What Is The Most Crucial Moment In Chapter 1 Of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby
Chapter One
1) I find that the most crucial moment in the plot of chapter one is when Daisy asks Jordan, "Gatsby?... What Gatsby?" As someone who has read this book once before, I know that the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is the most integral to the plot. Daisy acknowledging his name in this way is foreshadowing of their rekindled involvement. It subtly hints to the reader of their connection as well as introduces the most important conflicts of the story: Gatsby vs Tom, Tom vs George Wilson, and Daisy vs Daisy's desires.
2) Nick describes himself as "inclined to reserve all judgements," and "the victim of not a few veteran bores." He states that in college he was "unjustly accused of being a politician." That is

to say that he had a way of knowing people's motivations. This all spurs from the fact that his father taught him to remember that not everyone was as fortunate as him. I believe this an important reason behind why Nick is telling Gatsby's story rather than Gatsby himself. Nick is oddly observant and understanding of what motivates the people around him, particularly Gatsby.
3) Nick describes Tom as having already reached his peak. He uses very negatively connotated descriptors when talking about Tom. Descriptors like "aggressively" and "arrogant" and "complacent", all words which connote negatively. Having read this book once before, I know that we aren't meant to like Tom. Even just the descriptions of Tom's physique paint him as intimidating and threatening. He's not only pushy, narrow minded, and stubborn, but also a behemoth capable of filling a doorway just with the width of his shoulders.
4) Jordan Baker is a socialite golfer from Louisville and a terrible gossip. She's rather observant, intelligent, and judgmental in a strangely sophisticated way. Nick finds her intriguing not only for her beauty, but for her self-satisfactory air. She seems completely content in herself which draws Nick's admiration. Nick also seems captivated by the strange sense of mystery shrouding her and her reputation. Jordan acts as though she's silently challenging everyone to unravel her story whilst simultaneously not caring at all. There's an odd complexity under the image of beauty outside.
5) When Nick first sees him, Gatsby initially appears to be star gazing. Upon closer inspection, he notices that Gatsby is gazing at a green light fixed to the end of a dock. Daisy's dock. His arms are outstretched, trembling to the light almost longingly. Gatsby seems completely content to be standing out there in only his own company, but still there is a lonely air about him as he yearns for the green light. (And Daisy, the woman it represents.)
6) The Tone of Nick's description of Tom reveals that he isn't a fan of his second-cousin-once-removed's husband. Perhaps the best quotation to display this is on page six where Nick describes Tom as "a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anticlimax." He basically says that Tom has used up his relevancy - his purpose. He sees him as threateningly intimidating physically, but dully unimpressive and almost contemptuous in all other capacities.
Chapter Two
1) I think that the most crucial moment in the plot of chapter two was when to punched Myrtle in the nose for talking about Daisy.

That, or when Gatsby's name was mentioned yet again in curious passing. These two scenes help found, introduce, and foreshadow the important relationships in the future love triangle/ pentagon that forms between Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Myrtle, and George Wilson. It establishes that Tom still loves Daisy though he's cheating with Myrtle. Myrtle claims that she never truly loved George, but we know that George is just mad about her. All in all, this chapter lays the building blocks of conflict.
2) Nick meets Tom's mistress when Tom pulls him off of the train and takes him to the valley of ashes where Myrtle lives with her husband above her husband's garage. The two get to know each other better when Tom insists that Myrtle slip away to town to meet him. In town Tom buys Myrtle, a puppy before they meet with Myrtle's sister and a neighboring couple and have a party. It is at this party that Nick gets drunk and gains some crucial insight on Tom and Myrtle's

