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Meyer Wolfsheim

• Critics have poured scorn on Fitzgeralds open
  caricature of Wolfsheim, who seems to embody a
  very stereotypical Jewish man. In reality,
  though, it is worth remembering that Fitzgerald
  portrays white Anglo-Saxon Protestants with equal
  distaste and that he doesn't single out the
  Jewish community for any specific invective.

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Meyer Wolfsheim

• As a group, discuss the importance of this
  character and why he is introduced to the novel.
  Think about
• What he reveals about Gatsby
• Your own impressions of this character
• How he is described
• His purpose and role

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Particularly distasteful character who has a
shallow way of conducting two conversations at
once.
Wolfsheim
Constantly looks around him as if to evade
detection from the forces of the law.
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Meyer Wolfsheim

• Gatsby reveals he is the person who fixed the
  World Series in 1919, therefore connecting him to
  characters like Jordan baker who openly cheat in
  order to gain privilege. His preoccupation with
  Gatsbys Oggsford education is another
  indicator of the premium given to Anglican values
  among the wealthy classes.
• Wolfsheim is shown to represent the cut-throat
  impersonal world of big business, where the
  players eat each other alive. Nick is
  understandably disconcerted by him and his
  connection to Gatsby makes us question his
  ethics.

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Meyer Wolfsheim

• Nicks perceptions of Meyer Wolfsheim is markedly
  different from the view held by Gatsby. In the
  narrative, Wolfsheims reconstruction of the
  death of Rosy Rosenthal follows Gatsbys account
  of his own history and precedes Jordan's
  recollection of her encounter with Daisy and the
  handsome young lieutenant. The placing of Nicks
  narrative of Wolfsheims tale of violence among
  gangsters inevitably causes sinister overtones to
  reverberate into the framing glimpses of Gatsby's
  past.
• Gatsby is dually presented as a heroic soldier
  and innocent lover as well as hinting at his
  corruption.

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Narrative Deviation

• At this point, Nick re-tells the story of Gatsby
  and Daisys love affair from Jordans point of
  view. He relates her words as if they were
  exactly as he remembers them of the October in
  1917.
• Does this effect the reliability of Nicks
  narrative style?
• Can Jordan be trusted to tell the truth?
• She has already been shown as a liar do we feel
  comfortable hearing the story from her
  perspective?

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Daisy Marriage to Tom

• Jordan recalls her meeting with Daisy, five years
  previously, Daisys surname prior to her marriage
  was Fay.
• In groups, discuss what important information
  Jordan gives the reader (and Nick) about Daisy
  and Gatsbys past. Remember to justify your
  response with quotes and chart the differing
  emotions Daisy has about the different men in her
  life.

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Daisys Men

• Jordan tells how Daisy had been the most popular
  girl in their Louisville hometown when they were
  growing up. The colour white is mentioned in
  connection to her three times, thus establishing
  her as the archetypal fairy-virgin whose parents
  dont approve of the relationship she has formed
  with a young soldier (Gatsby) and force her to
  finish with him.
• She is shown to get over this disappointment
  quickly by becoming engaged to Tom Buchanan the
  next February, Jordan, her bridesmaid, tells of
  how she discovered Daisy drunk on her bed on the
  day of her wedding breakfast, clutching a letter
  in her hand (from Gatsby) and crying
  uncontrollably. Significantly, she attempts to
  toss away the 350,000 pearl necklace Tom had
  given her as an engagement present and says she
  has changed her mind. This fickle tendency to
  change her mind will become even more significant
  at the end of the novel.

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Daisys Men

• The letter and the pearl necklace are important
  symbols of stability and status at this crisis
  point in Daisys life. As Gatsbys letter come
  apart in hands like snow, her decision seems to
  have been made for her. Gatsbys love is
  perceived as transient and unstable, whereas
  Toms version of love represents rock solid
  permanence, by virtue of its immutable wealth.
• She didnt say another word. We gave her spirits
  of ammonia and put ice on her forehead and hooked
  her back into her dress, and half an hour later,
  when we walked out of the room, the pearls were
  around her neck and the incident was over.

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Daisys Men

• Daisy, through choice, has become an emblem of
  Toms old money. She abandons her romantic urges,
  casts off her emotional coat and embarks on a
  marriage which will offer stability of status.
  Note the effort of the others to ice her into
  submission, cooling her truer passion for the man
  she loved, and they way they hook her into her
  dress. For she has, indeed, become a piece of
  meat in this transaction. This is borne out in
  Jordans recollection of how Tom began cheating
  on her almost immediately after the wedding was
  over, as well as his love of alcohol.
• Jordan then informs Nick that Gatsby's favour
  is to ask him to invite Daisy round to his house
  for tea, in an attempt to rekindle an affair that
  had been extinguished by ice and snow years
  earlier.

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Homework

• Read Chapter 5 for Monday!