openings / beginnings

• 'the valley of ashes' - symbolises the moral decay of society
• • Nick comes across as very contradictory. This is through the retrospective narrative used as he passes lots of judgement all the while claiming the he does not judge people.
• Fitzgerald may have presented Nick in a contradictory was as a tool to critique 1920s America and the superficial reality the wealthy lived in.
• He could have also chosen to write about Nick's background to reassure the audience about the veracity of Nick's account.
• As a why of creating faith in the narrator, Fitzgerald carefully positions Nick involved and also distant from the dramatic situation. The readers are persuaded to trust Nick his impartiality. However, to ensure that readers don't think Nick is perfect, Fitzgerald gives him a mortal side by showing how Nick's reservation of judgment about people is carefully calculated.
• nick and gatsbys relationship

  • When Nick and Gatsby finally meet it is a one of Gatsby's parties and Nick doesn't realise it is him. When Nick realises Gatsby apologizes and says “I'm not a very good host.” This makes it sound as though Gatsby doesn't feel part of the setting.
  • Gatsby is then described by Nick as to have smiled “much more than understanding” which puts Gatsby up on a pedestal
• nick and Gatsby relationship - quotes

  • “Only Gatsby [...] was exempt from my reaction.”
  • “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something geroeos about him”.
  • “Heightened sensitivity to the promises of life"
• nick and gatsbys relationship - quotes

  • “It was Gatsby himself […] I could have sworn he was trembling when i looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished.” - Last page of chapter 1 where Nick first sees Gatsby.
  • “They say he’s a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm.” [...] “I'm scared of him." - Chapter 2 where Catherine discusses rumours she's heard about Gatsby
• opening of daisy and gatsbys relationship

  • There relationship initially began in 1917, 5 years before the story is set. Gatsby fell in love with Daisy and the wealth that she represented. Their relationship ended when Gatsby was sent out to war and when he returned in 1919 Daisy had married Tom.
  • “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.“
• reopening of daisy and gatsbys relationship

  • In chapter 4 Gatsby apparently asks Jordan to convince Nick to invite Daisy over as he is scared she won't want to see him.
  • In chapter 5, Nick agrees to the plan. Upon Daisy's arrival gatsby disappeared and returned from a walk in the rain. At first, the reunion is awkward however after being left alone for half an hour, Nick returns to them talking.
  • "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay."
• beginning of nick and Jordans relationship

  • Nick and Jordan are the only couple who have no history before the novel.
  • They meet at Daisy and Tom's home as Jordan is a friend of Daisys.
  • Their relationship is most apparent in chapters 3 and 4 of the novel when they both attend Gatsby's party and Jordan later tells Nick Gatsby plan.
  • “I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet."