Questions

4. Which of the following BEST describe the purpose of Fitzgerald’s inclusion of the last two sentences in the excerpt on the previous page (detailing the drawbridge and the fact that the train always must stop there)?
a. These details highlight the carelessness of society during the Roaring 20s.
b. These details demonstrate Nick’s attitude toward this new society, because he does not want to meet Tom’s mistress Myrtle.
c. These details serve as foreshadowing for Nick’s first mysterious meeting with his neighbor Gatsby at the party he attends later on.
d. These details emphasize the contrast between the glamour of Long Island/NYC and the poverty of the Valley of Ashes because the train stop is a reminder of the lower class.

5. At the beginning of Chapter 3, Fitzgerald spends 2 pages describing Gatsby’s party preparations:

“Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York—every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves…At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden…”

Which of the following BEST describes Fitzgerald’s purpose in including all of this detail?

a. This description demonstrates just how reckless and lawless Gatsby is, because he spends all of his money to consume alcohol with strangers every weekend.
b. This description reveals Gatsby’s obsession with citrus fruits and caterers, which shows how he fixates on certain items to an extreme.
c. This description mirrors Gatsby’s meticulous preparations and highlights the extravagance that goes into each party, demonstrating that Gatsby is clearly putting on a show.
d. This description reveals shows how overwhelmed Nick is by his next door neighbor.

6. Fitzgerald uses imagery and deliberate word choice to create the reckless atmosphere of Gatsby’s party in Chapter 3. Which of the following pieces of textual evidence BEST contributes to this atmosphere?
a. I had taken two finger-bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound.”
b. “...girls were putting their heads on men’s shoulders in a puppyish, convivial way, girls were swooning backward playfully into men’s arms, even into groups, knowing that someone would arrest their falls…”
c. “Instead of rambling, this party had assumed a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside--East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety.”
d. “The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.”

4.(D) The train stopping at the drawbridge is almost like an unwanted interruption in the lives of the rich and famous who live in the lap of luxury and have enough money to travel in the fastest and most expensive transportation at the time.

The stop in the Valley of Ashes is described almost sarcastically as if the passengers in the train would have desired to take in the bleak and somber landscape of the dark and filthy valley laden with ash and industry.

5.(C) Because it explains how the lemons and oranges that are delivered to his back door are all used up within a fortnight because he is always throwing parties and events. It also explains that tons of caterers come down with canvas to decorate his enormous garden. Almost giving the reader a first eye glimpe of just how all out and extravagant Gatsby really is.

6.(A) Because " I had taken two finger-bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant " meaning he only took a glimpse and before he knew it the whole atmosphere of the party had changed before him.

Explanation: D-C-A