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Title: Great Gatsby Chapter 1 Analysis
Description: Analysis of chapter one of the Great Gatsby, including useful quotes and there meanings, character quotes, summary and important themes

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Chapter  1  the  Great  Gatsby    
Summary    
1924  –  Nick  Carraway  has  returned  to  the  Midwest  and  is  writing  a  book  about  events  that  occurred  
a  couple  of  years  earlier,  when  he  was  living  on  Long  Island,  New  York,  in  a  suburban  village  called  
West  Egg    
 Narration  with  some  self-­‐analysis
...
 Nick  was  sent  to  France,  as  a  soldier,  during  the  First  World  War
...
   
 Visits  Tom  Buchanan’s  house,  an  acquaintance  from  Yale  University
...
 Tom  is  physically  powerful  and  extremely  rich
...
   
Tom  makes  racist  comments    
Jordan  tells  Nick  that  Tom  is  having  an  affair  with  ‘some  woman  in  New  York’  (p
...
   
 Nick  catches  first  glimpse  of  Gatsby
...
 Material  wealth  or  set  of  values,  attitudes,  or  expectation  
Compare  Gatsby’s  personal  history  with  the  history  of  the  American  republic,  which  declared  
its  independence  from  British  rule  in  1776    
The  word  West,  links  Nick  and  Gatsby  to  a  widely  held  belief  that  life  in  America  is  all  about  
hope  and  possibility
...
7)  what  is  normal?  Nick  sees  himself  as  not  normal,  different  from  everyone  else;  
apart  from  his  father,  a  loner
...
7)  –  bad  thing,  something  that  Nick  does  not  want  to  be,  he  wants  
to  be  liked    
‘Infinite  hope’  (p
...
9)  –  educated,  
most  people  would  say  25  years,  again  linking  to  his  abnormality
...
10)  –  juxtaposing  ideas  as  specialists  
don’t  tend  to  be  well  rounded  they  only  specialise  in  one  area
...
10)  –  because  he  is  pointing  this  out  he  believes  that  he  is  strange  and  therefore  
making  sure  that  the  audience  knows  he  has  not  picked  this  place  on  purpose,  will  find  similar  
people    
‘my  own  house  was  an  eyesore’  (p
...
11)    
‘you  remind  me  of  a  rose’  ‘this  was  untrue
...
12)  –  closed  off,  not  friendly  or  open,  keeps  distance,  does  not  
like  to  tell  people  her  problems    
‘Two  old  friends  who  I  scarcely  knew  at  all’  (p
...
14)  –  juxtaposing    
‘Do  they  miss  me?’  she  cried  ecstatically’  (p
...
17)  –  these  wealthy  women  seem  to  have  all  they  need
...
17)  –  daisy  focuses  upon  her  injured  finger
...
17)  –  impersonal  eyes  –  eyes,  sight  and  
vision  form  an  important  thematic  thread  running  through  
‘We’ve  got  to  beat  them  down’  whispered  Daisy’  (p
...
19)  –  enjoying  herself  in  the  sun,  as  it  leaves  she  realises  it  is  dark  –  pure/sin    
‘Flutter  of  a  dress  and  the  crunch  of  leather  boots,  and  tom  and  daisy  were  back  at  the  table’  (p
...
22)  –  girls  have  an  unfair  
advantage  to  boys,  no  equality,  no  freedom,  possessed    

