The Great Gatsby

Get hundreds more free LitCharts at LitCharts.com. The Great Gatsby BACKGROUND INFO darker side of the Roaring Twenties, its undercurrent of corruption and its desperate, empty decadence.AUTHOR BIO EXTRA CREDITFull Name: Francis Scott FitzgeraldDate of Birth: 1896 Puttin' on the Fitz. Fitzgerald spent most of his adult life in debt, often relyingPlace of Birth: St. Paul, Minnesota on loans from his publisher, and even his editor, Maxwell Perkins, in order toDate of Death: 1940 pay the bills. The money he made from his novels could not support the high-Brief Life Story: F. Scott Fitzgerald grew up in New York City, attended a few flying cosmopolitan life his wife desired, so Fitzgerald turned to more lucrativeprivate schools, and went to Princeton University. In 1917, Princeton put short story writing for magazines like Esquire. Fitzgerald spent his final threeFitzgerald on academic probation. He enlisted in the Army. On base in years writing screenplays in Hollywood.Alabama in 1918, he met and fell in love with Zelda Zayre, who refused tomarry him unless he could support her. He returned to New York to pursue Another Failed Screenwriter. Fitzgerald was an alcoholic and his wife Zeldafame and fortune. The publication of his first novel, This Side of Paradise, in suffered from serious mental illness. In the final years of their marriage as1920, made Fitzgerald a literary star. He married Zelda one week later. In their debts piled up, Zelda stayed in a series of mental institutions on the East1924, the couple moved to Paris, where Fitzgerald began work on The Great coast while Fitzgerald tried, and largely failed, to make money writing movieGatsby. Though now considered his masterpiece, the novel sold only modestly. scripts in Hollywood.The Fitzgeralds returned to the United States in 1927. Fitzgerald publishedseveral more novels, including Tender is the Night (1933), but none matched the PLOT OVERVIEWsuccess of his first. Deep in debt because of their ritzy lifestyle, the Fitzgeraldsbegan to spiral into alcoholism and mental illness. Fitzgerald died of a heart In the summer of 1922, Nick Carraway moves from Minnesota to work as aattack on December 21, 1940. Zelda died eight years later in a fire. bond salesman in New York. Nick rents a house in West Egg, a suburb of New York on Long Island full of the \"new rich\" who have made their fortunes tooKEY FACTS recently to have built strong social connections. Nick graduated from Yale and has connections in East Egg, a town where the people with social connectionsFull Title: The Great Gatsby and \"old\" money live. One night Nick drives to East Egg to have dinner with hisGenre: Novel cousin, Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, a classmate of Nick's at Yale.Setting: Long Island, Queens, and Manhattan, New York in the summer of There, he meets Jordan Baker, a beautiful and cynical professional golfer.1922 Jordan tells Nick that Tom is having an affair. Upon returning home fromClimax: The showdown between Gatsby and Tom over Daisy dinner, Nick sees his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby holding out his armsProtagonist: Jay Gatsby toward the Long Island Sound. Nick looks out across the water, but sees only aAntagonists: Tom Buchanan green light blinking at the end of a dock on the far shore.Narrator: Nick CarrawayPoint of View: First person A few days later, Tom invites Nick to a party in New York City. On the way, Tom picks up his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, the wife of George Wilson, the owner ofHISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT an auto shop an industrial area between West Egg and New York City called the Valley of Ashes. At the party, Myrtle gets drunk and makes fun of Daisy.Where Written: Paris and the US, in 1924 Tom punches her and breaks her nose.When Published: 1925Literary Period: Modernism Nick also attends one of Gatsby's extravagant Saturday night parties. He runsRelated Literary Works: Modernist fiction attempted to represent the sense into Jordan there, and meets Gatsby for the first time. Gatsby privately tellsof emptiness and disillusionment that dominated Europe and the United Jordan a story she describes as the most \"amazing thing.\" After going to lunchStates after World War I. In this way, Gatsby can be considered as related to with Gatsby and a shady business partner of Gatsby's named Meyersuch modernist works as James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Virginia Woolf's Wolfsheim, Nick meets with Jordan and learns the \"amazing\" story: GatsbyMrs. Dalloway (1925). But The Great Gatsby and all of Fitzgerald's works are met and fell in love with Daisy before World War I, and bought his West Eggbest compared to those written by other Americans such as Ernest mansion just to be near her and impress her. At Gatsby's request, NickHemingway, members of the \"Lost Generation\" of American writers who arranges a meeting between Gatsby and Daisy. The two soon rediscover theirmoved to Europe after World War I. All these writers depicted the reality, love.corruption, and sadness of the human condition, but Fitzgerald mosteffectively portrayed the American cultural moment he called the \"Jazz Age.\" Daisy invites Nick and Gatsby to lunch with her, Tom, and Jordan. During theRelated Historical Events: Fitzgerald coined the term \"Jazz Age\" to refer to lunch, Tom realizes Daisy and Gatsby are having an affair. He insists they all gothe period more commonly known as the Roaring Twenties. Jazz is an to New York City. As soon as they gather at the Plaza Hotel, though, Tom andAmerican style of music marked by its complex and exuberant mix of rhythms Gatsby get into an argument about Daisy. Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy neverand tonalities. The Great Gatsby portrays a similarly complex mix of emotions loved Tom and has only ever loved him. But Daisy can only admit that sheand themes that reflect the turbulence of the times. Fresh off the nightmare of loved them both, and Gatsby is stunned. Tom then reveals that Gatsby madeWorld War I, Americans were enjoying the fruits of an economic boom and a his fortune by bootlegging alcohol and other illegal means. Tom thenrenewed sense of possibility. But in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald's stresses the dismissively tells Daisy to go home with Gatsby, since he knows Gatsby won't \"bother\" her anymore. They leave in Gatsby's car, while Tom, Nick, and Jordan follow sometime later. As they drive home, Tom, Nick, and Jordan come upon an accident: Myrtle has been hit and killed by a car. Tom realizes that it must have been Gatsby's car that struck Myrtle, and he curses Gatsby as a coward for driving off. But Nick learns from Gatsby later that night that Daisy was actually behind the wheel. George Wilson, distraught, is convinced that the driver of the car yellow car that hit Myrtle is also her lover. While at work that day, Nick fights on the©2014 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us: @litcharts | Get our Free iPhone App Page 1