relationship.
3) Myrtle reacts to Tom's arrival by shaking his hand and trying to be discreet. However, when F. Scott Fitzgerald writes Myrtle's body language, her actions come off as lustful. For instance, she refuses to look at her husband while speaking to Tom, she licks her lips, and never breaks eye contact with Tom. She also sends her husband out of the room to fetch some chairs so that she can talk to Tom about meeting. George Wilson is all the while completely oblivious to his wife's affair.
4) George Wilson is described as blonde and faintly handsome, but still tired. He is mostly associated with the desolation of his environment in the valley of ashes and we can assume that he is from less prosperous backgrounds. He reacts to Tom's arrival like it Is a business meeting, asking when Tom will sell him his car. We can assume that he has absolutely no idea of Tom and Myrtle's involvement. Of all the characters in this book, I most pity George and Gatsby. Both are so in love that they let it kill them in different ways. It's tragic.
5) The valley of ashes is very desolate, grey, and dreary. I think it symbolizes where people begin in the hopes of growing to achieve the American dream which is symbolized by the illustrious liveliness of New York city and its richer inhabitants. For instance, the valley is described as, "A fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens." The use of the word grow and the stark differences in the landscape supports my assumption.
6) Tom attacks Myrtle at the end of the party because she brings up Daisy's name. this shows that despite his obvious infidelity, Tom still cares for his wife. It may be an adverse reaction of Tom's inner guilt which manifests itself in the only way Tom knows how to let it manifest: in the form of aggression.

Chapter Three
1) The most crucial moment in the plot, I think, having read this novel before, is when Jordan and Nick encounter Owl-Eyes in the library and he is impressed by the very real books.

I think this is subtly more important than meeting Gatsby, only because it gives us reason to see explanation as to the origins of Gatsby's illustrious wealth. This moment hints to us that rather than coming from old money and having grown up around wealthy people, Gatsby is trying desperately to be something he isn't and to fit into a world where he doesn't inherently belong. This is very important to the plot later in the novel. Another important small moment is the foreshadowing of Owl-Eyes car wreck. It is an allusion to Myrtle's death later in the novel.
2) One way that Nick differs is that he was invited rather than having simply appeared on Gatsby's lawn. Gatsby had taken great care to invite Nick. Also, most guests only know Gatsby second hand, having never met him in person. A very "friend of a friend" situation. Nick was personally invited by Gatsby and gets to meet him. Secondly, Nick isn't of as prosperous and extravagant a background as the other, wealthier guests. He is of more modest and humble

beginnings.
3) He thinks of Gatsby in rather a good light. He feels comfortable and in Gatsby's favor. He's more normal than Nick would have expected and is something of a pleasant surprise. Nick narrates on page 48 that "[Gatsby's] was one of those rare smiled with a quality of reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life."
4) "She was incurably dishonest. She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage…" page 58. Jordan hates losing so badly in all of life that she is willing to lie and cheat in order to gain the high ground. Her two vices are gossip and dishonesty above all others. In the following chapter, Gatsby explains that he trusts Jordan to do everything all right and fairly, a fair bit of dramatic irony. This also explains that Gatsby isn't a very keen judge of character, a flaw that will lead to his later demise.
5) The guests at Gatsby's parties are a very rambunctious group. They are indulgent gossips and flirts. They are also under an increasingly hindering spell of alcohol, stoking the frivolous fires of carefree hilarity. Overall, they are a very colorful, inebriated, unrelatable bunch.
6) The sense of the Jazz age that I see in Gatsby's party is indulgence. Everyone does everything in excess. An excess of drink, dance, and gossip. Lots and lots of gossip. A good quote to explain the carefree indulgence is from a female party guest named Lucille on page 43, "I never care what I do, so I always have a good time." Everyone seems to live in the moment, regardless of the consequences of the next day's hangover and amnesia.

