Characters & Characterization.
- Who is the most affable character in the book? Why?
- How has Nick matured by the end of the novel?
- Why does Nick “like” but ultimately disapprove of Gatsby?
- Who is the “hero” of the novel? Is there a hero?
- The novel is a tragedy, and ultimately, Gatsby is a tragic character. Why?
- Which characters seem to “have it all”? Do they really?
Theme & Symbol.
- What kind of world does the novel portray? Who succeeds—or rather, “survives"—in this world? Why?
- Why are characters who seem to have it all often desperate and immoral? How does this reflect the notion of the American Dream and specifically, the importance of money and material wealth?
- What, then, do you think the Fitzgerald is saying about the American Dream?
- Who—or rather, what—killed Gatsby? (Think beyond the literal; investigate on a figurative level.)
- Gatsby dies by the pool. Why? Wilson dies in the garden. Why?
- The novel begins at the end of spring/beginning of summer. Gatsby meets Daisy in the fall. Gatsby dies in the fall. So, who cares? Why is any of this significant?
Beyond the text.
- Gatsby is a novel of the 1920s, but how might is it also be a novel of today?
- Why do you think Fitz named it The Great Gatsby? Was Gatsby “great”? (At one point, Fitzgerald considered the title Under the Red, White, and Blue. Why?)
- Some have cited the novel as the “Great American Novel.” Do you agree or disagree? Why? What is distinctly “American” about it?
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