Get hundreds more free LitCharts at LitCharts.com.phone with Jordan. In the afternoon, Nick has a kind of premonition and finds Owl Eyes A drunken man Nick encounters looking through Gatsby's vastGatsby shot to death in his pool. Wilson's dead body is a few yards away. Nick library, amazed at the \"realism\" of all the unread novels.organizes a funeral, but none of the people who were supposedly Gatsby'sfriends come. Only Gatsby's father and one other man attend. Ewing Klipspringer A man who is such a frequent guest at Gatsby's mansion that he almost seems to live there. Yet he turns out to be nothing more than aNick and Jordan end their relationship. Nick runs into Tom soon after, and leech, and after Gatsby's death cares only about retrieving a pair of sneakerslearns that Tom told Wilson that Gatsby had run over Myrtle. Nick doesn't tell he left at Gatsby's mansion.Tom that Daisy was at the wheel. Disgusted with the corrupt emptiness of lifeon the East Coast, Nick moves back to Minnesota. But the night before he Dan Cody Jay Gatsby's first mentor and best friend. Cody left Gatsby twenty-leaves he walks down to Gatsby's beach and looks out over Long Island Sound. five thousand dollars when he died, but Gatsby never received it due to a legalHe thinks about Gatsby, and compares him to the first settlers to America. Like complication.Gatsby, Nick says, all people must move forward with their arms outstretchedtoward the future, like boats traveling upstream against the current of the Henry Gatz Jay Gatsby's father. A dignified but poor man, Henry Gatz lovespast. his son deeply and believes he was destined for great things. CHARACTERS Pammy Buchanan Daisy and Tom Buchanan's young daughter. Michaelis A young Greek man who runs a coffee shop near Wilson's garage. Catherine Myrtle Wilson's sister.Jay Gatsby Nick's wealthy neighbor in West Egg. Gatsby owns a gigantic THEMESmansion and has become well known for hosting large parties every Saturdaynight. Gatsby's lust for wealth stems from his desire to win back the love of his In LitCharts each theme gets its own color. Our color-coded theme boxeslife, Daisy Buchanan, whom he met and fell in love with while in military make it easy to track where the themes occur throughout the work.training in Louisville, Kentucky before WW I. Gatsby is a self-made man (hisbirth name was Jay Gatz) who achieved the American Dream of rising up from THE ROARING TWENTIESthe lower classes to the top of society. But to Gatsby, the desire for loveproves more powerful than the lust for money. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby's F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the term \"Jazz Age\" to describe the decade ofdownfall as a critique of the reckless indulgence of Roaring Twenties America. decadence and prosperity that America enjoyed in the 1920s, which was also known as the Roaring Twenties. After World War I ended in 1918, the UnitedNick Carraway A young man from Minnesota who has come to New York States and much of the rest of the world experienced an enormous economicafter graduating Yale and fighting in World War I, Nick is the neighbor of Jay expansion. The surging economy turned the 1920s into a time of easy money,Gatsby and the cousin of Daisy Buchanan. The narrator of The Great Gatsby, hard drinking (despite the Prohibition amendment to the Constitution), andNick describes himself as \"one of the few honest people that [he has] ever lavish parties. Though the 1920s were a time of great optimism, Fitzgeraldknown.\" Nick views himself as a man of \"infinite hope\" who can see the best portrays the much bleaker side of the revelry by focusing on its indulgence,side of everyone he encountered. Nick sees past the veneer of Gatsby's hypocrisy, shallow recklessness, and its perilous—even fatal—consequences.wealth and is the only character in the novel who truly cares about Gatsby. Inwatching Gatsby's story unfold, Nick becomes a critic of the Roaring Twenties THE AMERICAN DREAMexcess and carelessness that carries on all around him. The American Dream—that hard work can lead one from rags to riches—hasDaisy Buchanan The love of Jay Gatsby's life, the cousin of Nick Carraway, been a core facet of American identity since its inception. Settlers came westand the wife of Tom Buchanan. She grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where she to America from Europe seeking wealth and freedom. The pioneers headedmet and fell in love with Gatsby. She describes herself as \"sophisticated\" and west for the same reason. The Great Gatsby shows the tide turning east, assays the best thing a girl can be is a \"beautiful little fool,\" which makes it hordes flock to New York City seeking stock market fortunes. The Greatunsurprising that she lacks conviction and sincerity, and values material things Gatsby portrays this shift as a symbol of the American Dream's corruption. It'sover all else. Yet Daisy isn't just a shallow gold digger. She's more tragic: a no longer a vision of building a life; it's just about getting rich.loving woman who has been corrupted by greed. She chooses the comfort and Gatsby symbolizes both the corrupted Dream and the original uncorruptedsecurity of money over real love, but she does so knowingly. Daisy's tragedy Dream. He sees wealth as the solution to his problems, pursues money viaconveys the alarming extent to which the lust for money captivated Americans shady schemes, and reinvents himself so much that he becomes hollow,during the Roaring Twenties. disconnected from his past. Yet Gatsby's corrupt dream of wealth is motivated by an incorruptible love for Daisy. Gatsby's failure does not prove the folly ofTom Buchanan A former football player and Yale graduate who marries Daisy the American Dream—rather it proves the folly of short-cutting that dream byBuchanan. The oldest son of an extremely wealthy and successful \"old money\" allowing corruption and materialism to prevail over hard work, integrity, andEast Egg family, Tom has a veneer of gentlemanly manners that barely veils a real love. And the dream of love that remains at Gatsby's core condemnsself-centered, sexist, racist, violent ogre of a man beneath. nearly every other character in the novel, all of whom are empty beyond just their lust for money.Jordan Baker A friend of Daisy's who becomes Nick's girlfriend. A successfulpro golfer, Jordan is beautiful and pleasant, but does not inspire Nick to feel CLASS (OLD MONEY, NEW MONEY, NO MONEY)much more than a \"tender curiosity\" for her. Perhaps this is because Baker is\"incurably dishonest\" and cheats at golf. Still, there is some suggestion in the The Great Gatsby portrays three different social classes: \"old money\" (Tom andnovel that she loves Nick, and that he misjudges her. Daisy Buchanan); \"new money\" (Gatsby); and a class that might be called \"no money\" (George and Myrtle Wilson). \"Old money\" families have fortunesMyrtle Wilson The wife of George Wilson and the mistress of Tom Buchanan. dating from the 19th century or before, have built up powerful and influentialMyrtle disdains her beaten down husband and desperately wants to improve social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind aher lot in life. She chooses Tom as the means to this end, but he sees her as veneer of civility. The \"new money\" class made their fortunes in the 1920slittle more than an object. boom and therefore have no social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays of wealth.George Wilson The husband of Myrtle Wilson and the owner of an auto The Great Gatsby shows the newly developing class rivalry between \"old\" andgarage in the Valley of Ashes. Wilson is a beaten-down man, who nevertheless \"new\" money in the struggle between Gatsby and Tom over Daisy. As usual,loves and adores his wife. Her affair with Tom drives Wilson to the edge, and the \"no money\" class gets overlooked by the struggle at the top, leaving middleher death pushes him over. and lower class people like George Wilson forgotten or ignored.Meyer Wolfsheim Gatsby's business partner and friend. A small, fifty-year-oldJewish man with hairy nostrils and beady eyes, Wolfsheim is a gambler whomade his name in organized crime by fixing the 1919 World Series.©2014 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us: @litcharts | Get our Free iPhone App Page 2

