The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Setting: The story takes place during the 1920's, there are four major settings:
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2.
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4.
East egg
West Egg
The valley of ashes
New York City.
The West Egg is the "less fashionable" side of Long Island where Gatsby and Nick live. The
East Egg is the "fashionable" side of Long Island where the Buchanans and other "old
money" people live. The Valley of Ashes is the desolate wasteland where the Wilsons live.
New York City is a symbol of what America has become in the 1920's : a place where
anything goes, where money is made and bootleggers flourish, and where the World Series
can be fixed by a man such as Meyer Wolfsheim.
Background Information:
Nick Carraway, the narrator is a young midwesterner who, having graduated from Yale,
had fought in World War I and returned home to begin a career. He decides to move east
to New York and learn the bond business. The novel opened early in the summer of 192 2
in West Egg, Long Island where Nick has rented a house. Next to his house is a huge
mansion which belongs to Mr. Gatsby. Before leaving the Midwest, Nick's father tells
Nick not to be quick,-to judge. Nick believes his father means never to judge at all. That
created a problem. In the 1920's money was very abundant. This was known as "the
golden age." People were very materialistic during this time period. The wealthy families
in the novel such as Gaisby or the Buchanans, were always trying to impress rat her than
trying to be themselves. This was a period of drinking, partying, and endless talk, which
was best portrayed by the Buchanans. They seem to be very self-centered people who
Couldn't give up a bit of the "ritzy" life to take care of their own child.
Major Characters:
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Nick Carraway - The narrator of the novel; moves from the Midwest to New
York to learn the bond business.
Jay Gatsby - Lives next to Nick in a mansion; throws huge parties, complete with
catered food, open bars, and orchestras; people come from everywhere to attend
these parties, but no one seems to know much about the host.
Daisy Buchanan - Shallow girl who is the emodiment of Gatsby's dreams; she
was going to ntarry Gatsby but he went off to war.
Tom Buchanan- Husband of Daisy; a cruel man who lives life irresponsibly.
Jordan Baker - A cynical and conceited woman who cheats in golf; wants Nick to
go out with her.
Myrtle Wilson - Tom has an affair with this married woman, and then abandons
her after he become bored with her.
Plot Summary: Nick Carraway having graduated from Yale and fought in World War
[,has returned home to begin a career. He is restless and has decided to move to New
York to learn the bond business. The novel opens early in the summer of 1922 in West
Egg, Long Island, where Nick has rented a house. Next to his place is the Gatsby's
mansion.
Tom and Daisy Buchanan live in East Egg. Daisy is Nick's cousin and Tom had been in the
same senior society at Yale. They invite Nick to dinner at their mansion, and he meets a
young woman golfer named Jordan Baker, whom Daisy wants Nick to be interested in.
During dinner the phone rings, and when Tom and Daisy leave the room, Jordan informs
Nick that the caller is Tom's woman from New York.
Myrtle Wilson, Tom's woman, lives is a section of Long Island known as the Valley of
Ashes. In the Valley of Ashes is George Wilson's garage. Painted on a large billboard
nearby is a fading advertisment for an optician with the eyes of a Doctor looking over
them with a pair of glasses.
One day Tom takes Nick to meet the Wilsons. The party breaks up when Myrtle starts using
Daisy's name, and Tom breaks her nose with a blow of his open hand. Several weeks later
Nick is invited to one of Gatsby's elaborate parties. Nick watches Gatsby and notices that he
does not drink or join in the revelry of the party.
At a luncheon with Nick in New York, Gatsby tells Nick that he graduated from Oxford.
During lunch Gatsby introduces Nick to his business associate, Meyer Wolfsheim, who
fixed the World Series in 1919.
At tea that afternooriNick finds out the Gatsby wants Nick to arrange a date between him
and Daisy. Gatsby had loved Daisy five years ago, but he had been sent oversees by the
army. Daisy had given up waiting for him and had married Tom. Gatsby decides to win
Daisy back and his first step is to buy a house in West Egg. His house is across the bay
from Daisy's house, and he can see a green light at the end of Daisy's dock. It represents
his hope.
Gatsby and Daisy meet for the first time in five years, and he tries to impress her with
his mansion and his wealth. Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Nick and Jordan go into the city where
the truth is revealed about Gatsby and Daisy. Daisy will not go away with Gatsby and
the five year dream is over. Gatsby and Daisy go home together in a yellow Rolls Royce.
On the way home they get into a car accident in which Myrtle was killed. Gatsby will
take the blame for Daisy who was driving. George Wilson shoots Gatsby and then kills
himself.
Not many people showed to Gatsby's funeral except Nick, Mr. Gatz, and a few servants.
Nick returns to his home town.
Themes:
1. Hope - represented by the light across the bay that Gatsby was fixated on. It was
the embodiment of his sole goal in life, which was a reunification with Daisy.
