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Gatsby - Coggle Diagram
Gatsby
Who is he?
- Wealthy, glamorous & mysterious figure
- A midwestern youth → Jay Gatz, who reinvented himself
- A man who seems to embody idealistic love, but in fact has close connections with criminal world
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Making Gatsby great
- Gatsby takes great pains to present himself as a gentleman
- he owns a Rolls-Royce car & clothes bought in expensive shops in London
- he uses phrase 'old sport' a term intended to make him seem upper class
- Nick indicates that Gatsby is trying a little too hard to act out a role, that his 'elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd'
- Gatsby has a library with English oak panelling, designed to resemble Oxford college
- The character Owl Eyes → doesn't really know Gatsby. Is impressed by the realistic appearance of the library → none of the pages of the books remain uncut & haven't been read
- Gatsby aims to project the image of an Old World aristocrat.
- Really, he comes across as an extravagant, very thorough, New World showman
Mr Nobody from Nowhere
- Gatsby's background is a mystery
- Tom calls him, 'Mr nobody from nowhere'
- There is a lot of gossip about Gatsby, but no one really knows much about him
- 'he killed a man once', 'I heard it was more that he is a german spy'. Gatsby's mysterious figure is gossiped about
- As Nick narrates The Great Gatsby he gradually discloses more & more facts that lie behind Gatsby's image as a man of mystery
Gatsby's greatness
- Title prepares us for a story of an exceptional man
- Nick produces elements in the story that portray Gatsby as a 'great' man
- With characters flaw that show him as less 'great'
Gatz to Gatsby
- James Gatz grew up in North Dakota, in America's Midwest, son of unsuccessful farm people
- 17 changed his name to Jay Gatsby
- As a boy, he explored the shores of Lake Superior → met Dan Cody & warned him his yacht was moored in dangerous place
- Cody → grew rich prospecting for precious metals, became like a surrogate Father to Gatsby
- Following Cody's death, Gatsby became involved with the gambler Wolfshiem, a shady & sinister figure from the underworld of organised crime
- Wolfshiem describes Gatsby as a 'perfect gentleman' & 'a man of fine breeding' & that he is 'the kind of man you'd like to take home & introduce to your mother & sister'
- Nick notices that he has 'one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it'
The war
- Readers told 'Gatsby did extraordinarily well in the war'
- Brave conduct resulted in promotion to the rank of major