Get hundreds more free LitCharts at LitCharts.com.PAST AND FUTURE Egg: once again the West is the frontier of people making their fortunes, but these \"Westerners\" are as hollow and corrupt inside as the \"Easterners.\"Nick and Gatsby are continually troubled by time—the past haunts Gatsbyand the future weighs down on Nick. When Nick tells Gatsby that you can't GATSBY'S MANSIONrepeat the past, Gatsby says \"Why of course you can!\" Gatsby has dedicatedhis entire life to recapturing a golden, perfect past with Daisy. Gatsby believes Gatsby's mansion symbolizes two broader themes of the novel. First, itthat money can recreate the past. Fitzgerald describes Gatsby as represents the grandness and emptiness of the 1920s boom: Gatsby justifies\"overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and living in it all alone by filling the house weekly with \"celebrated people.\"preserves.\" But Gatsby mixes up \"youth and mystery\" with history; he thinks a Second, the house is the physical symbol of Gatsby's love for Daisy. Gatsbysingle glorious month of love with Daisy can compete with the years and used his \"new money\" to create a place that he thought rivaled the houses ofexperiences she has shared with Tom. Just as \"new money\" is money without the \"old money\" that had taken her away.social connection, Gatsby's connection to Daisy exists outside of history. QUOTESNick's fear of the future foreshadows the economic bust that plunged thecountry into depression and ended the Roaring Twenties in 1929. The day The color-coded boxes under each quote below make it easy to track theGatsby and Tom argue at the Plaza Hotel, Nick suddenly realizes that it's his themes related to each quote. Each color corresponds to one of the themesthirtieth birthday. He thinks of the new decade before him as a \"portentous explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.menacing road,\" and clearly sees in the struggle between old and new moneythe end of an era and the destruction of both types of wealth. CHAPTER 1 QUOTES SYMBOLS In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.Symbols appear in red text throughout the Summary & Analysis sections of \"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,\" he told me, \"just remember thatthis LitChart. all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.\"THE GREEN LIGHT AND THE COLOR GREEN \"And I hope she'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.\"The green light at the end of Daisy's dock is the symbol of Gatsby's hopes anddreams. It represents everything that haunts and beckons Gatsby: the physical [Gatsby gazed at] a single green light, minute and faraway, that might haveand emotional distance between him and Daisy, the gap between the past and been the end of a dock.the present, the promises of the future, and the powerful lure of that othergreen stuff he craves—money. In fact, the color green pops up everywhere in CHAPTER 2 QUOTESThe Great Gatsby. Long Island sound is \"green\"; George Wilson's haggard tiredface is \"green\" in the sunlight; Michaelis describes the car that kills Myrtle This is a Valley of Ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat intoWilson as \"light green\" (though it's yellow); Gatsby's perfect lawn is green; and ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of housesthe New World that Nick imagines Dutch explorers first stumbling upon is a and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men\"fresh, green breast.\" The symbolism of green throughout the novel is as who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionallyvariable and contradictory as the many definitions of \"green\" and the many a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, anduses of money—\"new,\" \"natural,\" \"innocent,\" \"naive,\" and \"uncorrupted\"; but comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leadenalso \"rotten,\" \"gullible,\" \"nauseous,\" and \"sickly.\" spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.THE EYES OF DOCTOR T. J. ECKLEBURG CHAPTER 3 TEXTThe eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg on the billboard overlooking the Valley ofAshes represent many things at once: to Nick they seem to symbolize the He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one ofhaunting waste of the past, which lingers on though it is irretrievably vanished, those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may comemuch like Dr. Eckleburg's medical practice. The eyes can also be linked to across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the wholeGatsby, whose own eyes, once described as \"vacant,\" often stare out, blankly external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with ankeeping \"vigil\" (a word Fitzgerald applies to both Dr. Eckleburg's eyes and irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wantedGatsby's) over Long Island sound and the green light. To George Wilson, Dr. to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, andEckleburg's eyes are the eyes of God, which he says see everything. assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.THE VALLEY OF ASHES CHAPTER 5 QUOTESAn area halfway between New York City and West Egg, the Valley of Ashes isan industrial wasteland covered in ash and soot. If New York City represents \"It makes me sad because I've never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.\"all the \"mystery and beauty in the world,\" and West Egg represents the peoplewho have gotten rich off the roaring economy of the Roaring Twenties, theValley of Ashes stands for the dismal ruin of the people caught in between.EAST AND WESTNick describes the novel as a book about Westerners, a \"story of the West.\"Tom, Daisy, Jordan, Gatsby, and Nick all hail from places other than the East.The romanticized American idea of going West to seek and make one's fortuneon the frontier turned on its ear in the 1920's stock boom; now those seekingtheir fortune headed back East to cash in. But while Gatsby suggests there wasa kind of honor in the hard work of making a fortune and building a life on thefrontier, the quest for money in the East is nothing more than that: a hollowquest for money. The split between the eastern and western regions of theUnited States is mirrored in Gatsby by the divide between East Egg and West©2014 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us: @litcharts | Get our Free iPhone App Page 3

Get hundreds more free LitCharts at LitCharts.com.CHAPTER 6 QUOTES run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from hisPlatonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it SUMMARY & ANALYSISmeans 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 The color-coded boxes under \"Analysis & Themes\" below make it easy to tracksort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and the themes throughout the work. Each color corresponds to one of theto this conception he was faithful to the end. themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.\"I wouldn't ask too much of her,\" I ventured. \"You can't repeat the past.\" CHAPTER 1\"Can't repeat the past?\" he cried incredulously. \"Why of course you can!\"He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of Nick Carraway, the novel's narrator Nick's \"advantages\" come from \"oldhis house, just out of reach of his hand. and protagonist, begins The Great money.\" Nick casts himself as someoneCHAPTER 7 QUOTES Gatsby by recounting a bit of advice who doesn't judge based on class, which\"Her [Daisy] voice is full of money,\" he [Gatsby] said suddenly. his father taught him: don't criticize indicates that other people do judgeThat was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money—that was theinexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of others, because most people have not based on class.it. enjoyed the \"advantages\" that he has.CHAPTER 8 QUOTES Nick says that as a result of following\"They're a rotten crowd,\" I shouted across the lawn. \"You're worth the whole this advice, he's become a tolerant anddamn bunch put together.