1. The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald Intro Notes

2. Structure 1st person narrative Flashback Episodic Dual hero Mystery story

3. Characters Nick Carraway Daisy Buchanan Tom Buchanan Pammy Buchanan Jordan Baker Jay Gatsby Myrtle Wilson George Wilson Myer Wolfsheim

4. Setting Reflects and determines the values of the people who live and work there. Setting reveals character – East Egg = Daisy’s house. Home of the Ivy League; old money; secure w/ their money = no need to show it off. – West Egg = Nick’s house, Gatsby’s house. Nick lives here b/c he’s too poor to afford a house in E. Egg. Gatsby lives here b/c he lacks the social credentials to be accepted in E. Egg. – Valley of the Ashes = Wilson’s garage, Michaelis’s restaurant, the billboard of Dr. Eckleburg. Contrast to both Eggs. Characterized by dust. Its inhabitants are symbolically “dumped on” by the rest of the world. Stands as a symbol of the spiritual dryness, the emptiness of the world of the novel. – New York City = offices where people work, Tom and Myrtle’s “love nest”, the Plaza Hotel. NYC is a symbol of what America has become in the 1920s = a place where anything goes, where money is made, and bootleggers flourish.

6. Lift the picture: here’s what’s there now: