The costume
Jay Gatsbys clothes he wears were very formal and fancy. He wore what looks like is expensive brands. When he was younger his family was poor so they wouldn’t have been able to afford lots of nice new clothes all the time. I think Gatsby takes pride in his appearance because people will Judge him on what he is wearing and he will also want to make a good impression. Tom said” I was looking at an elegant young rough neck” The quote says Tom is looking at an elegant young man which i think says that Gatsby looks well put together with nice and tidy clothes.
The props
One prop that always came up was the yellow car. I think that having a flash car was a way of Gatsby showing off to Daisy. It was a way to show that he had a-lot of money. Also I think he choose the colour yellow because its not normal to have a yellow car, it stands out. When Daisy and Gatsby meet for the first time he had lots of flowers and once again i think he was trying to impress daisy because it was the first time of them two meeting for 5 years.
The setting of the stage
Gatsbys house is very over the top and massive for one person to be living in. I think that he has set up his house to make him look richer. Everything seems like he has the top of the line stuff. He has a full on library with lots of real books and people probably will be very interested by that. His house is always tidy and it always seems empty apart from when he throws his massive parties which make the space seem very small with all the people.
The speech and dialogue
Gatsby speaks very formal and it seems very forced. He says old-sport a lot. He probably took a-lot of time to make himself sound like someone who is important. When he was younger he used to practice how he spoke which was shown in his time table of what to do in a day.
The back story
He made up all these things about himself which were very different from what was the truth. He even had evidence to prove that it was right so that people believed. Everything he told people was so easy to believe that it was true and mostly everyone believed it because no one actually knew the truth about his backstory.
Hi Eliza,
Good start! You are most definately on the right track!
I’ll give you some advice, section by section. The biggest thing you can do is re-read bits of the book to geet more info.
The Costume: I think you have nailed the idea here- Gatsby knows he has to look the part with his clothes as this is how people judge him. You now need to find a couple more quotes and explain those. Think about the odd colour suits he wears: caramel when he and Nick go to NYC, white, silver and gold when he see’s Daisy for the first time, the pink suit when they all go to NYC that last time. Also the huge amount of shirts that he has in his closet that Daisy cries over. Go back and read these bits of the book and comment on how this very strange costume helps us to figure out this new, invented persona that Gatbsy has.
The Props: Go and re-read the secrion fo the novel where Gatbsy and Nick travel to NYC.Gatsby’s car is descibed, the white card and the other things he uses to ‘prove his past’ are all in there. Think about the very elaborate flower display a little more- why does he need to show off to Daisy. Also look back at the section where the photo book of Daisy is mentioned and also the big picture of Dan Cody is described. He has a lot of very ‘convenient’ props. Why?
Start with these two sections and let me know when you have added to them. I’ll take a look at some more after that.
You can do this!
Mrs.P