Chapter four
1) I feel like the most crucial moment in the plot of chapter four is when Jordan tells Nick about Gatsby's history with Daisy. The whole elaborate story she spins reveals a number of crucial plot points. For one, we learn that Daisy loved Gatsby greatly before. We also learn that she had gotten drunk the day before her wedding after never having drank at all - an extreme emotional response to… something/ We can infer from hearing about Tom's car crash where a woman in his car broke her arm, that Tom was sleeping with that same woman on the day before the wedding.
2) Gatsby tells Nick that he had gone to Oxford, acquired his wealth via inheritance when is family died, and that some very sad thing had happened to him - which he insists Jordan tell Nick about. From Jordan, we learn that this sad event involves Daisy breaking Gatsby's heart. In short, Nick tells Gatsby in a very elaborate way that he has loved Daisy for some time.
3) Daisy - a woman who never drank - got drunk on her wedding day and threatened to call everything off. We can infer that the reason behind this was that Tom was cheating on her with the woman from the hotel. Daisy knew that Tom was cheating on her and yet she still stayed with him.
4) Gatsby wants to have tea with Daisy at Nick's house because he wants to show her his home. He's hoping to woo her back by being more impressive than Tom. He has loved her for so long that he wants to successfully guarantee winning her back. He doesn't ask Nick himself because he wants to show up out of the blue and surprise Daisy. Also, I think that he believes that Nick will have trouble refusing Jordan's request, but might say no to Gatsby personally due to the fact that they are only recently acquainted.
5) Daisy refuses to speak to her family for weeks because they didn't let her go to New York to see Gatsby off. She also doesn't dance or go out with any other men from the army base. This is explained in Jordan's story on page 75, "She was effectively prevented, but she wasn't on speaking terms with her family for several weeks." This tells us that she was heartbroken when Gatsby left and that she had loved him very much.

Chapter Five
1) The most crucial moment in the plot of chapter five is when Gatsby shows Daisy and Nick his house and reevaluates his possessions based on Daisy's reactions. This is because it further establishes the fact that Gatsby has done everything to get wealthy all because of his unending love for Daisy. It shows us that Daisy is quite literally Gatsby's everything. Gatsby valued her when she was away from him more than Tom valued her when she was right beside him.
2) Initially, the meeting between Gatsby and Daisy is very awkward. Gatsby is very clumsy and flustered. He forgets all his manners and confesses his concern and embarrassment to Nick. Gatsby behaves like a love-stricken school-boy, hopelessly nervous and desperately awkward. His nervousness is almost endearingly adorable.
3) Daisy and Gatsby are different after half an hour because they've overcome their awkwardness and become more at home. They're slipping back into the comfortableness of the past. By being left alone together they've been allowed to rediscover their love and admiration towards one another. Their old flame is re-lit.
4) Gatsby's feelings by the end of the chapter are that he's more in love with Daisy than ever before. Suddenly she's realer to him than she ever had been. Gatsby is content and excited by the prospect of a complicated, yet possible, future with her. He is completely happy and love struck.
5) I'm not entirely certain as to why Daisy sobs when she sees Gatsby's shirts. I found that reaction to be very confusing. The best reason I can conjure up is that the shirts reminded her of exactly how much time had passed while they were apart. Or maybe she wanted to see Gatsby wear them all, representing the future and missed opportunities of the past. The quote on page 92 regarding the passage of each fashion season may explain her teary response, "I've got a man in England who buys me clothes. He sends over a collection… beginning of each season."
6) The weather begins gloomily with pouring rain, becomes sunny, then ends in a second rainstorm punctuated by the brilliant lights of the New York sound. I think it symbolizes Gatsby and Daisy's melancholy reunion and how bitter-sweet it is. Bitter because Daisy's married and sweet because they are reunited in their love. Page 88, "While the rain continued it had seemed like the murmur of their voices… with gusts of emotion."
Chapter Six
1) The most important moment in the plot is when Gatsby tells Nick he wants to repeat the past. This is crucial to the reasoning behind every single one of Gatsby's actions. He has spent five years in pursuit of a way to repeat his treasured time with Daisy and ultimately wishes to marry her the way that they would have married had she stayed with him after the war.
2) James Gatz changes his name to Jay Gatsby "at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career." He changed it because he wanted to invent a persona that he could one day inherit. He knew he came from nowhere special but needed big shoes to fill. That's why he invented Jay Gatsby - the alluring character of his dreams.
3) Daisy's real response, according to Nick, is that she didn't enjoy the party except for when she had been alone with Gatsby on Nick's porch. She was offended by all the women who attended the extravagant event save one movie star and she did not enjoy all of the drinking. She was polite but lacked delight in her surroundings. She overall frowned on West Egg.
4) Gatsby tells Nick he wanted "nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say 'I never loved you.'" Then Gatsby would have thoughtfully pursued a future with her, eventually marrying her in Louisville. Gatsby's ultimate goal is to be daisy's "one and only" as she is his.
5) "'I wouldn't ask too much of her,' I ventured. 'You can't repeat the past.'/ 'Can't repeat the past?' he cried incredulously. 'Why of course you can!'" Nick doesn't believe that people can relive their pasts. He believes that missed opportunities remain as such and can only be righted with the occurrence of new opportunities. Gatsby disagrees whole-heartedly with this sentiment because to him, repeating the past is all that has ever mattered. Gatsby lost a treasured part of himself when his relationship with Daisy came to an unfortunate close. He is not happy in the present and so he lives to recreate a time when he truly was happy… with Daisy.

