The Great Gatsby Notes
Setting: NYC and the Hamptons, 1922
Chapter 1
Nick Carraway (Narrator): Reserves judgment of others (tries not to judge people);
born into a wealthy family; From the Midwest; Went to fight in WWI and came home
wanting “…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”
(2). Nick was a part of the “lost generation”; Moved to NY to learn the bond
business; lives in West Egg (the Hamptons) which is the “less fashionable” of the
two Eggs. There is enormous money in the Hamptons. Went to college at Yale,
which was then called New Haven.
Tom Buchanan: Lives in East Egg; Married to Daisy Buchanan, a relative of Nick’s.
He went to Yale and was enormously wealthy; Was a popular football player at Yale
but Nick claims he “peaked” at 21 and his life will never be as good as it was then;
not well liked at college; egotistical (thinks a lot of himself); arrogant and talks
down to people; racist
Daisy Buchanan: Married to Tom; Beautiful; Cousin of Nick; Makes you feel special
when she speaks to you; charming and sexy; flirty; all in white; leans forward but
draws men to her; speaks in a low, melodic voice that entices men (makes them
want to keep talking to her); has an excitement about her that makes her seem fun
and glamorous; likes pushing Tom’s buttons; She’s sarcastic and makes fun of him
when given the opportunity
Chapter 1:
Nick Carraway, the narrator, explains his background (from mid-west, went to Yale,
joined the war and returned to be a bondsman). He comes from money and his
family is funding his stay in New York, specifically West Egg, the “less fashionable”
of the Eggs. He is staying in a cottage that only costs $80 per “season” but lives next
to a grand mansion, owned by the notorious Gatsby. However, he has never met this
man.
His cousin, Daisy Buchanan, has recently moved to East Egg. She was in Chicago
with her husband, Tom, and then they went to Europe for a year and “landed” in the
Hamptons. Tom Buchanan has more money than anyone Nick has ever known.
Tom also went to Yale and is viewed as arrogant and not well liked. Nick goes over
to their huge mansion for lunch and finds out that Daisy and Tom have a 2 year old
daughter and that Tom is cheating on Daisy and has a “woman” in NYC.
We also meet Jordan Baker, a friend of Daisy’s who seems very snotty. Jordan was
described as “…extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless
and with her chin raised a little as if she were balancing something on it which was
quite likely to fall. If she saw me out of the corner of her eyes she gave no hint of
it—indeed I was almost surprised into murmuring an apology for having disturbed
her…” (13). This shows that she seems to be pretentious and “too good” to
acknowledge company. Nick felt inadequate in her presence.
Daisy and Nick have a heart to heart and she admits that she’s unhappy. She first
tells the story of her child’s birth. Tom was “God knows where” when she was
giving birth and when she woke up she, “…asked the nurse right away if it was a boy
or girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All right,’
I said, “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can
be in this world, a beautiful little fool’” (21). Daisy means that she knows the upper,
privileged world has requirements and gender roles, and she knows her daughter’s
best chance at happiness is being a “fool” so she is ignorant to the pain and realities
that Daisy experiences. Although fabulously wealthy, and even thinks herself better
than others because of the enormous amount of money she and Tom have, Daisy is
miserable and self-deprecating. She even pokes fun of herself when she says “I’ve
been everywhere and seen everything and done everything….Sophisticated—God,
I’m sophisticated!” (22). She’s saying that she travels all over and sees things that
underprivileged don’t. She’s so sophisticated yet so unhappy.
Nick figures out that Jordan Baker is a famous golfer and that he has seen her face in
newspapers before. Tom suggests that “They oughtn’t to let her run around the
country this way” (18). This means that he doesn’t approve that she is without a
chaperone, and we start to understand that there is sexism in the elite class.
Women were meant to be objects, kept in the home and tended to.
Nick is disgusted by the antics (behaviors) of the wealthy. They think they are
better than everyone, yet they are fake and unhappy. When he returns home he
sees his neighbor Gatsby standing on his dock looking up at the stars. Nick also
notices a blinking green light at the end of a dock across the bay.
Ch 2
“The Valley of the Ashes” was introduced in chapter two. It is the area between the
Eggs and NYC (Queens) and is described as gray and dismal. Everything is covered
in ash, which is representative of the factories and the lowly workingman that
resides there. There is a billboard, however, with a huge pair of blue eyes and
eyeglasses, which is an ad for the oculist Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. This advertisement has
long been abandoned and faded, but Nick is very conscious of the huge pair of clear,
blue eyes that are watching them.
