Great Gatsby Chapter 6 notes

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CHAPTER 6

“He smiled understandingly – much more than understandingly …picking his words with care.”  How does this description of Gatsby relate to what we find out now in CH. 6?

  • Nick’s attitude to Gatsby is ambiguous. Here two images of Gatsby are presented: the eternal romantic, charming and eloquent gentleman; the other is uncultured, common bordering on ridiculous, who is careful in not revealing his social deficiencies: “…this quality was continually breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness.”  Significantly, in CH. ^ it is revealed that Jay Gatsby, ostentatious and glamorous is, in fact, James Gatz – much more common.  ‘Jay Gatsby’ is, therefore, his own creation.

  • This passage from CH. 3 highlights just how precarious this self-constructed image is – how utterly dependent it is on the impression of the observer and his/her ability to enter into Gatsby’s world of make-believe and invention.  It is worth noting that Fitzgerald chose his characters’ names with care – a ‘gat’ is a slang term for a pistol, and so Gatsby’s name is an effective pun at a time of bootlegging and gangsters, and indeed foreshadows how he is killed.

“The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.  He was a son of God – a phrase which if it means anything, means just that – and he must be about His father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty.”  

  • This description can be related to others of Gatsby in previous chapters.  Find them.  What connection is being made here.

  • God serves the purpose of humanity and nature.  God is the creator.  In a similar way Gatsby serves to create his own world – a wealthy, materialistic, ostentatious, superficial creation which ironically distorts God’s purpose.  Here,  we see that just as Jesus was about His Father’s business of serving mankind, Gatsby is about his, serving his guests for the greater ‘good’ of attaining Daisy.
  • Look back at CH.3 for more references:
  • ‘divine retribution…’
  • ‘standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes.’
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“But his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot.  The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night.”  What do these words, appearing elsewhere in the novel tell us about the nature of Gatsby’s dream?

  • These words appear in Ch.2 in the description of The Valley of Ashes:  ‘This is a valley of ashes – a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens.’
  • Whilst having connotations of immensity, they are more closely associated with the sinister and crude nature of his dream:  it is out of proportion with ...

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