The Great Gatsby chapter 1 summative points - Fitzgerald
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Nick Carraway begins narrating the story, introducing himself and the major characters. He analyzes his own character, noting that others confide in him. His father advised him not to judge others. The chapter establishes Nick as an observer of the events in the story who aims to understand and not judge the characters. It hints at themes of new beginnings, wealth, status, and the relationship between past and present that will be explored.
The Great Gatsby chapter 1 summative points - Fitzgerald
- 1. The Great Gatsby Chapter 1 Key Points
- 2. Chapter 1 Nick Carraway begins his narration, introducing himself and the novel’s major characters; He begins with a self-analysis of his own character, pinning down pertinent aspects i.e. men talk to him – he is a listener but is now also a storyteller; He recalls his father’s advice not to judge others and be tolerant – this could be a significant early message in the text.
- 3. Nick’s narration Takes the reader into his confidence; he is sharing with us the recollection of certain significant experiences; It is clear that the act of telling us is part of the cathartic process by which he comes to terms with those experiences and develops understanding of them; As he states it is he, Nick, writing the account, F. Scott Fitzgerald has attributed to him a self- consciousness as a writer.
- 4. Nick’s self-analysis Highlights for us the fact that he is a participant in the novel with his own specific characteristics. His narration is therefore not neutral and the information presented, and his manner of presentation, coloured by his character; Therefore, we need to consider what is revealed about Nick as well as what he discloses about others.
- 5. His father’s advice.. Establishes the novel’s larger concern with the relationship of the present with the past and what is transmitted from one generation to another; The relates to Gatsby’s personal history, his rejection of his parentage etc., but is also relevant to the history of the United States and the breaking away from their European parentage/monarchy, declaring itself a new country, free from the restraints of the past.
- 6. This American commitment to the future, where anything might happen, is also suggested in Nick’s reflection on reserving judgement as a matter of ‘infinite hope’; Note that it is Gatsby’s ‘extraordinary gift for hope’ that ultimately draws Nick to him; This idea of a new beginning has long been associated in the American mind with moving westward – after his experience in the East, he has now returned to the Midwest where he is able to pause and reflect.
- 7. Nick, as a character Four years pass between Nick’s return from the war in 1918 and his move East in 1922 – this may suggest that more than just the war unnerved him. Possibly his failed love affair played more of a part than he admits – Nick does not present himself as an emotional or passionate man but his writing style and language suggests otherwise – reliability?? There are clearly emotional depths to Nick that are not featured in his own self-portrayal – perhaps there are sensibilities or vulnerabilities that he chooses not to disclose or is unable to confront.
- 8. Eggs… Nick and Gatsby both reside in West Egg, the ‘less fashionable’ of the two - its name carries connotations of the westward movement that characterised America’s ‘Frontier’ past. The suggestion is that Gatsby and Nick represent the American ideals that have been lost in the sophisticated cities in the East. This is ironic as both Eggs are on the East Coast. Further irony develops from the name ‘Eggs’ as they seem to promise new life yet are in fact sterile rocks.
- 9. The Buchanans They have spent a year in France, but not on war service, rather in the pursuit of pleasure; F. Scott Fitzgerald describes them as wealthy drifters – their casual, aimless way of life (characterised by Nick’s narration of Daisy’s lack of purpose and focus) establishes the terms for a sharp and revealing contrast with the self-discipline drawn up by the young James Gatz and displayed with pride at the end of the novel by his father, following Gatsby’s death; Tom’s racist comments reveal an American reality of social division by race as well as by class and gender.
- 10. Key developing themes.. The relationship between the New World and the old, European prestige and American money: Importations from Europe are seen as symbols of social status – much is made of Gatsby’s Oxford education, his Rolls Royce car, his mansion with its French design. These items help construct an image but in America are merely a sham, a pretence.
- 11. War and Peace Contrasts exist between Nick’s uncle’s lack of participation in the American Civil War and his business success, and Nick and Gatsby’s involvement in WW1 – it is stressed that Gatsby’s military career is a key to his social advancement: The continuing involvement of America in armed conflict signals the failure of an early American ideal, the aspiration to be a peaceful nation.
- 12. Setting and context The ringing of a telephone is just one indicator that this is a C20th technological environment (we also hear gramophones/see cars/motorboats etc.) – the 1920s was a decade of mass media, mass production and mass consumption in America: The novel therefore raises the issue of individual worth within such a context – ironically Daisy’s name evokes a delicate white flower – her life is conducted in an entirely manufactured environment remote from the natural world.
- 13. Quotations with specific references “Midas and Morgan and Maecenas” – Midas was a legendary king of Phrygia, whose wish that whatever he touched turned to gold was granted by the god Dionysus. He soon realised that this apparent blessing was indeed a curse. John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was an extremely wealthy American financier, who spent large sums in building an art collection. Gaius Maecenas (c.70-8BC) was a Roman diplomat and friend of the Emperor Augustus. His name has become synonymous with generous patronage of the arts.
- 14. Quotations with specific references “the egg in the Christopher Columbus story”: It was suggested to Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) that another explorer would have discovered America, if he had not. In response, he issued a challenge to make an egg stand upright. Only he, by flattening one end, succeeded. It was possible for others but it was he who found the way.
- 15. Quotations with specific references “one of the most powerful ends”: An ‘end’, in American football, is the player at the end of the line, facing the opposition, required to be a good sprinter. “Georgian Colonial Mansion”: An eighteenth century building. The description recalls the revolutionary origin of the US, which in 1776 broke away from colonial rule by the Hanoverian kings.
- 16. Quotations with specific references “The Rise of the Colored Empires by this man Goddard”: Apparently an allusion by F. Scott Fitzgerald to Lothrop Stoddard’s The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy, published in 1920. However, there is a real Goddard to whom Tom is referring: Henry Herbert Goddard, who in his 1912 book, The Kallikat Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble- Mindedness, concluded that social ills were caused by heredity. Lothrop Stoddard drew on Goddard’s work.