‘I  hope  she’ll  be  a  fool  –  that’s  the  best  thing  a  girl  can  be  in  this  world,  a  beautiful  little  fool’  (p
...
22)  –  she  wasn’t  born  a  fool,  she  
has  ambition,  but  rarely  shows  it      
Tom  
‘Her  husband,  among  various  physical  accomplishments,  had  been  one  of  the  most  powerful  ends  
that  ever  played  football’  (p
...
11)    
‘Standing  with  his  legs  apart  on  the  front  porch’  (p
...
12)  –  juxtaposing  as  the  eyes  are  the  
window  to  the  soul,  not  a  very  likeable  character    
‘Just  because  I’m  stronger  and  more  of  a  man  than  you  are’  (p
...
13)  –  powerful,  man  in  charge  over  the  women,  can  control  them    
‘If  we  don’t  look  out  the  white  race  will  be  –  will  be  utterly  submerged’  (p
...
18)    
‘Tom  interrupted  her  by  shifting  heavily  in  his  chair’  (p
...
18)  –  conveys  Tom’s  
forcefulness  and  violent  nature,  sets  the  scene  in  the  cultural  context  of  race  relations  in  1920’s  
America,  strong  contrast  between  Tom’s  pessimism  and  Gatsby’s  optimism      
‘As  for  tom,  the  fact  that  he  had  some  woman  in  New  York  was  really  less  surprising  than  that  he  
had  been  depressed  by  a  book’  (p
...
14)    
‘Her  chin  raised  a  little’  (p
...
16)  makes  the  reader  tired  too    

‘Impersonal  eyes’  (p
...
 ‘  they  oughtn’t  to  let  her  run  around  the  country  this  
way’  (p
...
22)  –  womanly  duties    
Gatsby  
‘Gatsby,  who  represented  everything  for  which  I  have  unaffected  scorn’  (p
...
8)    
‘If  personality  is  an  unbroken  series  of  successful  gestures,  then  there  was  something  gorgeous  
about  him’  (p
...
8)  –  similar  to  Nick,  has  lots  of  hope,  better  than  Nick
...
 No  –  Gatsby  turned  out  all  right  in  the  end’  (p
...
8)  –  end  of  the  war,  Europe  is  east  from  America
...
8)  –  wanted  everyone  to  have  experienced  the  same,  
nervous  to  come  back  on  his  own;  needs  support
...
   
‘And  at  a  sort  of  moral  attention  forever’  (p
...
9)  –  personification,  
countryside  is  more  welcoming  than  the  industrial  city    
‘weather-­‐beaten  cardboard  bungalow’  (p
...
9)  –  sun  makes  the  leaves  burst  out,  quick    
‘Life  was  beginning  over  again  with  the  summer’  (p
...
10)  –  most  people  specialise,  not  
many  take  different  angles  at  life  
‘Most  domesticated  body  of  salt  water  in  the  Western  hemisphere’  (p
...
11)  –  country  taking  over  the  house  
‘Marble  swimming  pool’  (p
...
11)  –  no  aim,  no  ambition,  born  into  money    
‘the  lawn  started  at  the  beach  and  ran  towards  the  front  door  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  jumping  over  
sundials  and  brick  walls  and  burning  gardens  –  finally  when  it  reached  the  house  drifting  up  the  side  
in  bright  vines  as  though  from  the  momentum  of  its  run’  (p
...
12)  –  ‘  they  had  spent  a  year  in  France  for  no  
particular  reason’  (p
...
13)    -­‐  juxtaposing  something  that  should  be  nice  with  something  that  smells  bad  
oxymoron  
‘We  walked  through  a  high  hallway  into  a  bright  rosy-­‐coloured  space’  (p
...
13)  –  inside  is  more  
pure  than  the  earth    
‘A  breeze  blew  through  the  room’  (p
...
 They  were  both  in  white’  
(p
...
 White  –  purity  
‘Each  light  deserting  her  with  lingering  regret,  like  children  leaving  a  pleasant  street  at  dusk’  (p
...
22)  –  light  
should  be  shining  on  the  angel  likeness  of  her  hair,  not  his  boots,  he  is  superior
...
25)  –  shows  how  big  it  is    
 
   
 
 
 
 
 


Title: Great Gatsby Chapter 1 Analysis
Description: Analysis of chapter one of the Great Gatsby, including useful quotes and there meanings, character quotes, summary and important themes