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The Great Gatsby - Chapters 1 & 2 (60 Cards)

Deep review of chapters 1 and 2 — characters, setting, symbols, themes, and details

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FTSBooks 60 terms 5.0 (1) Mar 17, 2026
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Terms 60

1
Who narrates The Great Gatsby?
Nick Carraway
2
Where is Nick originally from?
The Midwest
3
What is Nick's profession in New York?
He works in the bond business
4
Where does Nick live in New York?
West Egg, Long Island
5
What distinguishes West Egg from East Egg?
West Egg is new money (self-made wealth), East Egg is old money (inherited wealth)
6
Who lives across the bay from Nick in East Egg?
Tom and Daisy Buchanan
7
How does Nick know Daisy?
She is his second cousin once removed
8
Where did Nick go to college?
Yale
9
How is Tom Buchanan physically described?
Powerfully built, thick neck, arrogant posture — a hulking, physically dominant man
10
What sport made Tom famous at Yale?
Football
11
How does Nick feel about Tom when he first meets him?
He dislikes him immediately — senses Tom's arrogance and contempt for others
12
How is Daisy Buchanan's voice described?
Full of money — charming, musical, and alluring
13
Who is Jordan Baker?
A professional golfer and Daisy's friend who Nick meets at the Buchanan house in Chapter 1
14
What rumor does Nick hear about Jordan Baker?
That she cheated in a golf tournament
15
What does Daisy say about her daughter that reveals her worldview?
She hopes her daughter will be a beautiful little fool — suggesting smart women only suffer in this world
16
What does Tom talk about at dinner in Chapter 1?
A book about the rise of the colored empires — revealing his racist and white supremacist views
17
What does Nick notice Gatsby doing at the end of Chapter 1?
Standing alone on his dock, reaching toward a green light across the bay
18
What does the green light represent?
Gatsby's longing for Daisy and his unattainable dreams
19
Why doesn't Nick call out to Gatsby at the end of Chapter 1?
He senses the moment is private and personal — Gatsby seemed absorbed in his dream
20
What is significant about Nick's claim to be one of the few honest people he knows?
It is ironic — Nick is actually complicit in dishonesty throughout the novel, including covering for Daisy and Gatsby
21
What is the Valley of Ashes?
A gray industrial wasteland between West Egg and New York City where ash from factories is dumped
22
What does the Valley of Ashes symbolize?
The moral decay and poverty hidden beneath the glamour of the wealthy — the dark consequence of the rich pursuing pleasure
23
Who are the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg?
A giant faded billboard of spectacled eyes overlooking the Valley of Ashes
24
What do the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg symbolize?
The eyes of God — a moral witness to the corruption and emptiness of American society
25
Who is George Wilson?
A pale, spiritless man who owns a garage in the Valley of Ashes and is Myrtle's husband
26
Who is Myrtle Wilson?
Tom's mistress — a vitally physical woman with an intense desire to escape her lower-class life
27
How does Tom treat Myrtle compared to Daisy?
He treats Myrtle as an object and openly disrespects her, yet he is equally unfaithful to Daisy with her
28
How does Tom first signal to Myrtle at the garage?
He makes eye contact with her over George's head, letting her know to follow them to the train
29
What does Myrtle buy in the city in Chapter 2?
A dog — a police dog puppy from a street vendor
30
Where is Tom's secret apartment?
In New York City, used for his affair with Myrtle
31
Who does Myrtle invite to Tom's apartment?
Her sister Catherine and a couple named McKee
32
What does Catherine tell Nick about Gatsby?
That he is a nephew or cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm — one of many false rumors about Gatsby's origins
33
What does Catherine say about Tom and Myrtle's situation?
That neither Tom nor Myrtle can stand their respective partners — but Tom won't leave Daisy because she is Catholic (which is false)
34
What does Mr. McKee do for work?
He is a photographer from downstairs in the apartment building
35
What happens when Myrtle repeats Daisy's name at the party?
Tom hits Myrtle and breaks her nose
36
What does Tom breaking Myrtle's nose reveal about his character?