Chapter Seven
1) Some might disagree with me, but there's a line at the bottom of page 118 which I consider to be the most crucial moment in the plot of this chapter - perhaps even more so than Myrtle's fatal run in with Daisy. The line is uttered by Jordan Baker and reads, "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." I think this is perhaps the most important line of the entire book because it represents one of the book's main themes: the theme that life goes on. Gatsby is constantly battling to relive the past, but life will march on without him. He lost Daisy once, and he chose never to forget her. But Daisy couldn't wait for him forever, and so, she moved on and fell in love with Tom. Life started anew again when it got crisp in the fall.
2) Gatsby stops giving parties because he wants to limit gossip. Daisy comes over quite frequently and Gatsby doesn't want anyone in West-Egg to know about their covert relationship. For the same reason, Gatsby dismisses all of his staff and hires Wolfsheim's people who are less qualified servants. Also, I think Daisy frowned upon Gatsby's lavish parties to some degree, because she ceased to be the center of attention. So, intent on proving to Daisy that she is Gatsby's heart and soul, he stopped the parties all together.
3) Tom first realizes that Daisy loves Gatsby when they lock eyes at Daisy's house. Their inability to separate their gazes is a testament to how inseparable they are from one another emotionally. Tom recognizes this because once Daisy had looked at Tom the same way. Tom also realizes how his adultery has driven Daisy from him and towards Gatsby, the only man to have ever loved her wholly.
4) Myrtle is upset when she sees Tom and Jordan together in Gatsby's car because she thinks that Jordan is Daisy. On page 125 it says, "Eyes… fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife." Myrtle is in a jealous rage because she thinks she's seeing her lover and his wife and she knows that George will do anything to keep her with him. She's panicking because she thinks that Tom will leave him behind once and for all.
5) George locks Myrtle in the bedroom because he doesn't want her to run off with Tom before they can move away out West. He's worried that his life is going to escape him. Myrtle, of course, being his life. George, like Gatsby, only loved the one woman. He's devoted and invested and terrified of losing his everything.
6) Gatsby displays the same behavior when Nick first sees him. Gatsby was standing outside looking at the green light on Daisy's dock, longingly. Page 20, "He stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling." This time it's different because Gatsby is standing in the bushes outside Daisy's house watching the for the light in the window to turn on so that he can protect her from Tom. He's waiting to see if she's alright rather than waiting to see if she remembered him. The green light was the hope that they would be united for life, and the yellow light in the window is the fear that they will be separated from each other for good, by death.

