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Who wrote "The Great Gatsby"?
Edith Wharton
Ernest Hemingway
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald is nearly as famous for his life (or lifestyle) as his work. He married the exuberant Southern belle Zelda Sayre and travelled the world, drinking and socializing with other famous writers, until his premature death at the age of 44.
William Faulkner
What time period is "Gatsby" set in?
the 1890s
the 1920s
More than anyone else, F. Scott Fitzgerald was the chronicler of the 1920s. He is sometimes erroneously credited with coining the term, "flapper."
the 1940s
the 1950s
The 1920s were also known as "The _____ Age."
Gilded
Jazz
Jazz was the soundtrack of the 1920s. Little-known fact: "Jazz" started out as a slang term for "sex."
Parchment
Stock and Bond
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Who narrates the novel?
Gatsby
Gatsby's butler
Gatsby's neighbor, Nick Carraway
Carraway narrates the novel in the first person, meaning he frequently uses the pronouns "I," "me," and "my." This also means that we can't witness events for which Carraway isn't present -- so we have to fill in what happened, guided by Nick's own speculation.
No one -- it's third-person, multiple POV
What is the name of the fictitious town where Nick and Gatsby live?
Goose Neck
Little Girl Bay
West Kempton
West Egg
Fitzgerald made up the towns of West Egg and East Egg, separated by the (real) Long Island Sound. They were supposedly named for rock formations.
What is Nick Carraway and Daisy Buchanan's relationship?
distant cousins
Nick and Daisy are second-cousins-once-removed. When Nick visits Daisy and her husband in the opening chapter, he says he's going to see "two old friends I scarcely knew at all."
friends from college
step brother and step sister
ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend
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Daisy's husband is ____ Buchanan.
Bill
Bitty
Duke
Tom
Tom Buchanan went to Yale with Nick Carraway. He was a football star at Yale, and still throws his weight around quite a bit, often literally grabbing Nick and steering him where he wants him to go.
What is Daisy's maiden name?
Bell
Fay
Casual readers assume that the name "Fay" underlines Daisy's otherworldly, fairy-like quality. ("Fay" is "fairy" in early modern English). Perhaps that was part of it, but Fitzgerald was also strongly influenced by a priest named Father Sigourney Fay. The name "Sigourney" turns up elsewhere in the novel, as Sigourney Howard, Jordan Baker's aunt.
Sayre
Zelig
Which town in the "Middle West" is Nick from?
Chicago
St. Louis
Madison
this is never quite clear
Many readers believe Carraway is from St. Paul, because that's where Fitzgerald was from, and Fitzgerald drew strongly on his own experiences. Others believe it's Chicago because Nick tells Daisy that Chicago "is in mourning" since she left. However, Nick and Daisy aren't close family members -- so there's no reason that they couldn't have grown up in different places.
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How many children do Tom and Daisy have?
one
Tom and Daisy have one daughter, who is mostly behind the scenes with a nanny. But Daisy's line about what she said when her daughter was born -- "I hope she's a fool, a beautiful little fool" -- is famous, partly because Zelda said it about her own newborn daughter.
two
three
none
Who is Jordan Baker?
Daisy's friend
Nick's love interest
Gatsby's ex-wife
both #1 and #2
Jordan Baker serves an important function in the book. She knows the story of Daisy and Gatsby's early relationship, and tells it to Nick midway through the book.
What sport does Jordan Baker play?
golf
Jordan is a golfer. Fitzgerald based her character on a real-life golfer of his day, Edith Cummings -- so he wrote in a letter to his literary agent.
polo
softball
tennis
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Who is Doctor T.J. Eckleburg?
a man who sells pills at parties
a doctor who treats Daisy for nerves
a party guest who never left Gatsby's house
a figure in a billboard
Dr. Eckleburg is a vision doctor whose billboard and face dominate the Valley of Ashes. It's a famous symbol from the book, but people are mistaken when they say it's Eckleburg's face on the famous cover illustration. It's not -- that loosely-suggested face is clearly female and wears no spectacles.
What is the name of Tom's mistress?
Emma
Katherine
Myrtle
Myrtle Wilson is described as not beautiful, but as having a tremendous "vitality." She meets Tom on the train into the city, and it's implied they had sex that same day.
Bunny
What does Myrtle's husband do for a living?
he sells bonds
he runs a garage
Myrtle's husband, George Wilson, runs a garage near the Valley of Ashes -- not exactly a garden spot. He's described as thin, blonde, and "spiritless."
he's a vacuum-cleaner salesman
he is unemployed
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What is Gatsby's nickname for men he likes?
"George"
"chief"
"old bean"
"old sport"
Gatsby commonly calls Nick "old sport." As for "George," don't laugh -- Babe Ruth was said to use it generically with men whose names he didn't remember.
Where was Gatsby supposedly educated?
Harvard
Oxford
Gatsby says this in a hurried, offhand way that makes Carraway suspect he's lying. When Gatsby later admits that he went there only briefly as part of a program for American army officers after the war, his honesty restores Carraway's faith. Nick says, "I was all for him again."