\" forgiving person who resists makingI've always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him,because I disapproved of him from beginning to end. First he nodded politely, quick judgments of others.and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile, as if we'dbeen in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time. For instance, Nick says that though he Nick introduces Gatsby and connects scorns everything Gatsby stood for, him to both new money and theCHAPTER 9 QUOTES he withholds judgment entirely American Dream, and indicates that regarding him. Nick says Gatsby was a Gatsby was done in by the \"foul dust\" ofThey were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things andcreatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, man of \"gorgeous\" personality and the Roaring Twenties.or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the boundless hope. Nick views Gatsby asmess they had made. a victim, a man who fell prey to the \"foul dust\" that corrupted his dreams.That's my Middle West . . . the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark. . .. I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, In the summer of 1922, Nick, a Yale As a Yale graduate, Nick clearly comesDaisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some graduate, moves from his hometown from old money. His wealthy heritage hasdeficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life. in Minnesota, where his family has been closely tied to one place, but WW I lived for three generations, to live and and the 1920s upset that old order.And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until work in New York. He has recentlygradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch returned from military service insailors' eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world.... And as I sat there, World War I, an experience that leftbrooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he him feeling restless in the dullfirst picked out Daisy's light at the end of his dock. He had come such a long Midwest.way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close he couldhardly fail to grasp it. But what he did not know was that it was already behind Nick intends to become a bond The 1920s boom turns the Americanhim, somewhere in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of salesman, a line of work he says that Dream on its head. Instead of going westthe republic rolled on under the night. almost everyone he knew was to build a fortune and a life, people in the entering. Nick hopes to find a taste of 20s abandoned their roots to come eastGatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year the excitement and sense of for the chance at fortune.recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—tomorrow we will possibility that was sweeping the nation in the early 1920s. He says moving to New York offered him and everyone else the chance to discover or reinvent themselves. Nick rents a house in West Egg, a \"Old money\" East Egg faces \"new Long Island suburb located directly money\" West Egg across the water, across a bay from East Egg. Nick symbolically showing the class rivalry: observes that the two communities the towns literally oppose each other. differed greatly in every way but That \"old money\" Nick rents a house in shape and size. West Egg is where the \"new money\" West Egg shows he spans \"new rich\" live, people who have made both worlds. their fortunes only recently and have neither the social connections nor the cultural refinement to be accepted among the \"old money\" families of East Egg.©2014 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us: @litcharts | Get our Free iPhone App Page 4

Get hundreds more free LitCharts at LitCharts.com.The West Egg \"new rich\" are Gatsby's mansion represents the \"new CHAPTER 2characterized by garish displays of money\" class, which overcompensates Nick describes a \"waste land\" The \"Valley of Ashes\" represents thewealth that the old money families for its lack of social connections through between West Egg and New York City people left behind in the Roaringfind distasteful. For instance, Nick's lavish displays of wealth. The \"old where the ashes from the city are Twenties. The dust recalls Nick'ssmall house sits next to an \"eyesore\" money\" class considers this tacky, proof dumped. The ashes cover everything, reference to the \"foul dust\" thatof a mansion owned by Gatsby, a man of their superiority to \"new money.\" including the men who live there. corrupted Gatsby. Eckleburg's eyesNick knows only by name. Gatsby's Above this bleak \"Valley of Ashes\" witness the bleakness, and represent themansion is a gigantic reproduction of a stare out two huge spectacled eyes past that the 1920s wasted.French hotel, covered in ivy and from a billboard for an eye doctor'ssurrounded by forty acres of lush defunct practice. These haunting,lawns and gardens. unblinking eyes of Doctor T. J.The main story begins when Nick, Tom's riding clothes identify him as a Eckleburg watch over everything inwho, though he lives in West Egg has member of the \"old money\" class:East Egg connections, drives over to horseback riding was a hobby only of the the Valley of Ashes.East Egg to have dinner at the rich who had great country estates. TheBuchanans. Daisy Buchanan is Nick's more urban \"new money\" wouldn't ride One day, as Tom and Nick ride a train The old money represented by Tom usescousin, and Nick vaguely knew her horses. Yet Tom's stately riding clothes from ong Island into the city, Tom gets the \"no money\" people while pretendinghusband Tom because Tom also can't hide his hulking body, just as his off at a stop in the Valley of Ashes and to help them. Wilson and Myrtle haveattended Yale. When Nick arrives, politeness can't hide that he's a jerk. tells Nick to come along. Tom leads different reactions to the world that hasTom is dressed in riding clothes. Tom Nick to George Wilson's auto garage, left them behind. Wilson is left weak andspeaks to Nick politely but and Nick learns that Tom's mistress is defeated, with vague dreams he can'tcondescendingly. Nick remembers Wilson's wife, Myrtle. Wilson is good- fulfill. Myrtle wants desperately to be athat plenty of people hated Tom at looking, but beaten-down and lifeless part of the world she sees but can'tYale, and notes that both Tom's and has ashes in his hair, while Myrtle touch, and so takes up with Tom.arrogance and imposing stature have strikes Nick as vibrant and oddlychanged little since those days. sensuous. Tom talks with Wilson about selling a car. When Wilson goesAt dinner Nick meets Jordan Baker, a Jordan's world-weary boredom shows to get some chairs, Tom whispers toyoung professional golfer, who is the emptiness of \"old money.\" Myrtle to meet them in a little while atbeautiful but also seems constantly the train station.bored by her surroundings. Tom, Myrtle, and Nick go to the The drunken party shows both the \"fun\"Soon, Tom launches into a diatribe Tom's outburst shows that old money is apartment Tom keeps in New York and hidden desperation of the Roaringabout the downfall of civilization as insecure about the rise of new money, City to conduct his affair. Myrtle's Twenties. Getting drunk, it seems, is thedescribed in a book entitled The Rise of which makes old money feel as if the sister Catherine soon shows up, as only thing making the party fun, or atthe Colored Empires. The book explains world was falling apart. Old money is does another couple. Everyone gets least bearable.that the Nordic race, with which Tom also hypocritical, hiding hatred and very drunk, including Nick. He saysidentifies himself, created civilization corruption behind a veneer of taste and the party is only the second time he'sand is now threatened by the rise of manners. been drunk.other, inferior races. Tom urgeseveryone to read the book. Daisy tries The topic of conversation eventually Rumors swirl around Gatsby. He hasto make light of his suggestion. turns to Nick's neighbor Gatsby. become so rich and is so mysterious he Catherine says she's afraid of Gatsby seems almost hollow—all surface and no because she's heard that he's a substance.Just then, Tom learns he has a phone While Tom shows off his house and relative of the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm, and everyone agreescall and leaves the room. Daisy family and manners, he has a mistress on that Gatsby is involved in some sort offollows quickly behind, and Jordan the side. Hypocrisy and rot are at thetells Nick that the call is from Tom's heart of old money in the 1920s boom. shifty business.mistress. The rest of dinner is As Myrtle gets more and more drunk Tom's degrading treatment of Myrtleawkward. As Nick is leaving, Daisy and she also gets increasingly loud. After reveals the cruel side of his privilegedTom suggest he think about striking Tom gives her a puppy as a gift, she \"old money\" upbringing. His \"loyalty\" toup a romance with Jordan. starts talking about Daisy. Tom warns Daisy also reveals his hypocrisy: he's her that she doesn't have the right to cheating on her.Upon returning from dinner, Nick Gatsby's gesture is symbolic of his use Daisy's name. But she starts tosees Jay Gatsby standing on his lawn character: he is a hopeful seeker of tease him by repeatedly calling outand gazing out across Long Island unattainable dreams. It's not clear at this \"Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!