I. Give a summary of Chapter VI in writing.

II. Be ready to discuss to discuss the following:

1. What other legends about Gatsby have you come to know from the chapter?

2. Speak on Gatsby’s youth and dreams. What do you know about his parents? Why did he change his name? Comment on the following: “Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God.”

3. Who was Cody? Comment on the details of his portrait as described by Carraway. What was his role in Gatsby’s life?

4. Why does Carraway put down the facts told by Gatsby “very much later”?

5. Describe Gatsby’s celebrated guests and their behaviour. Comment on the way Carraway “classifies” them (“an orchid of a woman”, “a man with the sort of bluenose” and so on).

Describe the party through Daisy’s eyes. What were Daisy’s criteria of human emotions and conduct? Speak on her impression of the moving picture actress. Comment on the following: “But the rest offended her—and inarguably, because it wasn’t a gesture but an emotion.” Speak on the quality of her voice.

Describe the party through Tom’s eyes. Why did he call the guests a “menagerie”?

Why did Gatsby introduce him as “the polo player”? What quality did Tom’s presence give to the party?

6. Why was Gatsby depressed after the party? What did he want Daisy to do? Did he ask too much from her? Give your reasons. Comment on the following: “Can’t, repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!” Do you think he longed for unattainable? People say that this attitude of mind (“an extraordinary gift for hope”, “a romantic readiness”) leads to desires that are impossible to achieve, then it becomes destructive and self-defeating. Express your opinion on it.

Chapter VII

Vocabulary list (Present orally original situations of the novel, using the following words and phrases)

To dismiss smb., to fire smb., to be under no obligation to smb., a bona-fide deal, dumb, to get stalled, to be run down, to alight on smb., to keep one’s vigil, to overtake smb., to elude smb., to make personal remarks, to be out in the open, to go off on a spree, one’s eyes fall on smb. / smth., to hang around, to sell smth.over the counter, to leave smb. in the lurch, to be dead broke, to have smb. upon the betting laws, to scare smb. into doing smth., to be just small change, to draw into oneself, to slow down, to put on the breaks, to dispose of the situation.

I. Give a summitry of Chapter VII in writing.

II. Be ready to discuss the following:

1. What do Chapter VII and Chapter I have in common? What are the divergences? Speak on the effect the parallel episodes produce. Speak on the seasonal allusions. (In Chapter I the author describes the cool buoyant world of Daisy’s home; in Chapter VII he changes the physical reality of the setting. Why?)

2. Why did Gatsby dismiss every servant in his house and replace them with others? Why did he want to keep his image intact and without blemish?

3. a) Speak of the heroes’ behaviour in the scenes following Tom’s discovery that Daisy and Jay Gatsby were in love with each other. What were the things Tom Buchanan disliked about Jay Gatsby from the beginning? Comment on Nick Carraway’s words: “There’s no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind.” What was Tom’s view on love? What were Tom’s relations with women based on? Speak about Tom Buchanan’s behaviour when he and Gatsby were out in the open at last. b) Speak of Daisy’s behaviour when Jay asked her to tell Tom that she had never loved him. Speak of the role of the descriptions of her voice. Comment on Gatsby’s words: “Her voice is full of money.” What meaning does Nick Carraway get into: “High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl”? c) Comment on Gatsby’s words: “She never loved you, do you hear? She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!” Discuss Gatsby’s reaction to Daisy’s words: “I loved you too.” Comment on the look in Gatsby’s face when accused by Tom.

Why did not the wealth of Croesus keep Gatsby safe?

At what moment does the author make Nick remember of his age? What is the age of thirty for Nick?

How do you understand Nick’s words about Jordan “who, unlike Daisy, was too wise ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age”?

What Gatsby’s quality commands respect from Carraway?

4. What a source was Nick informed of the accident from? Discuss Mr. Wilson’s behaviour before the accident (What made Sir Wilson sick? What did he want money for?) and after Myrtle’s death. Why did he suspect Tom of having killed Myrtle?

How did Tom take Myrtle’s death?

5. Comment on Carraway’s words: “I’d had enough of all of them for one day, and suddenly that included Jordan too.” Comment on Carraway’s “I wouldn’t have been surprised to see sinister faces, the faces of Wolfshiem’s people,’ behind him [Gatsby] in the dark shrubbery.”

How did Carraway come to know who had driven the car that killed Myrtle? Speak on the reasons for Carraway’s ambivalent attitude toward Gatsby.

What does the scene in the Buchanans’ kitchen mean? Was Tom’s victory inevitable?

What is implied by the phrase about Gatsby “watching over nothing”?

6. Why does F. Scott Fitzgerald make the valley of ashes the primary backdrop against which the tragedy is played out? Dr. Eckleburg recurs at certain crucial moments in the novel. Comment on Dr. Eckleburg’s eyes coming into sight.

Speak on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s art of composition. Into what parts does the chapter fall? How do they follow each other in time? Does the author succeed in conveying the plot and the implication of the story through the composition?