Yale
a seminary
Where do Gatsby and Daisy meet again after five years?
a garden party
a golf tournament
Nick's house
Gatsby bought the mansion in hopes that Daisy would eventually come to one of his fabulous parties. When that didn't happen, he asked Jordan to ask Nick to have Daisy over, so he could then drop by. A lot of work to meet up with a lost love!
the Plaza hotel
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What item(s) in Gatsby's house move(s) Daisy to tears?
an old clock
a picture of her
his shirts
Oddly, Daisy begins to cry while looking at Gatsby's many expensive shirts. It's possible that she's simply overwrought from the experience of seeing him again -- though some critics point to this scene as an example of the way material goods stand in for people in "Gatsby."
a medal from the war
What musical instrument does Klipspringer play?
the banjo
the harp
the piano
Ewing Klipspringer (what a name!) plays the piano. Gatsby rousts him from a nap to play for Daisy, Nick and him on the afternoon when he reconciles with Daisy.
the violin
Who was Dan Cody?
Nick Carraway's boss
Gatsby's mentor
Dan Cody was a wealthy man who made his money in prospecting and mining. Gatsby rowed out to his sailboat to warn him of a coming storm, and was rewarded by Cody taking him under his wing for several years.
an ex-boyfriend of Daisy's
an ex-boyfriend of Jordan's
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What was Gatsby's original name?
James Gatz
Carraway tells us that Gatsby was almost entirely self-invented. His family "were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people," and Jimmy Gatz knew he was meant for better things.
John Gowdy
Joe Goneril
we never learn this
How is Gatsby implied to have made his money?
an inheritance
bootlegging
Rumors abound about Gatsby. But the one that keeps sticking is that he sold liquor through drugstores that acted as a blind. Gatsby seems to confirm this in an argument with Tom Buchanan, saying that one of Tom's friends wasn't too ethical to invest in the business.
a bank job
selling antiquities illegally
What does Meyer Wolfsheim wear for cuff links?
diamonds
rubies
shark teeth
human molars
This leads Carraway to ask Gatsby, discreetly, if Wolfsheim is a dentist. But Wolfsheim (sometimes written "Wolfshiem," Fitzgerald's original spelling) is a professional gambler. The suggestion is the teeth came from an unfortunate debtor who couldn't pay.
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What is Meyer Wolfsheim accused of "fixing"?
the New York mayoral election
the U.S. presidential election
the 1919 World Series
Gatsby is very unruffled about this. "He just saw the opportunity," Gatsby tells Carraway about Wolfsheim, who is apparently a business associate.
the Miss America pageant
In what city did Daisy live when Gatsby met her?
New York City
Louisville
Daisy is from Kentucky. Gatsby was one of the young Army officers stationed near Louisville who vied for her attention -- more successfully than most.
Pensacola
New Orleans
Where does the climactic argument between Tom and Gatsby take place?
Nick's house
Gatsby's mansion
the Plaza Hotel
On the hottest day of the year, the party of five -- Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Nick and Jordan -- inexplicably leave the airy Buchanan mansion to drive into the city. There, they check into a hotel suite to get out of the heat -- but tensions between Gatsby and Tom boil over.
a bar in Manhattan
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What color is Gatsby's car?
white
black
cream or yellow
Early on, Carraway refers to Gatsby's car as "a rich cream color." But by the end of the book, it's yellow -- and the color of the car is, of course, very important.
blue
What color is Daisy's coupe?
green
red
silver
blue
The color of cars is important, of course, because of the hit-and-run accident that kills someone near the end of the book. Police will soon be looking for what the papers call "the death car."
Who is killed in the hit-and-run?
George Wilson
Myrtle Wilson
Myrtle thought the big yellow car belonged to Tom, because he drove it into the city. That's why she throws herself into its path as it returns toward East Egg. She is trying to get Tom's attention.
Daisy
Gatsby
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Who was driving Gatsby's car when Myrtle was hit?
Gatsby
Daisy
Only Gatsby and Daisy are in his car. Daisy was driving because Gatsby thought it would calm her nerves after the fight with Tom. Nick assumes Gatsby was driving his own car, until he guesses that Gatsby is protecting Daisy.
Nick
Jordan
Who shoots and kills Gatsby?
Tom
George Wilson
The weak-willed George finds his spine just in time to shoot the wrong person. Gatsby wasn't responsible for Myrtle's death -- but Tom told him who owned the yellow car, without telling him the entire truth of that night.
Myrtle's sister
an unknown party
Where is Gatsby's body found?
in his car
in his swimming pool
When one of Gatsby's servants wants to drain the pool, Gatsby tells him to hold off: "You know, I've never used that pool all summer." (Now is a bad time to start, Jay!)
in the foyer of his house
in a shallow grave
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Is Daisy Buchanan believed to be solely based on Zelda Fitzgerald?
yes
no
Some aspects of the Daisy-Gatsby romance mirror Scott and Zelda's -- for example, meeting in a Southern city where Fitzgerald was serving in the Army, preparing to go to Europe in WWI. But Fitzgerald scholars also see the influence of Ginevra King, the debutante who was Fitzgerald's first love while he was in college.
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