Colors are also important. Grey = hopeless, desolate, depressing. Blue = clarity and
godliness
We also meet Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress. Her husband owns an auto body shop
in the Valley of the Ashes, and is described as pathetic and dull. He has no idea that
his sumptuous and husky wife is cheating with Tom. They go into NYC where Tom
buys her a puppy and they go to their apartment and hang out.
Myrtle calls a few more people to hang out: Her sister, Catherine, and Mr. and Mrs.
McKee (their neighbors from a floor below). Mr. McKee is a photographer and
discusses his art all night. Mrs. McKee and Catherine gossip about Gatsby, spreading
rumors that he is related to a dangerous Kaiser. This shows us that everyone knows
Gatsby and attends his parties, but no one really knows him at all. We also find out
that Myrtle and Catherine are under the impression that Daisy is a Catholic and
refuses to divorce Tom, which is a lie. Tom would never leave Daisy, and he would
NEVER marry someone low-class like Myrtle. In fact, Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose for
simply mentioning Daisy’s name. He would NEVER treat Daisy in such a manner
because she is of his class.
Chapter 3
Every weekend Gatsby throws huge, lavish parties with tons of alcohol and
entertainment. People come from all over and Gatsby even sends his personal
chauffeurs to pick people up from the train station and drive partygoers back and
forth from the city. However, none of these people actually know who Gatsby is.
There are rumors going around about Gatsby at his own party: He has killed a man,
he was a German spy, he is a Kaiser, etc. Two girls in yellow dresses even said at his
last party one of them tore her dress and Gatsby found out about it and sent her a
beautiful, expensive one in its place. This made some people wonder about him
because they feel as if he tries too hard to ensure no one has a problem with him.
As the night goes on Nick sees Jordan Baker and hangs out with her. They go to find
Gatsby and they meet “Old Owl Eyes,” a drunken partygoer in Gatsby’s library. He
revels about the thousand of books being real but makes a keen statement saying
“What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too—didn’t cut the pages”
(46). The library is seemingly for show since it is clearly not used.
Nick was different from everyone else because he was the only person ACTUALLY
invited to the party. Soon, he meets a man that says he looks familiar, as they both
served in World War I. Nick quickly realizes that this man is Gatsby, and then the
host is called away to answer a business phone call. Gatsby watches the party from
his balcony, without the company of a woman and remains stone sober. Then, he
requests the presence of Jordan Baker, and all these things make him very
mysterious to Nick.
After an hour Jordan comes out of the conversation saying that she learned the most
interesting thing about Gatsby, but she doesn’t tell Nick. Nick decides to walk home
since the night is ending and he passes by an overturned car in a ditch, with a wheel
disconnected. Old Owl eyes and another very drunk man get out of the car and they
represent the lack of understanding and respect that the upper class has for
technology. The driver didn’t understand that he couldn’t just reverse the car out of
the ditch when it doesn’t have a wheel. The rich are careless and material items are
a symbol of power to them. Yet they treat their things (and other people) poorly
because they can.
Furthermore, Nick remembers the controversy about Jordan Baker. Apparently
there was almost a huge scandal she was involved in. She was rumored to have
moved her ball in a tournament. Suspiciously, the caddy and bystander both
reneged (took back) their stories, and the issue went away. One can assume she
paid them off.
Nick comments that, “dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply…”
(58). He grew up in the social class that has sexist standards. Women are objects of
men, are supposed to be chaperoned and apparently lie because they are the
inferior sex.
Jordan Baker has an interesting conversation with Nick. They started “seeing each
other” throughout the summer and he recalls her perception of “reckless driving.”
Nick says “You’re a rotten driver…Either you ought to be more careful, or you
oughtn’t to drive at all” (58). She responds that she thinks everyone else should get
out of her way, which shows her pretentious (haughty, arrogant) attitude. She says
to Nick, “I hate careless people. That’s why I like you” (58). Here, she fully admits
that she realizes that there are different standards for people like her, and she is
looking for someone nicer, like Nick. Nick then goes on to admit that he had to end
his relationship with a girl back out west, and comments that “I am one of the few
honest people that I have ever known” (59). This is ironic because he is
lying/cheating on another woman, but compared to his present company, he is a
better class of person.
