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Chapter 1 - KEY DETAILS
The narrator of The Great Gatsby is a young man from Minnesota named Nick Carraway. He not only narrates the story but casts himself as the book’s author. He begins by commenting on himself, stating that he learned from his father to reserve judgment about other people because if he holds them up to his own moral standards, he will misunderstand them. He characterizes himself as both highly moral and highly tolerant. He briefly mentions the hero of his story, Gatsby, saying that Gatsby represented everything he scorns, but that he exempts Gatsby completely from his usual judgments. Gatsby’s personality was nothing short of “gorgeous.”
In the summer of 1922, Nick writes, he had just arrived in New York, where he moved to work in the bond business, and rented a house on a part of Long Island called West Egg. Unlike the conservative, aristocratic East Egg, West Egg is home to the “new rich,” those who, having made their fortunes recently, have neither the social connections nor the refinement to move among the East Egg set. West Egg is characterized by lavish displays of wealth and garish poor taste. Nick’s comparatively modest West Egg house is next door to Gatsby’s mansion, a sprawling Gothic monstrosity.
Nick is unlike his West Egg neighbors; whereas they lack social connections and aristocratic pedigrees, Nick graduated from Yale and has many connections on East Egg. One night, he drives out to East Egg to have dinner with his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan, a former member of Nick’s social club at Yale. Tom, a powerful figure dressed in riding clothes, greets Nick on the porch. Inside, Daisy lounges on a couch with her friend Jordan Baker a competitive golfer who yawns as though bored by her surroundings.
Tom tries to interest the others in a book called The Rise of the Colored Empires by a man named Goddard. The book espouses racist, white-supremacist attitudes that Tom seems to find convincing. Daisy teases Tom about the book but is interrupted when Tom leaves the room to take a phone call. Daisy follows him hurriedly, and Jordan tells Nick that the call is from Tom’s lover in New York.
After an awkward dinner, the party breaks up. Jordan wants to go to bed because she has a golf tournament the next day. As Nick leaves, Tom and Daisy hint that they would like for him to take a romantic interest in Jordan.
When Nick arrives home, he sees Gatsby for the first time, a handsome young man standing on the lawn with his arms reaching out toward the dark water. Nick looks out at the water, but all he can see is a distant green light that might mark the end of a dock.
Chapter 2 - KEY DETAILS
Halfway between West Egg and New York City sprawls a desolate plain, a gray valley where New York’s ashes are dumped. The men who live here work at shoveling up the ashes. Overhead, two huge, blue, spectacle-rimmed eyes—the last vestige of an advertising gimmick by a long-vanished eye doctor—stare down from an enormous sign. These unblinking eyes, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, watch over everything that happens in the valley of ashes.
The commuter train that runs between West Egg and New York passes through the valley, making several stops along the way. One day, as Nick and Tom are riding the train into the city, Tom forces Nick to follow him out of the train at one of these stops. Tom leads Nick to George Wilson’s garage, which sits on the edge of the valley of ashes. Tom’s lover Myrtle is Wilson’s wife. Wilson is a lifeless yet handsome man, colored gray by the ashes in the air. In contrast, Myrtle has a kind of desperate vitality; she strikes Nick as sensuous despite her stocky figure.
Tom taunts Wilson and then orders Myrtle to follow him to the train. Tom takes Nick and Myrtle to New York City, to the Morningside Heights apartment he keeps for his affair. Here they have an impromptu party with Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, and a couple named McKee. Catherine has bright red hair, wears a great deal of makeup, and tells Nick that she has heard that Jay Gatsby is the nephew or cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm, the ruler of Germany during World War I. The McKees, who live downstairs, are a horrid couple: Mr. McKee is pale and feminine, and Mrs. McKee is shrill. The group proceeds to drink excessively. Nick claims that he got drunk for only the second time in his life at this party.
The ostentatious behavior and conversation of the others at the party repulse Nick, and he tries to leave. At the same time, he finds himself fascinated by the lurid spectacle of the group. Myrtle grows louder and more obnoxious the more she drinks, and shortly after Tom gives her a new puppy as a gift, she begins to talk about Daisy. Tom sternly warns her never to mention his wife. Myrtle angrily says that she will talk about whatever she chooses and begins chanting Daisy’s name. Tom responds by breaking her nose, bringing the party to an abrupt halt. Nick leaves, drunkenly, with Mr. McKee, and ends up taking the 4 a.m. train back to Long Island.
Chapter 3 - KEY DETAILS
One of the reasons that Gatsby has become so famous around New York is that he throws elaborate parties every weekend at his mansion, lavish spectacles to which people long to be invited. One day, Gatsby’s chauffeur brings Nick an invitation to one of these parties. At the appointed time, Nick makes the short walk to Gatsby’s house and joins the festivities, feeling somewhat out of place amid the throng of jubilant strangers. Guests mill around exchanging rumors about their host—no one seems to know the truth about Gatsby’s wealth or personal history. Nick runs into Jordan Baker, whose friend, Lucille, speculates that Gatsby was a German spy during the war. Nick also hears that Gatsby is a graduate of Oxford and that he once killed a man in cold blood.