His casual violence and belief that he can treat lower-class people however he wants without consequence
37
How does Nick end up at Tom's apartment party?
Tom essentially drags him along — Nick says it was one of the few times he got drunk
38
What does the apartment party scene reveal about 1920s society?
The careless, excessive, and morally empty lifestyle of those chasing wealth and pleasure during the Jazz Age
39
How is Myrtle's dog used symbolically?
It represents her attempt to imitate the wealthy lifestyle — she buys a purebred dog to seem upper class but has no idea how to care for it
40
What does Nick's discomfort at Tom's apartment suggest?
He is complicit in Tom's affair by being there, foreshadowing his moral compromises throughout the novel
41
What tone does Nick use to describe the Valley of Ashes?
Bleak and desolate — he uses words like gray, ash-grey, and crumbling to contrast sharply with the brightness of the Eggs
42
What does Myrtle's apartment look like?
Small and overcrowded, filled with cheap imitations of luxury — tapestried furniture, scenes of Versailles on the walls
43
How does Myrtle's wardrobe change when she arrives in the city?
She changes into an elaborate cream-colored chiffon dress and takes on an air of haughty royalty — she performs wealth she does not have
44
What does Nick think of Myrtle's transformation in the city?
He finds it affected and pretentious — her personality expands with the party but it is all an act
45
What social class does Myrtle represent?
The working class desperate to escape into wealth — she uses Tom as her ticket to a life she will never truly access
46
What does the ash in the Valley of Ashes literally come from?
Industrial waste — factories dump their ashes there, creating a gray landscape of poverty and decay
47
How does Fitzgerald use color in Chapters 1 and 2?
White and gold for the Buchanans (surface elegance), gray and ash for the Valley (poverty and death), green for Gatsby's dream
48
What does Tom's insistence on showing Nick the Valley of Ashes suggest?
He is oblivious to the suffering around him and sees the area only as a passageway to his own pleasures in the city
49
What does Jordan Baker's posture suggest about her character?
She keeps her chin slightly raised as if balancing something — suggesting pride, dishonesty, and a desire to appear above others
50
What is ironic about Daisy's white dresses?
White suggests innocence and purity, but Daisy is careless, shallow, and complicit in Gatsby's destruction — the color is a facade
51
What does East Egg represent thematically?
The established upper class — people born into wealth who look down on those who earned it
52
What does West Egg represent thematically?
The nouveau riche — people who made their own money but are considered vulgar and inferior by old money society
53
What does it mean that Gatsby's house is directly across from Daisy's green light?
He has positioned his entire life around her — his mansion, his parties, his wealth all exist to impress and win back Daisy
54
How does Nick describe himself as a narrator in Chapter 1?
As non-judgmental and a good listener — though the novel questions how reliable and honest he actually is
55
What does Tom's affair with Myrtle tell us about his view of marriage?
He sees marriage as a social institution for status, not love — he feels entitled to do as he pleases outside of it
56
What does the phone call Tom receives at the Buchanan dinner reveal?
It is Myrtle calling — Daisy and Jordan both know about the affair, highlighting how normalized Tom's infidelity is
57
Why does Fitzgerald introduce Nick as the narrator instead of telling the story from Gatsby's point of view?
Nick is an outsider who can observe both worlds — old money and new — without fully belonging to either, making him a more objective witness
58
What does Gatsby's gesture toward the green light foreshadow?
His obsessive, unattainable pursuit of Daisy and the American Dream — and ultimately his failure to reach either
59
What is the significance of the parties in Chapter 1 vs Chapter 2?
The Buchanan dinner is elegant and restrained (old money), while Tom's apartment party is loud and chaotic (a cheap imitation of wealth)
60
What does Chapter 2 suggest about the American Dream?
That it is built on exploitation — the Valley of Ashes shows the human cost of the wealthy lifestyle celebrated in the rest of the novel