Chapter 6 Practice Quiz — The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 6
What is Gatsby's real name, and where was he born?
His real name is James Gatz. He was born in North Dakota to poor, unsuccessful farm people.
At what age did James Gatz change his name to Jay Gatsby?
He changed his name at seventeen, at the moment he first saw Dan Cody's yacht on Lake Superior.
How did Gatsby first meet Dan Cody?
Gatsby rowed out to Cody's yacht anchored in dangerous shallows on Lake Superior to warn him about an approaching wind that could wreck his boat.
How long did Gatsby work for Dan Cody, and what roles did he perform?
He worked for Cody for five years, serving as steward, mate, skipper, secretary, and even jailor during their voyages around the continent.
What happened to the 5,000 inheritance Cody left Gatsby?
Gatsby never received it. Ella Kaye, a newspaper woman who had attached herself to Cody, used a legal device to seize the money along with the rest of Cody's millions.
Why do Tom, Mr. Sloane, and a woman visit Gatsby's house on horseback?
They stop by casually for a drink while out riding. The visit becomes awkward when Gatsby does not recognize that their polite dinner invitation is insincere, and they leave before he can join them.
What does Gatsby want Daisy to tell Tom?
He wants Daisy to tell Tom she never loved him, then return to Louisville with Gatsby and marry him as if the last five years never happened.
How does Nick describe Gatsby's response when told "You can't repeat the past"?
Gatsby cries "Why of course you can!" incredulously and looks around wildly, as if the past were lurking in the shadow of his house just out of reach.
How does Nick describe Gatsby's self-creation using the phrase "Platonic conception"?
Nick says Gatsby "sprang from his Platonic conception of himself," meaning his identity was an idealized self-image he invented rather than something rooted in his actual background.
What does Tom Buchanan suspect about Gatsby's wealth?
Tom suspects Gatsby is a bootlegger. After the party he says "Some big bootlegger?" and vows to investigate Gatsby's background.
How does Daisy react to Gatsby's party in Chapter 6?
She is appalled by the vulgarity of West Egg. The only time she enjoys herself is during the half hour alone with Gatsby on Nick's front steps.
Why does Gatsby introduce Tom as "the polo player" throughout the party?
When Tom objects to being called a polo player, Gatsby notices it bothers him but the label pleases Gatsby, so he continues using it for the rest of the evening as a subtle assertion of control.
Who is Ella Kaye and what is her significance?
Ella Kaye is a newspaper woman who manipulated the aging Dan Cody, sent him to sea, and ultimately captured his fortune after his death, depriving Gatsby of his inheritance.
What does Chapter 6 reveal about the impossibility of repeating the past?
Gatsby's insistence that he can recreate his romance with Daisy exactly as it was five years ago demonstrates how his extraordinary hope blinds him to the irreversible nature of time and change.
How does the theme of self-invention function in Chapter 6?
Gatsby's wholesale rejection of his origins and creation of a new identity shows self-invention as both his greatest strength and his fatal flaw—the same dreaming capacity that lifted him from poverty also detaches him from reality.
How does the class conflict between old money and new money intensify in this chapter?
Tom's contempt for Gatsby's party, the Sloane group's dismissive visit, and Daisy's revulsion at West Egg's "raw vigor" all underscore the unbridgeable social gulf between inherited wealth and self-made wealth.
What literary device does Fitzgerald use to reveal Gatsby's backstory in this chapter?
He uses an extended flashback. Nick interrupts the present-day narrative to relate Gatsby's history as James Gatz, information he learned much later, disrupting chronology to mirror Gatsby's own disruption of time.
What is the effect of dramatic irony during the Sloane visit?
The reader and Nick can see that Sloane and Tom consider the dinner invitation insincere, but Gatsby cannot. His eagerness to accept highlights his social blindness and outsider status.
What does the cosmic imagery in the Louisville kiss passage symbolize?
The stars, moonlight, the sidewalk forming "a ladder" to a secret place, and the "tuning fork struck upon a star" elevate the kiss to a mythic, almost religious event—the moment Gatsby bound his infinite dreams to mortal reality.
What does "meretricious" mean in the phrase "a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty"?
Meretricious means superficially attractive but having no real value. It describes the flashy, hollow glamor that Gatsby devoted himself to pursuing.
What does "incarnation" mean in the sentence "the incarnation was complete"?
Incarnation means the embodiment of something in flesh or physical form. Here it means Gatsby's abstract dreams took on tangible reality through kissing Daisy.
Complete the quote: "Can't repeat the past? ... Why of course you can!"
Gatsby says this to Nick after Nick warns him "You can't repeat the past." Gatsby cries it incredulously and then says "I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before."
What does Nick mean by "He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God"?
Nick means that by kissing Daisy, Gatsby attached his limitless imagination to a mortal, imperfect person. His dreams would no longer be boundless once they depended on a real human being.