The Great Gatsby

1. The Great Gatsby Tom Buchanen Nick Carraway Myrtle Wilson Jay Gatsby Jordan Baker Daisy Buchanen Chapter 1

3. Vocabulary • Supercilious • Extemporizing • Imperatively • Sedative • Incredulously

4. Summary • Nick comes from a privileged family from the Midwest • Nick moves to West Egg and buys a bungalow • Nick is invited to dinner with his second cousin Daisy and her husband and Nick’s old acquaintance from college • Once there, Nick meets Jordan Baker, a professional golfer, who later informs Nick of Tom’s affair. • Tom, Daisy, and Nick discuss setting Jordan up with Nick. • Nick returns home after dinner and sees a man (Gatsby?) standing on the dock. • He notices a green light from across the bay the he believes Gatsby was staring at. • Gatsby vanishes!

5. Essential Question • Why are the differences between “old money” and “new money” significant?

6. Close Reading Posters • Groups 1 & 2: Tone and Mood Text Poster • Groups 3 & 4: East Egg vs. West Egg • Groups 5 & 6: Character Report Cards

7. East Egg West Egg • Aligns itself with American ideals. • Embodies the notion of the dream • New money lives in WEST • Contains original spirit of The Land of Opportunity • Embodies old world ideals of patronage, class and heredity values. • They are the antithesis of ‘The Dream’ • Full of emotionally stunted, aimless, shallow ideals.

8. Task Two In groups, discuss why such snobbery towards the nouveau riche exists in East Egg. Explain how this snobbery shows that the very idea of The American Dream is flawed.

9. Theme • Decadence and Materialism “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 then beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden.” page 5

10. Theme • The Corruption of the American Dream • "It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things"(18). • ""We've got to beat them down," whispered Daisy"(18).

11. Gatsby • "it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall never find again"(8). • I decided to call to him. Miss Baker had mentioned him at dinner, and that would do for an introduction. But I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone"(25).

12. Symbolism • The Green light: "He stretched his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward- and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been at the end of the dock"(25)

13. Symbols "...blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding cake of the ceiling..."(13). • Daisy and Jordan-"They were both in white..."(13) • Color symbolism(white)-goodness, innocence, purity, the color of perfection • East Egg is portrayed as the perfect world. This is ironic because... • Tom is cheating on Daisy • Jordan quickly abandons loyalty to her friends to gossip to Nick, a man who she has just met • Jordan tries to listen in on private phone calls • Daisy gossips about the butler and how he lost his job • Despite their world being portrayed as good and perfect, it is filled with chaos, lies, and talking behind people's backs. This makes a statement on how false the image of perfection is in the upper class

14. Chapter 1 Learning Stations • Discuss