1. What does nick see when he returns home from Tom and Daisy’s
What does nick see when he returns home from Tom and Daisy’s. be super specific!

2. Symbolism in The Great Gatsby
Look at the final two paragraphs of Chapter 1 (pages 25 & 26):
What does the color green usually symbolize?
What is physically separating Gatsby from the green light?
Why do you think he is reaching toward that green light?

3. Chapter 2 Questions

5. As Tom head’s to George’s repair shop, Nick “followed him over a low whitewashed railroad fence.” They “walked back a hundred yards along the road under Doctor Eckleburg’s persistent stare.”
What is the symbolism here? Where are they? What is Tom there to do?

6. Myrtle Wilson

7. How is Myrtle Wilson characterized when she first appears in the story?
Look at the paragraph on Also look at her first words.
With a partner, come up with three things the reader learns about her.

8. What does Myrtle do before she gets to New York (top of page 27)?
How does the rest of that paragraph characterize Myrtle? Find a few textual examples.
Where do Tom, Nick, and Myrtle go in New York?

9. How does Myrtle act at the party
How does Myrtle act at the party? Use the last paragraph on page 30 to the third full paragraph on page 32.
Come up with at least three examples from the text.

10. How is Nick “within” and “without” in the story so far?
“Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed to their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”
How is Nick “within” and “without” in the story so far?
Find two examples in chapter 2 when Nick is “within.” Do these instances make him “enchanted” or “repelled”? Explain.

11. What is up with the end of this chapter?
Nick, drunk, follows Mr. McKee out of the apartment. Read from “Come to lunch some day” on page 37 to the end of the chapter.

12. Symbolism in The Great Gatsby
Look at the first three paragraphs of Chapter 2 (pages 27 & 28):
What is the “Valley of ashes” ? Where is it? What form do the ashes take?
Why does Tom go there?
Why do you think Fitzgerald included this in the story? (Think about the irony of Tom’s intentions and how his intentions relate to the appearance of this place. )

13. Symbolism in The Great Gatsby
Look at the final two paragraphs of Chapter 1 (pages 25 & 26):
What does the color green usually symbolize?
What is physically separating Gatsby from the green light?
Why do you think he is reaching toward that green light?