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English Book Report The Great Gatsby, ISBN: 9780241341469
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Bookreport Name: Date:Title of the book: The Great Gatsby………………………………………………
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald…………………………………………………………
When was the book first published? 1925………………………………………
Explain the title: The title of this book is "The Great Gatsby". De title refers to
one of the narrator's neighbours. Gatsby lives in the most expensive villa on
West Egg and regularly organises huge parties. The parties make Nick believe
he is a great man, therefore: the great Gatsby.
Now summarize the story in your own words:
The narrator, Nick Carraway, is about thirty years old and belongs to a wealthy
family from the American MidWest. He works on the New York stock
exchange, after deciding to move east and learn about stocks and bonds. He
lives nearby on the peninsula of West Egg where he rents a house. One of the
neighbouring houses is immensely large and owned by a very rich man who
calls himself Gatsby, his real name being Jay Gatz.
One day Nick has dinner with Daisy Buchanans, his niece. During the dinner it
becomes clear Daisy's marriage isn't a happy one. A friend of Daisy's, Jordan
Baker, talks about Tom's (Tom Buchanan is Daisy's husband) mistress in New
York. When Nick and Tom join each other to go to New York by train, Nick is
almost forced off the train at a small station. He decides to follow Tom and
witnesses his infidelity with Myrtle Wilson. Around midnight Tom and Myrtle
start quarrelling about Daisy and get into a fight. During the fight Tom breaks
Myrtle's nose.
All through the summer Nick hears noise and music in his neighbour's garden,
caused by numerous parties visited by hundreds of people, very few of that
are actually invited by Gatsby or even know him. One night Nick is one of the
guests. He can't find his host and feels ill at ease with the other guests, but
luckily he runs into Jordan Baker, with whom he keeps company for the rest of
the evening. After midnight Nick talks to a stranger, who turns out to be
Gatsby. Nick and Jordan start a sort of love affair after a while. The
relationship isn't very successful and doesn't last too long.
One morning Gatsby takes Nick to New York in his car. In New York they meet
Mr. Wolfshiem, a business acquaintance of Gatsby. From Jordan, Nick hears
that Gatsby and Daisy had been in love some years ago. When Gatsby stayed
overseas too long, Daisy decided to marry Tom. Gatsby bought the house to
be as close to Daisy as possible and asks Nick to invite them both over to tea.
Nick agrees. When Daisy expresses her discontent over the parties at
Gatsby's house, they soon cease. The staff is replaced with people nobody
knows to cover for Daisy's frequent presence at the house.
, One afternoon Nick, Jordan and Gatsby are invited to tea at the Buchanans.
The atmosphere is tense end they decide to go to New York. Tom takes Nick
and Jordan in his car and Daisy joins Gatsby in his car. During the trip to New
York, Tom confesses he knows about the love affair between Gatsby and
Daisy.
When they arrive at Wilson's Garage, Wilson (Myrtle's husband) announces
that they're moving West. Wilson suspects his wife Myrtle is having an affair,
which she is having with Tom.
In New York Tom becomes quarrelsome, accusing Gatsby of earning money
by selling illegal alcohol. Daisy loses her faith in Gatsby and after a row about
Daisy between Tom and Gatsby Tom wants Gatsby to drive her home. On the
way they run over Myrtle Wilson, who escaped from her husband and
expected Tom to be in the yellow car, as he was earlier that day. They decide
to drive on after the accident. When Tom and Nick arrives at Wilson's Garage
they learn about the accident caused by a yellow car. They both know it's
Gatsby's car.
To Nick, Gatsby reveals that Daisy was driving the car when it hit Myrtle. Nick
advises Gatsby to leave New York, but Gatsby wants to remain close to Daisy.
The next day Gatsby is found dead in his swimming pool, the body of Wilson,
who apparently committed suicide, is lying nearby. Tom had told Wilson that
the yellow car that killed Wilson's wife Myrtle belonged to Gatsby. So Wilson
came to avenge Myrtle's death.
Nick arranges Gatsby's funeral and goes to great lengths to find the addresses
of all his friends and acquaintances. Only Gatsby's father and one friend
appear at the funeral. He is sad, but proud of his son's accomplishments.
Daisy has been reconciled with Tom and apparently had no plans to give up
her safe, wealthy life with Tom.
Describe a scene from the book which you remember quite well. Explain
why you like/dislike this scene.
I chose page 135 of the book. This page tells the story of Gatsby's death. It
tells how Gatsby was swimming, perhaps reflecting on his life and his one true
dream, the love of Daisy. What I like about this piece is how the author tells
the story of Gatsby's death. It doesn't happen in real time as it was happening
then and there, but it is told "passively". The writer leaves a kind of haze over
Gatsby's death, he doesn't tell how it looked, or how it happened exactly. No,
the author only tells about the event that a driver heard the shots, and that he
was immediately at the scene. There is no detailed account of how Wilson got
to the pool, what he said and other things like that. Because the author has
done that, you get a very strange feeling about it. Gatsby's death makes a
stronger impression on me, I think the author has done that very well.
Especially one sentence on this page I find strong:
"A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing
dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about... like that ashen, fantastic figure
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