Gatsby’s party is almost unbelievably luxurious: guests marvel over his Rolls-Royce, his swimming pool, his beach, crates of fresh oranges and lemons, buffet tents in the gardens overflowing with a feast, and a live orchestra playing under the stars. Liquor flows freely, and the crowd grows rowdier and louder as more and more guests get drunk. In this atmosphere of opulence and revelry, Nick and Jordan, curious about their host, set out to find Gatsby. Instead, they run into a middle-aged man with huge, owl-eyed spectacles (whom Nick dubs Owl Eyes) who sits poring over the unread books in Gatsby’s library.
At midnight, Nick and Jordan go outside to watch the entertainment. They sit at a table with a handsome young man who says that Nick looks familiar to him; they realize that they served in the same division during the war. The man introduces himself as none other than Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s speech is elaborate and formal, and he has a habit of calling everyone “old sport.” As the party progresses, Nick becomes increasingly fascinated with Gatsby. He notices that Gatsby does not drink and that he keeps himself separate from the party, standing alone on the marble steps, watching his guests in silence.
At two o’clock in the morning, as husbands and wives argue over whether to leave, a butler tells Jordan that Gatsby would like to see her. Jordan emerges from her meeting with Gatsby saying that she has just heard something extraordinary. Nick says goodbye to Gatsby, who goes inside to take a phone call from Philadelphia. Nick starts to walk home. On his way, he sees Owl Eyes struggling to get his car out of a ditch. Owl Eyes and another man climb out of the wrecked automobile, and Owl Eyes drunkenly declares that he washes his hands of the whole business.
Nick then proceeds to describe his everyday life, to prove that he does more with his time than simply attend parties. He works in New York City, through which he also takes long walks, and he meets women. After a brief relationship with a girl from Jersey City, Nick follows the advice of Daisy and Tom and begins seeing Jordan Baker. Nick says that Jordan is fundamentally a dishonest person; he even knows that she cheated in her first golf tournament. Nick feels attracted to her despite her dishonesty, even though he himself claims to be one of the few honest people he has ever known.
Chapter 4 - KEY DETAILS
Nick lists all of the people who attended Gatsby’s parties that summer, a roll call of the nation’s most wealthy and powerful people. He then describes a trip that he took to New York with Gatsby to eat lunch. As they drive to the city, Gatsby tells Nick about his past, but his story seems highly improbable. He claims, for instance, to be the son of wealthy, deceased parents from the Midwest. When Nick asks which Midwestern city he is from, Gatsby replies, “San Francisco.” Gatsby then lists a long and preposterously detailed set of accomplishments: he claims to have been educated at Oxford, to have collected jewels in the capitals of Europe, to have hunted big game, and to have been awarded medals in World War I by multiple European countries. Seeing Nick’s skepticism, Gatsby produces a medal from Montenegro and a picture of himself playing cricket at Oxford.
Gatsby’s car speeds through the valley of ashes and enters the city. When a policeman pulls Gatsby over for speeding, Gatsby shows him a white card, and the policeman apologizes for bothering him. In the city, Gatsby takes Nick to lunch and introduces him to Meyer Wolfsheim, who, he claims, was responsible for fixing the 1919 World Series. Wolfsheim is a shady character with underground business connections. He gives Nick the impression that the source of Gatsby’s wealth might be unsavory, and that Gatsby may even have ties to the sort of organized crime with which Wolfsheim is associated.
After the lunch in New York, Nick sees Jordan Baker, who finally tells him the details of her mysterious conversation with Gatsby at the party. She relates that Gatsby told her that he is in love with Daisy Buchanan. According to Jordan, during the war, before Daisy married Tom, she was a beautiful young girl in Louisville, Kentucky, and all the military officers in town were in love with her. Daisy fell in love with Lieutenant Jay Gatsby, who was stationed at the base near her home. Though she chose to marry Tom after Gatsby left for the war, Daisy drank herself into numbness the night before her wedding, after she received a letter from Gatsby. Daisy has apparently remained faithful to her husband throughout their marriage, but Tom has not. Jordan adds that Gatsby bought his mansion in West Egg solely to be near Daisy.
Nick remembers the night he saw Gatsby stretching his arms out to the water and realizes that the green light he saw was the light at the end of Daisy’s dock. According to Jordan, Gatsby has asked her to convince Nick to arrange a reunion between Gatsby and Daisy. Because he is terrified that Daisy will refuse to see him, Gatsby wants Nick to invite Daisy to tea. Without Daisy’s knowledge, Gatsby intends to come to the tea at Nick’s house as well, surprising her and forcing her to see him.
Chapter 5 - KEY DETAILS
That night, Nick comes home from the city after a date with Jordan. He is surprised to see Gatsby’s mansion lit up brightly, but it seems to be unoccupied, as the house is totally silent. As Nick walks home, Gatsby startles him by approaching him from across the lawn. Gatsby seems agitated and almost desperate to make Nick happy—he invites him to Coney Island, then for a swim in his pool. Nick realizes that Gatsby is nervous because he wants Nick to agree to his plan of inviting Daisy over for tea. Nick tells Gatsby that he will help him with the plan. Overjoyed, Gatsby immediately offers to have someone cut Nick’s grass. He also offers him the chance to make some money by joining him in some business he does on the side—business that does not involve Meyer Wolfsheim. Nick is slightly offended that Gatsby wants to pay him for arranging the meeting with Daisy and refuses Gatsby’s offers, but he still agrees to call Daisy and invite her to his house.
It rains on the day of the meeting, and Gatsby becomes terribly nervous. Despite the rain, Gatsby sends a gardener over to cut Nick’s grass and sends another man over with flowers. Gatsby worries that even if Daisy accepts his advances, things between them will not be the same as they were in Louisville. Daisy arrives, but when Nick brings her into the house, he finds that Gatsby has suddenly disappeared. There is a knock at the door. Gatsby enters, having returned from a walk around the house in the rain.
At first, Gatsby’s reunion with Daisy is terribly awkward. Gatsby knocks Nick’s clock over and tells Nick sorrowfully that the meeting was a mistake. After he leaves the two alone for half an hour, however, Nick returns to find them radiantly happy—Daisy shedding tears of joy and Gatsby glowing. Outside, the rain has stopped, and Gatsby invites Nick and Daisy over to his house, where he shows them his possessions. Daisy is overwhelmed by his luxurious lifestyle, and when he shows her his extensive collection of English shirts, she begins to cry. Gatsby tells Daisy about his long nights spent outside, staring at the green light at the end of her dock, dreaming about their future happiness.
Nick wonders whether Daisy can possibly live up to Gatsby’s vision of her. Gatsby seems to have idealized Daisy in his mind to the extent that the real Daisy, charming as she is, will almost certainly fail to live up to his expectations. For the moment, however, their romance seems fully rekindled. Gatsby calls in Klipspringer, a strange character who seems to live at Gatsby’s mansion, and has him play the piano. Klipspringer plays a popular song called “Ain’t We Got Fun?” Nick quickly realizes that Gatsby and Daisy have forgotten that he is there. Quietly, Nick gets up and leaves Gatsby and Daisy alone together.
Chapter 6 - KEY DETAILS
The rumors about Gatsby continue to circulate in New York—a reporter even travels to Gatsby’s mansion hoping to interview him. Having learned the truth about Gatsby’s early life sometime before writing his account, Nick now interrupts the story to relate Gatsby’s personal history—not as it is rumored to have occurred, nor as Gatsby claimed it occurred, but as it really happened.
Gatsby was born James Gatz on a North Dakota farm, and though he attended college at St. Olaf in Minnesota, he dropped out after two weeks, loathing the humiliating janitorial work by means of which he paid his tuition. He worked on Lake Superior the next summer fishing for salmon and digging for clams. One day, he saw a yacht owned by Dan Cody, a wealthy copper mogul, and rowed out to warn him about an impending storm. The grateful Cody took young Gatz, who gave his name as Jay Gatsby, onboard his yacht as his personal assistant.
Traveling with Cody to the Barbary Coast and the West Indies, Gatsby fell in love with wealth and luxury. Cody was a heavy drinker, and one of Gatsby’s jobs was to look after him during his drunken binges. This gave Gatsby a healthy respect for the dangers of alcohol and convinced him not to become a drinker himself. When Cody died, he left Gatsby $25,000, but Cody’s mistress prevented him from claiming his inheritance. Gatsby then dedicated himself to becoming a wealthy and successful man.
Nick sees neither Gatsby nor Daisy for several weeks after their reunion at Nick’s house. Stopping by Gatsby’s house one afternoon, he is alarmed to find Tom Buchanan there. Tom has stopped for a drink at Gatsby’s house with Mr. and Mrs. Sloane, with whom he has been out riding. Gatsby seems nervous and agitated, and tells Tom awkwardly that he knows Daisy. Gatsby invites Tom and the Sloanes to stay for dinner, but they refuse. To be polite, they invite Gatsby to dine with them, and he accepts, not realizing the insincerity of the invitation. Tom is contemptuous of Gatsby’s lack of social grace and highly critical of Daisy’s habit of visiting Gatsby’s house alone. He is suspicious, but he has not yet discovered Gatsby and Daisy’s love.
The following Saturday night, Tom and Daisy go to a party at Gatsby’s house. Though Tom has no interest in the party, his dislike for Gatsby causes him to want to keep an eye on Daisy. Gatsby’s party strikes Nick much more unfavorably this time around—he finds the revelry oppressive and notices that even Daisy has a bad time. Tom upsets her by telling her that Gatsby’s fortune comes from bootlegging. She angrily replies that Gatsby’s wealth comes from a chain of drugstores that he owns.
Gatsby seeks out Nick after Tom and Daisy leave the party; he is unhappy because Daisy has had such an unpleasant time. Gatsby wants things to be exactly the same as they were before he left Louisville: he wants Daisy to leave Tom so that he can be with her. Nick reminds Gatsby that he cannot re-create the past. Gatsby, distraught, protests that he can. He believes that his money can accomplish anything as far as Daisy is concerned. As he walks amid the debris from the party, Nick thinks about the first time Gatsby kissed Daisy, the moment when his dream of Daisy became the dominant force in his life. Now that he has her, Nick reflects, his dream is effectively over.
