the great gatsby

Nick Carraway

Narrator; Midwesterner in NYC; observer-participant; claims honesty but shows bias and selective judgment.

Narration style (Gatsby)

First-person retrospective framing; Nick tells the story after events, shaping tone and meaning.

Nick’s reliability

Not purely objective: admires Gatsby, critiques East Egg, and filters events through moral commentary.

West Egg

“New money” area; flashy wealth; Gatsby lives here; contrasted with East Egg.

East Egg

“Old money” area; inherited wealth; Tom and Daisy live here; symbolizes entrenched privilege.

Valley of Ashes

Industrial wasteland between Eggs and NYC; symbolizes moral/spiritual decay and the cost of wealth.

New York City (Gatsby)

Space of escape and moral looseness; affair and reckless behavior become more visible here.

Time period (Gatsby)

Jazz Age/1920s; consumer culture; shifting morals; wealth obsession; social instability.

Social class conflict (Gatsby)

Old money vs new money vs working class; status is guarded by the elite.

Jay Gatsby

Invented persona; idealist; pursues Daisy as a symbol of fulfillment; dream collides with reality.

James Gatz

Gatsby’s birth identity; shows self-reinvention and insecurity about class origins.

Daisy Buchanan

Charming, privileged; object of Gatsby’s dream; represents beauty + carelessness of wealth.

Tom Buchanan

Aggressive old-money figure; racist/sexist attitudes; protects his power; hypocritical moral code.

Jordan Baker

Cynical, dishonest; modern socialite; represents moral drift and emotional detachment.

Myrtle Wilson

Tom’s mistress; wants status and escape; her ambition is punished by the social order.

George Wilson

Working-class garage owner; trapped and exploited; becomes instrument of tragedy.

Meyer Wolfsheim

Gatsby’s shady associate; links wealth to crime/corruption; “respectable” society depends on him.

Owl Eyes

Party guest who notices Gatsby’s books; symbolizes rare perception amid widespread blindness.

Henry Gatz

Gatsby’s father; reveals Gatsby’s youthful ambition and self-made mythology.

Daisy’s voice

Symbol of allure; associated with wealth/status; what Gatsby thinks he is reaching for.

Gatsby’s parties

Spectacle and excess; reveal emptiness of social connections and performative belonging.

Why Gatsby throws parties

Hopes Daisy will appear; parties are bait for a private dream, not genuine hospitality.

Nick’s initial impression of Gatsby

Sees him as extraordinary/hopeful compared with other characters’ emptiness.

“Repeat the past” idea

Gatsby believes he can recreate earlier love; shows obsession, idealism, denial of time/reality.

Nick reunites Gatsby and Daisy

Key plot hinge; dream becomes temporarily “real,” raising stakes and exposing fragility.

Gatsby’s “oxford” claim

Social performance; hints at insecurity and constructed identity.

Gatsby’s wealth origin question

Ambiguous to some characters; eventually linked to crime; suggests Dream’s corruption.

Tom’s hypocrisy

Condemns Gatsby’s moral status while openly having an affair and exploiting others.

Tom and Myrtle relationship

Shows power imbalance; Tom treats Myrtle as disposable; class and gender exploitation.

Myrtle’s apartment scene

Performance of status; tension and violence; Tom’s brutality reveals dominance.

Tom hits Myrtle

Shows misogyny and violent enforcement of hierarchy; foreshadows later destruction.

Green light

Symbol of Gatsby’s hope and distant desire; also the future he imagines and cannot truly reach.

Green light meaning shift

Starts as romantic beacon; becomes commentary on unreachable dreams and human striving.

Dr. T. J. Eckleburg eyes

Billboard eyes; symbol of vacant “god,” surveillance, or moral judgment in a godless world.

Interpretation of Eckleburg

Can represent empty religious authority, social observation, or characters’ guilty projections.

Cars motif

Modernity and recklessness; status symbol; vehicle for death; consequences of carelessness.

Gatsby’s car

Luxury as identity marker; becomes instrument of Myrtle’s death and Gatsby’s downfall.

Weather motif (Gatsby)

Heat and storms mirror rising tension; climatic confrontation occurs in oppressive heat.

Foreshadowing (Gatsby)

Recurrent hints of death/violence; careless driving; ominous setting details build tragedy.

Irony (Gatsby)

Gatsby gains wealth to reach Daisy, but wealth also proves he can never truly belong.

Dramatic irony (Gatsby)

Readership sees hollowness of elite; characters cling to illusions of class and romance.

Symbolism (Gatsby)

Objects/places (green light, ashes, eyes) carry moral and thematic meaning beyond literal.

Motif (Gatsby)

Recurring parties, eyes/seeing, driving, weather, color imagery reinforce themes.

Color imagery: green

Hope, desire, future; also money; links romantic longing to material pursuit.

Color imagery: white

Daisy’s “purity” façade; illusion of innocence masking privilege and carelessness.

Color imagery: yellow/gold

Fake vs real wealth; glamour; corruption; the shine of money with moral rot underneath.

Juxtaposition (Gatsby)

Opulence of the Eggs vs desolation of ashes; exposes hidden costs of luxury.

Setting as character (Gatsby)

Places embody values: East Egg entitlement, West Egg striving, ashes despair, NYC temptation.

Theme: American Dream

The promise of self-making becomes corrupted by materialism and class gatekeeping.

Theme: Illusion vs reality

Characters invent selves and stories; dreams collapse when confronted with truth.

Theme: Time and the past

Past is idealized; time moves forward; clinging to memory becomes destructive.

Theme: Carelessness of the rich

Wealth shields consequences; the powerful retreat while others suffer.

Theme: Moral decay

Surface glamour hides dishonesty, exploitation, and emptiness.

Theme: Identity and self-invention

Gatsby constructs a persona; success is performance; authenticity is unstable.

Theme: Love vs obsession

Gatsby’s “love” is bound to an ideal; Daisy is more symbol than person to him.

Daisy as a symbol

Represents status and a fantasy of fulfillment more than a fully known individual to Gatsby.

The Plaza Hotel confrontation

Climax; Tom exposes Gatsby; Daisy wavers; dream begins irreversible collapse.

Daisy’s choice

She chooses security/status over Gatsby; reveals her dependence on wealth and comfort.

Myrtle’s death

Daisy hits her with Gatsby’s car; underscores recklessness and class tragedy.

Gatsby taking blame

Shows devotion/idealism; also his willingness to maintain illusion at any cost.

George Wilson’s grief

Makes him vulnerable to manipulation; shows how the working class is used and discarded.

Tom’s role in Gatsby’s death

Tom redirects Wilson toward Gatsby; uses power to protect himself and Daisy.

Gatsby’s death

Tragic end of dream; killed by Wilson; shows consequences of others’ carelessness.

Gatsby’s funeral

Mostly unattended; reveals Gatsby’s social world was shallow and transactional.

Nick’s final judgment

Moral critique of the East; nostalgia for Midwest values; bleak view of American striving.

Ending image (boats against current)

Human striving against time; persistent hope despite inevitable pushback of reality.

AP Lit essay angle: illusion

A character’s illusion sustains them but also causes harm; discuss Gatsby’s dream and collapse.

AP Lit essay angle: setting

How setting shapes character and theme (Eggs/ashes/NYC) and reveals moral landscape.

AP Lit essay angle: narrator

How Nick’s narration influences interpretation; bias, tone, and framing create meaning.