\" Tom punchessound. Nick considers calling out to point what the green light symbolizes, her in the nose, breaking it. The partyGatsby, but stops himself when he but it's clear that to Gatsby it symbolizes ends, and Nick takes the train homesees Gatsby extend his arms out some dream or hope. alone.toward the far side of the water. Nicklooks across the water and sees only atiny green light blinking at the end of adock.©2014 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us: @litcharts | Get our Free iPhone App Page 5

Get hundreds more free LitCharts at LitCharts.com.CHAPTER 3 Nick then describes his everyday life Nick isn't comfortable with the carefreeEvery Saturday night, Gatsby throws People used Gatsby for his extravagant that summer to the reader: he wants it Roaring Twenties mentality of easyincredibly luxurious parties at his parties: most of his \"new money\" guests clear he does more than just go to money and loose morals shared by othermansion. Nick eventually receives an didn't even know him. Gatsby continuesinvitation. At the party, he feels out of to be a man who barely seems to exist parties. He works each day in the city, characters in the novel, including Jordan.place, and notes that the party is filled beyond the rumors about him. Nick'swith people who haven't been invited feelings of discomfort at the party shows has a brief relationship with a woman He prefers substance, and generallyand who appear \"agonizingly\" aware that he senses the emptiness behind the from New Jersey, and then begins to seems honest. Yet having a relationshipof the \"easy money\" surrounding party.them. The main topic of conversation date Jordan Baker. Yet though he's with someone he dislikes makes him notis rumors about Gatsby. Nick hears attracted to Jordan, he doesn't like entirely honest.from various people that Gatsby is aGerman spy, an Oxford graduate, and her because she's dishonest and evensomeone even claims Gatsby oncekilled a man. cheats at golf. Nick then says that he is one of the only honest people he's ever known. CHAPTER 4 Nick observes some drunken women Another damning portrayal of the on Gatsby's lawn discussing Gatsby's Roaring Twenties. Nick's list of Gatsby'sNick runs into Jordan Baker at the The party's incredible luxury seems to be mysterious identity, which includes all guests reads like a who's who of 1922,party. While spending time with her, the fulfillment of the American Dream. the usual rumors. Nick then lists a but they're all just using Gatsby for hishe observes all the amazing luxuries ofthe party: a live orchestra, a slew of the prominent guests who hospitality.cornucopia of food and importedfruits, and endless reserves of alcohol. attended Gatsby's parties that summer, none of whom knew anything about their host.Nick and Jordan decide to find their The shallowness of the Roaring Twenties: Nick then describes accompanying Gatsby's story is sketchy: he's amysterious host, and wander into the vast library of \"realism\" that Owl Gatsby on a trip into the city for lunch. Midwesterner from San Francisco? ItGatsby's library. There they meet a Eyes admires is full of books no one They ride to the city in Gatsby's seems that in typical \"new money\"short, somewhat drunk man who reads. The books contain \"realism\" but monstrous cream-colored car. While fashion, Gatsby entirely reinvented hiswears owl-like glasses (and whom are just for show. he drives, Gatsby tells Nick about his identity after coming to New York andNick refers to as Owl-Eyes). Owl Eyes past. Gatsby claims to be the son of getting rich. Gatsby has achieved theis amazed by Gatsby's books: the wealthy parents from the \"Midwest\" American Dream of incredible wealth,vastness and \"realism\" of Gatsby's town of San Francisco, to have but he had to give up his past to get it.book collection astounds him. graduated from Oxford, been a notedLater, as Nick and Jordan sit outside Gatsby's enchanting smile is like a mask, jewel collector in Europe and a decorated hero in the war. He evenwatching the party, Nick strikes up a just as the \"fun\" of the Roaring Twenties shows Nick a war medal, and then tellsconversation with the man sitting next hides an emptiness beneath. Nick andto him. The man thinks Nick looks Gatsby connect because they share a Nick to expect to hear a very sad story about him later in the afternoon.familiar. They realize they may have common past: the war.crossed paths during World War I. Gatsby pays little attention to the Gatsby acts like a superstar, above theThe man introduces himself: he's Jay speed limit, and a policeman pulls him law and the police.Gatsby. Gatsby has a dazzling smile, over. Gatsby shows the officer a littleand refers to everyone as \"old sport.\" card. The officer apologizes and lets him go.Gatsby also interests Nick because he Gatsby's distance suggests he has goalsremains apart from the party, as if his other than just fun and money. For lunch they meet a business Wolfsheim's connection to Gatsby is apleasure derives from observing the partner of Gatsby's named Meyer sign of the corruption of the Americanspectacle, not participating in it. Wolfsheim. Wolfsheim tells Nick that Dream, \"new money,\" and the Roaring Gatsby is a man of \"fine breeding\" Twenties. Wolfsheim equates wealth who would \"never so much as look at a with \"fine breeding,\" whch is a very \"newAt almost two in the morning, a butler Until now Gatsby has been a smile and a friend's wife.\" As for Wolfsheim, money\" way of thinking.approaches Jordan and asks her to bunch of rumors. Suddenly he has a Gatsby tells Nick he's the man behindcome meet with Gatsby. She returns a story, a past, though Nick doesn't know the fixing of the 1919 World Series.while later from this meeting and tells what it is. Nick begins to think Gatsby's might beNick that she has just heard a story involved in organized crime.that is \"the most amazing thing.\"After saying goodbye to Gatsby (who The crash is symbolic in two ways. It On the way out of the restaurant, Foreshadows the conflict between bothhas to run off to receive a phone call represents the reckless disregard of the Nick sees Tom Buchanan and Tom and Gatsby in particular and \"oldfrom Philadelphia), Nick leaves the Roaring Twenties and the inevitable introduces him to Gatsby. Gatsby money\" and \"new money\" in general.party. As he walks home, he sees a plunge Fitzgerald sensed would end the appears embarrassed and leaves thecrowd gathered around an boom. It also foreshadows a car accident scene without saying goodbye.automobile accident. The drunken later in the novel.Owl Eyes has driven his car into aditch and is trying to get it out. Aftervery little effort, Owl Eyes gives upand walks away, leaving the car whereit is.©2014 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us: @litcharts | Get our Free iPhone App Page 6