Chapter 7 - KEY DETAILS
Preoccupied by his love for Daisy, Gatsby calls off his parties, which were primarily a means to lure Daisy. He also fires his servants to prevent gossip and replaces them with shady individuals connected to Meyer Wolfsheim.
On the hottest day of the summer, Nick takes the train to East Egg for lunch at the house of Tom and Daisy. He finds Gatsby and Jordan Baker there as well. When the nurse brings in Daisy’s baby girl, Gatsby is stunned and can hardly believe that the child is real. For her part, Daisy seems almost uninterested in her child. During the awkward afternoon, Gatsby and Daisy cannot hide their love for one another. Complaining of her boredom, Daisy asks Gatsby if he wants to go into the city. Gatsby stares at her passionately, and Tom becomes certain of their feelings for each other.
Itching for a confrontation, Tom seizes upon Daisy’s suggestion that they should all go to New York together. Nick rides with Jordan and Tom in Gatsby’s car, and Gatsby and Daisy ride together in Tom’s car. Stopping for gas at Wilson’s garage, Nick, Tom, and Jordan learn that Wilson has discovered his wife’s infidelity—though not the identity of her lover—and plans to move her to the West. Under the brooding eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, Nick perceives that Tom and Wilson are in the same position.
In the oppressive New York City heat, the group decides to take a suite at the Plaza Hotel. Tom initiates his planned confrontation with Gatsby by mocking his habit of calling people “old sport.” He accuses Gatsby of lying about having attended Oxford. Gatsby responds that he did attend Oxford—for five months, in an army program following the war. Tom asks Gatsby about his intentions for Daisy, and Gatsby replies that Daisy loves him, not Tom. Tom claims that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could not possibly understand. He then accuses Gatsby of running a bootlegging operation.
Daisy, in love with Gatsby earlier in the afternoon, feels herself moving closer and closer to Tom as she observes the quarrel. Realizing he has bested Gatsby, Tom sends Daisy back to Long Island with Gatsby to prove Gatsby’s inability to hurt him. As the row quiets down, Nick realizes that it is his thirtieth birthday.
Driving back to Long Island, Nick, Tom, and Jordan discover a frightening scene on the border of the valley of ashes. Someone has been fatally hit by an automobile. Michaelis, a Greek man who runs the restaurant next to Wilson’s garage, tells them that Myrtle was the victim—a car coming from New York City struck her, paused, then sped away. Nick realizes that Myrtle must have been hit by Gatsby and Daisy, driving back from the city in Gatsby’s big yellow automobile. Tom thinks that Wilson will remember the yellow car from that afternoon. He also assumes that Gatsby was the driver.
Back at Tom’s house, Nick waits outside and finds Gatsby hiding in the bushes. Gatsby says that he has been waiting there in order to make sure that Tom did not hurt Daisy. He tells Nick that Daisy was driving when the car struck Myrtle, but that he himself will take the blame. Still worried about Daisy, Gatsby sends Nick to check on her. Nick finds Tom and Daisy eating cold fried chicken and talking. They have reconciled their differences, and Nick leaves Gatsby standing alone in the moonlight.
Chapter 8 - KEY DETAILS
After the day’s traumatic events, Nick passes a sleepless night. Before dawn, he rises restlessly and goes to visit Gatsby at his mansion. Gatsby tells him that he waited at Daisy’s until four o’clock in the morning and that nothing happened—Tom did not try to hurt her and Daisy did not come outside. Nick suggests that Gatsby forget about Daisy and leave Long Island, but Gatsby refuses to consider leaving Daisy behind.
Gatsby, melancholy, tells Nick about courting Daisy in Louisville in 1917. He says that he loved her for her youth and vitality, and idolized her social position, wealth, and popularity. He adds that she was the first girl to whom he ever felt close and that he lied about his background to make her believe that he was worthy of her. Eventually, he continues, he and Daisy made love, and he felt as though he had married her. She promised to wait for him when he left for the war, but then she married Tom, whose social position was solid and who had the approval of her parents.
Gatsby’s gardener interrupts the story to tell Gatsby that he plans to drain the pool. The previous day was the hottest of the summer, but autumn is in the air this morning, and the gardener worries that falling leaves will clog the pool drains. Gatsby tells the gardener to wait a day; he has never used the pool, he says, and wants to go for a swim. Nick has stayed so long talking to Gatsby that he is very late for work. He finally says goodbye to Gatsby. As he walks away, he turns back and shouts that Gatsby is worth more than the Buchanans and all of their friends.
Nick goes to his office, but he feels too distracted to work, and even refuses to meet Jordan Baker for a date. The focus of his narrative then shifts to relate to the reader what happened at the garage after Myrtle was killed (the details of which Nick learns from Michaelis): George Wilson stays up all night talking to Michaelis about Myrtle. He tells him that before Myrtle died, he confronted her about her lover and told her that she could not hide her sin from the eyes of God.
The morning after the accident, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, illuminated by the dawn, overwhelm Wilson. He believes they are the eyes of God and leaps to the conclusion that whoever was driving the car that killed Myrtle must have been her lover. Wilson decides that God demands revenge and leaves to track down the owner of the car.
