Lecture notes
The Great Gatsby- Chapter 6
- Institution
- CCEA
This is a comprehensive linguistic analysis of Chapter 6 of the Great Gatsby
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The Great Gatsby: CHAPTER 6- Gatsby appears to like the mystery that surrounds him, “Just why these inventions were a
source of satisfaction to James Gatz of North Dakota isn’t easy to say.” This is the 1st use of
Gatsby’s real name
- We are given further information about Gatsby and his self-creation
- Dan Cody made his wealth in the gold rush
- Gatsby’s clothing is symbolic. There is a contrast between his “torn green jersey” and his
shirts in Chapter 5
- We are presented with Nick’s version of Gatsby. Nick, as narrator, controls our perception of
Gatsby, “I suppose he’d had the name ready for a long time.”
- Platonic- Plato was a philosopher. Plato’s philosophy centres on the idea that the imaginary
is the real. The idea that you have something is the purest form of it
- We see the baseness of the American dream, “the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious
beauty.”
- In Gatsby’s story, there is a sense of the initial American dream- the idea that there was
enough on the land for everyone, “beating his way along the south shore of Lake Superior as
a clam digger and a salmon fisher.”
- There are constant associations between Gatsby and the moon. It extols the Romantic
quality of Gatsby and is a transformative power
- “a promise that the rock of the world was foundered securely on a fairy’s wing”- Daisy’s
second name ‘fae’ means fairy
- Gatsby’s “instinct toward his future glory” links to his schedule at the end of the novel
- Dan Cody symbolises Gatsby’s break with his past. Dan Cody represents the success of the
get-rich quick dream. In the gold rush in the 1870’s, many went to get rich quick, “a product
of the Nevada silver fields of the Yukon”
- There is a negative portrayal of women in the novel, “number of women tried to separate
from his money.” Ella Kaye, who is based on an actual journalist who Fitzgerald knew,
separates Gatsby from his money.
- We see the transformative power of clothing, “bought him a blue coat, six pairs of white
duck trousers and a yachting cap”
- Dan Cody is presented with the face of a materialist, “a grey, florid man with a hard, empty
face.”
- There is an underside to Gatsby’s mentors (Cody and Wolfsheim), “the savage violence of
the frontier brothel and saloon.” Through the negative portrayal of Cody, Fitzgerald criticises
the ‘get-rich quick’ aspect of the American dream
- Because Nick tells us this version of Gatsby’s history, we assume it is true
- Nick draws attention to the narrative and explains that chronologically this information
came later but reveals it now to clear up rumours about Gatsby, “to clear this set up
misconceptions away.”
- Tom on horseback is a signifier of his wealth
- Nick includes the anecdote about Gatsby, Tom and the Sloanes in the narrative to explain
Gatsby’s superiority in his mind to Tom.
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