Get hundreds more free LitCharts at LitCharts.com.After lunch, Nick meets Jordan at the Now Gatsby's purpose is clear. He has Gatsby and Daisy treat each other Two ways to view Daisy's breakdown: 1) formally at first, and Gatsby's nerves she realizes that Gatsby could have givenPlaza Hotel. She tells him the achieved the Roaring Twenties version of threaten to overwhelm him. Nick her the life she chose by marrying Tom or\"amazing thing\" that Gatsby had told the American Dream by becoming very leaves them alone for half an hour. 2) she realizes that she's most in love When he returns they are blissfully with money. Either way, she missesher earlier: as a young man, Gatsby rich. To achieve that wealth he happy. Gatsby then takes them on a Gatsby describing his love for her. tour of his mansion. In Gatsby'shad a passionate romance with Daisy reinvented himself, possibly became bedroom, as he tells Daisy aboutFay, who is now Daisy Buchanan. involved in criminal activities, and staring at the green light on her dock. Daisy breaks down crying whileDuring the war, when Daisy was not sacrificed his past. But he did it all in looking through Gatsby's vastyet twenty, Gatsby met her while he service of a purer, more traditional collection of luxurious English shirts.was stationed in Louisville and the American Dream: real love.two of them fell in love. Her familyprevented Daisy from leaving andmarrying Gatsby, and one year latershe married Tom Buchanan, a wealthy Nick, meanwhile, privately wonders Gatsby's focus on the past prevents himman from Chicago who gave her a how Daisy can possibly fulfill Gatsby's from seeing how Daisy has changed. Instring of pearls worth $350,000 and athree-month honeymoon to the South idealized vision of her. Nick reflects fact, it prevents him from even that over the years Gatsby has considering the possibility that she couldSeas. remained faithful to their love, while have changed.Jordan finishes the story later in Daisy chose the security of money over Daisy has given herself to anotherCentral Park. She says Gatsby never love. So Gatsby made himself rich: he man she never loved in exchange forfell out of love with Daisy and bought thinks that money will win her back. Now the security of wealth.his giant mansion in West Egg to be his mansion, the symbol of \"new money,\" They move from the house to The light has no significance now thatacross the bay from her. He had hoped is directly across the bay from her house, Gatsby's well-manicured grounds. Gatsby seems to have achieved histhat the magnificent house would symbolic of \"old money.\" The green light Gatsby remarks that mist on the bay dream: Daisy.impress her and win back her love. represents both Gatsby's dream of blocks his view of Daisy's house andNick realizes that the green light he recreating his past with Daisy and the the single blinking green light on itssaw Gatsby gazing at sits at the end of corrupt American Dream of extreme dock.Daisy's dock. Finally, Jordan adds that wealth.Gatsby has requested that Nick inviteDaisy over to his house for tea. Then Next, Gatsby gets one of his hangers- Once Gatsby achieves his dream, heGatsby will show up so that Daisy will on, Ewing Klipspringer, to play the becomes absorbed in it, and forgets Nick.have to see him, even if, as Gatsby piano for the three of them. Gatsby A critique of \"new money\" values. holds Daisy's hand and she whispersfears, she doesn't want to. something to him that seems to stir his emotions. Nick, sensing that theyCHAPTER 5 no longer realize he's there, leaves them, walking out alone into the rain.After returning from the city, Nick Nick agrees to help Gatsby achieve hisencounters Gatsby late at night on his dream. Yet in that same moment Gatsby CHAPTER 6front lawn. Gatsby seems nervous, reveals how he has been corrupted by hisand asks if Nick would like to take a pursuit of the money he feels is crucial to Nick notes that newspaper reporters Like so many who sought and achievedswim in his pool. Nick realizes that making his love with Daisy a reality. soon started to appear at Gatsby's the American Dream during the RoaringGatsby's is trying to convince him to Instead of thanking Nick for his home to try to interview him. He then Twenties, Gatsby is a self-made man. Heset up the meeting with Daisy. Nick friendship and help, he offers him money. gives Gatsby's biographical details, literally created himself, even changingtells Gatsby he'll do it. Gatsby then It's \"new money\" at its worst. the truth behind both the public his name in order to become a \"success.\"offers Nick the chance to join a\"confidential,\" probably illegal, rumors and Gatsby's own claims: born Gatsby's story is not as unique as all thebusiness venture. Nick is offended at Jay Gatz on a farm in North Dakota rumors about him suggest. Instead, heGatsby trying to buy him off, but around 1900; changed his name to represents a typical member of the rags-continues to discuss with Gatsby the Jay Gatsby at age seventeen; spends to-riches \"new money\" class.plans for how and when to arrange more than a year on the south shorethe meeting. of Lake Superior clamming and fishing; attends and drops out of St. Olaf College in southern Minnesota afterGatsby is nervous on the day of the Gatsby's blunder with the clock is two weeks; meets Dan Cody, a fiftymeeting. Though it's raining he sends symbolic. He knocks over time just as hea man to cut Nick's grass, and also tries to recreate his past with Daisy. year-old multimillionaire expert in mining and precious metals, and endsmakes sure Nick's house is full of up as his assistant for five yearsflowers. Gatsby disappears just asDaisy arrives. When Gatsby arrives at aboard the Tuolomee, Cody's boat; Cody dies and leaves Gatsby $25,000,Nick's front door, he looks pale and which he never receives due to a legaldeathlike, and knocks over a clock bymistake. technicality; Gatsby dedicates himself to becoming rich and successful.©2014 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us: @litcharts | Get our Free iPhone App Page 7

Get hundreds more free LitCharts at LitCharts.com.For a few weeks, Nick doesn't see The conflict between Gatsby and Tom, When Tom and Gatsby take a tour The opposition of the houses shows the around the house, Gatsby points out rivalry between Gatsby and Tom.Gatsby. Then, one afternoon, Gatsby new money and old money, continues to that his house is directly across theturns up at his house. A few moments build. Here, Gatsby fails to understand sound from Tom's house.later, Tom Buchanan also shows up the \"old money\" behavior of insincereunexpectedly with some friends, the politeness; he mistakes it for actualSloanes. Gatsby tells Tom that he politeness. \"Old Money\" hides its cruelty, The lunch is awkward, at least in part Tom discovers Daisy and Gatsby's affair.knows his wife, and invites Tom and and calls it good manners. because of the intense heat. At one Daisy's comparing Gatsby to a man in anhis friends to stay for dinner. They say point Daisy asks what they should do advertisement is her way of saying she with the rest of the day and the next loves him. For Daisy, corrupted by thethey can't stay, but invite Gatsby to thirty years of their lives. She cries out consumer culture of the Roaring that she wants them all to go to the Twenties, love is just another materialdinner. Gatsby doesn't realize that the city. Daisy and Gatsby lock eyes, and thing that can be advertised.invitation was just to be polite, and Daisy comments that Gatsby always looks like an advertisement. Tom canaccepts. see in Daisy's eyes that Daisy and Gatsby are in love. He suddenlyThe next Saturday night, Tom and Nick has clearly come to sympathize agrees that they should all go to the city.Daisy come to a party at Gatsby's. with Gatsby against Tom. Tom's disdainThe party strikes Nick as particularly for the party is to be expected. But thatunpleasant. Tom is disdainful of the Daisy has a bad time suggests thatparty, and though Daisy and Gatsby Gatsby might not so easily be able todance together she also seems to recreate their love. There may be toohave a bad time. As Tom and Daisy are many obstacles. Before they leave for the city, Nick Gatsby seems to half-sense that Daisy and Gatsby have a moment alone, in has been corrupted.leaving, Tom says he suspects which they agree that Daisy isGatsby's fortune comes from indiscreet. Gatsby comments that Daisy's voice is \"full of money.