1) In chapter 8 we learn that perhaps Gatsby was “living too long for with a single dream� (162) and in chapter 9 his father shows Nick a page from his journal he kept growing up (174). What sort of picture does this paint of Gatsby?
2) Nick runs into Tom one last time on the last few pages of the novel and he says: “I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified� (180). What does this seem to say about forgiveness? About the group?
3) How does The Great Gatsby relate to current society? Is the novel still relevant?
4) Does this novel have villains and heroes? Why, why not? If yes, who fits into these categories and why?
5) What do you make of the final line of the novel:
“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 out our arms farther…And one fine morning –
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.