The Great Gatsby: Chapter 9 – Flashcards

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question
What is the motive publicly given for Wilson's murder of Gatsby?
answer
It is said that Wilson was a mad man and went crazy.
question
What does the telephone call from Chicago tell us about Gatsby's business?
answer
The mysterious call tells us that Gatsby was involved with organized crime.
question
What does Klipspringer want from Nick? How does Nick react to this?
answer
He wants to pick up a pair of tennis shoes. Nick is pretty revolted by him and hangs up the phone.
question
Why is Gatsby's father so proud of him?
answer
Nick tracks down Gatsby's father, Henry C. Gatz, a solemn old man left helpless and distraught by the death of his son. Gatz shows Nick a book in which the young Gatsby kept a self-improvement schedule; nearly every minute of his day was meticulously planned. His father is proud about how far his son had "made it" in life.
question
What does Tom confess to Nick when they meet that fall? Does he regret what he has done?
answer
Months later, Nick runs into Tom Buchanan on New York's Fifth Avenue. Tom admits that it was he who sent Wilson to Gatsby's; he shows no remorse, however, and says that Gatsby deserved to die. Nick reflects that Tom and Daisy are capable only of cruelty and destruction; they are kept safe from the consequences of their actions by their fortress of wealth and privilege.
question
Nick says that ''this has been a story of the west, after all.'' What do you think he means by that?
answer
I think Nick means to contrast the decadence of the East with the real world of the West. Both he and Gatsby are midwesterners. They go to the East for different reasons but the East seems to corrupt and morally ravage all who enter. THe lifestyle of decadence and selfishness destroyed Gatsby and Nick is going to run back to the West, back to a place that is real.
question
How does Nick characterize Tom and Daisy at the end of the book? What has each ofthem 'smashed' during the course of the novel?
answer
Nick characterizes them as vapid and self-indulgent. There is no substance to them. Both characters have destroyed even the illusion of real love, caring, compassion and humanity. They make Nick sick to his stomach
question
At the end of the book, Nick imagines what the continent must have been like when it was first seen by dutch sailors. How does this contrast with the environment described in the novel?
answer
Nick imagines the unspoiled lush greenery of the New York. He imagines the Dutch Sailors in an Eden-like setting where the possibilities were endless. We can contrast this with the Valley of the Ashes that lies between the two "Eggs". Both "Eggs" in their own ways become a symbol of greed, vapid desire and broken dreams. They are separated by the rotting grey Valley of Ashes. THere is no more hope in Long Island as the Dutch sailors might have once felt; now the lives of people on both sides are just as rotten as the valley.
question
What does the green light symbolize at the end of the novel?
answer
At the end of the novel, the green light goes out. This green light, which had symbolized Gatsby's hopes and dreams in the beginning of the novel foreshadows his tragic end at the conclusion.
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