Chapter 9 How does Fitzgerald continue his use of weather to reinforce tone, mood and thematic elements? Do you believe that Daisy ever really loved Gatsby? When? Why? Motifs – How are these concepts used? What themes can be developed from them? ▫ Appearance vs. Reality ▫ Time ▫ Love and Relationships ▫ Isolation ▫ Education The novel was published in 1925. Revisit his statement: “An author ought to write for the youth of his generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters ever afterward” (Gatsby xi). Does his message resonate today or is it simply a period piece? How does the fact that Wilson “was reduced to a man ‘deranged by grief’” consistent with the picture painted of him throughout Fitzgerald’s narrative? What thematic implications does it have? Do you agree with Wolfshiem’s sentiments that we should “learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead” (Fitzgerald 180)? Why or why not? How does it reflect on Nick’s attempts to “get somebody” for Gatsby? How about the attendance at Gatsby’s funeral? Who does show up? What is the significance of their presence? • Does Gatsby’s schedule and “General Resolves” look like anything else we have read this year? (It does). Why do you think Fitzgerald chooses to make this allusion? • How is the Midwest employed as the fifth setting of the novel? Who is from there? Who goes there? What is the significance of their origins and/or their travels? Do you agree with Jordan’s assessment of Nick as “another bad driver” (186)? Why or Why not? What does Nick mean when he says that he is “five years too old to lie to [himself] and call it honor” (186)? Is he accurate in his assessment of himself? Does your view of Tom or Daisy change at all when it is revealed that Tom believes that Gatsby “ran over Myrtle like you’d run over a dog” (187)? What about Nick’s decision not to set him straight on the matter? How does this idea connect to Jordan’s comments about bad drivers? What message does Fitzgerald send in the closing lines of the novel? How does it connect to the plot itself? “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (189). Does the revision, “orgastic” used over “orgiastic” change the meaning of those lines? How? The following quote come from a letter Fitzgerald wrote to a friend: “The worst fault in it [Chapter 6], I think is a BIG FAULT: I gave no account (and had no feeling about or knowledge of) the emotional relationship between Gatsby and Daisy.” Is this a fault? Why? Why not? What purpose might this omission have served? Who is most responsible for the novel’s outcome? Support your answer with specifics from the text. Tom Daisy Gatsby Nick Jordan Myrtle George Dr. Eckleburg Klipspringer Wolfsheim What effect does Gatsby’s mob connection have on you as the reader? Does it make him more or less admirable? Why? Why would Fitzgerald have him make his money this way instead of the various other possibilities? • Symbols – Reinforce Themes ▫ Dan Cody ▫ Windows ▫ Weather ▫ Clothing ▫ Cars and Driving ▫ Green Light ▫ Alcohol ▫ Glasses/Eyes ▫ Gas Station ▫ Wolfsheim