\"bootlegging, which Nick denies. Daisysays Gatsby made his money fromdrug stores that he built up himself. Tom insists on driving Gatsby's big The car swap is a crucial plot point, andAfter the party, Gatsby is depressed. Gatsby believes in the future and the yellow car. Gatsby and Daisy travel comes about through Tom and Gatsby'sHe suspects that Daisy neither American Dream, and believes that alone in Tom's coupe, while Tom drives conflict, old money versus new.enjoyed the party nor understands money can buy both. Nick and Jordan. It's clear Tom nowthe depth of his feelings for her. Nick knows about the affair betweenreminds him that the past is Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby's car is lowimpossible to repeat, but Gatsby on gas, though, and Tom pulls in todisagrees. He says he will return Wilson's Garage in the Valley ofeverything to the way it was before. Ashes.Nick recalls a memory that Gatsby Nick calls Gatsby's sentimentality While selling him the gas, Wilson Wilson has his own dream of movingonce shared with him about the first appalling because it has made Daisy into inquires about buying Tom's other car west. With Daisy's affair and Myrtletime Gatsby kissed Daisy. Nick calls a symbol of perfection, an idealizedGatsby's sentimentality about history vision to which Gatsby has sacrificed his to resell it. He says he's trying to raise about to go west with Wilson, Tom's\"appalling\" and reflects that in that identity. money to finance the move west that world now really is falling apart.kiss Gatsby's dreams of success he has planned for him and his wifefocused solely on Daisy. She became Myrtle. Tom is startled at thean idealized dream for Gatsby and the imminent loss of his mistress.center of his life. Wilson adds that he has \"wised up\" Nick sees across class lines to theCHAPTER 7 recently and became physically ill fundamental similarity between Tom and upon discovering that his wife has Wilson. Wealth does not make Tom anyGatsby's house becomes much As soon as he gets Daisy, Gatsby no been living a double life. Nick realizes better than Wilson, it just keeps himquieter, and his party's come to an longer needs \"new money\" parties. But that Wilson has figured out his wife is healthier and stronger.end. Nick visits, and learns that Gatsby can't escape the way he having an affair but doesn't know thatGatsby ended the parties because he corrupted himself in his quest to become Tom is the other man. He also thinksno longer needed them to attract rich enough to win Daisy, as the presence that Wilson and Tom are identical,Daisy. He also learns that Gatsby also of Wolfsheim's men shows. except that Tom is healthy and Wilsonfired all of his servants because Daisy sick.thought they might gossip about theirrelationship (she now visits often Nick notices the haunting eyes of Myrtle seeing Tom with Gatsby's car isduring the afternoon). He replaced Doctor T. J. Eckleburg looming in the another crucial plot point. Myrtle'sthe servants with some of distance, then spots Myrtle Wilson despair at seeing Tom with his \"wife\" isWolfsheim's men. staring down from the windows above linked to T. J. Eckleburg's dead eyes. the garage at Jordan Baker, whom she seems to have mistaken for Daisy,On the hottest day of the summer, When Daisy kisses Gatsby it seems that her rival in love.Daisy invites Nick and Gatsby to he's won. But even Gatsby senses thatlunch with her, Tom, and Jordan. At Daisy's daughter symbolizes a shared In the city, the group takes a suite at The confrontation between Tom andone point, while Tom is out of the past between Daisy and Tom that the Plaza Hotel near Central Park. Gatsby, old money and new money,room, Daisy kisses Gatsby on the lips Gatsby can't touch. Soon after arriving, Tom challenges comes out into the open. Daisy does notand says she loves him. But the next Gatsby's history as an \"Oxford man.\" want the confrontation to happen. Sheinstant the nurse leads in her young When Gatsby successfully answers likes things the way they are.daughter, Pammy. Daisy basically the question, Tom then asks what kindignores the child, but Gatsby keeps of a split Gatsby's trying to causeglancing at the little girl in surprise. between Tom and his wife. Daisy tries and fails to quiet Tom.©2014 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us: @litcharts | Get our Free iPhone App Page 8

Get hundreds more free LitCharts at LitCharts.com.Gatsby says Daisy never loved Tom Gatsby's sacrifice appears to have been Nick goes and checks on Daisy Daisy chooses the security of Tom overand has only ever loved him. Tom worth it. through the window, and sees Tom Gatsby's love, just as she did whileprotests, but Daisy says it's true. and Daisy sitting on either side of Gatsby was away at the war. some fried chicken, reconciled. TheyYet when Tom asks her to think about Gatsby considers Daisy's only past to be are not exactly happy, Nick thinks, buttheir history together, Daisy admits the single month she shared with him. not exactly unhappy either.that she did love Tom in the past, shejust loved Gatsby too. Gatsby is Nick tells Gatsby everything is quiet, Gatsby can't give up his dream, evenstunned. but Gatsby still refuses to leave. Nick though it's dead. leaves him \"watching over nothing.\"Tom pushes his advantage: he reveals Gatsby corrupted himself and his dreamthat Gatsby really is involved with to win Daisy's heart. Now that CHAPTER 8organized crime, such as bootlegging. corruption scares her away. Tom sends Nick visits Gatsby for breakfast the Gatsby's story explains his actions. HeAll this terrifies Daisy, who begs that Daisy off with Gatsby as a final insult. next morning. Gatsby tells Nick that was in love with the idea of Daisy:they leave and go home. Tom, realizing Daisy never came outside the Daisy's love gave Gatsby an identity as ahe's won, tells her to go back with previous night, but rejects Nick's young man, and made his manufacturedGatsby, who won't \"annoy\" her advice to forget Daisy and leave Long \"new money\" identity legitimate. Toanymore. Island. He tells Nick about the early preserve that identity, he had to have her.Nick remembers at that moment that Nick envies those not haunted by the days of his relationship with Daisy. He Note that \"old money\" types like Tomthe day is his thirtieth birthday. He past (though he's wrong about Jordan). remembers how taken he was by her could avoid the war while poor nobodiessays that a \"menacing\" new decade Nick's wariness about the future and hisstretched before him. In Tom's car comment about the car headed toward wealth, her enormous house, and even like Gatsby couldn't.heading back toward Long Island death foreshadow a death in the novel by the fact that other men had loved(Gatsby and Daisy took Gatsby's car), and the end of the Roaring Twenties. her. To be with her he let her believeNick observes that unlike Daisy,people like Jordan Baker know better he was of the same class as her. Onethan to hold onto irretrievable night they slept together, and he feltdreams. Nick describes the car he he had married her. Then he left forrides in as driving toward death. World War I. Daisy waited for a while and then drifted away from him and into marriage with Tom Buchanan.The point of view shifts to that of Wilson tries to make his dream of a new Gatsby and Nick finish breakfast. As Nick always disapproved of the wayMichaelis, a Greek man who runs the life with Myrtle a reality. (The shift in they walk together, the gardener tells Gatsby lived his life, but he respected thecoffee shop next to George Wilson's point of view makes sense in the novel Gatsby he's going to drain the pool. purity of Gatsby's dream. He certainlygarage, and who, Nick, says, was the because Nick can recreate Michaelis's But Gatsby tells him to wait. He says preferred it to the \"rotten crowd\" thatchief witness in the police experience by reading or viewing he hasn't used it once all summer, and used Gatsby.investigation: that afternoon, Michaelis's testimony.) would like to. On his way out, NickMichaelis saw Wilson sick in his office tells Gatsby that he's worth more thanand heard Myrtle struggling upstairs. all of the \"rotten crowd… putWilson told him he had locked her up together.