Wilson looks for Tom, because he knows that Tom is familiar with the car’s owner—he saw Tom driving the car earlier that day, but he knows Tom could not have been the driver since Tom arrived after the accident in a different car with Nick and Jordan. Wilson eventually goes to Gatsby’s house, where he finds Gatsby lying on an air mattress in the pool, floating in the water and looking up at the sky. Wilson shoots Gatsby, killing him instantly, then shoots himself.
Nick hurries back to West Egg and finds Gatsby floating dead in his pool. Nick imagines Gatsby’s final thoughts, and pictures him disillusioned by the meaninglessness and emptiness of life without Daisy, without his dream.
Chapter 9 - KEY DETAILS
Writing two years after Gatsby’s death, Nick describes the events that surrounded the funeral. Swarms of reporters, journalists, and gossipmongers descend on the mansion in the aftermath of the murder. Wild, untrue stories, more exaggerated than the rumors about Gatsby when he was throwing his parties, circulate about the nature of Gatsby’s relationship to Myrtle and Wilson. Feeling that Gatsby would not want to go through a funeral alone, Nick tries to hold a large funeral for him, but all of Gatsby’s former friends and acquaintances either have disappeared—Tom and Daisy, for instance, move away with no forwarding address—or refuse to come, like Meyer Wolfsheim and Klipspringer. The latter claims that he has a social engagement in Westport and asks Nick to send along his tennis shoes. Outraged, Nick hangs up on him.
The only people to attend the funeral are Nick, Owl Eyes, a few servants, and Gatsby’s father, Henry C. Gatz, who has come all the way from Minnesota. Henry Gatz is proud of his son and saves a picture of his house. He also fills Nick in on Gatsby’s early life, showing him a book in which a young Gatsby had written a schedule for self-improvement.
Sick of the East and its empty values, Nick decides to move back to the Midwest. He breaks off his relationship with Jordan, who suddenly claims that she has become engaged to another man. Just before he leaves, Nick encounters Tom on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Nick initially refuses to shake Tom’s hand but eventually accepts. Tom tells him that he was the one who told Wilson that Gatsby owned the car that killed Myrtle, and describes how greatly he suffered when he had to give up the apartment he kept in the city for his affair. He says that Gatsby deserved to die. Nick comes to the conclusion that Tom and Daisy are careless and uncaring people and that they destroy people and things, knowing that their money will shield them from ever having to face any negative consequences.
Nick muses that, in some ways, this story is a story of the West, even though it has taken place entirely on the East Coast. Nick, Jordan, Tom, and Daisy are all from west of the Appalachians, and Nick believes that the reactions of each, himself included, to living the fast-paced, lurid lifestyle of the East has shaped his or her behavior. Nick remembers life in the Midwest, full of snow, trains, and Christmas wreaths, and thinks that the East seems grotesque and distorted by comparison.
On his last night in West Egg before moving back to Minnesota, Nick walks over to Gatsby’s empty mansion and erases an obscene word that someone has written on the steps. He sprawls out on the beach behind Gatsby’s house and looks up. As the moon rises, he imagines the island with no houses and considers what it must have looked like to the explorers who discovered the New World centuries before.
Nick imagines that America was once a goal for dreamers and explorers, just as Daisy was for Gatsby. He pictures the green land of America as the green light shining from Daisy’s dock, and muses that Gatsby—whose wealth and success so closely echo the American dream—failed to realize that the dream had already ended, that his goals had become hollow and empty.
Nick senses that people everywhere are motivated by similar dreams and by a desire to move forward into a future in which their dreams are realized. Nick envisions their struggles to create that future as boats moving in a body of water against a current that inevitably carries them back into the past.
Significance of the number “9”
Time and Fate: The clock in Gatsby's mansion is stopped at 9:00. This time is significant because it marks the moment when Gatsby and Daisy's relationship was interrupted years ago. By freezing time at this moment, Gatsby symbolically tries to halt the passage of time and recapture the past.
Illusion vs. Reality: The number nine can represent the tension between illusion and reality in the novel. Gatsby's parties, which often begin at nine o'clock, are extravagant spectacles designed to create an illusion of wealth, glamour, and social success. However, beneath the surface, there is a sense of emptiness and disillusionment, as the characters grapple with the harsh realities of their lives.
The Pursuit of Dreams: In numerology, the number nine is associated with completion and fulfillment. Gatsby's pursuit of the American Dream, his relentless quest for success and social acceptance, can be seen as his attempt to achieve a sense of completion or fulfillment in his life. However, despite his efforts, Gatsby ultimately remains unfulfilled, as his dreams are built on illusions and unattainable ideals.
Loss and Tragedy: The number nine can also be associated with loss and tragedy in the novel. Gatsby's quest to recapture the past and win back Daisy ultimately leads to his downfall. The novel culminates in Gatsby's death, marking the tragic end of his pursuit of the American Dream and the loss of his illusions. There are also 9 chapters in the entire book.
Typically 9 is also associated with: possessiveness, carelessness with finances and self-adulation which depicts Gatsby and Tom very well.
The Green Light
Positioned at the end of Daisy's dock, the green light symbolizes Gatsby's hopes and dreams, particularly his desire to be reunited with Daisy. It represents the unattainable nature of the American Dream and the elusive pursuit of happiness. The delusional conviction of ignoring 5 years of Daisy’s life and events shatters the possibility of intimacy, especially since it is clear to readers that Daisy is an extremely flawed character.
