Great Gatsby Questions

1. In the first chapter, Daisy says: " I´m glad it´s a girl. and I hope she´ll be a fool- that´s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." What does she want to express?

2. Can you explain the role of Doctor T.J.Eckleburg´s advertisement?

pp.23 "Above the gray (valley of ashes)...the eyes of Doctor T.J.Eckleburg...are blue and gigantic...they look out of no face, but, instead, from pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose.

pp.122 "Then as Doctor T.J.Eckelburg´s faded eyes came into sight down the road,

I remembered Gatsby´s caution about gasoline."

pp.160 Wilson: "You may fool me, but you can´t fool God!"

Standing behind Wilson, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor

T.J.Eckelburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night."

"God sees everything,"repeated Wilson.

"That´s an advertisement,"Michaelis assured him.

Could he symbolize God? Why or why not?

3. "...then Mr. Gatz and the minister and I in the limousine, and, a little later, four or five servants and the postman from West Egg in Gatsby's station wagon, all wet to the skin."
There were very few people at Gatsby's funeral. What could be the reason for this? Did Gatsby possess any greatness at all or was is just the "saturday-night greatness?"

4. Is the depicted upper class a worthy example of the American Dream or is it rather an example of its disintegration? Is there any person in the novel who is a shining example how the American Dream should be lived?

5. "At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others - poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary dinner - young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life."

Why is it that people often feel lonely at overcrowded places such as New York and why particularly in this novel where the characters go to parties almost every evening and always meet new people?

6. Both Hemingway and Fitzgerald belong to the same group of the Lost Generation. What are the similarities and differences between their male and female characters?

7. ´James Gatz - That was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career...´

´To the young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, the yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world.´

Has the change of Gatsby´s name (from James Gatz into Jay Gatsby) meant (marked) any difference in his personality / character? Did it change his way of life? How?

8. How does Nick´s relationship towards Gatsby change throughout the novel? What does Nick feel when Gatsby dies at the end?

´..., Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him...´

´... my impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded and he had become simply the proprietor of an elaborate road-house next door.´

After Gatsby dies:

´I found myself on Gatsby´s side, and alone.´

´I wanted to get somebody for him. I wanted to go into the room where he lay and reassure him - I´ll get somebody for you, Gatsby. Don´t worry. Just trust me and I´ll get somebody for you... - ´

9. In chapter 5, page 90, Gatsby meets Daisy for the first time after many years and he is very excited about it: „But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room.“
How would you describe Daisy's character? Is Daisy the one Gatsby is looking for? Does she have all the virtues Gatsby searches in a woman?

10. Does the author suggest that people’s fates are determined by their original standing and that it is something that can never be got rid of?
* Daisy, the rich girl, gets away with killing somebody
* Jay, the poor boy, gets high but finally loses everything
* Nick, the boy who always liked to return home for the holidays, finally finds 178 "the East hunted for me".

11. What does the green light mean for Gatsby and what does it symbolize?

pp.21-22 Nick:"...I glanced seaward - and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute

and faraway, that might have been the end of a dock...".
pp.182 "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes

before us. It eluded us then, but that´s no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out arms

farther....And one fine morning---

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

12.Can it be stated that the basic motivation for the actions of the characters was love or the love of money? If greatly simplified , which characters basically acted with the former and which with the latter motivation?

How is it historically connected with the period they lived in? ( The Jazz Age or The Roaring Twenties)

A Farewell to Arms- Discussion questions

Great job with the questions you submitted thus far. I am looking forward to our discussion in class tomorrow. Take a few minutes and jot down some responses to some of these questions that you may want to bring up in class tomorrow.

Grades have been uploaded

A Farewell to Arms
Class Discussion Questions

1. How do Frederic’s character and personality changed (if put into comparison Frederic from the 1st page and Frederic from the last page), which concrete events/details or who´s/what´s influence helped to change it, and was it a positive or a negative change?

2. Do you think Frederic Henry has something in common with the author? Give reasons for your opinion.

3. Does Frederic’s attitude towards war change throughout the book? How?

4. What functions do these descriptions of food have, considering the war and its consequences?
“…and then a drink of the wine, it tasted like rusty metal.” p.54
“…I was after him, holding the cheese, its smooth surface covered with brick dust.” p.53

5. According to the XIX.Chapter where Cat says: "I´m afraid of rain because sometimes I see me dead in it. And sometimes I see you dead in it. (...but) I can keep you safe. But nobody can help themselves".

In the final XLI.Chapter, the last sentence of the book is: "After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain."

Could we consider that the "rain" plays a significant role throughout the whole book as it repeats, and what may this (refrain) motiv stand for/symbolize?

6. In the XVIII.Chapter, Cat tells to Frederic: "You are my religion. You´re all I´ve got."

In the VI.Chapter he admits to himself: "I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards..."

When does this statement change and what does Catherine mean to him at the end?

7. During the discussion between the main protagonist and the priest (XI.Chapter) they agree on the fact that: "There are people who would make the war. (...) and they make others (the second group) to make it. The others (the 2nd group) are not organized to stop things and when they got organized, their leaders sell them out."

If all the characters are classificated according to this criterion, who belongs into the 1st and who into the 2nd group, and why do the 1st group make the war and why is the 2nd group not being able to stop it?

8. What role does the shooting of the Italian soldiers performed by other Italian soldiers play in Henry’s life?
„The questioners had that beautiful detachment and devotion to stern justice of men dealing in death without being in any danger of it.“ p.218
„Anger was washed away in the river along with any obligation.“ p. 225
„ I was going to forget the war. I had made a separate peace.” p.233

9. "I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain (again the motif of rain!) almost out of earshot... Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates."(Chapter XXVII.)

If literally interpreted, all these words have noble and positively heroic character/meaning. Is there any explanation or reasons to the fact, that they signify direct contrast for Frederic?

10. What are Hemingway’s views of religion as can be seen in these quotations?
Major: “All thinking men are atheists.“ p.10
Catherine: “I have no religion...You’re my religion. You’re all I’ve got.“p.111
Henry: “It is only in defeat that we become Christian.“ p.171

How are his views connected with the war?
“ What do you believe in? –Sleep.“ p.172

Does the priest and his attitudes represent at least a spark of hope that there could be God, or not? Why or why not?
Priest: "What you tell me about in the nights. That is not love. That is only passion and lust. When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve." p.72

Assignment: A Farewell to Arms

Your first reading assignment will be Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.
The link to the free ebook is here.

Your assignment is to email me me five discussion questions based on your reading no later than 23.59 Sunday (if you are in the Tuesday class) or by 23.59 Tuesday if you are in the Thursday class. I will then select ten questions from what is sent to me, and I will email the composite list back to you. These questions will be used as the basis of our class discussion.

For examples of how your discussion questions will be graded, and for some example discussion questions, please refer to the following document.

Welcome to 20th Century American Literature!
Please take a moment and familiarize yourself with this website, particularly the course schedule and syllabus.
A special thanks to those of you that are able to switch class times, as this will help facilitate discussion.