Chapter Eight
1) The most important moment in the plot of this chapter, is Gatsby's untimely death. Gatsby's pursuit of a long dead past concludes with the consequences of Tom and Daisy's tumultuous life. And so, the tragedy comes to a regrettable close. Personally, this book has always been among my very favorites, and I'm beyond upset that Gatsby's life was extinguished. In a way, I felt that I loved him too in a way. He was the one character in the entire book that I didn't despise. Each time I read the book, I find myself just as upset by his death. Each time, I love Gatsby a little more, and hate Daisy with even greater passion. Gatsby deserved much better than he got in the end.
2) Gatsby tells Nick the story of how he and Daisy fell in love. I think he tells him because he's worried that his life is falling apart and he wants someone, other than he and Daisy, to know about his lover for her so that it isn't lost to time forever. Time is Gatsby's greatest adversary. Also, I think Gatsby feels like now he has nothing left to lose except Daisy who's all that matters to him anymore.
3) George spends the night mourning Myrtle and also piecing together the details of her death. Slowly, he comes to the conclusion that Myrtle must have been murdered by her lover. George recognizes the car and I think he rationalizes that it must have belonged to her lover. Only he mistakes her paramour to be Gatsby.
4) George finds the dog leash which is evidence of Myrtle's affair. He's smart enough to deduce that since they don't have a dog, Myrtle must have one elsewhere. And why leave a dog elsewhere unless there's a place for the dog to be taken care of by someone frequently. Somewhere that Myrtle could frequent. And thus, he considers the dog leash evidence of Myrtle's affair.
5) The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg symbolize God's ever watchful eye. He sees them as evidence that he's doomed one way or another, as are Myrtle and her lover and all those wrong doers whom God has observed. "'God sees everything,' repeated Wilson. 'That's an advertisement,' Michaelis assured him."

Chapter Nine
1) The most important thing in the plot of chapter nine is Nick's relentless search for people to remember Gatsby. Gatsby had spent his entire life refusing to forget the one person that meant anything to him, and Nick is trying to do the same. Daisy and Tom and Jordan and everyone else that Nick had gotten involved with, smashed his life to pieces, except Gatsby. Gatsby had always been good to Nick. He was a close and important friend. Sure, Nick found the idea of Gatsby to be distasteful. All his parties and business dealings and nonesuch, but at the end of the day, Nick and Gatsby were close friends. Nick was the only one that stayed constant to Gatsby. He was a friend up until the bitter end.
2) The motive publicly given for Wilson's murder of Gatsby is that "he was a man deranged by grief." This is because those who could prove the whole misunderstanding were either dead or guilty in some way. Catherine wanted to preserve her sister's memory in a good light and so refused to admit that Myrtle was an adulteress. Tom and Daisy and Jordan all wanted either to wash their hands of the subject or keep Daisy out of jail.
3) The telephone call from Chicago tells us that Gatsby's business was everywhere. It also confirms suspicions that he was dealing in unsavory affairs. It's a confirmation of the origins of Gatsby's wealth.
4) Gatsby's father is proud of him because his son had done well for himself. He was proud of Gatsby's success. To Gatsby's father, Jay could do no wrong. And I must say, I loved Gatsby enough to believe the same. Gatsby's father was proud of his son's determination and generosity. And at the bottom of one of Gatsby's childhood books, he'd resolved to be better to his parents.
5) Nick characterizes them as cold and self-involved. On page 174 he says that, "Daisy hadn't sent a message or a flower." He also characterizes them as careless people who destroy others on page 179, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…"
6) "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 - to-morrow we will run faster, stretch our arms out farther… and one fine morning --," page 180. The green light symbolizes the American dream or success and fortune and a future. It symbolizes achieving all the impossible things people aspire to. And for Gatsby, that impossible thing was reliving his past glories.

Final Question: Some of the elements of the jazz age that were included in The Great Gatsby are prohibition and drinking, the party scene, and the - at the time - loose behavior of the flappers. We see the effects of prohibition in the fact that Gatsby amassed his great wealth via bootlegging which was a prevalent problem in the twenties. Drinking is also a major theme. Throughout the book we see the cameo-ed effects of drunk individuals both in decision making, car wrecks, and contributing to the hilarity of already strenuous situations. Flappers were less directly portrayed in the sense that they weren't directly named, however their behavior and what they stood for was addressed. Throughout the novel Tom is complaining about the loosening of family values - an ideal connected to the Flapper movement.