Chapter 1: Before we even meet Gatsby properly (chapter 3) we have him stretching out his arms towards something he can’t reach.
Chapter 5: The separation of the green light from “enchanted” to “colossal significance” is troubling and melancholic because Gatsby is “absorbed” in the dreamlike reality of actually holding Daisy but this doesn’t last forever.
Chapter 9: The light is now a symbol and nothing else. We are all universally “stretching out our arms” towards it, standing for an “orgastic future”.
The Colour Green - rebirth, sickness, greed, death
The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg
The billboard featuring the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, located in the Valley of Ashes, symbolizes the moral decay and spiritual emptiness of the 1920s.
Presented in a surreal way: the eyes are blue and there are yellow spectacles, which contrast completely with the gray and drab surroundings. A huge, displeased “god” remaining vigil. The lack of faith in a larger purpose and moral compass leads George to commit murder and suicide.
In the end, the inanimate object has no civilising influence, as Tom frowns when he feels he is being watched but still carries out with the affair.
The Valley of Ashes
This “desolate” wasteland between West Egg and New York City symbolizes the moral and social decay of the Jazz Age. It represents the consequences of unchecked capitalism and the disparity between the rich and the poor.
“fantastic farm” - fantastic depicts something magical and out of a fantasy but instead the pollution makes the water “foul” and the air “powdery”.
Wilson is an “ash-grey men” that is covered in a “veil” of sadness and hopelessness. Myrtle is the only thing that isn’t bleak and covered in ash or blend into the “cement colour” like George, as she is ambitious to escape to a better life with Tom.
A place of stagnation where the forgotten working class people enable the lifestyle of the wealthy, thus revealing the class gulf and the devastation that capitalism has created.
The Color White
Throughout the novel, the color white is associated with purity, innocence, and the American Dream. It is often used to describe Daisy and her aura of ethereal beauty. However, it also carries connotations of emptiness and shallowness, highlighting the superficiality of the characters' lives.
Gatsby's Mansion
Gatsby's extravagant mansion symbolizes the excesses of the Jazz Age and the pursuit of wealth and social status. It serves as a facade for Gatsby's true identity and reflects the emptiness of his quest for Daisy's love.
The Buchanans' House
The Buchanan residence in East Egg symbolizes the old money aristocracy and the moral decay of the upper class. It is a place of privilege and luxury, but also of corruption and moral bankruptcy.
The Color Yellow
Yellow is associated with wealth, corruption, and deceit in the novel. It is often used to describe material possessions and luxury, but also represents the moral decay and shallowness of the characters' lives.
Brown - Golden caramel color, like Gatsby’s suits and Myrtle’s muslin dress.
Weather
Weather patterns in the novel, such as storms and heatwaves, reflect the emotional and psychological turmoil of the characters. They serve as metaphors for the tensions and conflicts that simmer beneath the surface of their relationships.
The American Dream
Perhaps the most prominent theme in the novel, the American Dream is depicted through the characters' pursuit of wealth, success, and happiness. However, Fitzgerald also explores the disillusionment and emptiness that can accompany the pursuit of this dream. He exposes the brutal reality and tragic consequences that ultimately end in Daisy and Gatsby’s deaths.
The American Dream is the belief that anyone is capable of success if they just work hard enough. In the end, it suggests how it is dangerous to strive for more than you are given. Tom and Daisy antagonise the dream: Daisy refuses Gatsby and Tom causes the Wilson’s tragedy.
While the American Dream promises opportunity and upward mobility, the novel suggests that it is often corrupted by greed, materialism, and moral decay. Gatsby's pursuit of wealth and status ultimately leads to tragedy, highlighting the darker side of the American Dream.
This can be emphasized by Wolfsheim who works in the criminal underbelly of Manhattan, implying how sacrificing morality and illegal means are necessary to climb the social hierarchy.
Class & Status
The novel explores the rigid social hierarchy of 1920s America and the ways in which class impacts characters' lives and relationships. Characters like Gatsby, who come from humble backgrounds, aspire to climb the social ladder, while characters like Tom Buchanan represent the entrenched upper class.
Identity and Self-Invention
Gatsby's self-invention as a wealthy and sophisticated man is central to the story. He constructs an elaborate persona to win back Daisy and gain acceptance into high society, raising questions about the authenticity of identity and the lengths people will go to in order to achieve their desires.
Idealism VS Realism
Throughout the novel, characters grapple with the contrast between appearances and reality. Gatsby's extravagant parties and ostentatious displays of wealth mask the emptiness of his life, while characters like Daisy and Tom hide behind facades of privilege and sophistication.
Love
Love and romantic longing are central to the plot, particularly in Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy. However, the novel also explores the destructive effects of obsession and unrequited love.
Tom has an affair with Myrtle
Daisy and Gatsby have an affair
Nick and Jordan do not have a successful relationship
Mortality and the Passage of Time
The novel is set against the backdrop of the Jazz Age, a time of cultural upheaval and excess. Amidst the parties and revelry, there is a sense of fleetingness and impermanence, as characters grapple with the passage of time and the inevitability of mortality.
