The Great Gatsby 2

1) What is the purpose of Meyer Wolfsheim as a character? How does he affect the way we see Gatsby?
Meyer Wolfsheim leaves a mysterious edge to Gatsby's story, despite the other information we have gained in the last couple chapters. He affects how we see Gatsby by keeping it mysterious and showing a kind of sketchy side of him, since Meyer Wolfsheim is a gambler who fixed the world series.


2) What does the backstory about Jay and Daisy's past do to our impressions of Gatsby? 
The backstory of Jay and Daisy makes Gatsby a much more relatable character. Before, he had been sort of a mystery, and we didn't know much about him. This backstory provided a lot of answers about previous events in the book, and made Gatsby seem like more of a regular person. But it also kind of makes the reader feel sorry for him because he never got over his relationship with Daisy.


3) What does the story of the rest of Gatsby's past do to our impressions of him?
The rest of Gatsby's past shows that his life hasn't been as great as he makes it seem. It also shows that he lies to lots of people. For example, he didn't grow up in a rich family, and he didn't inherit his money how he said he did. Taking this backstory in to account, I think it makes him look bad.


4) How does your overall impression of Gatsby change over these three chapters - do you like him more, less, and why?
I like Gatsby more after these last three chapters. He seems much more relatable and it was easy to get caught up in his story. There were a lot of unanswered questions in the last chapters, and they have been answered in interesting ways relating to Gatsby, which makes me like him as a character.

The Great Gatsby 1

After reading the first three chapters of the book, it seems to me that Nick, Jordan, and Gatsby are important characters.
Nick is a hero. He states that he is "one of the few honest people [he] has ever known" (p. 59). This trait of honesty makes him seem like the "good" guy to the audience. Honesty is (hopefully) a valued trait by the audience, which would then make Nick the favorable hero.
Jordan is an antihero. She seems very kind and is popular but is "incurably dishonest" (p. 58). This contradicts with the audience's values and what is "acceptable", therefore making her an antihero.
So far, I have not been able to identify a villain in this book. What Gatsby is at this point is unclear. According to what other people say about him, he seems to be a hero. "He doesn't want any trouble with anybody" (p. 43). "He smiled understandingly -- much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey." (pg. 48). This pure kindness that he possesses leads one to believe that he may also be a hero.