Name _________________________________________________ Period ____________ Date _________________
The Great Gatsby – Nick Carraway’s Introduction – Paraphrase
Practice Quote: “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over
in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing someone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in
this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had’” (Fitzgerald 1).
Practice Quote: Paraphrase this quote in your own words. Your paraphrase must be 15 words or less.
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1) “I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me a
victim of not a few veteran bores…So it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician,
because I was [aware of] the secret griefs of wild…men” (Fitzgerald 1).
1) Paraphrase this quote in your own words. Your paraphrase must be 15 words or less.
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2) “Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as
my father snobbishly suggested…a sense of fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth” (Fitzgerald 2).
2) Paraphrase this quote in your own words. Your paraphrase must be 15 words or less.
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3) “When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral
attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart” (Fitzgerald 2).
3) Paraphrase this quote in your own words. Your paraphrase must be 15 words or less.
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4) “There was something…about [Gatsby], some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to
one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away” (Fitzgerald 2).
4) Paraphrase this quote in your own words. Your paraphrase must be 15 words or less.
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5) “[Gatsby had] an extraordinary gift for hope, a…readiness such as I have never found in any other person and
which it is not likely I shall ever find again” (Fitzgerald 2).
5) Paraphrase this quote in your own words. Your paraphrase must be 15 words or less.
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6) “Gatsby turned out all right in the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his
dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men” (Fitzgerald
2).
6) Paraphrase this quote in your own words. Your paraphrase must be 15 words or less.
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7) Class Summary: Summarize this passage in your own words. The summary must be 15 words or less.
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Analysis:
8) What kind of person is Nick? Describe his personality.
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9) According to Nick, what happened to his attitude/overall state of mind after he “came back from the East”? What
does he think about human nature as a result of the story he’s about to tell us?
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Inference:
10) What might have happened to Nick and/or Gatsby that changed Nick’s attitude in such a negative way?
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End of Class – Self-Analysis:
a) How confident are you in your ability to paraphrase and/or summarize a text with difficult vocabulary?
Not Confident 1 2 3 4 5 Very Confident
b) Given what we’ve read so far, how confident are you in your ability to read and understand The Great Gatsby?
Not Confident 1 2 3 4 5 Very Confident
c) What questions do you have about The Great Gatsby so far?