Money
A main motive in the novel
Gatsby’s notoriety
Barely anyone shows up to Gatsby’s funeral because they were only attracted to his wealth.
Daisy’s voice being “full of money” reveals Gatsby’s material obsession and also how Daisy is a highly valued prize.
Daisy ultimately stays with Tom because of his money despite loving Gatsby
Myrtle uses money to escape her marriage
F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography
Fitzgerald was the only son of an unsuccessful, aristocratic father and an energetic, provincial mother.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896-1940) was born in St Paul, Minnesota
Attended Princeton University but dropped out, and so joined the army in 1917 (WW1)
During War, he fell in love with Zelda Sayre of Montgomery and got married in 1920
Gatsbyesque - To define an individual in terms of his capacity for hope and romantic idealisation of experience
Fitzgerald admired Joseph Conrad but wanted to focus on his own ability to create illusion.
He lived in New York City for 6 months in the early 1920s and from Mid-October 1922 to 24 April 1923 in Great Neck, a community on the North shore of Long Island. Both places defined the geography and social world of the Great Gatsby.
Completed the novel on the Riviera in summer of 1924 and published it on 10 April 1925. Perceived as a quintessential post WW1 novel in which events of the 1920s are direct outgrowths of changes in national sensibility following Armistice in 1918.
1936 was Fitzgerald’s worst year: depression, emotional bankruptcy, extreme debt from over-borrowing money for a luxurious lifestyle, and foolish spending. Failed books and confidence in writing deteriorated after the Great Depression.
Important Social Context - Jazz Age
Quintessential post WW1 novel which portrayed the changes of national sensibility in the Jazz Age.
New wealth - Lavishly decorated mansions consisting of priceless art collections imported by American millionaires (e.g. Jordan imports sneakers).
Rapid change and growth created a sense of alienation as old values died and personal identity may have been lost or found through the eyes of those who perceived the slightest shift in wealth or social status (extremely critical, social fluidity/instability).
American Dream - Elusive, national failure.
Jazz Age began in the May Day riots of 1919 and leaped to a spectacular death in October 1929. Riots involved many new immigrants with socialist or anarchist backgrounds. It ended abruptly with the crash of the Stock Market in Late October 1929 where the market fell $15 million then collapsed completely on 29th October due to the Wall Street Crash, inevitably triggering the Great Depression of the 1930s.
CONTEXT - WW1
350,000 Americans and over 4 million called to serve - drastic casualties considering the fact that USA joined the war late.
A persistent echo despite Nick’s satiric dismissal.
Drastic, swift and shattering changes took place between the Civil War and end of WW1 as some radicalism took place due to the rise of wealth and prosperity - The Roaring Twenties and Great Economic Boom in the USA during the 1920s also led to many millionaires living in lavish mansions, such as Gatsby in the novel.
Post WW1 New York was reeling from the colossal wave of immigrants that began pouring in during the 1880s. Between the 1880s and 1919, more than 17 million immigrants to the USA entered NYC, suggesting how “The City that never sleeps” held endless opportunities and the promising change for a better life but this was ultimately a charming illusion that only emphasised the lost souls from the “Valley of Ashes”.
CONTEXT - IMMIGRATION & MIGRATION
Omnipresence of old boundaries separating classes were finally being broken or manipulated. Myrtle uses her affair with Tom as a transactional relationship where she can travel to her Manhattan apartment and live a “slice” of a luxurious, opulent lifestyle for a short period before she is forced to return to the Valley of Ashes and live in reality again. Gatsby sacrifices his past for Daisy.
Most importantly - waves of immigrants underwent massive changes. Rapid change and growth created alienation as the old values died while personal identity was lost or found depending on a shift in social status or wealth.
CONTEXT - PROHIBITION
18th Amendment to the Constitution outlawed the sale of alcoholic beverages on 16th January 1919 and the Volstead Act would exact penalties if the law was violated. Gatsby changes his entire identity and loses his individuality by illegal bootlegging as he is forced to resort to immoral means to defy and cheat the deeply ingrained class system. Also encouraged the development of the New York criminal underworld (Wolfsheim) where moonshine (extremely dangerous - could make people blind) and speakeasies were highly popular.
CONTEXT - POSITION OF WOMEN
19th Amendment - Women were given the right to vote, the first wave of feminism. Sexual liberation and freedom of womanhood, embracing sexuality.
Electrical appliances meant women were free and allowed to travel instead of being trapped at home. Widespread home appliances, women smoked, wore less clothing, and went shopping with friends.
However, this clashed with conservative, degrading domestic expectations enforced on women, which is why some women like Daisy in upper East Egg have such listless existences.
CONTEXT - CONSUMERIST, CAPITALIST SOCIETY
Automobile development - Henry Ford triggered the mobilisation of America and the modern mass production of consumer goods. Americans could now travel from rural areas to cities like NYC in hopes of better jobs and life.
Entitlement to pursue happiness which is essential to human consciousness.
Filthy rich people lived luxurious lives in Long Island sound in their grand estates while the poor suffered tremendously - extreme class stratification.
