English 11

Mr. Shea

Tiffany Calabrese

The Great Gatsby

GATSBY’S CARGatsby’s car is significant because it is flash and showy just like Gatsby’s personality.

“On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. “

“I’d seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns. Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory , we started to town.”

GATSBY’S HOME

“My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard-it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion.”The importance of Gatsby’s house is that it was directly across from Daisy’s house. It also was used to show Daisy of his wealth and gain her love.

THE GREEN LIGHT“… he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. I glared seaward- and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked back once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.”

The significance of the green light is that it is the location of Daisy's house and Gatsby loves her so much that he holds onto the image of the green light hoping to be with Daisy.

VALLEY OF ASHES“This is a valley of ashes- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air….The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass a non-exisitent nose.”

This is were Tom’s mistress Myrtle lives with her husband Tom.

GATSBY’S PARTY“Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York-every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulp-less halves….In the main hall a bar with real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins a liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that his female guests were to young to know one from another.”The significance of Gatsby's party is that is

big, grand, fancy, and rich all like the young Gatsby. Also Gatsby is like the oranges and lemons. His party guests use Gatsby for his parties and alcohol and when its all done and over they want nothing to do with him.

MYRTLE’S PUPPY“I want to get one of those dogs, she said earnestly. I want to get one for the apartment. They’re nice to have a dog…”

The significance of the dog is that Myrtle wants to be more in life and Tom caters to her and it makes her feel high and mighty.

GATSBY’S PIANO “In the music room Gatsby turned on a solitary lamp beside the piano. He lit Daisy’s cigarette from a trembling match, and sat down with her on a couch far across the room, where there was no light save what the gleaming floor bounced in from the hall.”

I find this significant because Gatsby pressures Killspringer to play the piano to show off a little for Daisy.