The Great Gatsby

1/31/10

Chapter 5

With Maddy Coffey, Alyssa D’Ippolito, Katherine Dale, Justin Minder

Order of Presentation:- Summary of Chapter

- Powerpoint presentation- CoveritLive

- Movie (if time allows it)

Characters, Setting, Turning points, Conflict

1/31/10

Characters: Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, and Klipspringer

Setting: Nick’s house and Gatsby’s mansion on West Egg

Turning point: When Gatsby realizes that the green light is no longer significant ; when Nick comes back into the room and finds the two have reconnected ;

Conflict: Man vs. himself Gatsby’s inward struggle and doubt over making his American dream tangible

Quotes

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“Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.”

“I realize now that under different circumstances that conversation might have been one of the crises of my life.”

“ I think that voice held him most with its fluctuating, feverish warmth because it couldn't be over-dreamed – that voice was a deathless song.”

Motifs : Light and Colors

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Gatsby’s house is described as “blazing with light” with it’s lights going “off and on again

as if the house had winked into the darkness.” The “whole front of it catches

the light,” as well.

Gatsby himself glows like the sun (see Motifs: Weather)

T he colors of Gatsby’s shirts, a “many-colored disarray” of “stripes and scrolls and plaids

in coral and apple , green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian

blue.”

Daisy’s lavender hat and Gatsby’s silver and gold suit

Daisy’s hair like a “dash of blue paint”

While listening to the piano, there is “no light save what the gleaming floor bounced

in from the hall.”

Motifs : Time

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- “Nobody's coming to tea. It's too late!...I can't wait all day.” (Gatsby)

- Clock which Gatsby knocks down

- Discussions of how architecture went into a “period craze,” trying to revive history in some way

- Gatsby was “running down like an overwound clock.

- The song played on the piano: “In the morning/In the evening...In the meantime/In between time

Motifs : Weather

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Gatsby’s happiness is represented by sunny weather

His anxiety or sadness is shown by rain

“The day agreed upon was pouring rain.”

“[Daisy’s] voice was a wild tonic in the rain.”

“I pulled the door against the increasing rain.” (after Daisy and Gatsby re-meet, awkwardly and much to Gatsby’s despair)

“After a half hour the sun shone again.”

“Gatsby…literally glowed” and “a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room.”

“When he realized what I was talking about, that there were twinkle-bells of sunshine in the room, he smiled like a weather man, like an ecstatic patron of recurrent

light.”

Motifs : Flowers

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Jonquils: Sympathy, desire, affection

Plum blossom: Beauty, longevity

(ironic

Hawthorn : Marriage, love

Lavender: Loyalty, steadfastness ,

dependability

Recurring symbols

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• Gatsby’s hands in his pockets:

- Hands out = reaching for the American Dream

- Hands in his pockets = giving up on the American

“Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets….”

American Dream

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Recurring symbols of the ocean and the green light seen across the water

Gatsby standing in a puddle

Americanisms: Mowing the lawn, hide-and-go-seek, sardines, the

World’s Fair, flannel suits