From Lauren - The Great Gatsby

1) Identify and briefly define important words, terms, concepts, or characters.

Words:

Unhappy – This word is used to describe Tom and Daisy’s condition as in “they weren’t unhappy”

Conspiring – Shows what Tom and Daisy’s conversation would have looked like to an outsider looking in.

Terms:

Natural Intimacy – It describes how Tom and Daisy looked intimate with each other, and that it wasn’t forced intimacy.

Concepts:

Happiness – What does happy mean to the characters and is it important for them to be happy in their relationships?

Characters:

Tom: He is Daisy’s husband. His mistress, Myrtle, just died in a car accident, and he is trying to reconcile things with his wife.

Daisy: Tom’s wife. She was the one who killed Myrtle with a car.

Myrtle: Tom’s mistress.

Gatsby: Loves Daisy even though she is married. He was with Daisy when she killed Myrtle, and still hopes she will leave her husband for him.

2) Summarize the main idea, theme, action, or event of the reading. Be sure to include quotation that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.

In chapter 7, Gatsby and Daisy let Tom know that they love each other. Tom and Gatsby argue during the chapter about their love for Daisy. Towards the end, Daisy and Gatsby are driving home and Daisy swerves the car and hits Tom’s mistress Myrtle and kills her.

In the following scene from The Great Gatsby, Tom and Daisy are home, talking about something the reader is not certain about, but it seems as if the are trying to fix the problems they have been having with each other. The scene takes place soon after Daisy kills Myrtle with a car, and Gatsby is waiting outside their home during this conversation to make sure Daisy goes to sleep okay.

“Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table, with a plate of cold fried chicken between them, and two bottles of ale. He was talking intently across the table at her, and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in a while she looked up at him and nodded in agreement.”

“They weren’t happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or ale – and yet they weren’t unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.” (Chapter 7, pgs. 144-145)

3) Formulate a question for discussion. The question should be relatively substantial, based upon a specified passage or scene from the text, and capable of sustaining a thoughtful discussion.

The narrator explains that Tom and Daisy are reconciling their differences during this scene. However, no one truly knows what was actually spoken about between Tom and Daisy.

By reading up to chapter 7:

Do you think Daisy told Tom at the dinner table that she killed Myrtle, and if not, do you think Tom would forgive her if/when he finds out? More importantly, do you think that just because Tom and Daisy “didn’t look unhappy” at the dinner table, it is good enough for them to still be together as husband and wife even though they aren’t ‘happy’?