The Telephone paradox - Connects and allows communication from distant places, increasing the pace of life. However, the advancement of technology has also led to tension and disconnect (like when Tom leaves the table to answer the call of a mysterious woman, thereby shattering his loveless marriage with Daisy) whilst Gatsby also uses secretive phone calls for illegal bootlegging.
Artificiality
The American Dream - the main, elusive fantasy that traps Gatsby in a fabricated identity and life chasing Daisy, a girl whose “voice full of money” is now dating Tom, a wealthy and well-established Long Island man. The promise of their painfully awkward and almost comical reunion in Chapter 5 highlights the futility of their intimacy.
Appearance and reality
Perception (sight and insight)
The past and nostalgia
Desire
The nature of a good life
Heroism
Masculinity and femininity
Honesty and deceit
Corruption VS Purity
Vincent Canby, A critic of the 1974 film version of Gatsby
Gatsby’s death by drowning - “lifeless as a body that’s been too long at the bottom of a swimming pool”.
He means this not only literally but metaphorically as his disillusionment has made him naive and oblivious to the threat that Tom poses.
Late British Historian E.P. Thompson
The political incorrectness of Tom Buchanan - “the enormous condescension of posterity”.
Tom is too big and cruel for his surroundings, always breaking everything - Myrtle’s nose, Daisy’s finger, and Gatsby’s intimate dream.
H. L. Mencken, 1925
“Only Gatsby himself genuinely lives and breathes. The rest are mere marionettes.”
Marionettes - Puppets controlled by strings
Kenneth Eble, 1964
“Daisy moves away from actuality into an idea existing in Gatsby’s mind.”
Thomas Flanagan, 2000
“Gatsby lives in a world of romantic energies and colours.”
“Gatsby is somewhat vague. The reader’s eyes can never quite focus upon him, his outlines are dim.”
Jacqueline Lance, 2000
“Becoming Tom was Gatsby’s dream.”
Controversial as Gatsby’s dream could be achieving Tom’s financial stability and “Old Money” status of East Egg by erasing his past. However, he would not want to be Tom because his whole goal of changing his identity was for Daisy.
Claire Stocks, 2007
“Nick wants to portray Gatsby as ‘great’ and undermines anything that might undermine that image.”
Marius Bewley
“Daisy has monstrous moral indifference and vicious emptiness.”
A. E. Dyson
“In one sense Gatsby is the apotheosis of his rootless society…He really believes in himself and his illusions.”
Judith Fetterley
“Gatsby’s romanticisation of Daisy is heroic though misguided.”
K. Fraser
“Daisy is torn between a desire for personal freedom and the need for stability.”
Lev Grossman
“Gatsby lays bare the empty, tragic heart of the self-made man.”
K. Parkinson
“Daisy is only allowed to exist in the images of men create of her.”
Christine Ramos
“By attempting to maintain his way of life, Tom has reduced whole people to ashes without any thought of consequences.”
P. Staveley
“Gatsby, like America itself … strives to reach a place he has created in his own mind, an impossible perfect.”
The Concept of Place
Specific geographical locations and their significance - Valley of Ashes, Manhattan, New York, East Egg & West Egg.
Locations and time when the story takes place - Jazz Age, Post-WW1, Prohibition era
Significance of the natural world - beauty and despoliation
Representation of social identity and how people are placed in society
Social class
A setting of human relationships
Political space
home and homeland - Nordics and Northern Europeans migrated to the USA to become “Old Money”, hypocrisy. Gatsby is from North Dakota (Mid-West) but lives in West Egg.
Language and representation of place
Flowery Names
Daisy - Whiteness, purity, and innocence of the beautiful external petals in contrast to the yellow center that shows how corrupt and lustful Daisy was by her materialism and desire for wealth. Gatsby's “bloom” or “flower” was Daisy. However, she would not marry Gatsby until he had enough leaves, or a stable income and wealth.
Myrtle - The myrtle plant is often associated with love, fertility, and marriage. In classical mythology, it is sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Ironic as the flower represents marital fidelity but the character has an affair with Tom for a temporary “slice” of the privileged East Egg lifestyle which only causes her to become snobbish and entitled. Wilson’s painful discovery could be seen by Fitzgerald who discovered his wife Zelda also had an affair. Myrtle is an evergreen shrub that has glossy aromatic foliage and white flowers.
Azar Nafisi
“The dream is not about the money but what (Gatsby) imagines he can become. It is not a comment of America as a materialistic country but as an idealistic one, one that has turned money into a means of retrieving a dream.”
Kathleen Parkinson (1987)
Jordan Baker’s role ‘in the narrative is never quite clear, other than as a foil and a contrast to Daisy.’
‘The impersonal death machine violates Myrtle’s female identity and ravages her: it is a symbolic rape’
George Carlin - not sure if he is a critic
‘They call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it’
E.P. Thompson
“the enormous comdescension of posterity”. He criticises the political corruption of Tom as he destroys everything: Daisy’s finger, Myrtle’s nose and Gatsby’s intimate dream.
Judith Fetterley
“Gatsby’s romanticisation of Daisy is heroic though misguided.”
Lev Grossman
“Gatsby lays bare the empty, tragic heart of the self-made man.”
Marius Bewley
“Daisy has monstrous moral indifference and vicious emptiness.”
Fitzgerald
I want to write something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned.
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