When reading "The Great Gatsby"....

... I want you to pay attention to the themes, motifs and narrative devices mentioned below.
In your logbook you should eventually present each of the 9 chapters as follows:

• brief summary of events
•  Nick's view on these events - summarized in one quotation (explain your choice!)
• references to themes and motifs, again supported by a quotation

Themes and motifs (further explanation to be given in class)

• Alienation: the feeling that you are a stranger in  your own surroundings; feeling distant from the familiar, other people, etc. Typical for modernist literature (of the early 20th century).
• Friendship
• Identity
• The decline of the American Dream

Keep an eye out for motifs (often occuring symbols).

Narrative structure

These are questions probably more easily answered when you have finished reading the book:  
why would Fitzgerald have taken Nick as his narrator? Is he a reliable narrator? What is his part in the events unfolding around him?