Questions on Chapter 6 of Gatsby

Please answer the following questions on http://www.turnitin.com  They are due BEFORE 8:00 a.m. on Monday, January 26th.

1. Who knocked on Nick’s door with questions about Gatsby?
2. How truthful was Gatsby when he relayed the story of his life to Nick? Why do you think that Fitzgerald tells the story of Jay Gatz now?
3. On page 104, Fitzgerald writes: “that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island sprang from the Platonic conception of himself.” Okay guys, bear with me. THINK! This word, Platonic, has a double meaning here. The word platonic means absence of physical desire (e.g. They had a platonic relationship, not a romantic one.) BUT, it is also capitalized because it could also refer to Platonic as in Plato (the Greek philosopher). He had a philosophy that basically said that things (everything that we see, touch, feel, experience) actual things are copies of reality or truth. I know that sounds confusing. But basically he says that we humans can never truly know complete truth unless we leave the world behind. SO, what I want you to do is think about how BOTH of these definitions fit here. Why is this a great description of Jay Gatsby? (This is a THINKING QUESTION. Prove yourselves!)
4. When it says that Gatsby “knew women early,” what does that mean? Why was he contemptuous of them? (Explain! Don’t just write what it says in the book!)
5. Tom begins to suspect that Daisy is having an affair when he accidentally shows up at Gatsby’s house and Gatsby says to him, almost aggressively, “I know your wife.” Describe the meeting of Tom and Gatsby. What does this meeting reveal about them?
6. Why do they leave him when he goes to grab his hat and coat? Why was he surprised when Nick wasn’t?
7. On page 111 Fitzgerald describes the movie star that Daisy likes for the first time. He describes her as “a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat in state under a white plum tree.” The only other character who is a flower is Daisy. Why is this? What does this reveal about Fitzgerald’s attitude towards women? Why is the star so “exquisite”? Why is she an orchid (versus a rose, tulip, etc)?
8. Why did Daisy and Tom find Gatsby’s party loathsome?
9. When Tom goes off to flirt and dance with another woman, Daisy offers him a gold pen for him to take down her number. Why is this funny and/or ironic?
10. When we see the actress again it is page 113. She is the only part of the party that Daisy loves. This is a very tender and romantic scene. Daisy and Nick watched “the movie picture director and his Star…. He had been very slowly bending toward her all evening to attain this proximity, and even while I watched I saw him stop one ultimate degree and kiss at her cheek.” Why is this innocent scene so precious to Daisy? Do you think that the wording is significant (the movie director’s Star. The S in star is capitalized. And movie director’s, possessive. HIS star).
11. At the end, Daisy didn’t like the party but didn’t want to leave because “in the very casualness of Gatsby’s party there were romantic possibilities totally absent from her world.” What does this mean? What do you think about Daisy so far?
12. How did Gatsby measure the success of his party?
13. When Nick told Gatsby that “you can’t repeat the past”, Gatsby replied, “Why of course you can!” Do you agree with Nick or Gatsby?
14. Nick says that Gatsby “talked a lot about the past and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.” What does this mean? Explain.

NOTE: INCARNATION Fitzgerald uses the word incarnation to make us understand the meaning of that moment in Louisville. Incarnation means made into flesh, as in the Christian notion that God became flesh in Jesus Christ. In Louisville on the autumn night, Gatsby’s dream became incarnated in Daisy. Kissing her for the first time so overpowered him that he knew he must give up everything for her. Gatsby at that moment “wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath.” Because he was only human, he had narrowed his dream and embodied it in something human, something tangible. The tragedy of Jay Gatsby is his choice of Daisy as the person in whom to embody his dream.

So basically, Gatsby again refers to himself as a Christlike figure who could have gone on to pursue “truth” and success and knowledge, but instead, he chooses the world (flesh, love, mortality and death).  This is such a significant moment that even the stars watch!