Video Questions

1. Fitzgerald uses the names he has in the story to reflect on where they come from and what their social class is. He also uses West/East Egg as symbols to show who is new/old money.

2. If you were old money you wouldn’t be nearly as wealthy or feel as good about yourself for having worked hard for what you have. I’d want to be new money because it shows that you’re ambition, aren’t lazy, and don’t have to depend on other people to help live.

3.

A) Valley of Ashes: symbol of the death of the American Dream. People who live there have lost the ability to achieve it.

B) Eyes of T.J. Eckleburg: symbolizes the eyes of God, and can make people question if he really does care if people live like that. It’s an old billboard that’s left in the Valley of Ashes.

C) Green Light: His dream of Daisy.  

D) Mantle clock: symbolizes the stopping of time, and that Gatsby wants to repeat the past.

E) Fay: Daisy’s last name means Fairy which can link back to her different tones of voices she uses. You can’t really trust all of what she says so that could be why her voice is ‘full of money’.. or maybe just that she’s from wealth.

4. Tom is old money, racist, and a complete womanizer. He’s married to Daisy yet has affair with other woman which proves him to be careless, unthoughtful, and selfish. Gatsby is new money, kind, and generous. His dream is to have Daisy yet she is stuck with Tom.

5. Daisy’s decision is mainly decided on who has safer money, and at the hotel she discovered it wasn’t Gatsby. Even though she loves him, she can’t leave Tom because of that comfort. Gatsby’s dream of having Daisy wash crushed and the idea of money being the only thing that is able to succeed in fulfilling the American Dream was something Daisy didn’t realize. Love is needed as well.

6. The Jazz age was right before the Great Depression and WWII. It was reflects back on the roaring twenties and it was where people made money off of music and were able to celebrate with it.  

7. Tom made the real downfall because he knew how Gatsby got his money. He knew that Daisy was basically a gold digger so by revealing this information she would remain his. Even though she knows that Gatsby would love her more, she’s weak and can’t stand up to Tom. This was at Plaza Hotel in NYC.. where dreams were supposed to be made not broken.