\" Gatsby smiles broadly.until they moved west the followingday. At work that day, Nick falls asleep. The events of last night have convinced The phone wakes him: it's Jordan. Nick to cut ties with the old money worldThat evening, though, Michaelis saw Nearly every character's \"Dream\" dies Their conversation quickly turns of Tom and Daisy.Myrtle shout at Wilson downstairs with Myrtle's death. unpleasant and one of them hangs upand then run into the street where on the other. Nick finds that heshe was struck and killed by a passing doesn't care.car that may have been light green. Next, Nick relates what happened at Myrtle's death destroys Wilson's dream,The point of view shifts back to Nick: Tom realizes that Myrtle saw Gatsby's Wilson's garage after Myrtle's death. leaving him nothing. The RoaringTom, Nick, and Jordan arrive at the car and thought it was Tom's car because Wilson spent all night talking to Twenties conflict between old and newscene in their car. Both Tom and he had been driving it earlier. Michaelis about Myrtle, revealing money has destroyed him: he can't evenWilson are overwhelmed by grief atMyrtle's death. Tom suspects that it that she had a lover and his suspicion distinguish an advertisement from God.was Gatsby who hit Myrtle. that the man driving the car must have Wilson's \"way\" of finding out who killed been her lover because she ran out to Myrtle is mysterious. Fitzgerald is meet it. He told Michaelis how he had building tension.Tom, Jordan, and Nick drive to the Daisy caused the crash, but just as old confronted her and told her she wasBuchanan's house. Tom calls a taxi for money hides its corruption behind aNick. As Nick waits for it outside, he veneer of good manners, Daisy hides sinning in the eyes of God. It was near dawn at this point, and Wilson wassees Gatsby hiding in the bushes. behind Gatsby. Gatsby dedicated his life staring into the eyes of T. J. EckleburgGatsby tells him that Daisy was to winning Daisy's heart. Now he onlydriving the car and that he tried to cares about her and ignores Myrtle's when he mentioned God. Wilson says he has a way of finding out who wasstop the accident, but was too late. He death. driving the car and later that morningsays he'll take responsibility for it. He'sless interested in what happened to disappeared from the garage.Myrtle though, than in his fear thatTom will harm Daisy.©2014 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us: @litcharts | Get our Free iPhone App Page 9

Get hundreds more free LitCharts at LitCharts.com.At two, Gatsby went for a swim, The recklessness of the Roaring Twenties Nick returns to Gatsby's house for Owl Eyes' appearance at the funeral the funeral. Only, Nick, Henry Gatz, suggests that Gatsby, like the novels Owlleaving word that he was to be alerted destroys every relationship: Myrtle and and, to Nick's surprise, Owl Eyes Eyes admired, was a mere ornament.if any phone call came. None came. Wilson, Myrtle and Tom, Daisy and show up. Owl Eyes pities Gatsby as a \"poor son-of-a-bitch.\"Later that afternoon, Nick and some Gatsby, Jordan and Nick. Only \"oldof Wolfsheim's men working at money\" prevails: Daisy returns to Tom.Gatsby's house discover Gatsby, shotdead in his pool. Wilson's dead body is Nick now describes The Great Gatsby Owl Eyes' appearance at the funeralclose by lying in the grass. as a story of the West since many of suggests that Gatsby, like the novels Owl the key characters (Daisy, Tom, Nick, Eyes admired, was a mere ornament.CHAPTER 9 Jordan, Gatsby) involved were not from the East. He says that afterIt's now two years later and Nick is In death, Gatsby is just as he was in life: Gatsby's death, the East becamerecounting his memories of the days little more than a rumor spread by haunted for him.shortly after Gatsby's death. Wild Roaring Twenties \"new money\"rumors about Gatsby's relationship socialites. Nick goes to Jordan Baker's house to Nick thought his relationship withwith Myrtle and Wilson swirl, and set things straight with her. She tells Jordan was superficial. But Jordanreporters and other gossips prowl him she is engaged to another man, implies she really loved him. Nick, too, itaround the mansion looking for though Nick doesn't really believe her. appears, was corrupted by the East.stories. Then she accuses Nick of being dishonest with her. Nick leaves,Nick finds himself the primary contact The abandonment of Gatsby reveals the feeling angry and sorry.for all matters relating to Gatsby emptiness of the age. Wolfsheim and thebecause nobody else wanted to be. Buchanans are all corrupt at heart. Later that October, Nick runs into Tom doesn't even know that Daisy wasDaisy and Tom disappear with noforwarding address, and Meyer Tom Buchanan on Fifth Avenue in really driving the car. Tom is completely New York. He refuses to shake Tom's blind to the emptiness of his old moneyWolfsheim says he has pressing hand, and learns that Tom was the one world. He even sees himself as a victimbusiness and can't help at the presenttime. who told George Wilson that Gatsby for losing Myrtle, his mistress. His ran over Myrtle. Tom adds also that corruption is complete. he cried when he gave up theThree days after Gatsby's death, a Gatz's appearance confirms that Gatsby apartment in which he conducted histelegram arrives from his father, rose from humble beginnings to achieve affair with Myrtle. Nick doesn't tellHenry C. Gatz. Mr. Gatz arrives in the American Dream. Yet in the processperson at Gatsby's mansion a few he left behind his father, who truly loves Tom that Daisy was at the wheel. Hedays later. He appears old, dressed in him. He gave up his past. describes Tom and Daisy as carelesscheap clothing, and is devastated by people who destroy things and thenhis son's death, who he believed was retreat back into their money.destined for great things. He asksNick what his relationship was to On his last night in West Egg before Nick connects Gatsby's American DreamGatsby. Nick says they were closefriends. moving back home to Minnesota, Nick of winning Daisy's love to the American walks down to Gatsby's beach and Dream of the first settlers coming to looks out over Long Island sound. He America. Both dreams were noble, and wonders how the first settlers to ultimately much more complicated andThat night, Klipspringer calls. Nick Gatsby's \"new money\" friends are America must have felt staring out at dangerous than anyone could havetells him about the funeral. But shallow, emotionless parasites who careKlipspringer says he can't attend only about \"fun.\" the \"green breast\" of the new predicted. continent, and imagines Gatsby'sbecause he has to attend a picnic in similar wonder when he realized thatGreenwich, Connecticut. Klipspringer tiny blinking green light across the baythen asks if Nick could send to him apair of tennis shoes he had left at belonged to Daisy Buchanan.Gatsby's mansion. Nick describes Gatsby as a believer in Nick sees Gatsby as symbolic ofGatsby's funeral takes place the next Wolfsheim exhibits the worst qualities of the future, a man of promise and faith. everyone in America, each with his or her He compares everyone to Gatsby, own great dream. And each dream anday. In an effort to assemble more the \"new money\" class: he is corrupt, moving forward with their arms effort to regain a past already lost.people to attend the service, Nick selfish, and callous. By claiming to havegoes to New York to try to retrieve raised Gatsby up from nothing, outstretched like Gatsby on the shore, like boats beating upstream againstWolfsheim in person. At his sketchy Wolfsheim essentially claims that money the current, looking to the future butoffice, Wolfsheim discusses memories is everything.of his early days of friendship with searching for a lost past.Gatsby, whom he claims to have raisedup \"out of nothing.\" Nick tries toconvince him to attend the funeral,but he refuses, citing a policy he has ofnot getting mixed up with murderedmen.©2014 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us: @litcharts | Get our Free iPhone App Page 10