Chapter 4
Gatsby invites Nick to NYC for the day. While in his fancy car, Gatsby proceeds to
tell Nick interesting things about himself. It’s as if he is trying to impress Nick. He
tells Nick that he received a medal for valor in WWI, went to Oxford, has old money
passed down to him from deceased generations from the mid-west, etc. Nick is not
sure that Gatsby is totally honest, and he starts to think that maybe there is
something shady about Gatsby until he is shown his medal and a picture of him on
the quad at Oxford. These pieces of evidence validate Gatsby’s stories for Nick and
he believes him.
On the car ride there the audience does get a glimpse into Nick’s own prejudices.
He, like Tom, does have a negative bias against black people, even though he judges
Tom for being pompous and outwardly racist. Nick’s negative feelings also extend
toward Jews.
Meyer Wolfshiem is a friend/associate of Gatsby. He is intelligent and reminisces
about a story where one of his friends was murdered in a drive-by. He wears human
molars of cufflinks, which warn people that despite his reserved and educated
demeanor, he is a man not to be messed with. He asks Nick if he is his “Business
connegtion (connection)…” but Gatsby swiftly says no and that’s the end of that.
Wolfsheim does admire Gatsby’s “gentile personality” and his Oxford education. He
says that Jay is a fine man and comes from nice breeding.
Nick then sees Tom but as he introduces him to Gatsby, Jay disappears. Later on
Nick has tea with Jordan Baker at the request of Jay Gatsby. Jordan proceeds to tell
Nick the backstory of Gatsby and Daisy. She recalls that they were totally in love
when Gatsby was stationed in Louisville and Daisy was 18. When he went away to
war she was devastated and her family prevented her from running to NY and
seeing him off. He went away to war not knowing if she would be there for him at
his return, and she didn’t know if he was alive or dead.
Daisy comes from upper-class society and her parents expect her to marry someone
of “their quality.” After she recovers from her loss (Jay), she goes on to marry to
notoriously wealthy playboy, Tom Buchanan. The night before her wedding she
receives mail from Gatsby and she gets completely drunk and takes off the 350,000
pearl necklace Tom bought her and announced that she wasn’t going to marry Tom.
However, after Jordan and Daisy’s mother sobered her up, she put the necklace back
on and married Tom the next day. The necklace represents Daisy’s position in life =
she doesn’t have control over her life/decisions and she is Tom’s property.
Finally, Jordan tells Nick that Jay wants him to arrange a meeting between Daisy and
Gatsby, without her knowing. He is to simply ask her to come over for tea and
Gatsby will drop by. He wants Daisy to see his enormous house, as he’s been waiting
to see her again for years (hence the parties). Nick admires Jay’s devoted
romanticism and he cuddles up with Jordan.
Chapter 5
Gatsby arranges for Nick to host a get-together between he and Daisy. Gatsby is so
nervous that he has Nick’s lawn cut, brings in dozens of flowers and beautiful
plating. He even knocks over Nick’s clock because he’s anxiety ridden. At first, Jay
and Daisy are awkward and silent. Once Nick leaves them to themselves they seem
to get comfortable and both are happy to be together once again. Daisy is crying and
Jay is beaming because they are both so ecstatic to be together once again. During
the visit the weather had been rainy, but as soon as they reunite, it stopped. “’It’s
stopped raining [said Nick].’ ‘Has it?’ [said Jay] When he realized what I was talking
about, that there were twinkle-bells of sunshine in the room, he smiled like a
weather man, like an ecstatic patron of recurrent light, and repeated the news to
Daisy. ‘What do you think of that? It’s stopped raining.’ ‘I’m glad, Jay’ [she said]”
(89). Here, Gatsby and Daisy are not literally talking about the weather; it is a
metaphor for their love. It was gloomy being apart, and now they are back together,
and the sun is shining.
Gatsby takes Nick and Daisy to his house to show off his wealth. He brings Daisy
into his enormous room, where she starts to cry. “’They are such beautiful shirts,’
she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never
`seen such—such beautiful shirts before’” (92). Here, Daisy isn’t crying over shirts.
She is crying because she realizes that she could have had both love AND money.
Her parents prevented her from being with Jay because he didn’t have money, and
that was the reason they had to part.
Jay also mentions he used to travel with his best friend, Dan Cody, who passed away.
He also followed Daisy by cutting out articles and pictures of her from the
newspaper. That’s how he was able to track her.
Nick eventually sneaks out while Jay and Daisy dance to piano music (being played
by Gatsby’s boarder, Klipspringer) as they didn’t even realize he was in the room
with them. Nick does make note that “There must have been moments even that
afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault but
because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond
everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the
time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire
or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (95).
