The Great Gatsby Notes - The Great Gatsby Notes Chapter 1...

The Great Gatsby Notes
Chapter 1
● The relationship between geography and social values is an important motif in
The Great Gatsby.
● two regions are nearly opposite in the values they endorse.
● East Egg represents breeding, taste, aristocracy, and leisure. East Egg is
associated with the Buchanans and the monotony of their inherited social
position
● West Egg represents ostentation, garishness, and the flashy manners of the new
rich. While West Egg is associated with Gatsby’s gaudy mansion and the inner
drive behind his self-made fortune.
● The unworkable intersection of the two Eggs in the romance between Gatsby
and Daisy will serve as the fault line of catastrophe.
“I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”.
● Speaker: Daisey to Nick Carraway
● Daisy is not a fool herself but is the product of a social environment that, to a great
extent, does not value intelligence in women. The older generation values subservience
and docility in females, and the younger generation values thoughtless giddiness and
pleasure-seeking
● while she refers to the social values of her era, she does not seem to challenge them.
● describes her own boredom with life and seems to imply that a girl can have more fun if
she is beautiful and simplistic.
● She conforms to the social standard of American femininity in the 1920s in order to avoid
such tension-filled issues as her undying love for Gatsby.
● The book confirms that Tom is Racist
Chapter 2
● ** MOTIF OF GEOGRAPHY begins with a description of the valley of ashes, a desolate
and forsaken expanse of formerly developed land that marks the intersection of the city
with the suburbs
● its desolate feel and uniform grayness, this forlorn area is home to a decaying billboard
that calls attention to itself. Depicted on the advertisement are the Eyes of Doctor T.J.
Eckleburg, which are described as "blue and gigantic — their retinas are one yard high.”
● It is worth noting, however, that Myrtle rides in a different train car from Tom and Nick, in
accordance with Tom's desire to pander, in this small way, to the "sensibilities of those
East Eggers who might be on the train."
● the valley of ashes that Nick first meets Tom's mistress, Myrtle Wilson
● The two men proceed to a car repair garage owned by George Wilson, a "spiritless man"
who is also Myrtle's husband.
○ George Wilson: He is common, "blond," "spiritless," "anæmic" and only faintly
handsome. His business totters on the brink of failure, and he seems ignorant of
what goes on around him. It is unlikely that he is, in Tom's elitist words, "so dumb
he doesn't know he's alive," but he does seem trapped by an unnamable force.
○ Tom orders Nick around and announces what it is they are going to do; these are
clear indicators of Tom's nature and continue to mark him as the story continues

● **Tom is cheating on Daisy with Myrtle and Myrtle has a husband that she is cheating on
with Tom
●