2. The American Dream - The American Dream- It rose in the 19th century and was
based on the theory that each person, no matter what his background was, could
succeed in life as long as he had skill and effort. It was the idea of the self-made
man. The Great Gatsby is a novel about what happened to the American dream in the
1920s, a period when the old values that gave substance to the dream had been
corrupted by the pursuit of wealth. What Fitzgerald seems to be criticizing in The
Great Gatsby is not the American Dream itself but the corruption of the American
Dream.
3. Success - Gatsby felt that the only way he would win Daisy was through his
money.
4. Sight and Insight - Character groupings and the images and symbols suggest a
second major theme that we can call "sight and insight." As you read the novel, you
will come across many images of blindness. It seems as if no one really knows what
is going on. The characters have little self-knowledge and even less knowledge of
each other. Especially Gatsby lacks the insight to understand what is happening. He
never truly sees either Daisy or himself, so blinded is he by his dream. The only
characters who seem to understand what is going on are Nick and Owl Eyes. The
present eyes of Dr. Eckleburg seem to reinforce the theme that there is no all-seeing
presence in the modern world.
5. The Importance of the Past - The past is of central importance in the novel, whether
it is Gatsby's personal past (his affair with Daisy in 1917) or the larger historical past
to which Nick refers in the closing sentence of the novel: "So we beat on, boats
against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." The past holds something
that both Gatsby and Nick seem to long for: a simpler, better, nobler time. It is a time
when people believed in the importance of the family and the church. Tom, Daisy and
Jordan are creatures of the present - Fitzgerald tells us little or nothing about their
pasts - and it is this allegiance to the moment that makes them so attractive, and also
so rootless and spiritually empty.
6. The Education of a Young Man - In Chapter VII, Nick remembers that it is his
thirtieth birthday. He, like Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy, came East to get away from his
past; now that his youth is officially over, he realizes that he may have made a
mistake to come East, and begins a period of reevaluation that leads to his eventual
decision to return to the Middle West. The Great Gatsby is the story of Nick's
initiation into life. His trip East gives him the education he needs to grow up. Nick, in
a sense, writes The Great Gatsby to show us what he has learned.
7. Judgement - Nick misinterprets the advice of his father and tries not to judge
people.
8. Disillusionment - Gatsby dreams of getting back together with Daisy even
though she is married and has a daughter.
9. Morals - The morals of people with great wealth seem to be less than desirable, but
many times are more socially accepted than lower classes.
Key Issues:
Success - Gatsby uses a corrupt form of the American dream to acquire the wealth he
thinks he needs to win back Daisy. Tom and Daisy must have a huge house, a stable of
polo ponies, and friends in Europe. Gatsby must have his enormous mansion befo re he
can feel confident enough to win Daisy. The energy that might have gone into the pursuit
of noble goals has been channeled into the pursuit of power and pleasure, and a very
showy, but fundementally empty form of success. Gatsby had been in love with Daisy
for a long while. He tried every way that money could buy to try to satisfy his love and
lust for Daisy. Instead of confronting her with his feelings, he tried to get her attention
by throwing big parties with high hopes that she might possibly show up. Gatsby was
actually a very lonesome and unhappy man who lived in a grand house and had
extravagant parties. He did it all for one woman, who initially was impressed with his
flagrant show of wealth. Daisy was extremely disenchanted after she found out how
Gatsby had aquired his fortune.
Morals - The characters in this novel live for money and were controlled by money.
Love and happiness cannot be bought, no matter how much money was spent. Tom and
Daisy were married and even had a child, but they both still committed adultery. Daisy
was with Gatsby and Tom was with Myrtle. They tried to find happiness with their
lovers, but the risk of changing their lifestyles was not worth it. They were riot happy
with their spouses but could not find happiness with their lovers. Happiness cannot be
found or bought. Daisy lost her love and respect for Gatsby when she found out he was a
bootlegger. Tom, after having an affair himself was angry about Daisy's affair.
FIypocrisy tends to be a trait in the very rich.
Hope - Gatsby bought a house in West Egg, in the hopes that he would win Daisy back.
He did this so that he could look across the bay to the green light at the end of Daisy's
dock. He expected her to turn up at one of his parties, and when she didn't, he asked
Jordan to ask Nick to ask Daisy. Fitzgerald stresses the need for hope and dreams to give
meaning and purpose to man's efforts. Striving towards some ideal is the way by which
man can feel a sense of involvment, a sense of his own identity. Fitzgerald goes on to
state that the failure of hopes and dreams, the failure of the American dream itself, is
unavoidable, not only because reality cannot keep up with ideals, but also because the
ideals are in any case usually too fantastic to be realized. Gatsby is naive, impractical and
oversentimental. It is this which makes him attempt the impossible, to repeat the past.
There is something pitiful and absurd about the way he refuses to grow up.
1. Money cannot buy happiness.
2. You cannot relive the past.
3. If dreams are too fantastic, and reality cannot keep up with ideals they are usually
not fulfilled.