The Great Gatsby Ch 4-6 

1) Do you believe the story of Gatsby's life as he tells it to Nick in chapter 4?  Why or why not? 

2. Why do you think Daisy married Tom Buchanan? Why do you think Tom married  Daisy? 

3. What does the green light symbolize? 

4. What do you see as the difference between Tom's wealth and Gatsby's wealth? 5. Comment on the reunion of Daisy and Gatsby at Nick's house. Do you think either is  disappointed in the other? Explain. 

6. Make a prediction concerning the future for Gatsby and Daisy. Provide evidence to  support your view. 

7. Gatsby disagrees when Nick tells him, "You can't repeat the past." Do you think it's  possible to repeat the past? Explain. 

8. In an academic paragraph discuss if Gatsby is indeed "Great."

Answer each question and the paragraph needs to 250 to 350 words from the book the great Gatsby

 

Answer:

1. Nick believes Gatsby's education and family background because of the tangible evidences that he shows him. Nick is able to see with his own eyes all the things that will make all Gatsby's stories as real and credible: "There was Gatsby, looking a little, not much, younger — with a cricket bat in his hand. Then it was all true" (4). I also believe in him for he is able to show souvenir and photographs which are hard to fake especially in those time and he seem to be confident in what he is saying: "Here's another thing I always carry. A souvenir of Oxford days. It was taken in Trinity Quad — the man on my left is now the Earl of Dorcaster" (Fitzgerald, 4).

2. Daisy's obessions over luxury that she is able to to throw away her love for Gatsby to marry Tom who is rich.  When Gatsby suddenly became rich, Daisy sparks Gatsby's hope that she still loves him but in fact, she is just blinded by wealth and the glitz and glamour that Gatsby now has.

Daisy knows what she wants and is sure of it. She wants a comfortable life and that the American Dream is to be secure and confident as she knows the future will be bright through marrying the rich Tom Buchanan. "She wanted her life shaped now, immediately—and the decision must be made by some force—of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality" (Fitzgerald, 6) while Tom married Daisy to fulfill his manly desire to be dominant as Daisy is submissive to him, it feeds his ego and pride.

3. This green light symbolizes his love for Daisy as this light hangs at the end of Daisy's dock, and his love for fortune and the American Dream as this light so elusive and powerful, Gatsby always watches it each night: "Involuntarily I glanced 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 once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again
in the unquiet darkness" (1).

4. Tom symbolises old money, in the sense that his family worked hard and becomes rich therefore, their richness is passed onto him and Tom continues to make his name when he was young especially that his name was known in sports and in college, while Gatsby represents new money for he engaged in illegal means such as bootlegging in order to gain richness: "Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had
been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven — a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax. His family were enormously wealthy — even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach" (1).

5. Daisy and Gatsby seem to be shy initially but the happy feeling of meeting an old lover was shown by the way they talk to each other. They finally rekindled the love and recalls their past and it gives Gatsby a positive feeling that finally, he will win Daisy back: He was consumed with wonder at her presence. He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock." (5).

6. With their meeting, I cam predict that they will be back together and Daisy will choose Gatsby because he is her first love and now Gatsby is rich, he also has money which Daisy obsesses about: "But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He litterally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exulatation a new weir being radiated from him and filled the little room" (5).

7. I believe that we cannot repeat the same event from the past for an event can only be lived in the moment. We may experience similarities from the past to the present times but we really cannot reduplicate the past in a hundred precent accuracy.

8. The theme of the American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is shown through the characters of Daisy and Gatsby. People in the roaring twenties are still adjusting to the effects of the world war and they start a new life. The rise of industrialization and the desire for luxury is the consequence of the people's dream to once again experience comfortable life just like what it is before the war.

The American Dream can be found Great Gatsby chapter 6 that shows the early life and the poor background that Gatsby has and what he did in order to survive his poor life to achieve his dream: "To the young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, the yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world" (Fitzgerald, 6). Gatsby grew up in up poor and unhappy family and extravagant yacht is an image which inspires the ultimate dream for Gatsby. The yacht is a representation of wealth and success, and so is the man on the yacht, Dan Cody. When Gatsby approaches Dan Cody and his yacht, it is the deciding factor for him that he wants to change his life into a wealthy older man and this is when he turns himself into Jay Gatsby. He worked for Cody for five years, and the way Cody lived is the inspiration that Gatsby used to propel his desires. This is one of the triggering factors of the life that he will be leading to as in the middle part of the novel, Gatsby will be a front for a businessman who is engaging in illegal activities such as bootlegging in order to live lavishly in a mansion.

While American Dream is also evident in Daisy's obessions over luxury that she is able to to throw away her love for Gatsby to marry Tom who is rich.  When Gatsby suddenly became rich, Daisy sparks Gatsby's hope that she still loves him but in fact, she is just blinded by wealth and the glitz and glamour that Gatsby now has.

Daisy knows what she wants and is sure of it. She wants a comfortable life and that the American Dream is to be secure and confident as she knows the future will be bright through marrying the rich Tom Buchanan. "She wanted her life shaped now, immediately—and the decision must be made by some force—of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality" (Fitzgerald, 8).

This shows that Gatsby's life is able to show us that the American Dream is shared by the people whether and it comes in different kinds and forms but that common ground is that the characters in the will do anything to achieve the dream even when they will hurt someone in doing so.