Therefore, Nick thinks that Daisy could, in no way, live up to the expectations Jay
had for her, as times have changed and so did she.
Ch 6
A reporter comes to interview Gatsby for a piece in the paper. This tells us that he is
gaining in both popularity and interest. Gatsby declines to give an interview and
still remains mysterious. This would not be good for Jay because he’s trying to keep
private about his personal life.
Nick goes on to tell us about Gatsby’s previous five years. In attempt to make his
dreams come true, he has been working odd jobs to fund his education and get by.
Eventually, he rejects these “lowly jobs” because he thinks himself too worthy. We
also learned that he was born into a poor farming family, and “rejected” his parents
because they weren’t wealthy and couldn’t give him what he wanted in life. “His
parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people—his imagination had never
really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg,
Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a
phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His
Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he
invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to
invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (98). Gatsby rejects who
he was born to be, which says a lot about his character. He can never be truly happy
if he always wants more out of life, from himself, and from others. He sets himself
up for failure. Until the day he dies, James Gatz is no longer, and Jay Gatsby is the
only man that people actually see.
Dan Cody was Gatsby’s mentor. The best thing he ever did for him was teach him
how to “act the part” of the rich man. Cody was super wealthy and made his money
in the copper and silver mines. He had bad habits such as drinking too much and
being a “sucker” for women. He mysteriously died when a woman came aboard the
yacht and made out with his money. Gatsby did odd jobs for him, but was basically
his best friend.
When Nick’s narration switches back to West Egg, he informs us that one afternoon
Gatsby was visited by Tom Buchanan and Mr. and Mrs. Sloan, all “old money.” The
Sloans came to “check him out” and Mrs. Sloan indulged in a few vodka drinks.
When she gets drunk she invites Gatsby to her dinner party, but her husband
quickly quiets her. The entire time he was disinterested in Jay and acted like Gatsby
was beneath him. When Jay accepts the invitation and goes to clean up, they ditch
him. This is Gatsby’s first encounter with the East Eggers, and Nick realizes that Jay
will never be accepted into Upper Crust Society. It is also significant because Tom
comes away from that scene bothered that Jay knows his wife, Daisy.
At the party, Daisy tries to have a good time, but her haughtiness (thinking she is
better than others) prevents her from really being able to enjoy the company of the
West Eggers. Tom understands her better than she would like to admit. While at
the party, Tom was flirting with women and Daisy offered “and if you want to take
down any addresses here’s my little gold pencil” (105). Here, she’s poking a dig at
Tom, and makes it clear that she knows he’s cheating on her. But she too is
cheating; the only part of the party she enjoyed was when she snuck away with Jay,
alone.
When Tom accuses Gatsby of being a bootlegger, Daisy gets very defensive. She tells
him that Jay owns a string of drugstores. In truth, Daisy WAS disgusted with the
partygoers, but she didn’t want to give Tom the satisfaction of letting him know he
was right.
Later, Jay meets up with Nick and admits that Daisy didn’t like the party. He can’t
understand why (this shows the contrast of how Tom and Jay “really” know Daisy;
they know two different versions of her). When Nick tries to give Gatsby a word of
caution he says “ ‘I wouldn’t ask too much of her,’…. ‘You can’t repeat the past’ ‘Can’t
repeat the past?’ he [Gatsby] cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’” (110).
Here, Nick knows that Jay is being unreasonable; no one can repeat the past because
they change and grow. If Gatsby can’t accept this, he will never be able to truly love
Daisy. Finally, he recalls the moment Jay first kissed Daisy when they were younger,
and she “blossomed” for him. This was the moment he realized he could obtain his
dream, and he’s been searching for it ever since.
Ch 7
The chapter starts with Nick going over to Gatsby’s house and noticing that all his
servants have been replaced by people that are “connected.” He also stopped
throwing parties and his excuse was that he didn’t want people to find out about his
affair with Daisy and talk to the press.
Daisy invites Jay over one hot (blistering!) summer day for a little get together. The
attendees include Jay, Nick, Jordan, Tom and Daisy. At their luncheon, Daisy gets
caught mouthing “I love you” to Jay while Tom is looking on. He puts two and two
together and realizes they are having an affair.
Also, Daisy introduces Jay to her little girl. She shows him that there’s no
resemblance to Tom. This is Daisy’s way of showing Jay they can move forward
together. “Afterward he [Jay] kept looking at the child with surprise. I don’t think
he had ever really believed in its existence before” (117). Here, Jay is realizing for
the first time that Daisy had a life after him, even though his was on pause. Later on
in the afternoon he makes another shocking discovery: “ ‘She’s got an indiscreet
voice,’ I remarked. ‘It’s full of--’ I hesitated. ‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said
suddenly” (120).
