The Great Gatsby
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Key Facts
 Type of work: Novel
 Time and place written: 1923-1924; America and France
 Date of first publication: 1925
 Setting (time): Summer 1922
 Setting (place): Long Island and New York City
 Narrator: Nick Carraway (implies that he is the book’s
author)
 Point of view: Both first and third person limited
 Tone: Nick’s attitudes are ambivalent and contradictory
Character List
 Nick Carraway: narrator; young man from
Minnesota; educated at Yale; fought in WWI; goes to
NYC to learn the bond business; honest, tolerant,
inclined to reserve judgment; next-door neighbor to
Jay Gatsby; cousin to Daisy Buchanan
 Jay Gatsby: title character; protagonist; extremely
wealthy; famous for his lavish parties; mysterious—
no one knows where he comes from , what he does,or
how he made his fortune; fell in love with Daisy;
about 30 years old; had an impoverished childhood
Character List
 Daisy Buchanan: Nick’s cousin; loves Gatsby;
married to Tom Buchanan; somewhat cynical and
sardonic; based partially on Fitzgerald’s wife Zelda
 Tom Buchanan: immensely wealthy; comes from an
“old” family; arrogant; has racist and sexist attitudes;
doesn’t live up to the moral standards he demands
from others; involved in an extramarital affair with
Myrtle
Character List
 Jordan Baker: Daisy’s friend; becomes involved with
Nick; a competitive golfer—represents the “new
women” of the 1920s; beautiful but dishonest
 Myrtle Wilson: Tom’s lover; married to George;
looks for ways to improve her situation
 George Wilson: Myrtle’s husband; owner of a run-
down auto shop at the edge of the valley of ashes;
loves and idealizes Myrtle; devastated by her affair
with Tom; dreamer
Themes – the fundamental and often universal ideas explored
in a literary work
 Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s
 Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era in which social and
moral values had decayed.
 There was unrestrained desire for money and pleasure, which
surpassed more noble goals.
 Young Americans who had fought in WWI were disillusioned,
and they saw American morals as stuffy and hypocritical.
 The rise of the stock market led to increased national wealth
and newfound materialism.
 People began to spend and consume as never before.
Themes
 The Hollowness of the Upper Class
 “Old rich” vs. “New rich”
 East Egg = the old aristocracy; West Egg = the newly rich
 New rich = vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, lacking in social graces
and tastes


Old rich = grace, taste, subtlety, elegance


Gatsby lives in an ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a
Rolls-Royce, does not pick up on subtle social signals (insincerity
of an invitation)
The Buchanan’s home is very tasteful; Daisy and Jordan wear
flowing white dresses.
However, East Eggers are careless and inconsiderate. They
never worry about hurting others
Motifs – recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices
that can help develop and inform the major themes
 Geography
 East Egg = old aristocracy
 West Egg = newly rich
 Valley of the aches = moral and social decay of America
 New York City = uninhibited, amoral quest for money and
pleasure
 East = moral decay; social cynicism
 West = traditional social values and ideals
 Weather – matches the emotional and narrative
tones of the story
Symbols – objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent
abstract ideas or concepts
 The Green Light represents Gatsby’s hopes and
dreams for the future
 The Valley of Ashes is a long stretch of desolate land
created by the dumping of industrial ashes;
represents the moral and social decay of the rich
 The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg may represent God
staring down upon and judging American society as
a moral wasteland.