Question

Write three to four sentences presenting your prediction about the main conflict in the novel based on how the characters feel about their lives. Include evidence to support your prediction.

Answer 1

Based on how the characters feel—Gatsby’s obsessive hope, Daisy’s restless dissatisfaction, and Nick’s growing disillusionment—I predict the main conflict will center on Gatsby’s struggle to remake the past and be accepted into the old-money world. Evidence for this appears in Gatsby’s extravagant parties, his purchase of the West Egg mansion, and his fixation on the green light and Daisy as symbols of a lost ideal. Because Daisy seems torn between comfort and affection and Tom embodies the social barriers Gatsby can’t cross, their conflicting desires and rigid class divisions will likely produce a tragic confrontation that exposes the impossibility of Gatsby’s dream. If you meant a different novel, tell me which one and I’ll write a prediction for that instead.