It’s so hot this afternoon so Daisy proposes they do something to stay cool. After
Tom has his realization, he creates tension by suggesting they go to NYC. However,
Tom drives there in GATSBY’S bright yellow car (flashy!) with Jordan and Nick. Jay
drives Tom’s car with Daisy. En route to the city Tom stops for gas in the Valley of
Ashes at Wilson’s garage and is informed that Wilson found out that Myrtle has been
untrue and he wants to take her out West to get away. He doesn’t know whom she’s
been cheating with, though. Tom realizes that he’s losing both Myrtle AND Daisy
and begins to panic. Simultaneously, Myrtle is peering from the apartment window
and is staring at Jordan with disdain (she thinks she is Tom’s wife, Daisy). They go
on into the city and decide to get a hotel room at the prestigious Plaza Hotel.
In the hotel room Tom picks a fight with Jay. He’s trying to embarrass him in front
of everyone by calling him out about Oxford. It just so happens that Gatsby DID, in
fact, go to Oxford, he just never graduated. Nick, Jordan and Daisy are all thrilled
that Jay is making Tom look bad, but Tom doesn’t stop. Jay retaliates by trying to get
Daisy to tell Tom she’s leaving him and that she NEVER loved him. “’Oh, you want
too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now—isn’t that enough? I can’t help
what’s past.’ She began to sob helplessly. ‘I did love him once—but I loved you too’”
(132). Daisy realizes that Gatsby can’t accept change nor can he grasp the concept
that she once loved another man. Tom recognizes this weakness and keeps digging
at Jay. He announces that Gatsby is into shady dealings and is a bootlegger who is
connected to the mob and Mayer Wolfshiem. This news stings Daisy: “…he began to
talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything…But with every word she was drawing
further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought
on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible,
struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room” (134).
Daisy was pulling away from Gatsby, and here, Nick knows that Jay’s dream is
“dead” and Daisy will never leave Tom. Tom instructs Daisy and Jay to take Gatsby’s
car and head back to East Egg. He knows he’s won; Daisy will never leave him and
that Jay is no longer a threat.
Jay and Daisy leave The Plaza in Jay’s yellow coupe and they head back toward E.
Egg. Tom, Jordan and Nick all take Tom’s car back a few minutes after. On their way
home they pull over at Wilson’s gas station because there’s a crowd gathered. They
find out that Myrtle Wilson is dead; a yellow car, in a hit and run accident, struck
her. Tom makes sure that Wilson knows that his car is cream colored, so he doesn’t
get in trouble with the police.
Once back in East Egg, Nick rejects Jordan’s comfort and refuses to go into Tom’s
house to settle down. Here, Nick is pulling away from upper-crust society because
he is sickened by the way they behave. Although Jordan didn’t do anything to Nick,
she’s a part of it, and in turn, he can’t be with her. He finds Gatsby hiding under a
tree, waiting to take care of Daisy. He also tells Nick that Daisy was the one driving,
but he’ll take the blame for her. Also, “…this woman rushed out at us just as we
were passing a car coming the other way. It all happened in a minute, but it seemed
to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew” (143).
Myrtle ran out into the middle of the road thinking the driver of the yellow coupe
was Tom, and Daisy couldn’t avoid hitting her. Gatsby was waiting to be Daisy’s
knight in shining armor, rescuing her from her husband, but Nick (and the audience
know) that Tom is the one who can really protect her; he can do this with his
prodigious amount of money.
Finally, Nick goes to check on Daisy and Tom and sees an eerie scene: “Daisy and
Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table, with a plate of cold fried
chicken between them, and two bottles of ale. He was talking intently across the
table at her, and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her
own…They weren’t happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale—
and yet they weren’t unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural
intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring
together” (144-145). This shows that when destroying someone or something, Tom
and Daisy run back together and “handle the problem.” It’s the theme of “reckless
driving” as they do what they want without penalty, leaving casualties wherever
they go.
Ch 8
Nick worries about Gatsby and goes to check on him in the morning. He waited all
night for Daisy’s signal, but she didn’t need rescuing, so Jay eventually came home.
Nick urged Jay to leave town and get away, but Jay is too fixated on his dead dream,
and won’t leave Daisy. Before Nick goes to work he tells Jay that “‘They’re a rotten
crowd,’ I shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put
together’” (154). This means that he thinks Gatsby is a better person than the upper
class, despite his socio-economic status.
