The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

Fitzgernald F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925.

In Scott F. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, men fight over a woman. To stay financially secure, they go into illegal business. Dreams are crushed and lives are lost.

It is a story that relates to the corruption of the American Dream.

The story takes place in an area near New York called “Long Island.” It is in a shape of an egg. They focus in on places on there named “East Egg”, “West Egg”, and “The Valley of Ashes.” West egg is for people who have recently made their fortunes. The characters Nick and Gatsby live there. The Valley of Ashes is for people who are not wealthy. The Wilson family lives there. The East Egg is for people who inherit their money. The characters Daisy and Tom live there. Daisy is a distant cousin one removed of Nick’s. One of her friends is a character named Jordan baker.

Nick Carraway is the narrator of this story. He can keep secrets and is known to be trust worthy which gives the reader a better view of the story. They can see everything that is happening because the characters in this book trust him with secrets. He does not really go into the action much. He is more of an observer. This does not mean that he does not do much in the story though. He explains where he lives, the areas at where the events take place and introduces other characters. He is a neighbor and a friend of one of the main characters, Jay Gatsby.

Jordan baker is a famous golfer. Nick likes Jordan Baker’s figure, high spirits, and her high classiness. Though he hates how she is dishonest. In the beginning of the story, he mainly explains things. The following quote is an example of one of her lies and also tells the reader how Nick feels about her:

“I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a—of a rose an absolute rose. Doesn’t he?” She turned to Miss Baker for confirmation “An absolute rose?”

This was untrue. I am not even faintly like a rose. She was only extemporizing but stirring warmth flowed from her as if her heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those breathless, thrilling words…-The Great Gatsby, 14

Jay Gatsby is a main character of the story as you may have already guessed due to the title of this book. He frequently has parties. It is from the parties that he meets Nick. He used to be an officer and that is when he met Daisy. He fell in love with her and lied to her telling her that he came from a rich family. She promised that she would wait for him when he went to fight in World War I. In 1919 there was a law passed that disallowed the sale of alcohol. After the war, Gatsby studied at Oxford. He partnered up with Meyer Wolfshiem and starts a grain alcohol dealing business to get money quick so that when he goes back to Daisy, he would be able to secure her financially. He did not know that Daisy become impatient and married another man yet.

Daisy married a man named Tom. Tom gave her a pearl bracelet with a value of over 300,000 dollars. He came from a rich family and could secure her financially. Tom is secretly having an affair with Myrtle who is also married but thinks that her husband, Mr. Wilson, does not care about her. Nick organizes a meeting inviting Gatsby and Daisy. Daisy was not told that Gatsby would be there for she might not have come if he was there. She may not have come because she feels guilty that she married Tom and broke her promise of waiting for Gatsby. She is also afraid that he still loves her which would cause a quarrel between him and her husband. Though if she were there, turning around and walking away would be rude.

They meet up and talk. Soon, Tom is called over along with Gatsby and Daisy. Since Tom and Gatsby are both fighting over Daisy, this creates a conflict and Gatsby pushes Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him. She said it but did not mean it. She loved Tom but she also loved Gatsby. I believe that the pearl bracelet that Tom bought for her is like buying her. Daisy is struggling between loving material possession and loving someone for who they actually are. Gatsby knows that she will not love him fully and thus his dreams were shattered. His purpose for living was gone.

Mr. Wilson is Myrtle’s husband. They were having a quarrel and Myrtle runs out into the streets. At the same time, Daisy was driving with Gatsby. Gatsby tries to get hold of the wheel and then Daisy crashed into Myrtle and kills her. They drive away afterwards. Mr. Wilson is mad and goes mental. He asks everyone if they knew