"I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth" (Fitzgerald 1)

• Nick mentions the natural decencies and how it is separated from money
• Money is not the only thing that some people are born to, but some people are naturally just nicer and more honest
• Natural decencies
• Can poor people be born with these fundamental decencies, or does it derive only from rich?

"I lived at West Egg, the – well, the least fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them" (Fitzgerald 4)

• Setting
• Despite living in West Egg, the house is still between millionaires
• Criticize materialistic behavior of people 

""You see," cried Catherine triumphantly. She lowered her voice again. "It's really his wife that's keeping them apart. She's a Catholic, and they don't believe in divorce." Daisy was not a Catholic, and I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie.”" (Fitzgerald 25)

• Theme: lies and deceit
• Gatsby finds out the feigned solemnity within the rich
• This is significant because it shows the manipulative and fake identity that the rich produces, in order to satisfy themselves. (dark side of the society)

“Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name. "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Daisy –– " Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” (Fitzgerald 27)

• Gender disparity
• Men can hit the women, while women can only have the words

Le Grand Meaulnes." It is also a book focused on a character persistently finding for a girl he deeply loves.

Nick from Greek Νικολαος
"victory of the people"

Carraway from Anglo-Saxon garaweg
gara - triangular piece of land
weg - path/road
dweller at, or near the road by the fort who stand nearby others, but not with them

Daisy
day's eye= the sun
What Gatsby looked at, blinding him from the truth of his obsession
"He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling."… "distinguished nothing except a single green light" (26).

"I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth" (Fitzgerald 1)

• Nick mentions the natural decencies and how it is separated from money
• Money is not the only thing that some people are born to, but some people are naturally just nicer and more honest
• Natural decencies
• Can poor people be born with these fundamental decencies, or does it derive only from rich?

"I lived at West Egg, the – well, the least fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them" (Fitzgerald 4)

• Setting
• Despite living in West Egg, the house is still between millionaires
• Criticize materialistic behavior of people 

“This is a valley of ashes--a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air."

• describes the valley of ashes
• valley of ashes is the connecting bridge between the city and eggs
• this is significant because it represents the dull atmosphere of the gap between the rich and mediocre

""You see," cried Catherine triumphantly. She lowered her voice again. "It's really his wife that's keeping them apart. She's a Catholic, and they don't believe in divorce." Daisy was not a Catholic, and I was a little shocked at the elaborateness of the lie.”" (Fitzgerald 25)

• Theme: lies and deceit
• Gatsby finds out the feigned solemnity within the rich
• This is significant because it shows the manipulative and fake identity that the rich produces, in order to satisfy themselves. (dark side of the society)

“Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name. "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Daisy –– " Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” (Fitzgerald 27)

• Gender disparity
• Men can hit the women, while women can only have the words

I was immediately struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about. . . . I was sure they were selling something: bonds or insurance or automobiles. They were at least agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key.

‘Gatsby. Somebody told me—’”
The two girls and Jordan leaned together confidently.
‘Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.’
A thrill passed over all of us. The three Mr. Mumbles bent forward and listened eagerly.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.’

"Look here, old sports," he broke out surprisingly. " What's your opinion of me, anyhow?"

As we crossed Blackwell's Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.

[Gatsby] hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real.

Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that green light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.

But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new weir being radiated from him and filled the little room.