Jay also asks his gardener not to close his pool. Autumn is coming, meaning leaves
are dying and things are changing. Gatsby wants to hold onto the summer because
he equates summer with happiness, and Daisy.
We do learn that Daisy and Gatsby had been in contact while he was at war. She
waited for him for a while but ultimately she couldn’t wait anymore. Jay came home
for her while she was on her honeymoon and he and Daisy missed one another.
Also, Michaelis, Wilson’s neighbor, is trying to take care of him. Wilson starts
“cracking up” and tells how he started realizing that Myrtle was cheating. Once she
came home with a broken nose from the city. Then, he found a dog leash on her
bureau. He also realizes that she ran into the street because she recognized
someone. He thinks it was her lover, and vows to find out whom owned the yellow
car and exact revenge upon him. He even took Myrtle to the eyes of Dr. T. J.
Eckelburg and told her that God is judging her (before she died).
Michaelis went back to his shop for four hours and within that time frame Wilson
walked all the way to West Egg. He somehow found out who Gatsby was (we’re not
sure how) but by the time Nick got to his house, he was dead. Wilson had shot
Gatsby in his pool, and then shot himself.
Ch 9
Nick is in charge of Gatsby’s funeral arrangements and is appalled by the fact that
none of his “friends” are coming to his house to support him. Wolfsheim won’t come
because he didn’t want to be “mixed up” in the press and has other affairs to tend to.
Daisy and Tom left East Egg the morning after the accident. Nick is alone and
frustrated.
Jay’s father, Henry C. Gatz, showed up in West Egg one morning. He is in shock that
his son is dead. He read it in the Chicago newspaper and came out to mourn Jay. He
reminisces about what a bright person Jay was, and what a bright future he had
ahead of him. Nick gets the impression that even his father didn’t know him at all.
It is confirmed that Gatsby was involved in illegal activities as phone calls from the
Midwest keep coming after his death. They discuss important information about a
fake bond scheme, and Nick now knows that Jay did earn his money through
underground (illegal, backhanded) means.
Nick continues to be disappointed by people that abused Gatsby’s hospitality.
Klipspringer, his boarder, called because he was worried about a pair of shoes he
left at Gatsby’s mansion. Instead of going to Gatsby’s funeral, he attended a picnic
with friends. This just goes to show that the upper class is devoid (absent) or
morality. They have no loyalty to anyone but themselves, and use people to gain
benefits. This makes Nick even more disgusted with Upper Crust Society.
Gatsby’s father shows Nick a diary that Jay kept as a teenager. In the diary he
chronicled how to spend his time. He allotted part of his day to studying “elocution,
poise and how to attain it” (173). This goes to show that Gatsby always had a
dream. Since childhood he envisioned some destiny larger than himself, and he was
hell bent on attaining it. However, Jay never UNDERSTOOD the upper crust, for if he
did, he would have known that he could never truly be one of them.
Nick runs into Tom in NYC about a month after Jay’s death and asks him, point
blank, if he spoke to Wilson the day of Gatsby’s murder. Tom confesses that it was
he that pointed Wilson in Jay’s direction and he didn’t feel any pity or remorse about
what he did. Although Nick doesn’t like Tom at all, he understands that Tom will
never change and that “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed
up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast
carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let the other people
clean up the mess they had made…” (179). Tom and Daisy would never have to deal
with the consequences of their actions because they are so fabulously wealthy they
have someone else handle their problems for them, and they move on like nothing
happened.
Nick eventually decides to go back to the Midwest because people there are kinder
and more connected than the vapid (empty, hollow) upper class of the northeast.
He even goes to say that maybe because they were from the Midwest they weren’t
able to adapt to the fast-paced life full of indulgences and selfishness.
Finally, Nick stands on Gatsby’s dock looking at the green light that he (Jay) so
whole-heartedly used to reach for. The green light represented Gatsby’s dream. It
was so close, yet so far away, and the Long Island Sound represents the huge void
that made it impossible for him to attain it. “I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he
first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock…his dream must have
seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was
already behind him…” (180).
Finally, he notes that, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that
year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow
we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning--So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (180).
Here, Nick says that Gatsby believed in his American dream until the very end, as
most Americans will. They will fight for their dream, always “beating against the
current” meaning that they work hard and get nowhere. And in the end, most
people will not attain it. Especially if we cannot let go of the past…