The Great Gatsby

Chapter One

• He doesn't have a problem with Gatsby - it is the people who hung onto Gatsby who he has a problem with
• Nick comes from a wealthy background
• He went to the war and when he got home he was bored and moved to the East, thinking it would be a permanent move but it wasn't - he tells up straight-up he left for a reason 
• I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer
• Nick's education shines through in the first chapter; the structure and language is well developed, he's quite wordy and it appears quite pompous
• Displays a certain ambivalence in his dedication to Gatsby's memory - he wants to recall every little minute detail about this important time of his life
• The mention of his father's advice establishes the larger concern about the relationship between the present and the past which has great relevance to Gatsby's personal history
• Ironic with the name "eggs" because eggs suggest new life
• Nick is not emotional or passionate 
• References to sounds "full bellows"  , "wings beating" , "persistent organ sound" Daisy "sings"

Chapter Two

• Sunday Summer afternoon - people would be restless 
• Issue with illusion and reality as Nick believes time is going a lot quicker than it is in reality
• Repetition of the word "small" in the description of the apartment; could be Nick judging people again or questioning why it would be a small apartment when Tom could afford a lot more
• Tom is manipulative and interrupts people in this chapter as well
• Tom is rude - going to the garage is like parading it in George's face. He is mocking George for being so ignorant and oblivious
• They are drinking illegally. This links in with the fact Tom is spending a day with his mistress. Sundays are normally religious days but there is a complete disregard for religion 
• "Tom Buchanan broke her nose" - no mystery, straight to the point and very blunt. It also emphasises that Tom is powerful in society and physically 
• There is a lot of references to death "ghost", ashes etc. creates a sense of foreboding