THE GREAT GATSBY

Chapter 5 Discussion Questions

1. GATSBY’S OFFER

If Nick had need of money Gatsby’s offer could cause Nick to compromise morally and involve himself with Gatsby’s illegal endeavours. Being that Nick prides himself on his morals Gatsby’s offer could cause Nick to be thrown into a moral crisis.

2. QUESTIONS

Both questions could suggest that things that had previously seemed crucial to Gatsby and Daisy’s lives are now insignificant in the light of new (or revisited) interests. However, given that Daisy did not know the real reason for the invite her question seems to be more playfully devious and mock innocent. Gatsby is just distracted.

3. DISAPPEARANCE

It could indicate that Gatsby is uncertain about himself in these moments and finds it easier to disappear instead of confront the awkward moments of life. Fitzgerald could be suggesting that Gatsby’s presence is always on his terms and is a carefully crafted façade.

4. AWKWARD REUNION

a. The description of Gatsby is very different to what the audience has previously ‘seen’- he is ‘pale as death’, drenched from the rain and miserable. This is the first time we have seen him physically in an awkward situation and the contrast of his appearance is somewhat jarring. He is immensely vulnerable and uncertain. His self-centred, sulking behaviour is embarrassing.

4. AWKWARD REUNION

b. There is a prolonged silence when Daisy and Gatsby meet and the fact that we aren’t in the room (as we are bound to Nick’s presence) only heightens the awkwardness.

c. use of adjectives and adverbs to emphasise the awkwardness – ‘choking’ ‘artificial’ ‘horribly’ strained’ ‘defunct’ ‘distraught’.

4. AWKWARD REUNION

d. the stopped clock is symbolic as time has stopped for Gatsby five years ago. He is trapped in moments- realising he wasn’t wealthy enough for Daisy; his life was put on hold as he began pursuing his dream of reuniting with her – in a sense he has missed out on time/life. Perhaps he has also stopped growing as a person due to being stuck in a moment.

5. EMBARRASSMENT

He can’t believe she is embarrassed. It shows how caught up in himself and the idea of her he is. In the five years she has ceased to be a real person and has become an idealised version of herself in Gatsby’s mind. Hence when Nick suggests her embarrassment, Gatsby does not quite understand how she could be so. In his fantasy he has neglected to provide her with real emotions.

6. NICK’S THOUGHTS

In his thoughts Nick references the German philosopher Emmanuel Kant who would look at a church steeple through his window while he was working/thinking. It tacitly alludes to Nick’s education but could also suggest Nick’s own position as a philosopher of his time- he thinks about the culture he is in rather than get sucked up into its glamour and vice.

6. NICK’S THOUGHTS

His recollection about the brewer’s hope that the villagers would also have their roofs thatched but declined because they did not want to return to ‘peasant’ living, suggests his interest in West Egg’s history. He does not judge the brewer’s children selling the house immediately on their father’s death, but the fact that he mentions it does suggest some unspoken moral judgement.

7. CELEBRATED PEOPLE

Gatsby could be trying to impress Daisy with his importance and connections. Perhaps he feels that Daisy can only be won through material/superficial objects, which she certainly responds favourably to later with his shirts and the ‘response it (his house) drew from her well-loved eyes’.

8. DAISY’S RESPONSES

Daisy is immensely emotional. Her reactions to the beauty of the immense wealth the shirts represents is to cry somewhat irrationally. Her statement about the clouds reveals the dreamlike state in which she seems to live and is also an emotional response to the scene before her. Daisy’s desire to ‘push’ Gatsby around in a cloud as if he were a child reminds us that she is a mother but quite an absent and irresponsible one- she is caught up in the romantic emotional response of things, not the hard truth and demands that reality brings.

9. ENCHANTED OBJECTS

Perhaps there is no more need for an ‘enchanted object’ since the reality is there on Gatsby’s arm utterly absorbed by him. To a human eye or perspective a star appears close to the moon but in truth it is many light years away….

10. SATISFACTORILY ALONE

A paradoxical statement. Perhaps Nick’s presence sanctions their union.

11. OVER-DREAMED

Daisy’s voice is so compelling that it is impossible to over idealise it. It is the one aspect of her that lives up to Gatsby’s idea of Daisy, a danger as Nick is left feeling uncertain if Gatsby is more in love with the idea of Daisy than the reality. Siren song?